George Zimmerman Arrested -- Finally!!

[SpeedRacerXXX]

George Zimmerman shoots an unarmed Trayvon Martin and justified the killing by saying that he felt threatened by Martin. Under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" gun law a person can pretty much shoot first and ask questions later if they feel they are being threatened.

I fully support the arrest yesterday of Zimmerman, charged with second degree murder. The charge was brought by a state-appointed special prosecutor only after local authorities failed to do so.

Is Zimmerman guilty of a crime? I believe so but I am just happy to see him finally arrested and look forward to a trial in which, hopefully, the truth will come out. If Zimmerman is found innocent, I am fine with that. Let the justice system work it out.

[pantsontheground]

If you get punched in face and have your head slammed into the ground, I would think you might feel threatened. You certainly wouldnt be yawning.

Just like Tawana Brawley and the Duke lacrosse team...... yes, the truth will come out.

[northaustincouple74]

The Zimmerman incident really illustrates how easily media can sway our perceptions.



First the media reports that a slang racist term was used by Zimmerman...an audio expert discredits this assertion.



Second the media shows a picture of the victim when he was 12 year old as apposed to the 6'3" young man he was at the time of his death in order to garner sympathy.



Third the audio recording that was released was purported to show the victim crying out for help when in fact it was of the shooter crying out for help as the much larger victim was reportedly beating the shit out of him and pounding his head into the pavement (corroborated by a witness.)



I'm not defending Zimmerman's actions. He saw something he thought was odd, he called police... He should have left questioning Martin to the police. I do think he has been vilified by media and idiots such as Spike Lee, Mike Tyson, etc who want to turn an unfortunate event into a racial issue just to promote themselves in the news.

[nuglet]

leave it to the press to blow things up. This was pretty much a DOA event when it happened, then folks got all squishy and vindictive. just wasting taxpayers money. under the circumstances, if the locals don't like it, then they need to change the law, not "get even" with zimmerman.

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Originally Posted by pantsontheground

If you get punched in face and have your head slammed into the ground, I would think you might feel threatened. You certainly wouldnt be yawning.

Just like Tawana Brawley and the Duke lacrosse team...... yes, the truth will come out.

That is one story, as yet unsubstantiated. Zimmerman was a grown man and outweighed Martin by quite a bit, despite being shorter. Eyewitness accounts are mixed.

According to a Washington Post article:

"He called the police department at least 46 times since 2004 to report everything from open garages to suspicious people. In 2005, according to police records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations, Zimmerman was twice accused of either criminal misconduct or violence." So let's not paint this guy as a saint. I would say he has been just a little bit overzealous in defending his neighborhood. On the night in question, he called 911 and was told to not follow Martin.

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Originally Posted by nuglet

leave it to the press to blow things up. This was pretty much a DOA event when it happened, then folks got all squishy and vindictive. just wasting taxpayers money. under the circumstances, if the locals don't like it, then they need to change the law, not "get even" with zimmerman.

My bet is had this been a black man killing a white boy, murder charges would have been brought instananeously.

Had this been a police officer killing a boy, in most locales the officer would have his gun taken away and put on office work until a full investigation of the shooting was done.

When a life is taken by someone else, it should be investigated, not brushed under the rug as was originally done in Florida. There are just too many holes in Zimmerman's story. I am not looking to "get even" with Zimmerman -- I just want justice served, and if he is innocent, so be it.

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Originally Posted by northaustincouple74

"Third the audio recording that was released was purported to show the victim crying out for help when in fact it was of the shooter crying out for help as the much larger victim was reportedly beating the shit out of him and pounding his head into the pavement (corroborated by a witness.) "

Interesting, because about a week ago I read where 2 audio experts said that there was no way the voice crying out for help was Zimmerman's, based on comparisons of Zimmerman's voice to the voice on the tapes. They also said that they couldn't say that the voice on the tape was Martin's since they didn't have samples of his voice.

And, as I said elsewhere, Martin was taller than Zimmerman, but weighed much less.

"According to CBS News, Sanford police officers interviewed at least six witnesses in the wake of the killing. None saw the beginning of the fight, or the gunshot, according to CBS News. But their stories, compared with the hard evidence generated by attempting to answer the previous questions, could provide a context bearing on what happened."

All I'm saying is there just isn't enough evidence brought to light so far to let Zimmerman walk. You pull the trigger and kill someone, you just don't walk away.

[Billy_Saul]

Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX

I fully support the arrest yesterday of Zimmerman, charged with second degree murder............. All I'm saying is there just isn't enough evidence brought to light so far to let Zimmerman walk.

Nor is there enough evidence to arrest him. When something like this happens and it is not clear cut whether a crime has been committed, often there is no arrest. Typically it is referred to a Grand Jury where it can be either true billed or no billed after a thorough examination of all the evidence by twelve citizens. Here we have one zealous political appointee making an unilateral decision. What you are saying is arrest him whether he is guilty or not, and let the facts sort them self out later.

[Billy_Saul]

Originally Posted by nuglet

just wasting taxpayers money. under the circumstances,

exactly

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Originally Posted by Billy_Saul

Nor is there enough evidence to arrest him. When something like this happens and it is not clear cut whether a crime has been committed, often there is no arrest. Typically it is referred to a Grand Jury where it can be either true billed or no billed after a thorough examination of all the evidence by twelve citizens. Here we have one zealous political appointee making an unilateral decision. What you are saying is arrest him whether he is guilty or not, and let the facts sort them self out later.

The problem is that the localilty was not going to bring this case before a Grand Jury. That is why a special prosecutor was appointed to look into the case, and she looked at the evidence and thought there was enough there to arrest Zimmerman. I am saying there was enough evidence there to arrest the man. On this we may disagree, although most legal experts agree with me that at least charges of negligent homicide should be brought against Zimmerman. A young boy was dead. Zimmerman killed him. Zimmerman initiated the whole ordeal by following him, against the advice of the 911 operator. I have seen people arrested for a lot less.

[Carl]

While racial issues have been highlighted and may well have played a role in the incident, I think the more basic and pertinent issue is that Zimmerman is the son of a retired judge that has been arrested three times before (once for interfering with an officer's arrest of a friend of his and twice on domestic violence claims by an ex-girlfriend) and all three of those arrests "went away", presumably because of his father's influence and connections.

If this dad had let his son pay the consequences of his behavior then, his son may not have had a concealed carry permit and not been carrying a firearm on that night and might have also been a bit more likely to follow the 911 dispatcher's instructions instead of disregarding them and doing as he pleased. There are also claims that an officer on the scene wanted to arrest Zimmerman for manslaughter but a supervisor (police chief?) and a DA/state's attorney (whatever they call them in Florida) overruled the officer, which is also suggestive that local LE is in the habit of looking out for this son of a retired judge.

I suspect the initial lack of an arrest was less about the Samford authorities not caring about the death of black kid shot by a white half-Hispanic (though the local authorities do have a spotty record in race relations) and more about the local establishment looking out (once again) for this specific borderline fuck-up offspring of a former colleague.

If he does beat the rap, I predict that the idiot dipshit will think he shits golden eggs and will keep on acting with far less than good judgment and wind up getting himself or somebody else seriously injured or killed somewhere down the road, needlessly. He's a damned spoiled boneheaded punk in my opinion.

[Carl]

Actually, I have to correct Zimmerman's prior arrest record. It can be found at this link if you search his name and DOB (George Zimmerman and 10/05/1983) and for closed cases:

http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/default.aspx

There's one prior arrest for domestic violence and one for resisting an officer, initially for doing so with violence w/battery on a police officer (a 3rd degree felony) and that case was transferred to county court and when that was done the case number was changed as well as the charge reduced to one of resisting an officer without violence (a misdemeanor). That case was then dropped by the prosecutor (a disposition of NOLLE PROSEQUI). That sequence actually makes it look much more like Dad Zimmerman calling in a favor for his boy.

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Carl, interesting insights into Zimmerman's past. Thanks!

[Dragyn44]

I grew up about 20 miles south of Sanford and am familiar with FL law. In my opinion the only reason Zimmerman got arrested was to appease the masses and mobs (yes mobs.. you dont see that on the news) in Sanford. Heck people were shooting at police cars in the area. For the safety of Sanford he was arrested. The police properly handled the situation in my opinion but when the media got a hold of it it got out of hand. The were posting old pictures of both and turned this from a neighborhood watchman accidently shooting a 17 year old 6'4" kid to a "white hispanic" (Never heard that phrase before) murdering a young black child. The media caused this arrest and he it will just be a fiasco and a circus from here on out. I wish we were past racism in this country but hte media defiantely has a way to stir it up again. Heck the shooting was in late Feb but the media started to stir the pot in Mid march and look what it turned into!!

[SpeedRacerXXX]

Dragyn44, an accident??? Not even Zimmerman considers the shooting an accident. He shot Martin on purpose when he thought he was threatened. The question is whether or not Zimmerman was justified in shooting the unarmed Martin. Under Florida law, it will be very difficult to convict Zimmerman. As Nuglet stated, the problem is with the law. As newspapers have been stating:

"Florida's Stand Your Ground law enables individuals who feel threatened in a public place to "meet force with force," rather than back away. The law prevented police from arresting Zimmerman in February, officials said at the time, and may play a role in derailing any conviction, according to several Florida defense lawyers."

Basically, anyone who kills someone else, with no witnesses around, can just say that he was using just force in protecting himself. And he will be hard to convict. Doesn't matter what the evidence says.