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

I'd imagine that if someone confronted me with a gun and all I was doing was eating my Skittles, I'd probably try to kick the shit out of them too. Very complicated case, but Zimmerman was clearly in the wrong, and a kid is dead because of it.
The neighborhood was having crime/burglary trouble, so I can see why Zimmerman was on alert, and I guess if a kid you don't know is roaming through the neighborhood he might follow him. But why not let the cops handle it, as he was told to do? The kid wasn't doing anything wrong, and I don't know if it's clear that Zimmerman was brandishing his gun, but there is no reason for him to be armed in that situation.

 

There is no fucking way Martin could have killed Zimmerman with his bare hands.

 

OK, I agree on the first part of your post -- although, if I was walking alone in my neighborhood eating Skittles and some guy rolled up on me with a gun, I don't think the event would end up with me beating the shit out of him. I'd probably shit my pants and either wind up dead or dispossessed of my valuables. That's just me. I've never been a good fighter.

As to the second part of your post, as you noted we don't know if Zimmerman "brandished" the gun or pulled it out and fired it during a struggle with Martin as he claims.

Considering all the uncertainty of exactly how this escalated from Zimmerman following Martin to a physical confrontation to a tragic death, I'm not sure how any of you think Zimmerman is gonna get convicted of anything -- much less second-degree murder.

It's obviously a tragedy, and as has been noted, one that could've been avoided.

But if I'm on the jury, I'm not voting to send Zimmerman to prison because he was gung-ho about Neighborhood Watch and disregarded orders not to follow Martin.

Unless Zimmerman overtly threatened Martin after he got out of his car -- and this has not been proven -- then Zimmerman seems to have pretty solid grounds under Florida law for defending himself against Martin trying to split his skull open on the sidewalk.

 

At least you're not drawing conclusions about what happened, though.

Your whole post above reads like pure irony.

 

Sorry, but you're wrong. People kill people with their bare hands every day and it's not like Martin was 8 years old.

My son is 14 and he's dislocated my shoulder goofing around in the living room. If he really wanted to fuck me up, he wouldn't need a weapon.

 

Narrative, people. Stick to the narrative. We are all Narrative.

 

I'm not drawing any conclusions at all. As I've noted several times, I wasn't there.

I just think it's interesting after all this time and hearing on TV how Zimmerman wasn't injured, and it turns out he got pretty well fucked up. His injuries qualify as evidence, no?

 

LTL's conclusions vs. Hokie's conclusions. Votes are due by 8 p.m. Sunday.

 

Not a conclusion, huh?

Not a conclusion, huh?

You seem to have settled on the idea that Zimmerman followed Martin but Martin was the aggressor in the confrontation. Why is that?

 

So if you end up losing a fight in Florida that you needlessly instigated, it's okay to shoot the (teenager) clowning you on the sidewalk.

 

You're forgetting that Martin is young black male with magical superpowers. And marijuana in his system. Poor Zim had no choice but to shoot him right in his 17-year-old heart.

 

If you are a white guy and the guy clowning you is black, it's apparently legal.