Sorry but to me that means "quit following the guy."
Zimmerman had no authority to confront anyone IMO. Even if he was witnessing a theft, his job was to call the police, observe license numbers, descriptions etc but never to intentionally confront. He had no training for anything like that. And that is essentially why he is sitting where he is today. And unfortunately, a young guy is dead.
An individual needs no “authority” to approach another individual he feels is acting suspiciously and ask him “What are you doing?”.
That said, Zimmerman was the elected captain of the neighborhood watch, so his behavior should not be considered out of place.
Of course, the other individual (Martin in this case) has every right to ignore that person or tell him to go to hell, but he has no right to start viciously beating him and threaten to kill him.
Have you been trained to post opinions on the internet?
Show me your license to post, otherwise I'll have to assume you are acting illegally.
“Sorry but to me that means ‘quit following the guy.’”
Even if it does, how do you know he kept following him? Getting out of the truck doesn’t prove it. There are other reasons for getting out of the truck. If it meant “quit following the guy,” as you say, was Zimmerman bound to abide it? Can the police, if that was the police, legally order you not to follow someone over the phone? I don’t know.
“Zimmerman had no authority to confront anyone IMO”
Since when do we need authority to confont others? Confrontation is not a illegal. It amazes me that people are suddenly pretending it is. If it were, a lot more people would be in jail.
“Even if he was witnessing a theft, his job was to call the police, observe license numbers, descriptions etc but never to intentionally confront”
What sort of intentional confrontation do you have in mind? I didn’t hear much of anything on the 9-11 call beyond Zimmerman observing and reporting. So far the prosecution hasn’t revealed anything more than what we’ve learned from the tape, which leads me to believe that the confrontation mentioned in the affidavit consisted of him following and reporting on Martin. That does not a violent confrontation make. Only violence, or the immediate precipitation of it through fighting words, threatening gestures, brandishing of weapons, etc., makes for an illegal confrontation. Unless, that is, someone has a restraining order against you, or something. That is not the case here.
You and the prosecution must have heard a secret tape with him yelling out “Hey, kid, I’m commin to get ya!” Otherwise, I think you’re talking out of your ass about this intentional confrontation stuff.
“He had no training for anything like that.”
Anything like what? You haven’t yet described exactly what it is that he did, aside from following and reporting to 9-11. What did this confrontation which precipitated the fight and removed Zimmerman’s ability to assert self-defense consist of? Did he yell “Get out of my neighborhood, nigger,” or what?
“that is essentially why he is sitting where he is today”
No, he’s sitting there because he kinda sorta looks white, shot an unarmed black youth, and the MSM, the usual rabble-rousers, and various politicians went into a tizzy over it. That is, if by sitting where he is you mean specifically charged as he is. I could see him charged with manslaughter, or something, without the hoopla. But not murder 2. That’s ridiculous.
If you had your facts straight then maybe we could have a reasonable discussion. But seeing that you are locked into your ideas of what happened a reasonable discussion is out of the question.
Since when does anyone need authority to confront someone else? If I see someone suspicious in my neighborhood, I have every right to follow the person on a public street, and even walk up to him/her and ask questions. As long as I don't physically assault the person or impede their ability to move, I have broken no law. If that person hits me, then they are guilty of assault, and I have every right to defend myself. But they do not have the right to "defend" themselves from my "confronting" them by attacking me physically.
And he didn't.
Even if he was witnessing a theft, his job was to call the police, observe license numbers, descriptions etc...
And he did
... but never to intentionally confront.
And he didn't.
You don't know what you are talking about.
wrong again. listen to the recordings. the dispatcher asked him where TM went. you immediately here the car door open and then GZ says ‘f’in cold’. The dispatcher asks ‘are you following him’? and GZ says yes. The dispatcher says ‘we don’t need you to do that’.
The point being the dispatcher KNEW he asked GZ to give him the locale and when he found out GZ was actually looking for him the dispatcher said what he said.
You’re making some unwarranted suppositions. We still don’t know if Zimmerman confronted Martin or not. Don’t make the assumption that event d happened if you can’t prove a,b, and c occurred first.
Z took out the trash. For that, he deserves our thanks!
“Zimmerman had no authority to confront anyone IMO. Even if he was witnessing a theft, (or robbery or murder or child abduction or etc). . .”
This is not the UK where you are only allowed to stand by and watch as someone commits a crime.
In your world citizens are subjects and should meekly sit in their home and tremble in fear with 9-1-1 on speed dial. Okay, if that is what you want, I hope you let your neighbors know so they can sit by and watch you get robbed, beaten and even killed and do nothing. . .only observe as the thug walks away.
We should ALL be neighborhood watch members, looking out for our community and be willing to stand by our neighbors in time of need.
It is not sad a thug is dead. It is sad a good man is being harassed and life threatened for seeing a thug and reporting thugs suspicious behavior.
It is a good thing the thug is dead as the violent thuggish nature of the thug has already resulted in other assaults (like assaulting his bus driver), burglary (suspended from school for having drugs and burglary tools and having a lot of women’s jewelry in his backpack). It was only a matter of time before he would murder someone and given the events of the evening and the injuries on Z, it looks like he was well on his way to murder Z.
Maybe you want to bet your life some thug will not kill you when he is beating the life out of you. Most do not and will defend themselves.
A dispatcher is NOT a police officer and has no authority to make you do anything. Nothing at all. Besides, when he heard the suggestion he replied “okay” and began his trek back to his vehicle and was attacked by the thug with no soul.
He did not “intentionally confront,” as you put it. He lost sight and was heading back to his vehicle. Where you get this intentionally confront nonsense from, who knows. What we do know is common sense is not a strong point in your post attempting to justify the thug attacking Z.
AndThere. Fixed it for you.unfortunately, a youngguythug is dead.