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Old 04-17-2012, 08:32 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: San Jose, California
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Default Re: Zimmerman to be charged

Quote:
Originally Posted by chunksmediocrites View Post
So far there are a lot of descriptions, and it is indeed not 100% clear what happened. So if you have counter claims to the following please help me out. But here's what I understand so far:
1. Zimmerman followed Martin in his car.
2. Zimmerman got out of the car and began following Martin on foot.
3. Martin was aware that he was being followed, if descriptions of his supposed phone conversation are accurate. As well, he increased his pace, apparently to move away from Zimmerman.
I have no counter-claims to those, as they appear to be pretty much the only thing that everyone agrees upon, not counting the whole 'skittles' and 'Martin was shot' bits.

Quote:
Yes, what exactly it is that happened next is not clear, and open to a lot of rank speculation. But Zimmerman was not a private detective. Zimmerman was not a poll-taker. And last time I checked it is also not a crime to walk down the street, or wear a hoodie, or be black. Zimmerman brought a handgun into a confrontation- one that certainly would not have occurred had he not been following Martin, that much is sure- and then killed Martin with it. And unless one of them was going to beat the other to death with their bare hands, local masonry, or a bottle of ice tea, it is much more likely that both men would now be alive, and we could hear from both Zimmerman and Martin as to what happened about a fight, rather than a killing.
I guess part of it depends on your definition of where the 'confrontation' started. I wouldn't say the 'confrontation' started until the first communication between the two. If the Zimmerman account is correct, then I would submit he didn't bring the gun to the confrontation which actually occurred, Martin brought the confrontation to the guy who had a gun. In which case it, again, all comes down (1) what actually happened, and for the purposes of conviction, (2) what can be proven actually happened. If, on the other hand, the 'confrontation' occurred as soon as Zimmerman spotted Martin, then we have another point of view.

Quote:
And unless one of them was going to beat the other to death with their bare hands, local masonry, or a bottle of ice tea, it is much more likely that both men would now be alive, and we could hear from both Zimmerman and Martin as to what happened about a fight, rather than a killing.
This is true (though I routinely carry a knife, it's not that uncommon). That said, people carry sidearms precisely in case they get into situations which require their use, to include fights in which they fear for their safety. It's something of a catch-22: The problem is that the fight shouldn't have started to begin with, but if Zimmerman's account is correct, he cannot be blamed for doing exactly what he was licensed to carry a sidearm for. The flipside of the coin is to prohibit people from carrying sidearms in the hope that in a future conflict between otherwise generally law-abiding people both sides can tell their story: Which doesn't help much in the cases where one party is less law abiding anyway. Which is more important overall?

Quote:
I do wonder how much of an affect his 'neighborhood watch' title has had on how people treat him. It did seem like the cops treated him more like one of their own.
From my relatively limited discussions (and a bit of a stint playing cheap private security), cops have even less tolerance for wannabe-cops than they have for anyone else: If they want to play police, let them survive the Academy and earn the badge.

Quote:
A poll taker who shot to death a respondent won't be charged in the incident, the authorities said.
Amusing. But only a valid analogy in the case that Zimmerman is lying.

NTM
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