<p>“do you really think a 17 yr old walking to a corner store in the evening is a suspicious activity?”</p>
<p>The same Z-mind that answered “yes” to this question was the same Z-mind that decided a roll in the grass was life threatening. And that’s putting the most favorable spin on events of the evening.</p>
<p>I think Z really must find that suspicious. Just listened to 911 call placed by Z reporting kids playing in the street. Kids, yep 5-6 of em under 12, playing in the street. 911 folks. What most of us consider normal neighborhood activity he calls 911! His judgment and perceptions were off. </p>
<p>Sent from my MB860 using CC</p>
<p>Yes, one wonders if he did not belong in an institution rather than walking around with a gun.</p>
<p>nothing new here I see, just the same posters who THINK they know exactly what happened…</p>
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<p>And we have people who want to shut down the conversation when it touches on connected/related issues they’d rather avoid thinking about. </p>
<p>In fact…much of this is standard tactics used to shut down any discussion that does not go in the limited overly simplistic direction they’d prefer.</p>
<p>^ sure…and some would rather wait and see the facts unfold while others keep posting how Martin was just walking home and was shot dead for no reason.</p>
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I have absolutely no idea what happened during the confrontation between Martin and Zimmerman other than the obvious that Martin is dead. We should wait for the facts to be presented. What I do know is that the police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to follow Martin and Zimmerman disregarded that instruction. It may not have been illegal to disregard that instruction, but it forms a basis for me to conclude that Zimmerman is one of the biggest jack-asses on the planet.</p>
<p>geeps20: That’s what the currently known facts show. Kid was just walking home and was shot dead for no reason. You finally get it.</p>
<p>Someone in my neighborhood called the cops on my then 13 year old son and his friend skateboarding in the street.</p>
<p>No Katliamon…that is most likely not what happened, but believe what you want</p>
<p>^^SIL is a dispatcher. You’d be amazed at the calls she gets.</p>
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<p>What the heck??? I don’t know where you live, 07Dad, but in my mild winter area, hoodies are what 17 year old boys wear when it gets cool. When I went by a local high school last week when it was getting out, about half the boys were wearing hoodies, and, as it was warm, I suspect that about half of the rest had their hoodies in their backpacks. Not just 17 year old boys, but pretty much everyone else outside-- hikers, dog walkers, people working in their yards, people walking down the street, wears hoodies. MIght as well say that wearing jeans is suspicious.</p>
<p>And is it now a shooting offense to go out for a walk just after dark? (I can’t imagine how I survived this long.) People who don’t have cars are supposed to stay inside after dark? This is an appalling view. This is just an atrocious view. Do you also say young women shouldn’t wear skirts? </p>
<p>Trayvon Martin was doing nothing wrong. He was wearing the clothing that every other 17 year old boy wears. He was walking back from the 7-11, a perfectly normal, reasonbal thing for a hungry teenage boy to be doing. He was doing nothing at all that should have raised suspicion. It is not his fault that some deranged busybody who had, judging by his calls to 911, a problem with black males, decided to follow him.</p>
<p>"… posters who THINK they know exactly what happened…"</p>
<p>If the Sanford PD had done a competent investigation then everyone would KNOW what happened. If you’re not happy with our fact-limited assessments, GO YELL AT THEM!</p>
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<p>maybe, maybe not…but more importantly, we don’t know what happened when he met Z.</p>
<p>Sorry, Geeps, I realize that for you he was perhaps doing something suspicious. Let me rephrase: For those of us who think Walking While Black is not inherently suspect, he was doing nothing suspicious. For heaven’s sake, even Zimmerman’s apologists haven’t given us any reason that Martin was suspicious.</p>
<p>^ didn’t know you were there…another who thinks he/she knows exactly what happened…incredible.</p>
<p>Occam’s Razor:</p>
<p>The law of parsimony, economy or succinctness. It is a principle urging one to select among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect.</p>
<p>Or:</p>
<p>If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is most probably a duck.</p>
<p>In other words, for all the talk about how it COULD have happened, and what Martin COULD have done to threaten Zimmerman, and our collective love of the murder mystery, the simplest explanation is the most likely.</p>
<p>Sunset, or shortly there after, teenager in a hoodie, armed with Skittles and a can of tea, with no prior history of violence is walking through a gated community. With all the 911 tapes and phone calls that we know of, there is no evidence of him acting in a threatening way. Older man, with a gun, a history of somewhat violent behavior (based on prior charges), and a history of reporting suspicious behavior, acting as a neighborhood watch monitor, reports suspicious behavior to 911 and then against advice of the 911 operator leaves his vehicle to follow the teenager. Within a very short period of time, the teen is shot dead. Multiple calls to 911 report screams for help, a gunshot, and then silence. Whatever scuffle took place, it was short in duration, and there was only one person armed with a weapon that could kill.</p>
<p>Hmmmmm… The simplest explanation of the effect?</p>
<p>^case closed then…should he get the death penalty or life in prison?</p>
<p>^^ And, I would add, only one person dead. And the other person walked away with injuries so minimal he wasn’t taken to the hospital even to be checked out, after what he says was a life-and-death struggle.</p>
<p>I don’t think geeps20’s kids were there, and I think they are not ax murderers. I don’t think they threatened Martin, though perhaps they were carrying guns. Maybe they were wearing hoodies.</p>
<p>But I am not sure. I could be proven wrong.</p>