Zimmerman vs. Martin

No one is on the jury. No one knows all the facts.

Our neighborhood watch has been telling us for YEARS to NEVER follow anyone that you think is suspicious. Why would you do that? Obviously GZ wasn't scared. He had a loaded gun ready to shoot anything that moved.

There are wrongs all around. GZ should have never provoked TM. TM should have kept walking home. He shouldn't have attacked GZ. GZ should have put his balls on and fought back with his fist instead of firing his weapon. Who brings a gun to a fist fight? GZ wasn't some weak little man.

When it comes down to it, they both had a right to defend themselves.

If you don't think race has anything to do with it, you are naive. To think race is all of it, is ignorance.

Unless you are a black male that has been profiled for no reason whatsoever then you have no idea what it feels like. TM was probably thinking "here we go again. I'm sick of this crap." GZ was probably thinking "Oh here we go again. Another one of these black thugs walking around."

Have any of you been racially profiled? I bought a brand new car in 2011. Do you know how many times the police pulled me over on my way to work for stupid crap they made up? Broken tail light, expired tags (though they were still temp tags) no stickers in the window (even though they were brand new) the tint on the windows being dark (even though there is no tint whatsoever on any of my windows) The cop said "I must have passed a shady spot and he thought my windows were dark. O_O Finally when I started recording and told them I was reporting them to our borough for harassment and racial profiling, it stopped. When I had my old 2001 Mitsubishi I never got pulled over. Suddenly I buy a 2011 brand new car with no defects and I get pulled over 8 times in a month. Hmmm....

Reread it then, you obviously have a comprehension problem. This thread is full of racist comments. Oh he who will not see what is right before his eyes!

Third, this was a 6', 17 year old young man. Martin was hardly a 'child'. He was the one who came at Zimmerman first. He was beating the crap out of Zimmerman, the police photos and medical documents prove that.

Fourth, sorry but it was self-defense.

Size isn't the issue. Age is. Seventeen is a child. How mature were you at that age? I am the mother of an 18-year-old college student. I know her friends. They are still children.

As for self-defense/stand your ground, considering that Zimmerman was following Trayvon, couldn't the prosecution make a case that TRAYVON was standing his ground? Zimmerman is responsible by his actions for what happened. Now someone is dead. Had he at the very least remained in his vehicle, this would not have happened.

No because you can't stand your ground against someone walking behind you. Someone walking isn't a threat to your life. Beating your head into the ground is. You should really read up on laws.

Tell that to the person being followed for no reason at all. Have you ever been followed on a dark night to the point you were afraid for your life or well-being? Have you ever felt the need to defend yourself from that threat? In defending yourself, if at some point you end up on top, beating your pursuers head into the ground, do you deserve to be killed? What would you expect to happen to the person who followed you (causing the entire confrontation) and killed you?

There was an incident here a few years ago where a man was walking home from work after midnight. He was followed for several blocks by another man. Eventually, the second man (who was armed) got close enough to the man walking home and attempted to rob him. A struggled ensued and the would-be-robber was eventually over-powered by the would-be-victim. The victim put the robber in a choke hold and held him there until police arrived. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim wasn't charged as it was deemed self-defense. If the situation were slightly different and the victim (even after having the upper hand at one point) ended up stabbed, bleeding out and dead wouldn't you expect the robber to be charged to the fullest extent of the law? Does the fact that he was getting beat up suddenly make him the victim?? Does the fact the Zimmerman was getting beat up at one point make him any less of a threat to the person he was following?

This whole tragedy could have been avoided if he had stayed in his car as instructed.

Not related at all. You can defend yourself when someone does something, you can't attack them for following you. Take emotion out of it and look at facts.

I think Zimmerman was overcharged for sure.
Do I think he committed a crime? Yes. Do I think it's murder? Nope.
I think that it was sh*tty for NBC News to turn this into a race thing before that day even ended, and because they manipulated Zimmerman's 911 call, they have lost a huge amount of credibility.
I think that Zimmerman has been characterized as a racist, which I do not believe. Is he a overzealous *kitten* that took the law into his own hands, abso-f'ing-lutely.
I believe that Al Sharpton is feeding the machine by talking mainly about race.
I believe that Jesse Jackson is feeding the machine by talking mainly about race.
I truly believe that if Zimmerman is found not guilty, that there will be riots.

I cannot wait until the day that Jesse and Al are too old to stand on their soapboxes and take advantage of families that are grieving. Wherever there's a camera, a little injustice (warranted or not), and a black mother crying, you will def see one of them standing next to her. Where are they when it comes to black on black crime? WHY DOES THAT NOT MATTER TO THEM???

Where are the rally's, walks, protests...etc, in Chicago?! There were 67 people shot, and 11 of them dead over this July 4th holiday weekend. 67 shot, 11 dead.

As of 7/8/13, there have been 1043 people shot in Chicago. That number would be absolutely ridiculous if it was state wide...but it's just in one city!!

Where are the 'leaders' of the black community'? They'd rather get in front of the camera for 1 dead kid that was shot by a Hispanic guy (yep...he's not white, but the media likes to portray him to be. It makes a better story), than go a bit north to see what they can do to stop the bull$hit that's happening in Chicago. The camera's are in Sanford, FL, not in Chicago, IL.

It is very, very sad what has happened to Trayvon Martin. I have a son, and cannot imagine the hurt the family is going through. But I can't see how anyone that is not sitting in this courtroom, day after day, can say that they hope the verdict goes one way or the other. What is that based on. You only know what you've heard on TV and what has been told to you by the media. The only people that can judge this correctly based on ALL THE FACTS, is the jury.

(me thinks I've probably pissed some people off....so I offer to them, a flower :flowerforyou: )

I think Zimmerman was overcharged for sure.
Do I think he committed a crime? Yes. Do I think it's murder? Nope.
I think that it was sh*tty for NBC News to turn this into a race thing before that day even ended, and because they manipulated Zimmerman's 911 call, they have lost a huge amount of credibility.
I think that Zimmerman has been characterized as a racist, which I do not believe. Is he a overzealous *kitten* that took the law into his own hands, abso-f'ing-lutely.
I believe that Al Sharpton is feeding the machine by talking mainly about race.
I believe that Jesse Jackson is feeding the machine by talking mainly about race.
I truly believe that if Zimmerman is found not guilty, that there will be riots.

I cannot wait until the day that Jesse and Al are too old to stand on their soapboxes and take advantage of families that are grieving. Wherever there's a camera, a little injustice (warranted or not), and a black mother crying, you will def see one of them standing next to her. Where are they when it comes to black on black crime? WHY DOES THAT NOT MATTER TO THEM???

Where are the rally's, walks, protests...etc, in Chicago?! There were 67 people shot, and 11 of them dead over this July 4th holiday weekend. 67 shot, 11 dead.

As of 7/8/13, there have been 1043 people shot in Chicago. That number would be absolutely ridiculous if it was state wide...but it's just in one city!!

Where are the 'leaders' of the black community'? They'd rather get in front of the camera for 1 dead kid that was shot by a Hispanic guy (yep...he's not white, but the media likes to portray him to be. It makes a better story), than go a bit north to see what they can do to stop the bull$hit that's happening in Chicago. The camera's are in Sanford, FL, not in Chicago, IL.

It is very, very sad what has happened to Trayvon Martin. I have a son, and cannot imagine the hurt the family is going through. But I can't see how anyone that is not sitting in this courtroom, day after day, can say that they hope the verdict goes one way or the other. What is that based on. You only know what you've heard on TV and what has been told to you by the media. The only people that can judge this correctly based on ALL THE FACTS, is the jury.

(me thinks I've probably pissed some people off....so I offer to them, a flower :flowerforyou: )

^ This is one of very few well reasoned opinions I've seen in this thread. I wish more people would allow the ACTUAL facts to be analyzed and a reasoned decision to be made. Whatever decision the jury makes, at least it will be made by a group of people who sat there and carefully listened to both sides of the story rather than participating in the media circus that this trial has unfortunately become. The personal agendas represented in this thread are a terrifying reminder of how far we as a country still have to go to the point where we see each other as individuals and not representatives of our races.

I'm just fascinated by how many people are ignoring the fact that it was Martin who attacked Zimmerman while he was getting BACK in his car and the growing amount of evidence and testimonies from the police and reports that support Zimmerman's story. :noway:
Facts are facts.

My children have a white grandmother, so come again, think of something else

It would be extremely helpful if you would use the quote feature, so that we know who/what you're responding to.

I'm just fascinated by how many people are ignoring the fact that it was Martin who attacked Zimmerman while he was getting BACK in his car and the growing amount of evidence and testimonies from the police and reports that support Zimmerman's story. :noway:
Facts are facts.

if you have been followed and that person is going back to their car...they could being going for a gun in their glove compartment...maybe treyvon didnt want to give him that chance.

GZ should have never got out of his car. if he wants to play wanna be cop..he should have called it in and just sat there.

if you have been followed and that person is going back to their car...they could being going for a gun in their glove compartment...maybe treyvon didnt want to give him that chance.

GZ should have never got out of his car. if he wants to play wanna be cop..he should have called it in and just sat there.

This shows you really know nothing about this case...