<p>If you were being shadowed and pursued by a shady looking burly guy (who may have had a gun), and were confronted, wouldn’t you struggle? Imagine Zimmerman as an armed robber…</p>
<p>I don’t see how this helps his image or his case. As for the police? Now those are the REALLY scary people.</p>
<p>So let me get this straight. An armed, a self-proclaimed vigilante sees a ‘suspicious looking’ character and, spewing racist invectives, chases him - against police advice - and ends up killing the kid. Kid is unarmed, except for skittles and ice tea. (Clear sign of harmful intentions.) And now the said armed vigilante is claiming he’s the victim. </p>
<p>Riiiiiiggggghhhhht.</p>
<p>O.K., I may be willing to give Zimmerman’s friend Ben Oliver SOME slack because of their friendship. But I find Oliver’s descriptions of the incident, as related to him by Zimmerman, to be just plain bizzare. In several interviews Oliver uses the phrase “life and death struggle,” and pronounces his and Zimmerman’s conclusion that one of the protaganists was going to die that night. Huh?</p>
<p>Well, once it escalated to the point where Zimmerman pulled out a gun, then I could see that. :rolleyes: But, Ben, it would have never gotten to that point if your friend had listened to police and stayed in the car!</p>
<p>I’m not sure why this bothers me so much. Part of me wants to think it’s because I have two brown sons. But most of me thinks that I’m just a human who doesn’t like when unarmed 17yos get picked off by idiots.</p>
<p>Lake Washington, I was just about to post this video:</p>
<p>[Leaked</a> police report tells George Zimmerman?s story - Video on msnbc.com](<a href=“http://video.msnbc.msn.com/jansing-and-co/46868802/#46867200]Leaked”>http://video.msnbc.msn.com/jansing-and-co/46868802/#46867200)</p>
<p>I hate to be cynical, but I am wondering whether Oliver is some sort of paid PR person. He is using Zimmerman’s story as the premise for his arguments and speculation, thereby establishing it as the “truth”, and doing a very good job of it. He is very smooth, and my impression is that he has done quite a bit of rehearsing.</p>
<p>"(Zimmerman’s) father is a retired judge."</p>
<p>A clear case of “trickle down justice.”</p>
<p>If Zimmerman had stayed himself in his own house and played video games instead of make believe, no one would have to have died that night.</p>
<p>That’s the part I can’t get past. We don’t need to dissect the whole thing. Zimmerman had no business being out trolling for trouble. He was not a police officer, his house was not broken into, he wasn’t attacked in the course of innocent business. He made the choice to leave his home and hunt black males, so it’s ludicrous to be shocked that he actually bagged one.</p>
<p>“An armed, a self-proclaimed vigilante sees a ‘suspicious looking’ character …”</p>
<p>Zimmerman clearly felt that Martin was carrying Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction. (I know this is true because there’s nothing in the police report to refute it.)</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay- I don’t have children, brown or otherwise. I DO have lots of friends who fit Trayvon’s description and the thought of them being killed (or even being looked at as "suspicious) for looking like that is just gut-wrenching. One of my best friends looks far too similar to Trayvon for it not to hit home (even down to the liking ice tea and wearing hoodies). </p>
<p>I grew up in a fairly divided area. High tension between public (mainly minorities) and police. Mainly because someone who looked like me (white) would rarely get pulled over or get a second glance and where too many of my friends have stories like what happened with poets’ son. That, and the police force is stretched so thin that even when something happens, police don’t respond. Partially because of lack of resources, and partially because they just don’t care. </p>
<p>The police in this case are what bothers me the most. There will ALWAYS be nutcases like Zimmerman, but we’re supposed to have police to protect US (the public) not the nutcase.</p>
<p>The leaks about Trayvon’s school suspensions are identified as coming from police sources. It appears that they did a very thorough investigation of Trayvon, including checking on his school records, which are certainly irrelevant to the shooting. The only possible reason to release the information is to influence public opinion against Trayvon. With all the clear evidence of police bias, how can we trust their reports?</p>
<p>I feel sorry for the special prosecutor who has been brought in. It may not be possible at this point to make a case against Zimmerman, or to clear him, for that matter.</p>
<p>I do not care if Trayvon was the reincarnation of Ted Bundy. On the night he died (how monstrous to say about a 17 year old) he crossed paths with an armed maniac who was hunting humans. That’s all anyone needs to know.</p>
<p>NY, I disagree. I don’t think it will be hard for the jury to convict Zimmerman. Something like 75% of the public wants him arrested and IMO, he’s going to be “convicted” by the jury before the trial ever starts unless there is a BOMBSHELL that we’re missing. </p>
<p>The jury will see this (provided that they’re not in the mindset of Zimmerman- that a black kid MUST have been looking for trouble): an armed man chased an unarmed child and said child ended up dead. Guilty.</p>
<p>romani, I agree a jury might convict him. I worry it’ll never get to that point because of the way the law is written.</p>
<p>romanigypsyeyes, I meant that I am not at all sure that charges will be filed. It doesn’t matter how many people consider Zimmerman guilty, the prosecutor will have to follow the law and the evidence. The SYG law may protect Zimmerman. From what I’ve heard, the only way that the Feds can charge him with anything is if it can be shown that his actions were racially motivated. If this hangs on that enhanced tape where he may have called Trayvon a “coon”, then I am not optimistic. I don’t think it’s possible to tell what Zimmerman was saying.</p>
<p>That’s a good summary, zoosermom. But I think it’s possible that Zimmerman may get off by just stating that at the moment he fired, he was in fear for his life.</p>
<p>If Zimmerman can’t be prosecuted due to a lack of evidence, will the police be prosecuted FOR the lack of evidence?</p>
<p>Did you see that Spike Lee tweeted the address he thought was Zimmerman’s, but it turned out to be someone else entirely? I hope nothing happens to that person.</p>
<p>Also, what’s a “white Hispanic” and how is that relevant to anything?</p>
<p>It touches a raw nerve with me. I have two d’s with different skin colors. The differences in the way they are treated is palpable, and they tell me about it. (Interesting that the pinky-gray one lives in a predominantly brownish neighborhood; and the coffee-colored one works almost entirely with pinky-gray folks. The coffee-colored one dates across the color spectrum, and the stories she hears…)</p>
<p>I’m betting that Zimmerman really thought what he was doing was right, and that he had a role (which he greatly exaggerated to himself) in “keeping his neighborhood safe”. How did he come by this belief? It didn’t just appear in a vacuum… (Was Zimmerman drunk or high the night of the murder?..)</p>
<p>"… he (Zimmerman) was in fear for his life."</p>
<p>If he was in fear for his life from that Skittles-toting kid, clearly he needed more firepower than the 9mm Semi he was carrying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It seems less a matter of the law as written than the possibility or likelihood of laziness, negligence, or unwillingness on the part of the police in investigating the incident.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Officially, for census purposes, “Hispanic” or “non-Hispanic” is a separate question from race. This is why you may see the term like “non-Hispanic white” and “non-Hispanic black”.</p>