# Why hasn't the Neighborhood Watch shooter been arrested? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504 "2012-03-12T00:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 122
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2421 "2012-03-29T19:39:52Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Well, it seems to me if he’s going into so much detail about Zimmerman’s state, he should pay a little attention to Martin’s state as well. He didn’t mention anthing about Martin at all execpt that he was dead. Nothing about any marks on him, or the state of his clothes, or the fact that he was unarmed, etc. > > The distinct feeling I get is that the officer assumed (and note, I’m saying I think he made an assumption, not that he was scheming) that he came upone a cut-and-dried crime scene (suspicious black guy reported; suspicious black guy dead; end of story) and he only put in the report the shit that fed those assumptions. His job was to secure Zimmerman. Which he did and reported on what he observed while doing so. Other officers arrived and focused on Martin. It’s not like the responding officer is expected to conduct the entire investigation. What he did or didn’t notice about Martin is in correlation to the amount of time he wasn’t focused on Zimmerman, which was minimal. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2422 "2012-03-29T19:39:59Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Come on, give it a break. Unless you think Officer Smith is lying in his report and if you do, explain why he is protecting a total stranger. > > If you want to rant, start with the fact that Officer Smith never bothered to check if Martin was alive or dead. Why are you saying he’s a total stranger? Zimmerman called 911 dozens of times at the least, and I heard one report saying the total was more than 150. He may have met Zimmerman many times in course of responding to those calls. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2423 "2012-03-29T19:44:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > For those asking why Zimmerman was not taken to the ER, note that Paramedics were called, and did treat him. This was at the scene. Evaluation for concussion is best left up to a physician, not an EMT. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2424 "2012-03-29T19:53:58Z")
> [@camille](#): > > If this is the original report, how can Trayvon’s name and information be on it? And if it was later amended, then what’s to say any other part of it wasn’t amended? Actually most of the report couldn’t have come from these officers since two other officers did the witness interviews. The Time completed is stamped before Officer Smith completed his reported, so I don’t know what part of the report time completed applies to. The obvious possibilities are: [ul] [li]Martin did have ID on him and it was found when his body was searched.[/li][li]The report wasn’t completed until after Tracy Martin identified the body.[/li][/ul] Take your pick. This report wasn’t printed until March 6th. Another thing that bothers me is that there aren’t any Juvenile Black Males on the witness list. What happened to Austin McClendon? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2425 "2012-03-29T20:03:22Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > What break? It’s shitty reporting. If anythingthing it’s incomplete. But I must say … “I overheard him saying he screamed for help” doesn’t seem like it should be in there at all. In fact, he went out of his way to say at no time did he question Zimmerman as if to drive the point home that, Zimmerman volunteered the information (to someone else but he heard it). Actual, it seems like good police work to me. The cop should be recording anything relevant to the case, and a claim of self defense certainly is. It’s no different than if he had heard “That little bastard had it coming to him”. The police should record everything they can, and then let the lawyers argue it. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2426 "2012-03-29T20:05:19Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Why are you saying he’s a total stranger? Zimmerman called 911 dozens of times at the least, and I heard one report saying the total was more than 150. He may have met Zimmerman many times in course of responding to those calls. The last number I heard was much smaller and in any case I don’t think you get an officer response for open garage doors. Do you have an actual number about the number of times that Sanford actually dispatched an officer to talk to Zimmerman? Even if they were on the same bowling team it is far fetched that Smith is going to risk getting fired or worse for falsifying a police report. The newspaper has already published that Zimmerman wasn’t related to anyone on the Sanford PD. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2427 "2012-03-29T20:15:48Z")
No I don’t have a number. I am pointing out that a lot of people are making suppositions here without any evidence to back them up, including that the responding officer and Zimmerman were total strangers, which is not necessarily the case. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2428 "2012-03-29T20:16:54Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > What break? It’s shitty reporting. If anythingthing it’s incomplete. But I must say … “I overheard him saying he screamed for help” doesn’t seem like it should be in there at all. In fact, he went out of his way to say at no time did he question Zimmerman as if to drive the point home that, Zimmerman volunteered the information (to someone else but he heard it). I think he WAS trying to drive home the fact that Zimmerman volunteered the information… in order to preserve its admissibility. From the wiki page on Miranda: > [@](#): > > A “spontaneous” statement made by a defendant while in custody, even though the defendant has not been given the Miranda warnings or has invoked the right to counsel and a lawyer is not yet present, is admissible in evidence, as long as the statement was not given in response to police questioning or other conduct by the police likely to produce an incriminating response (see Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291 (1980)). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2429 "2012-03-29T20:19:44Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Evaluation for concussion is best left up to a physician, not an EMT. True. But EMT’s can’t make you go to the ER. And of course, it seems like Zimmerman went to his own Doc afterwards. But I have seen nothing that confirms this. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2430 "2012-03-29T20:21:33Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Wait, what evidence do we have that Martin was “beating the tar out of him”? That Zimmerman SAID he was? From an eye witness who saw it. > [@RickJay](#): > > Because now we have a videotape wherein George Zimmerman sure as shit doesn’t look like he’s had the tar beaten out of him. Those lacerations I heard about on the back of his head? Not there. That was a big part of Zimmerman’s story; Martin was banging his head on the pavement, he had “lacerations,” not some vague bump. Torn skin. Where’s that? His nose looks okay, too, though I will grant I don’t know for sure it wasn’t cleaned up - the lacerations absolutely are not there, though. And he’s not acting like a man who just got his ass kicked. > > Some beating. He doesn’t even look like he got into a slap fight. From the grainy image it looks like he has a laceration and knot on the back of his head. Putting that aside the police were eye witnesses to his condition. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2431 "2012-03-29T20:29:35Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > And no, he was not prosecuted. The man he killed had a knife in his hand, self-defense was pretty clear. Especially given the nature of the guy’s death it was obviously not my friend’s intention to kill him, just to keep him from stabbing my friend. He probably should have been. Unless the state this took place in had castle laws, he probably had a duty to retreat from the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2432 "2012-03-29T20:32:38Z")
> [@Carmady](#): > > It is absurd to hold Martin to the same standard of keeping his distance when he had so much less information. Martin was an unarmed kid walking home when he noticed a truck following him. If he knew what Zimmerman knew, I do think he could have escaped. But that isn’t a mark against him. > > Zimmerman knew for a hard fact that he was armed (in violation of neighborhood watch guidelines) and following a suspected criminal. He intentionally created a deadly situation. From what Martin’s Girlfriend said it appears that he engaged first in conversation with Zimmerman asking him why he was following him. Zimmerman then asked what he was doing in the area. A fight ensues. The reason Martin was in the area was because he had been suspended from school again and was staying with someone in the neighborhood. Based on the way he portrays himself on twitter he comes off as a street tough kid with a bit of an attitude. I think it more likely that he attacked Zimmerman than the other way around because Zimmerman knew the police were enroute and was trying to keep Martin in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2433 "2012-03-29T20:35:40Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > From an eye witness who saw it. > > From the grainy image it looks like he has a laceration and knot on the back of his head. Putting that aside the police were eye witnesses to his condition. What? No it doesn’t. There’s no laceration there. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2434 "2012-03-29T20:36:16Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Based on the way he portrays himself on twitter he comes off as a street tough kid with a bit of an attitude. This just makes me laugh. Street toughs spend a lot of time on Twitter? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2435 "2012-03-29T20:37:25Z")
[FYI, this page has a link](http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/trayvon-shooters-911-calls-potholes-piles-trash-black-men) to a document purportedly release by the city of Sanford detailing all Zimmerman’s 911. I count about 40 separate dates of calls. I haven’t examined it closely enough to say whether there may have been more than one call on any given day. Also, I can’t tell from the coding what the outcome was or whether an officer was dispatched. In any case, certainly “dozens” of calls. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2436 "2012-03-29T20:38:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > True. But EMT’s can’t make you go to the ER. If Zimmerman had collapsed and died in the cops’ custody because something in his brain had ruptured and they’d neglected to take the man to the ER for evaluation, that’s got lawsuit written all over it. The only way I could imagine that they’d get around this is if Zimmerman had signed an official declination form for medical care. But if he did that, it undercuts his claim of serious injury. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2437 "2012-03-29T20:40:28Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > This just makes me laugh. Street toughs spend a lot of time on Twitter? Kids who want to sound tough do. Look at the gangsta rappers, they have a huge twitter following. I think Magiver is correct when he sez “ I think it more likely that he attacked Zimmerman than the other way around ..” but what I don’t know is why Martin jumped Zimmerman or how much in danger or hurt Zimmerman was. Was Zimmerman really fearing for his life or just pissed that a kid jumped him and knocked him down? Did Martin jump Zimmerman to hide something, to act tough or because Martin was scared? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2438 "2012-03-29T20:42:27Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > If Zimmerman had collapsed and died in the cops’ custody because something in his brain had ruptured and they’d neglected to take the man to the ER for evaluation, that’s got lawsuit written all over it. The only way I could imagine that they’d get around this is if Zimmerman had signed an official declination form for medical care. But if he did that, it undercuts his claim of serious injury. Nope. Bricker, please explain to her. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2439 "2012-03-29T20:43:49Z")
> [@Gadarene](#): > > What? No it doesn’t. There’s no laceration there. Take a look at the photo I linked to in [post 2363](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14914562&postcount=2362). There is a nearly vertical black streak going through the balding part of his head. It _might_ be a laceration or a streak of dried blood. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/2440 "2012-03-29T20:45:18Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > From what Martin’s Girlfriend said it appears that he engaged first in conversation with Zimmerman asking him why he was following him. Zimmerman then asked what he was doing in the area. A fight ensues. > > The reason Martin was in the area was because he had been suspended from school again and was staying with someone in the neighborhood. Based on the way he portrays himself on twitter he comes off as a street tough kid with a bit of an attitude. I think it more likely that he attacked Zimmerman than the other way around because Zimmerman knew the police were enroute and was trying to keep Martin in sight. Zimmerman thought he was the neighborhood Barney Fife. He didn’t like the fact that “these assholes always get away.” I think it’s far more likely that he tried to restrain Martin somehow and he got a sock in the jaw for his troubles. Then he went full-pussy and shot the kid. I mean as long as we’re casting aspersions and assuming mind-sets based on things like Twitter accounts and 911 logs, my story is every bit as valid as **Magiver’s**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504.md?page=121) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504.md?page=123)