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

Alleged missteps.

But in the interest of fairness, alleged obstacles, too.

 

Trayvon Martin post mortem reveals traces of drugs in 17-year-old's systemFlorida teenager, who was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch leader, found to have traces of marijuana in blood and urine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/18/trayvon-martin-post-mortem-drugs

 

There ya go. It was reefer madness.

 

He was also found to have a bullet in his heart.

 

stays in your system for weeks. article didn't say that. plus unless it was weed and dust, weed doesn't usually lead to violent behavior.

 

Beyond the utter lack of any competence by the police department, what is troubling is that we have someone who could have avoided this whole situation yet a teenager is dead.

In California there is a criminal principle called "felony-murder" which means that if you commit a felony, you are criminally responsible for any murder/killing which arises out of that felony, even if you don't participate in the killing, e.g. a police officer shoots and kills your fellow partner in crime.

Zimmerman's acts don't fit that neatly but there's a sense that's nagging at me that he should be responsible for the actions that he could have avoided but triggered. He was never in harm's way, nor threatened by Martin, and in fact is in public land yet he chose to confront him while armed, then he ends up killing an unarmed Martin. That's simply not behavior that IMHO we should encourage.

 

That tape all but guarantees that Zimmerman is going to walk.

And if Martin's fingerprints are found anywhere on the gun they shouldn't even bother with a trial.

That said, he'll be paying the Martin family for the rest of his life because he will certainly lose the civil suit that is to follow. The jury deliberation on that one should take about 30 seconds.

 

Agree with this.

 

I would bet that the "gated community" will be paying also since Zimmerman was in somewhat of an official capacity.

 

+1

 

Police say shooting "avoidable."

slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/05/16/george_zimmerman_medical_report_details_injuries_after_confrontation_with_trayvon_martin.html

"The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an effort to dispel each party's concern," the investigators wrote.