My observation is that only the extremes of the right or left really care. Most people I know feel he should have followed the advice of 911 and only observed, but also that Treyyvon was up to no good.
It makes good journalistic theater but I don’t know anyone personally who actually cares. One thug, one wannabe cop, IMHO.
I mean good thug=dead thug but what if someone shoots you or me and then claims ‘stand your ground’?
Well it was a risk, but GZ didn’t commit any crime and it seems the reason he was out of his truck is that he was looking for a street sign or house number to tell the NON emergency dispatcher, who ASKED the information, where he was.
The problem has been the focus on irrelevant arguments – some of which are actually unsupported by the evidence.
1. ‘GZ racially profiled TM’ There is no evidence of this.
2. ‘GZ disobeyed an order by the police’ * First off, it wasn’t “9-1-1” it was the non-emergency number. The civilian dispatcher, Sean Noffke, testified that he did not give GZ an order and, in fact, he, like his fellow dispatchers, are trained not make comments that sound like commands. * Noffke also testified under cross that, as a result of his asking GZ which way TM was going, GZ could have reasonably interpreted this as being asked to follow Martin. * It is also not a crime in Florida to disregard a comment made by a civilian dispatcher.
3. ‘GZ got out of his car’ Not a crime on public property and not negligent either.
4. ‘GZ followed TM’ Again, anyone can follow anyone on a public street unless the followee has obtained a restraining order against the follower and even there, the RS only places time, place, and manner restrictions on the person enjoined.
5. ‘GZ wasn’t really injured’ * Under Florida’s self-defense laws, one doesn’t have to be injured AT ALL to use deadly force * No one is required to refrain from defending himself while another is engaged in or attempting to commit a felony.
6. ‘TM is dead through no fault of his own’ * If you believe that TM assaulted GZ, then he IS dead as a result of his own actions.
7. ‘GZ could have left’ * Under Florida law, there is not a duty to withdraw rather than use deadly force * TM was straddling GZ so how the latter was supposed to leave the scene is unanswered.
8. ‘GZ was armed and TM wasn’t’ * One’s fists can be considered weapons and can result in severe bodily harm or death. * GZ was legally carrying a weapon * There is no requirement under the law that the same weapon be used by the assailant * A homeowner can kill an intruder whether or not he has been threatened * Those that attack cannot feign surprise if they are met with superior firepower.
9. ‘Stand Your Ground!’ * SYG is NOT at issue in this trial. * The defense is a classic self-defense case.
10. ‘Black men NEVER get to use SYG!’ * Wrong http://tinyurl.com/nboht35
11. ‘GZ is a man and TM was a boy!’ * As if ‘boys’ don’t commit murder, rape, and assault everyday in this country.
Life's tough, then you die.
The choice is actually: should you limit the power of the state or should you not?
To paraphrase Winston Churchill:
You have been offered the choice between liberty and security, you have chosen dishonor and you shall have tyranny.
I hope you point out the false assertions in what most people you know "feel".
911?
It was a call to a non-emergency number from what I remember.
He was observing, what do you think he was doing?
Maybe you need to get caught up on the facts. This was a SELF DEFENSE case, SYG was not used in this trial.
Also, you need to fear being killed by souless thugs in the midst of a robbery or ‘just because’, and not worry so much about SYG laws letting someone get away with murder.
If you aren’t even aware that GZ called the non-emergency number rather than 9-1-1, I’d suggest that your knowledge is a bit shaky at best. That’s an oft-repeated piece of misinformation.
Zimmerman’s main mistake, he articulated when he said, “These *&@% always get away.” That was a mistake because he was more right than he knew when he said he thought Martin was up to no good, or on drugs - Martin gave him the slip, all right, but he decided not to get away, but to confront, and assault, and batter, Zimmerman. The testimony of the only eye witness reinforces the physical evidence that Martin, tho 20 pounds lighter that Zimmerman, demonstrated the truth of the saying that “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”It makes good journalistic theater but I don’t know anyone personally who actually cares. One thug, one wannabe cop, IMHO.Zimmerman never made a mark on Martin until he finally - after crying out for help for a full 40 seconds, and sustaining several marks on his head in addition to a deformed nose - fired the fatal shot. Martin’s clothes indicated that he had been in the dominant position described by eye witness John Good the whole time, with Zimmerman lying on his back.
On top of everything else, there is the fact that John Good told “them” - told Martin - to stop, and he continued. When Good left to call 911 while Martin continued to batter Zimmerman, Zimmerman was left to understand that no one would help him until such time - if ever in his remaining lifetime - as the police finally arrived, he was on his own in a jungle situation. There were still cries for help - all the cries were by Zimmerman, as Martin was never in trouble until suddenly he was dying - but whether you believe the story about Martin finding the gun or not, something caused Zimmerman to decide he had to shoot Martin.
Zimmerman claimed that in the heat of the assault he didn’t even remember the gun until Martin found it - but whatever, he shot long after most of us think we would have in his position. There is nothing but fevered imaginings to suggest that the gun was ever a factor in the fight until the moment it was used.
I mean good thug=dead thug but what if someone shoots you or me and then claims ‘stand your ground’?
When John Good saw Zimmerman, Zimmerman had no ability to retreat. Put differently, he was retreating as much as he found it possible to do. SYG has nothing to do with the case. Nothing in the evidence required the jury to take into account Zimmerman’s interest in law enforcement as a career. The prosecution’s case was all innuendo, all the time. Well, except for the baseless accusations . . .
If you want to critique the law in a self-defense case, it does seem weird that the prosecution has to defend the “victim” beyond a reasonable doubt in order to win against a self-defense claim. But that’s the law and I’m not positive I can suggest anything unambiguously better.The other interesting constraint is that the jury isn’t informed of the penalty for any given verdict. All those wonderful “feelings” the jury had for the mother of the victim would have turned to ashes in their mouths if they had brought in a guilty verdict on the least of the “lesser included charges” in Murder 2, and learned that the sentence would mean that Zimmerman’s wife would in all likelihood have to divorce Zimmerman and find another husband, or else try to conceive late or go childless. All because it “wasn’t right” that a drug-addled thug who was on suspension from school got killed while committing a crime.