It’s amusing to me that his defenders have just taken his version of events. If I was walking along and minding my own business, then some crazy ass wannabe cop started stalking me and threatening my life, you can bet everything that I’d defend myself. Amazing that doing so would be considered a bad thing and grounds for a killing.
Nope, we don’t take his word for it, we look at the evidence. Martin went out of his way to return to Zimmerman. Shortly after that, Zimmerman was on the ground with a broken nose, and Martin on top of him. There is, quite literally, no evidence that Zimmerman did anything to start a fight.
If it pleases you to construct imaginary narratives that ignore the evidence but feed your fantasies of persecution, have fun with it, but don’t expect to be taken seriously.
Quite a lot, actually. It’s insolent. Generally speaking, no one is answerable or accountable to a total stranger regarding what they are doing or where they are going. Some people would even argue that not even the police have any business asking about your business if they don’t actually see you misbehaving.
He could have. Then he would have been charged with murder and convicted, since in order to claim self-defense when you kill someone, you have to show reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm. Someone putting a hand on you (even if that happened, and you have absolutely no evidence it did) does not qualify.
I think Zimmerman would have been convicted if he was not injured. Even though you don’t need injury, legally, to claim self-defense, it certainly helps to establish reasonable doubt, especially when the other side’s injury before the shooting happened consists of a scraped knuckle.
The idea that there should have been a trial is, at best, questionable. The probable cause affadavit was terrible, and not fit for the purpose, but it may be that there was (just) probable cause to try him.
What there was not, and could not have been, was any chance that they could have won, so the trial happening was fundamentally unethical, even if it wasn’t actually illegal.
You mean, other than follow him when specifically instructed not to? Get out of his truck and confront him? What did he say to Trayvon Martin? An exchange of pleasantries, perhaps, after describing him on the phone as an “asshole” and a “punk”? Do you attach any significance to the fact that the was armed? He could have left the gun in the truck, no? But decided not to. Do you wonder why?
Mr. Zimmerman had been instructed in the technicalities of self defense law. What would have stopped him from breaking his own nose? Certainly would have bolstered his “self defense” claim, no? Which fact he knew.
Martin is on top, pinning Z to the ground while he wails away on him with his fists. Yet, miraculously, Z can reach the gun which is holstered behind his back, which he is lying upon with both his weight and Martin’s. You think maybe Martin might have noticed that rather than using both hands to protect himself, he started reaching behind his back?
Didn’t Z say that Martin went for his gun, trying to grab it? Unsuccessfully, it appears, since there was no Martin DNA on the gun. He couldn’t get up and outrun a 9mm bullet, so he pretty much has to grab that gun but couldn’t manage even to touch it? Reflexes slowed by Skittles, perhaps?
Why not do as he was told, simply stay in his truck and wait for the cops? Because he was an officer of the law, and a crime was in progress? But he wasn’t, and it wasn’t. Martin didn’t follow Z. Martin did not initiate the chain of events, Z did.
“Why did you shoot George Zimmerman, Travyon Martin?”
“Because when he strolled up on me in the darkness and demanded to know what I was doing and I told him to fuck off, he called me a punk and came at me like animal. I started to run, but he grabbed my arm. I threw out a punch and he fell back, hit his head on something. That’s when I saw the gun in his pocket. He reached for it the moment I saw it. So I pulled out mine and pulled the trigger. I got him before he could get me, officer.”
I await the chorus of people saying they would have defended Trayvon Martin if he had been the one presenting this testimony. But I won’t believe them. I believe Trayvon Martin would have been charged right away that night, and no one would even know his name. Not even the real Trayvon Martin sympathizers would be coming to his defense, if he had been the killer.
I agree with you and that columnist, Belowjob. From the very beginning, I just wanted George Zimmerman to have his day in court. It was disturbing to me that people were fine with the investigation petering out the way it had. That’s not justice in anyone’s book.
Asks a question, huh? Is that how you got to be such a racist piece of shit? Some poor black person dared to ask your highness a question? Crawl back in your hole, ass wipe.