Leslie

Opportunistic ambulance chasing saddo has-been. Not worthy of my time.

zargof

Exactly, I don't understand why there is this thought that this case is all about race. The main point is that the law in Florida effectively made the police judge and jury in a murder trial. In a country where I thought the separation of powers was sacrosanct I can't understand why this point is being lost.

scrubbedexpat099

Because the Drive By's and the Professional racists thought that Zimmerman was white.

Police are not Judge and Jury, they investigate to see if a crime has been committed. I assume the Public Prosecutor would decide if there was sufficient evidence to proceed.

From what I have seen there is not.

robin1234

Bigger picture; is this a specifically FL problem, generated by the "stand your ground" law? How is it handled in other jurisdictions (e.g. England, other US states, etc.,) when you have a person shot dead, no witnesses (leaving aside the complications in this case of phone calls, the 911 dispatcher etc.) The person who shot & killed the other person claimed it was self-defence. Would he be charged with murder? Some other crime?

Martinsb

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, there are around 30 states with similar Stand Your Ground or Castle Doctrines on the statutes.

robin1234

So.. same result in those states? Other jurisdictions??

kimilseung

You probably do not care, but I stop reading after 'drive by'

zargof

Well I would disagree, as in this case Zimmerman went looking for trouble against advice and when he found it, he's using this law as a defence. If that is indeed what this law allows, then it seems rife for abuse from vigilantes.

You know what this case reminds me of? An old episode of South Park where the kids go hunting with Uncle Jimbo, who explains because of the new hunting laws they can only kill wild animals of if they pose an immediate threat. Uncle Jimbo then spots a deer, yells "It's coming right for us!" and blasts the deer.

ETA: here's the clip http://www.southparkstudios.com/clip...g-right-for-us

Leslie

Please. Just stop this.

It doesn't matter whether Zimmerman is white, black, or hispanic. (Btw "Hispanic" is not a race but don't let that minor fact interfere with your narrative).

Zimmerman is not at the core of the larger issue here. Zimmerman may actually be mentally ill and deserving of our pity or at least we should strive to understand him. Some of his behaviors are highly questionable. The fact that he called the police incessantly (over 40 complaints) about suspicious black males in the area speaks to me about a level of fear and paranoia that is not normal. If nothing else, he may be a danger to himself and others and this is something that should be further investigated as a matter of public safety.

With Zimmerman's 911 tapes, multiple 911 calls from the neighborhood, uninterviewed witnesses, and the general murkiness surrounding the events of the night, Zimmerman should have been arrested and processed. If not that night then soon thereafter. It is perfectly clear in the 911 tape that he was the aggressor. It would seem that through his own actions, and possible negligence, he set into motion a course of events that ended in Martin's death. Maybe this could not be proven in court. Maybe it could be. There point is that the possibility of even a grand jury investigation was not even being considered until the public outcried and that is the travesty.

Sally Redux

So astonishing that people cannot see anything wrong in the way this was handled. A guest on the Bill Maher show seemed to be saying it was OK because a lot of kids die in road traffic accidents and that is the real problem.

Leslie

Exactly. Except in the most rare of cases, the police do not get to decide, then and there, whether a killing was self defence or "stand your ground" or justifiable or what. It goes to a grand jury, ffs. This is standard operating procedure.

kimilseung

The real problem is abortion, how many children would there have been, without abortion, who could have been shot. Only for brave pro lifers Trayvon may have not even been born. (just getting in the spirit of things)

Leslie

The most depressing part is not that they "can't see" it's that they just don't care. Anything with Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton's names attached to it becomes instant fodder for the Rush Limbaughs and Juan Williams' to say and imply the most hateful and destructive things and simply ignore the facts.

Sally Redux

Not that far off the mark.
So true.

Lion in Winter

And, if I remember correctly, the dead boy's body was tested for drugs, but Zimmerman was not.