It's Watch!... Neighborhood Watch. Not shoot.

Got it. My mistake.

Actually, he only said black when prompted my the 911 operator, asking what color the person was.

 

That's true, and it should be noted. Still, the only things that Zimmerman knew about Martin when he went after him were his race and what he was wearing. I think that's the point Beaker was making.

 

Besides a lot of people on this board wanting Zimmerman to stalk the kid because of his race, I have yet to see the evidence that Trayvon was stalked because of his race.

 

The alternative is that he was stalked for no reason at all. I don't think that makes Zimmerman look any better.

 

Part of the reason the "he looks black" became such a big deal was the Sanford PD chief's adamant insistence that Zimmerman knew nothing of Martin's race. Said the release of the 911 tapes would show that this was a completely color-blind matter. That's the chief who had to resign.

 

That is what I meant; sorry, I wasn't trying to put the exact words in Zimmerman's mouth.

 

Here's a key for the Stand Your Ground defense:

I asked a friend of mine who's been a criminal defense lawyer for past 20 years (Cal. now) about the SYD defense and how that's established and he said in order for that to be established, Zimmerman is going to have to testify; well unless there's an eyewitness who saw what happened. We now know there was not such eyewitness. Which leaves this up to Zimmerman.

If he gets up there and persuades the jury, then I'll accept his acquittal. That's our judicial system at work and the best there is on the planet.

 

I'd prefer to have been able to hear Trayvon Martin's side of the story, too.

 

Are you sure this is the case with Florida's law? Could have sworn I read a legal analysis that one key feature of the Stand Your Ground law is that it changed the nature of the defense from an affirmative one to a presumption that it was correctly applied until the prosecution proves otherwise.

 

In the meantime, the loons are going, well, loony ...

http://twitchy.com/2012/04/23/twitter-lynch-mob-now-that-george-zimmerman-is-out-on-bail-lets-kill-him/

Will Twitter actually move to enforce its own rules about threats of violence.

Also love the one idiot who thinks that when someone is out on bail, the charges were dropped. Gotta love the civics education kids are getting these days.

 

Sorry if this has been mentioned already in this thread, and I haven't really followed this story very closely, but I was wondering if there's any credible source that Zimmerman initiated contact with Martin.

Again, I apologize if this has been talked about already.

 

It does not sound like it based on testimony at bail hearing last Friday. It seems like it's going to be a tough case for The State to prove and will be based on a lot of speculation.

The state investigator that took the stand was not very impressive or convincing.