George Zimmerman Innocent

Innocent for the killing of Trayvon Martin! Thoughts on this case and final verdict?
Well, he obviously wasn't innocent of killing him, since the boy is dead. Innocent of murder, well that's another matter - not one I can comment on, since it didn't really hit the news over here in the UK.
 
Don't remember who said this but someone expressed concern over the verdict because it "opens up the possibility of people provoking someone and then executing them when they react" something in the lines of that. Honestly, he should in my opinion, even though I really don't know the entire case, have been sentenced to murder. It was a straight up execution.
 
I wasn't in the courtroom and didn't hear the facts of the case in their entirety. Therefore I don't consider myself qualified to come up with a verdict of my own. Case dismissed.
 
I wasn't in the courtroom and didn't hear the facts of the case in their entirety. Therefore I don't consider myself qualified to come up with a verdict of my own. Case dismissed.
Finally, someone who gets it.

I don't know about the US but unless it's a closed trial (which is rare) every part of the trial is available for the public. They can get their hands on the verdict and stuff like that.

Edit: In Sweden it's that way I mean.
 
I don't know about the US but unless it's a closed trial (which is rare) every part of the trial is available for the public. They can get their hands on the verdict and stuff like that.

Edit: In Sweden it's that way I mean.

I really don't have time to watch the whole thing.

All I know is that George was told not to pursue the kid, he ignored the police in that instruction, and now the kid's dead.
 
I think the jury got the correct verdict. 17 year old Trayvon Martin was pounding George Zimmerman's head on the pavement. Zimmerman's head was bleeding from abrasions as he was interviewed on the scene.

There was mistakes made on both Martin and Zimmerman's part.

Zimmerman was a neighbourhood watch officer/security guard. I wouldn't find it unusual for such a person to consider it his duty to report on the suspect. His neighbours and fellow guard(s) supported him as doing the right thing.

If Trayvon Martin did a better job in cooperating with Zimmerman, he wouldn't have gotten shot.

Zimmerman was wearing his security guard uniform during the encounter. Martin was wearing his hoodie.

SPECULATION
I can imagine the confrontation going something like:
"Excuse me young man, I'm Officer/Neighborhood Watchman Zimmerman. Can you tell me why you're in this area?
- "It's a free country, I can go where ever I want to. And I don't have to even talk with you. You're not the police."
"We've had some problems in the neighbourhood from outsiders. I don't seem to recognize you as living here."

Escalating words leads to shoving/wrestling/punching by both people.
Zimmerman has a bloody head on the back and dampness on his back as if on his back on wet ground. Martin doesn't seem to have fighting wounds but he has kneeling marks like when on top of an opponent. Zimmerman claims that Martin was smashing his head against the pavement and couldn't get him off.

A voice is heard desperately calling for help over several seconds on the police recording. Zimmerman's mother says it's her son. Martin's mom says that it's her son. Martin's father says that it is not his son's voice.

Assuming that you are about to be knocked out from repeated blows to the head, is it reasonable to shoot the attacker?
- A security guard would wonder if he will be killed once knocked unconscious from a perceived bad-guy.
- A civilian being beaten to near unconsciousness by a security guard wouldn't think that he'll be killed once he passes out.
I'd rule Justifiable shooting by the security guard.

Eyewitness Jonathan Good had this exchange with Mr. Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara, which was followed by questioning from the prosecuting attorney Bernie de la Rionda. From CBS:

The altercation seemed to escalate, according to Good. The struggle moved to the cement pathway, and he said the person in dark clothing straddled the other man in “mixed martial arts position” he later described to police as a “ground and pound.” He said he saw “arm movements going downward,” though he couldn’t be certain the person on top was striking the person on the bottom.

“The person you now know to be Trayvon Martin was on top, correct?” asked defense attorney Mark O’Mara. “He was the one raining blows down on George Zimmerman, correct?”

“That’s what it looked like,” Good answered.
 
Well, he obviously wasn't innocent of killing him, since the boy is dead. Innocent of murder, well that's another matter - not one I can comment on, since it didn't really hit the news over here in the UK.

It was in the news constantly here, and it was pretty sad to watch.

Here is the picture that was constantly used on the major news networks:

View attachment 24469

Looks like an adult attacking a pre-teen, right? In that picture Trayvon was 12 years old.

Here is a more recent picture of Trayvon from his (now disabled) twitter profile:
View attachment 24470

See the difference? The media also showed baby pictures of him constantly next to Zimmerman's mugshot (pictured above).

Basically the media was painting this as an adult versus a little kid, and they were also playing up the race issue. Zimmerman was portrayed as a "white Hispanic" in the media, a term that was never used before this case. Most people don't even consider Zimmerman to fall under the "white" label due to his skin color. Not that any of that matters...I'm just trying to give you an idea of how the media was playing up the race issue and creating one where it didn't exist.

This brought all the racist out of the wood work, and they spent a solid year on our TVs ranting about this upcoming case.

The media also ignored several things about Trayvon that would paint a bad image of him. For example he was a known user of "Lean", a mix of cough syrup, soda, and candy popular in certain subsets of rap culture. He posted about it in multiple places and even admitted to using store brand cough syrup that contains DXM (a drug that acts similar to ketamine in high doses). Lean is usually made with codiene syrup available only by prescription which is costly on the street. The fact that he was using store brand/non-prescription syrup leads me to believe that he was using it often enough that cost was an issue and he'd found alternative methods of catching a buzz when his usual sources were out or he was broke. The two items he purchased at the store that night (Sprite soda and skittles) are used when making Lean.

The neighborhood he was walking through was a gated community that had many break-ins occur in the past. That's why Zimmerman was on patrol that night, he was attempting to catch whoever had been robbing all those houses. Now I don't think him getting out of his car was a good idea at all, he should have reported it and left it at that but he made a bone head decision and decided to follow the guy on foot.

From there the next thing we know that happened for sure was Zimmerman was overpowered and taken to the ground "MMA style" and Trayvon continued to pound on him with heavy blows to the head. At some point Zimmerman pulled out his gun in the struggle and fired a shot which killed Trayvon.

I should mention that Trayvon was a trained fighter and regularly trained at a gym in the "MMA style". He knew how to over power another person and knew how to cause them major damage. I have no doubt that he could have killed Zimmerman if he wanted and I feel Zimmerman was put in a position where he knew he couldn't fight back and his only hope to put an end to the situation was to fire his gun. Zimmerman has a CCL (concealed carry license/permit) which means he not only knew how to handle a gun, he was tested and went through a long process of training and learning the laws before begin able to obtain said permit.

In Florida there is a "stand your ground law" which basically states if you feel your life is in danger you're justified in killing someone with a firearm, even in public. This law was not used in Zimmerman's defense but it was hotly debated (and still is) and many people are calling for it to be written out of the law books. I think it is a good law, especially compared to the one we have in North Carolina. Up there we have the "castle doctrine" which states that you can only use deadly force with a firearm inside of your home or car.

In closing; This case was hyped up by the media and almost incited a "race war" between whites and blacks. The media played every angle they could to portray Trayvon as a helpless child and Zimmerman as a heartless racist murderer. They even edited the 911 tapes to make him seem racist, and replayed the audio/images above 24/7. They sadly did manage to incite enough anger that some people have been randomly attacked in the streets all over the country for no other reason than begin the wrong color. The usual suspects appeared on TV pretending to care about the issue but they were just there to get paid (as always).

Another stupid chapter in American history.
 

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In short, the Trayvon Martin case is what's called a Media Circus.

It was in the news constantly here, and it was pretty sad to watch.

Here is the picture that was constantly used on the major news networks:

View attachment 24469

Looks like an adult attacking a pre-teen, right? In that picture Trayvon was 12 years old.

Here is a more recent picture of Trayvon from his (now disabled) twitter profile:
View attachment 24470

See the difference? The media also showed baby pictures of him constantly next to Zimmerman's mugshot (pictured above).

Basically the media was painting this as an adult versus a little kid, and they were also playing up the race issue. Zimmerman was portrayed as a "white Hispanic" in the media, a term that was never used before this case. Most people don't even consider Zimmerman to fall under the "white" label due to his skin color. Not that any of that matters...I'm just trying to give you an idea of how the media was playing up the race issue and creating one where it didn't exist.

This brought all the racist out of the wood work, and they spent a solid year on our TVs ranting about this upcoming case.

The media also ignored several things about Trayvon that would paint a bad image of him. For example he was a known user of "Lean", a mix of cough syrup, soda, and candy popular in certain subsets of rap culture. He posted about it in multiple places and even admitted to using store brand cough syrup that contains DXM (a drug that acts similar to ketamine in high doses). Lean is usually made with codiene syrup available only by prescription which is costly on the street. The fact that he was using store brand/non-prescription syrup leads me to believe that he was using it often enough that cost was an issue and he'd found alternative methods of catching a buzz when his usual sources were out or he was broke. The two items he purchased at the store that night (Sprite soda and skittles) are used when making Lean.

The neighborhood he was walking through was a gated community that had many break-ins occur in the past. That's why Zimmerman was on patrol that night, he was attempting to catch whoever had been robbing all those houses. Now I don't think him getting out of his car was a good idea at all, he should have reported it and left it at that but he made a bone head decision and decided to follow the guy on foot.

From there the next thing we know that happened for sure was Zimmerman was overpowered and taken to the ground "MMA style" and Trayvon continued to pound on him with heavy blows to the head. At some point Zimmerman pulled out his gun in the struggle and fired a shot which killed Trayvon.

I should mention that Trayvon was a trained fighter and regularly trained at a gym in the "MMA style". He knew how to over power another person and knew how to cause them major damage. I have no doubt that he could have killed Zimmerman if he wanted and I feel Zimmerman was put in a position where he knew he couldn't fight back and his only hope to put an end to the situation was to fire his gun. Zimmerman has a CCL (concealed carry license/permit) which means he not only knew how to handle a gun, he was tested and went through a long process of training and learning the laws before begin able to obtain said permit.

In Florida there is a "stand your ground law" which basically states if you feel your life is in danger you're justified in killing someone with a firearm, even in public. This law was not used in Zimmerman's defense but it was hotly debated (and still is) and many people are calling for it to be written out of the law books. I think it is a good law, especially compared to the one we have in North Carolina. Up there we have the "castle doctrine" which states that you can only use deadly force with a firearm inside of your home or car.

In closing; This case was hyped up by the media and almost incited a "race war" between whites and blacks. The media played every angle they could to portray Trayvon as a helpless child and Zimmerman as a heartless racist murderer. They even edited the 911 tapes to make him seem racist, and replayed the audio/images above 24/7. They sadly did manage to incite enough anger that some people have been randomly attacked in the streets all over the country for no other reason than begin the wrong color. The usual suspects appeared on TV pretending to care about the issue but they were just there to get paid (as always).

Another stupid chapter in American history.
 
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