# 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:** 159
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3161 "2012-04-04T18:27:12Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > So what? Maybe he wasn’t a judge. Maybe he was a particlar type of judge with lesser powers than “real” judges. But he called himself a judge, maybe just because he likes the sound of it better or it makes him feel more important. If he was trying to curry any favors in Sanford, and had to choose a self-descriptive term, I’d guess “judge” would be it. “Magistrate judge” is the usual term in the United States. Apparently, the official term in Virginia is just “magistrate,” but they seem to serve similar functions to magistrate judges elsewhere in the country, which is essentially a type of judge. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3162 "2012-04-04T18:27:18Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > So what? Maybe he wasn’t a judge. Maybe he was a particlar type of judge with lesser powers than “real” judges. But he called himself a judge, maybe just because he likes the sound of it better or it makes him feel more important. If he was trying to curry any favors in Sanford, and had to choose a self-descriptive term, I’d guess “judge” would be it. > > That’s not to say he did so, but this thread is crazy with speculation, and I wanna play too. Just trying to inject some facts. Carry on. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3163 "2012-04-04T18:56:57Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Just trying to inject some facts. Carry on. Watch it, you’ll spoil the fun for the other children. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3164 "2012-04-04T19:31:21Z")
In Virginia, a magistrate does not need to be a lawyer, or have a law degree. In fact, until 1985, magistrates did not have to have a high school diploma. It wasn’t until 2008 that magistrates were required to have a bachelor’s degree, and extant magistrates without a degree were grandfathered in. Magistrates may not preside at trials or preliminary hearings. They can issue arrest and search warrants, make initial bail determinations, and marry people. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3165 "2012-04-04T19:40:24Z")
Perhaps it was his father’s seething resentment over being a mere magistrate that fueled Goerge Zimmerman’s ambitions to be Batman. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3166 "2012-04-04T19:42:13Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Perhaps it was his father’s seething resentment over being a mere magistrate that fueled Goerge Zimmerman’s ambitions to be Batman. It was watching his father’s powerlessness, the limited duties of magistrates allowing felon after felon to slip through the bars of justice to continue their lives of degradation and debasement. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3167 "2012-04-04T19:50:48Z")
> [@treis](#): > > One that barely has a veneer of plausibility. I am not sure that word means what you think it means. > [@treis](#): > > (1) If he is hiding, how does he end up dead in the middle of the sidewalk? My theory is that he stopped hiding at some point. > [@treis](#): > > (2) Why is he casually chatting with his girlfriend instead of calling the cops? And tell them that some guy was watching from his truck? So tha the cops will…? > [@treis](#): > > (3) Why doesn’t he yell for help? Someone did at some point. > [@treis](#): > > (4) Why doesn’t he knock on a door? It’s possible that M thought his hiding bit was working and there was not more that needed doing. We can round and round like that all day. But in the end, these kinds of questions and my ability or inability to answer them have no significance, imho. > [@treis](#): > > and the irrationality of an Irishman. Sweet! A slur against the Irish. Can’t get too many of those What rational person becomes so terrified of a person in a truck staring at them while talking on a cellphone that they take of running and hide? What person, when so terrified for their life, fails to yell for help, call 911, seek the safety of a home, and stops to hide with a head start? It just doesn’t make a lick of sense. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3168 "2012-04-04T19:57:08Z")
I’m reading a NY Times article that appears to have information I haven’t read before. [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-prompts-a-review-of-ideals.html?\_r=1&pagewanted=all](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-prompts-a-review-of-ideals.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all) > [@](#): > > These recent problems, all nonviolent, hardly reflected the essence of Trayvon Martin, his family and friends say. He was kindhearted, even-tempered and very thoughtful. That night, for example, while his father and Ms. Green were out having dinner in Orlando, Trayvon asked Chad, Ms. Green’s son, if he wanted anything from the store. > > Skittles, the younger boy said. It is new information for me that there was actually a child in the house. > [@](#): > > Mr. Zimmerman, meanwhile, was taken to Sanford police headquarters, where, he told his father, the police took many photographs of his injuries. His father said that he had a broken nose, a swollen and cut lower lip, and two cuts on the back of his head. At least we know there are plenty of pictures of Zimmerman’s condition. > [@](#): > > Back at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, Tracy Martin and Brandy Green returned to her town house around 10:30 p.m. to find her son, but not his. Trayvon had gone to the store, Chad explained. > > The adults did not panic. Trayvon was 17, after all. Maybe he had gone to visit a cousin in nearby Oviedo, or maybe he had met a girl along the way, and was chatting her up. Mr. Martin called Trayvon’s cellphone, but it went straight to voice mail. Then he called the cousin, who did not answer, but he expected the young man to call back. They went to sleep. This part doesn’t make much sense. Oviedo is around 14 miles away. He couldn’t go over there unless his cousin came to pick him up. At this point Trayvon had left the house over 4 hours ago and hadn’t called or left a text about his whereabouts and his father didn’t think it was remarkable. > [@](#): > > For example, the lawyers said that as of late last week, no investigator had interviewed Trayvon’s girlfriend. I call BS on this one. Investigators didn’t know the girlfriend existed until Benjamin Crump released her statment. > [@](#): > > However it started, witnesses described to the 911 dispatcher what resulted: the neighborhood watch coordinator, 5 foot 9 and 170 pounds, and the visitor, 6 foot 1 and 150, wrestling on the ground. Yet another entry in the guess your weight sweepstakes. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3169 "2012-04-04T19:58:41Z")
> [@treis](#): > > I haven’t come up with any logical explanation for Martin’s actions that night, and I haven’t even really seen a half convincing case. What is the significance of your inability to come up with a logical explanation for what someone you have never met did while you weren’t there? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3170 "2012-04-04T20:00:54Z")
> [@treis](#): > > If Martin had stopped where his body was, Zimmerman should have encountered him when he ran after him. Maybe M stopped somewhere and then and then moved again at another point in time. idk, but it’s a possibility imho ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3171 "2012-04-04T20:02:40Z")
> [@Hbns](#): > > Right from the get go, Zimmerman describes Martin as: > I took this to mean that Martin was new to the area. Checking out the place, the cars, what people have. > As a teenager I liked to go ride my bike around in the “nice” neighbor hood and gawk at all the stuff people had. Iirc, some report mentioned that M and the girl were on the phone for something like 400 minutes the previous 24 hours. So, talking may well have taken precedence over walking at that point. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3172 "2012-04-04T20:05:05Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > If I’m Zimmerman and I am holding a gun on someone and he attacks me, I’m gonna shoot his ass. I’m not going to wait until he pounds my head on the ground - the first punch will be interrupted by a bang. I think this would land you in a heap of legal trouble. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3173 "2012-04-04T20:08:07Z")
I forgot one part: > [@](#): > > Mr. Zimmerman’s father provided a different account, based on his conversations with his son. He said that George Zimmerman had lost sight of the hooded figure and was beginning to walk back to his vehicle when Trayvon appeared from his **rear left side**. He also described a conversation that began far differently than the one recalled by the girl on the phone. Of course everything Robert Zimmerman says is hearsay and IMO, not high quality hearsay. BTW the picture with the article show the back yard area at Twin Lakes. Imagine it pitch black and there are plenty of places to hide. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3174 "2012-04-04T20:10:19Z")
> [@newme](#): > > I watched the [Anderson Cooper interview](http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/29/trayvon-martin-witness-breaks-silence/?hpt=ac_t3). At 6:29 you hear this: > > Anderson Cooper: “You say the shooter was on top?” > Witness: “I can’t really say.” That’s not the same as saying that you don’t know the comparative sizes of the people involved. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3175 "2012-04-04T20:13:23Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > The witness says he has no idea who was on top, and he didn’t see the moment Zimmerman got up. So exactly how do you conclude that “the larger man was on top”? “After the larger man got off there was a boy, obviously now dead, on the ground facing down.” Usually, to get off, one must first be on. Being on is usually different from being under. So the implication is that the “larger man” was on the boy before he could get off the boy. ymmv ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3176 "2012-04-04T20:15:05Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > That’s not the same as saying that you don’t know the comparative sizes of the people involved. It is the same as saying you don’t know which one was on top. Because the guy knows Zimmerman was the shooter. And as for “comparative sizes” - per JoelUpchurch above: “[Zimmerman] 5 foot 9 and 170 pounds, and the visitor [Martin], 6 foot 1 and 150”. Which one is “larger”? ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3177 "2012-04-04T20:17:18Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > “After the larger man got off there was a boy, obviously now dead, on the ground facing down.” > > Usually, to get off, one must first be on. > Being on is usually different from being under. The witness specifically, and explicitly, said he didn’t know who was on top. The man specifically, and explicitly, said he didn’t see Zimmerman get up. But keep on fantasizing. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3178 "2012-04-04T20:17:46Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3179 "2012-04-04T20:19:13Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Off the ground? That’s possible, but the more common way of talking about someone getting off the ground is to say “got up” instead of off. > [@Terr](#): > > The witness explicitly tells you he has no idea who was on top… could you quote the exact language where he says this? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504/3180 "2012-04-04T20:22:44Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > When I read the word “larger”, I don’t think “taller”. I think in terms of width and/or mass. Yeah, it’s kind of vague. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504.md?page=158) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-the-neighborhood-watch-shooter-been-arrested/615504.md?page=160)