quote:

ORIGINAL: Wendel27

 Honestly this is what I don't understand about the differing ''sides'' in this argument Jif. If you notice someone following you you'd ask them what they were doing. Fair enough. Unless his reply is that he's about to kill you though it's not an appropriate response to attack said individual because you don't like his reasoning...which is what Mr. Zimmerman is saying happened.

If that's right and I and, lets face it, everyone else on this thread don't know either way then self defence is an entirely reasonable argument.

There has been a great deal of conflicting information from varous sources but from what i've seen Mr. Zimmerman can currently be demonstrated to have got out of his car and walked after Mr. Martin for a short distance. Apparently when told to stop by the police dispatcher he agreed. Again if that's right than while perhaps a little inadvisable it would hardly exonerate someone for attacking him.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wendel27

 Though I don't know how accurate the transcripts are given differing accounts I was under the impression that Mr. Zimmerman didn't volunteer Mr. Martin's colour until asked for it. If you were to go down the rout of racial profiling I think it would be difficult to get that to stick.

''This will appease those that think following and shooting an unarmed black american youth, after putting him on the defensive by following him, happy.''

That's far too simplistic and lacking in contact as i'm sure you're aware Jlf. The arguemtn is that following someone doesn't entitle the person being followed to attack said individual and puncnh him repeatedly in the head while he is on the ground...and that in such a situation a reasonable person may well fear for their life and act accordingly. Maybe that's not what has happened but if it is then it's scarcely a case of people vaunting the idea that people shouldbe allowed to go round gunning down teenagers on a whim.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961
the stuff I carry is formulated to get large bears to leave you the hell alone

quote:

ORIGINAL: RacerJim

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

A Neighborhood watch consists of 'watching' It doesn't consist of gunning someone down.

Watching someone who's walking/running consists of moving in order to keep watching them. That is not gunning someone down.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail
Yet Martin was murdered with a gun

quote:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
New Testament, Matthew 13

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

quote:

ORIGINAL: RacerJim

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

A Neighborhood watch consists of 'watching' It doesn't consist of gunning someone down.

Watching someone who's walking/running consists of moving in order to keep watching them. That is not gunning someone down.

Yet Martin was murdered with a gun, by zimmerman, which is gunning someone down. Thank you for your lack of facility with common English.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail
The fuckin guy is dead.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Wendel27

 I appreciate that the person shot is just as dead but it doesn't seem unreasonable to point out there's a moral and legal difference between murdering and killing someone Mnottertail.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961
unless it, in both cases, it was done due to a commandment from god

quote:

ORIGINAL: MasterCaneman

quote:

ORIGINAL: RacerJim

quote:

ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

Why? When you go house hunting, do you intend to kill the house? Job hunting, do you intend to kill the job?

When you are afraid of someone who is chasing you, do you call your boyfriend/girlfriend or 911? When you call your boyfriend/girlfriend after you've "lost" the person chasing you and you tell them you're outside your home, do you double-back to see if that person is still chasing you or do go inside your home and call 911?

Good luck to the State in proving Zimmerman intended to kill Martin.

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate with this one. Martin belongs(ed) to a culture that as a rule doesn't like to get the police involved. Not because he may have been up to something, as per se, but because of prior negative dealings with the law. A lot of innocent people get busted solely on the color of their skin, that's a simple fact.

Another reason Martin didn't/wouldn't call 911 was because he was a 17 year old male. At 17, I was dumb as a box of rocks with too many hormones, and I think he saw this as a way to improve his street cred when he saw he was being tailed by a porky white guy with a shaved head. My guess is that Martin decided to teach the guy a lesson, and was doing so when Zimmerman shot him.

My personal opinion, based on what I've seen and read on this matter is: two guys did some stupid things that night. One died as a result of it. I am also belabored by knowing that my information is purely second-hand, disseminated by outlets that may or may not have personal agendas they wish to press. There are only two people who truly witnessed this event, and only one can talk.

The DA isn't prosecuting Zimmerman for what he did, he's doing it out of fear of what may happen if he doesn't. Whether it's losing the next election to being partly responsible for a riot. Politics, not justice, are in play here.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail
As will a pagan god rejoice at Zimmermans.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mnottertail

Your constant blathering is noisome. There is no difference in murder and killing. This is not a legal definition being separated.

He cakked the fucking guy, mord, morte, mrudthra, moord. The fuckin guy is dead.