Trayvon Martin vs. George Zimmerman ....

So I have the right to assault anyone that I suspect might be following me?

 

Wouldn't be shocked a bit if Zimmerman was lying. I also wouldn't be shocked a bit if he never had an intention to confront, assault, or kill this kid. Maybe he was simply following to figure out where this kid was going to give better info the police...........but the tables got turned on him and he chose to defend his life. I need more info to have an opinion on what really went down.

The politics and cultural wars around a tragic death like this makes me sick to my stomach. You have the New Black Panthers and Al Sharpton involved on one side, and then of course I'm sure the pro gun guys will be involved on the other side all twisting and painting a picture that supports their own private agendas and using that to fuel the publics opinions. All we really know at this point is that we have a kid that's dead and a man that will live for the rest of his life with that on his conscious. Now everyone with a political or cultural agenda have painted a picture with no real info that the public is already identifying with and picking sides on, yet no one (except Zimmerman) really knows what happened or has released any clear info.

 

Following someone on the street to ask them a question is NOT a crime, nor does it give you a right to fight them. Simple enough answer. (although this case is much more complex)

I honestly don't know how I feel about whether Zimmerman should be charged... Dude is a nut job but it seems he was within the law from the reports thus far.

17 year old 6'1"-6'2" football player assaults short fat 5'9" neighborhood watchmen after questioning is just as believable as the poor innocent kid was gunned down for his skin color. Neither accurately depict the scenario IMO

 

Who the HELL does Zimmerman think he is????? If he thought this kid was possibly dangerous, WHY WOULD HE APPROACH HIM?????

THINK!!!!!

Some.of you have dropped a notch or two in my thoughts of your sensibility .... and some have gone up a few ....

THINK!!!!

 

Two of the great things about our country:

1. We are free to have discussions like this and speak our minds.

2. We are afforded the right to a fair trial, based on the facts and not on emotions.

I think some people are forgetting #2 here and are forming their final judgement based on emotions and not all of the facts, since we don't have all the facts yet. I'll reserve giving my judgement until after the we hear the facts at the trial.

 

Obviously Zimmerman took his neighborhood watch job a bit too seriously, but it is not some unthinkable action to question a perceived suspicious person in your neighborhood. Perhaps Zimmerman felt the cops do not act quick enough? Perhaps he has had issues with cops being slow to act in the past? We do not know.

Think.

 

Trust me, I wish race played no part in this as well, but there is no way you can take that out of this situation knowing this...

Zimmerman had made numerous calls to 911 regarding "suspicious" black males. None of those resulted in an arrest.

Did he say "coon"? I don't think that is clear enough. Who did he mean when he said "they always get away" after the dispatcher told him not to follow Martin? Only Martin knows for sure, but both of those comments could easily be determined to be racist.

For a couple years now, there have been many reports of black men being questioned by police when they were doing nothing wrong. So tension has been rising regarding this issue. Then Martin feels he is being followed for no other reason than he is black.

Again, I wish race wasn't part of this, but unfortunately it is. I don't think we should turn a blind eye to it in this situation.

 

How do you think you might look to others? You are ready to jail a man without due process based on what the media is telling you. If you are referring to me with the above quote then I question if you are really who we think you are Tony. I feel that this case can go either way and there are still no charges. Is it you that should THINK and make sure all the facts are known before deciding this mans fate?

 

From what is being reported at some point Zimmerman lost him or stopped following him and when returning to his vehicle was approached by TM asking why he was following him. I'm no saying thats what happened but that may answer the question you've been asking. Had this involved two white guys you wouldn't be hearing about it, if it involved two black guys you wouldn't be hearing about it. So why are we hearing about it? Please don't say it's because of the SYG law and don't ask me to post the 1000s of news stories which got little exposure that would back up the above statement, shockingly some even from Florida.

As a father of a 17 year old I'll say this. If my 17 year old got in an altercation with another person who claimed my son was beating him to death so he shot him but that person had only a busted nose and some grass stains I would have a big problem with that. I've read Zimmerman said the kid was going for his gun, I don't know if that's true or not but would certainly change things as far as self defense. Yes armed citizens do have their guns taken from them and used against them and yes people lie to cover their butts. Let the investigators do their job. I can see both sides of this thing and have discussed it with many people within my workplace being devis advocate for both sides and I can tell you this as a white male I have to tread lightly and choose my words carefully and even then some want to pounce on me. Not because I don't understand the information that is available on the topic but because(I'm told) I could never understand the topic of being black. Such is life.

 

Dan ... all you need to do is take both side's story .... and my judgment remains the same .... Zimmerman murdered that kid ... no matter which side I listen to, that is the conclusion I come up with as I previously posted

 

I agree, Matt, we don't know exactly what Zimmerman's intent was. From what we know, I don't believe his intent was kill him. I think the situation turned in a way he didn't expect. BUT, I think he made inexcusable mistakes that lead to the shooting. Especially with what we know from his 911 call.

 

If you are throwing size around, Zimmerman is around 230.
Again how was he standing his ground when he started the confrontation.

 

I read that Zimmerman has made 40 calls prior and helped in the capture of an idividual. It is not beyond thougt that the Police are not active enough.

 

Because no person should ever been persecuted because of their race. This does involve race. We can't change that. This IS different, and thats why its getting so much attention.

 

I don't understand why you keep asking this question. It's been answered numerous times.

From accounts by Zimmerman, and Trayvon's girlfriend, Trayvon initiated the actual confrontation after he had given Zimmerman the slip.

I'm calling the first exchange of words between Trayvon and Zimmerman as the actual confrontation. Zimmerman getting out of his vehicle and following Trayvon was not the confrontation.

 

No Tony, all I need to do is wait for ALL of the FACTS to come out before casting judgement....not both sides of a STORY. That's not how it works in this country.

 

Correct

These facts are simple

The kid was just walking down the street, doing nothing more than walking down the street.

Take all the gun rights and race out of the equation and what do we have. A kid simple walking down the street, in this country you have the right to be left alone if you are not breaking any laws.

 

One side is dead, we will not be hearing it.

 

All races of people get questioned by the police when they were doing nothing wrong. I guess you are saying it happens to black males more, which I'd bet is right. I tink most of us would agree racial profiling is wrong but lets not oversimplify this whole topic because of that. We don't live in that area and have no idea what it's like being a residen there. There were over 400 calls to police that year in that area, what does that mean? Here are some things you'd like to know if you were moving to the Sanford, FL area:

--With a crime rate of 69 per one thousand residents, Sanford has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 14. Within Florida, more than 94% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Sanford.

Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 53,570, Sanford has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Sanford does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Sanford.

The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Sanford does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Sanford.

For Sanford, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Sanford is one in 150.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Sanford is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Sanford, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 16, which is a rate of 63 per one thousand population.

Importantly, we found that Sanford has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Sanford is one in 255.--

My point is lets try to look beyond the surface a little.

 

True. But I also have the right to question you if I perceive you as a threat. And you also have the right to ignore me, answer me politely and honestly, run, or question me as well. You do not have the right to lay your hands on me though.

The facts are that we do not know who made physical contact first. That is the most important thing IMO.