Posted on 03/21/2012 8:12:45 PM PDT by NoLibZone
NEW YORK - The parents of a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain in Florida told hundreds of people at a march in his memory on Wednesday that they won’t stop until they get justice for him.
“My son did not deserve to die,” the teenager’s father, Tracy Martin, said after thanking the crowd.
Martin’s son, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was killed Feb. 26, in Sanford, Fla. He was returning to a gated community in the city after buying candy at a convenience store. He was unarmed and was wearing a hooded sweat shirt, called a hoodie.
The neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has not been charged in the shooting. Zimmerman has said the teen attacked him and he shot him in self-defense.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
It's legal to follow somebody in a public place, AFAIK. Being unarmed doesn't give you a free pass to slam heads against the pavement.
It looks to me like Zimmerman was acting like a first class jerk. If tomorrow, all the first class jerks in the country got assaulted for acting like jerks, then the hospitals would be busting at the seams with beat-up jerks.
If the jerks were carrying guns, then the morgues would be full of dead guys who decided to unload a can of whupass on the jerks, and in most of those cases it would be a legal shoot, depending on the individual situation and the state it took place in.
If somebody is on top of you slamming your head against the pavement, there is no way of knowing if he's gonna stop before you are dead or seriously messed up for life.
This is a tragedy for several reasons, and I see no heroes or blameless victims on either side.
“Based on what I know, Zimmerman probably should get dinged for manslaughter.”
Except for the fact an EYE WITNESS saw the Black kid on top of Zimmerman beating the crap out of him, with Zimmerman crying out for help.
It’s called self defense. In Florida and everywhere else.
I’ll just do what I always do. Call things as I see them. I have no qualms about calling Obama an Affirmative Action president or calling out Detroit for what it is. I also have no qualms about seeing this as likely manslaughter.
A. Not if Zimmerman picked the fight to start with. Likely as he got out of his car and followed him to a close contact range. Martin can very reasonably see this as somebody coming at him with bad intentions.
B. Fists aren't normally considered deadly force. That would be considered imperfect self defense in most jurisdictions.
In this situation, you would be in fear of going unconscious during the beating and possibly being killed. Self-defense is warranted at this point - especially if by shooting the attacker you know you will survive.
6’3 black guy on 5’2 hispanic guy.
He was advised by a dispatcher not to pursue Martin, but that's not a lawful order from a law enforcement officer.
A shove or even a punch might not be considered enough to warrant deadly force, but Zimmerman claims he was on his back screaming for help while Martin beat him hard enough that stitches were required on the back of his head. That sounds life threatening to me, if true.
I'm not condoning the “cowboy” attitude that seems to be part of Zimmerman's actions, but from a legal standpoint, if it went down as Zimmerman and at least one eyewitness said it did, then it looks to me like a justifiable shooting under Florida law. I haven't seen any physical evidence presented to suggest otherwise, and the cops are saying that at least one conflicting “earwitness” story that has surfaced has changed since the national firestorm of outrage has started.
I think, but I don't know, that a guy went out looking for a confrontation, and he got it, but he may have got it in a way that offers legal justification for the shooting.
I'm not comfortable with that, but I'm not comfortable with the social/mainstream media lynch mob that's formed either.
Nothing good about this at all.
I heard the tape earlier and the dispatcher did not actually tell Zimmerman not to follow him. He asked Zimmerman if he was following him and then told him, “we don’t need you to do that.” The dispatch didn’t tell him not to do it, just that they didn’t need him to do it.
Good point.
Yes. There are so many comments and such anger from the black community for sure, but most everybody has jumped on the attack Zimmerman train without having all the facts. And a lot even after they do. I listened to all the 911 calls and the eye witness, as well as the police report. People think it was Trayvon yelling for help when that doesn’t even make sense. If Zimmerman had injuries to his face and head, grass stains on the back of his shirt, told police right away he yelled for help but nobody came, and the witness said he saw Trayvon on top of Zimmerman, it only makes sense that Trayvon was beating up on Zimmerman and tried to grab his gun and he felt his only recourse when nobody came to his aid was to shoot. Who says he wanted to kill the kid? He might have feared for his life. By no means am I saying that Zimmerman was NOT an idiot for following on foot especially after the dispatcher told him not to. He should never have confronted the kid. But I don’t think he murdered him in cold blood. I could be wrong. I feel bad there was a senseless death and for the kid’s family.
This is just a general reply, not to you specifically. I just liked your comment.
Getting jumped from behind is standard operating procedure. Ask the stranger what they’re doing the area, then start to leave, and get jumped from behind by the suspended youth who was a foot taller than Zimmerman. As long as one side is speculating about Zimmerman, I’ll speculate that the youth had a serious attitude problem. Zimmerman might be a nosy neighbor but there has also been recent crime in the neighborhood. There’s nothing wrong with noticing people who are new and asking them what they’re doing in the area. It’s neighborly enough. The media narrative fell apart the second there was the push back that, hey, Zimmerman is neither white or Jewish both of which gets the black community “leaders” on the warpath. These same leaders are never on the “right” side. They try to ensure that injustice is done.
The last time I called in two black guys in a neighbors driveway that did not belong in my neighborhood it ended up being a home invasion in progress. This was 10 years ago before I moved into the sticks. Having ‘thugs’ around was normal.
As for what the 911 dispatcher did or didn’t tell the caller, it doesn’t much matter. Zimmerman was free to talk to the kid. Based on the initial findings, if Zimmerman hadn’t been armed, the youth probably would have put him into a coma. Getting jumped from behind is no joke.
Who is remembering the elderly white couple tortured, raped and murdered in their home the other day in Oklahoma by blacks?
Where is the 24/7 MSM coverage?
Where are the protests?
Where is the outrage?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2861754/posts?page=46
I couldn’t imagine my parents living anywhere near the mutants; they had too many children to be anywhere close...
Dang, it is great seeing some other ethnic group being called racists besides us white folk.
Two minorities going at it.
Popcorn anyone?
Bets?
Take the black pimp with the cocked hair.
He throws it by the bucketsful.
Best analysis of the day.
"But how many of us heard about this below case non-stop. ...'This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy."
Bringing either of these situations up when discussing the Martin/Zimmerman situation is just clouding the issue.
No suspects have been arrested in either case. When/if they are, it is doubtful that any of the suspects will try to claim that their actions are justified or that the injured party(ies) deserved either act.
IF they do claim their actions were justified,
and IF the police agree with them and let them go,
and IF the DA reviews the police decision and declines to press charges,
and IF there is no public outcry as a result,
THEN you will have a valid point about the lack of coverage.
Until all of those things happen, you're comparing apples and oranges.
In the Martin/Zimmerman case, the whole argument revolves around whether or not Martin did something to warrant injury and that argument is ongoing and thus newsworthy.
Haven't you seen ALL those experiments that show that EYE WITNESS testimonies cannot be relied upon? I saw a witness on TV who had called 911 and she said the opposite of what you say that witness said. She said the police have NEVER come to talk to her.
Their "advice" can vary from "We don't need you to do that" to "I can't tell you to shoot him, but you should do what is necessary to protect your baby"
I listened to the 911 call where you could hear the person screaming for help. The SECOND that gunshot went off THERE WAS NO MORE SCREAMING OR MOANING. I my opinion if Zimmermon had been the one being jumped and beat up even after him shooting his gun there would still have been some moaning but not complete silence.
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