“in doing so he took the law into his own hands, which makes him nothing more than an armed vigilante serving up his version of street justice. Those actions make him a danger to civilized society, and I believe that as conservatives we ought to defend the rule of law above all other things.”
Jumping to a conclusion that a man is guilty before proven so is an even greater danger to civilized society.
Innocent until proven guilty is merely a legal concept that has a meaningful context only within the criminal justice system. As a private individual, I’m certainly free to make judgments about people based on the evidence available to me regarding their actions or character, and until I see some reason to think that Mr. Zimmerman is an innocent victim in all of this, I will continue to say that personally, I think he’s guilty of terrible judgment at a minimum, and is likely guilty of homicide as well. But, of course, I am not the one who will decide his fate, that will ultimately be up to a jury, if this goes as I imagine it will. (At this point I can’t imagine that Mr. Zimmerman will not be indicted.) I will fully admit that Mr. Zimmerman is fortunate that I will not be among the jury pool.
Having listened to the 911 tapes, I have no reason at all to believe that Mr. Zimmerman was anything but what he appears to be, and that is an armed vigilante who chose to pursue a child who had committed no offense. He was told to stay put and to wait for the police, he decided to take a different course of action, and the consequences of that choice are a dead boy and a probable prison sentence for Mr. Zimmerman.
As my mother used to tell me, if you go looking for trouble, you’re bound to find it.
Innocent until proven guilty is merely a legal concept that has a meaningful context only within the criminal justice system. As a private individual, I’m certainly free to make judgments about people based on the evidence available to me regarding their actions or character, and until I see some reason to think that Mr. Zimmerman is an innocent victim in all of this, I will continue to say that personally, I think he’s guilty of terrible judgment at a minimum, and is likely guilty of homicide as well. But, of course, I am not the one who will decide his fate, that will ultimately be up to a jury, if this goes as I imagine it will. (At this point I can’t imagine that Mr. Zimmerman will not be indicted.) I will fully admit that Mr. Zimmerman is fortunate that I will not be among the jury pool.
Having listened to the 911 tapes, I have no reason at all to believe that Mr. Zimmerman was anything but what he appears to be, and that is an armed vigilante who chose to pursue a child who had committed no offense. He was told to stay put and to wait for the police, he decided to take a different course of action, and the consequences of that choice are a dead boy and a probable prison sentence for Mr. Zimmerman.
As my mother used to tell me, if you go looking for trouble, you’re bound to find it.