Just0Us0Two
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Joined: 6/3/2013
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jlf1961
If you are walking alone at night, in the rain, on the way home from buying a package of skittles and doing nothing that could be construed as criminal, and you notice someone following you, just what the hell are you gonna do?
That sort of depends, if I'm as close to home as Martin was before he chose to confront Zimmerman, I think I'd get inside, call the cops, and keep my gun handy in case the guy tried to kick in my door. He also could have called 911 from his cell, rather than talking about it with his girlfriend. If I was further from home, I'd probably turn and confront the guy following, try to get him to back down and leave. Would I put my gun in his face? Probably not. That's criminal brandishing, and illegal in most states. I might pull back my shirt to expose the holster, which is walking a fine line towards brandishing, but I wouldn't draw unless there was a more legitimate threat.
I have a problem with the whole Martin was standing his ground argument. Correct me if I'm wrong but was the gun ever brandished before they were on the ground? When Martin was talking to his girlfriend, he never mentioned that he was being followed by a man with a gun. That's something that Martin couldn't have known when he turned to confront Zimmerman. If Zimmerman had the gun out, and Martin jumped him and pounded him to the ground, then he was standing his ground and defending himself. But, since at the point when Martin turned and started punching, all Zimmerman was doing was following him and asking who are you and why are you here, Martin had no legal right to assault him. So, if both men were allowed to be where they were, and neither was committing a criminal act, then the aggressor is the one who threw the first punch.
As far as the argument that Zimmerman was up to no good/looking for trouble because he had a gun, hasn't it been said by several people that he always carried? If he always carried, then he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. I've had my carry permit for 7 years now. If I walk out my door, unless I'm leaving the state, I'm armed. In the 7 years I've been carrying, I've never drawn my weapon in anger. I don't go looking for trouble, and I don't know that Zimmerman was doing so that night.
The other aspect of this, that because he followed Martin, he was looking for trouble. Also that he was racially profiling him. As to the racial profiling, if you have evidence to back up your assumption, then it's not profiling, or at least it's reasonable profiling. If a cop gets a call that a dark haired, white male, driving a blue truck, has robbed a store, and you drive by in a blue truck and have dark hair, you're going to be stopped and questioned. If a neighborhood has been previously burglarized, several times, by young, black males, and you're a young, black male walking through the neighborhood at 3am, you're going to draw attention. And to Zimmerman following Martins, he thought he was preventing another burglary. He thought he was intervening to stop someone casing homes in his neighborhood. That's not just a job for police. Ordinary citizens have every right to keep an eye out for strange behavior. It's why Good Samaritan laws were passed and Neighborhood Watch programs were started, because the police can't be everywhere at once.
I keep hearing statements to the effect that if Zimmerman hadn't gotten out of his car, Martin would still be alive. That's probably valid, but hind-sight is 20/20. Let's look at it another way, what if Zimmerman had listened to the police, driven home, and then found out the next day that a neighbor's home had been robbed? It's easy to sit back in the comfort of our homes and 2nd guess what Zimmerman should have done. As far as I can tell, this was a tragic accident, caused by the interaction of an over-zealous man and an angry teen who liked to fight. Once Zimmerman was overpowered so quickly, knocked flat, and then pinned to the ground and beaten further, he had every right to defend himself. If I was flat on my back, in the dark, getting pounded on, I'd probably have worried that I'd be killed too. People keep saying, it was just a fist-fight. Well people die from being beaten to death, from having their head bounced off concrete. Especially if they're being beaten by someone who so clearly out-classes them. If you're being beaten like this, you don't have to wait till they do enough damage to kill you, you can defend yourself.
Anyway, that's my $.02 worth.
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