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[Trayvon Martin]'s Violent Attack on George Zimmerman
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I bring it up because I feel it would be easier for people to emphasize with a woman if she were being followed around late at night by a stranger.
Also, let's stop stipulating that it was Zimmerman crying out for help. Forensic evidence has proven that the person screaming for help was NOT Zimmerman.
He posted stalking laws.
You have to realize that a lot of people here just straight up oppose concealed carry, so there's basically no way zimmerman could be justified to them. His being armed in and of itself makes him guilty in their eyes, regardless of any other facts that may come to light.
Probably not Zimmer, right?
Or are we back to conventional wisdom, like the whole "three days" thing?
Well, you know, when you have a gun and the other guy has a bag of Skittles it's really hard to feel sympathetic.
But your simplistic summation is appreciated. Some of us think he's guilty because he has a history of violence, he has a history of inflated ego, he has a history of calling the cops on black people in his neighborhood, he put himself in the position he was in even after being warned not to.
Oh, let's not forget his lying and the attempts to cover it up.
Because having skittles clearly makes you incapable of seriously injuring somebody while unarmed.
Thank you for clearly demonstrating my point.
I think it's still worth a try, if the detective in charge is that convinced Zimmerman is lying. It's not a ton of resources that would be expended, and the stakes are pretty high. I mean, we are talking about a dead person here, not a stolen carton of smokes.
The argument of "if it doesn't work, we'll have wasted time and resources" could apply to many steps in the criminal justice system. Heck, it could apply to prosecuting a case entirely. Any time the prosecution loses at trial, the state has expended time and resources, without much to show for it. I'm not sure I find this argument compelling. The state's interest should be in justice, not in conserving resources.
Stalking and harassment seem to be pretty intertwined in Florida law, at least in terms of the act of physically following someone (as opposed to, say, Sexual Harassment).
From the statute I posted earlier: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/filestores/web/statutes/fs07/ch0784/Section_0784.048.HTM
From another Florida statute, regarding the "harassment" of victims and witnesses. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0900-0999/0914/Sections/0914.24.html
Both refer to "a series of acts", rather than single instances of the behavior. So in order for Zimmerman to "harass" Martin, he would have had to follow Martin on multiple occasions. Even if Zimmerman had followed other people around the neighborhood previously, the "specific person" criteria makes those other followings irrelevant to whether Zimmerman was stalking/harassing Trayvon specifically.
Zimmerman would have had to follow Trayvon specifically on multiple occasions, to legally constitute harassment and/or stalking.
What about holding Skittles prevent someone from attacking others? If I have a Snickers am I prevented from slamming someone's head in to the ground?
No, it hasn't.
The methodology used for voice identification by the Orlando Sentinel's 2 experts was fundamentally flawed. Proper methodology is to compare 2 recordings each speaking the same words/phrases. Optimally you'd want both recordings to use the same type of speech - eg, comparing screams to screams, whispers to whispers, etc.
The Sentinel's experts compared Zimmerman's conversational voice on his 911 call to screams of "Help!" on the other 911 tape. Those are not similar words/phrases, nor are they similar types of speech (conversational voice vs screaming). It's like comparing a thumb-print to a pinky-print, and then saying that because the 2 prints are different, they could not have come from the same hand.
Florida law enforcement later recorded Zimmerman's voice using a proper methodology - they had him lie on the ground and scream "Help!" But AFAIK the results of their voice ID analysis, using the properly-collected recordings, have not been made public.
I think you stopped bolding too soon, see the now bolded and underlined. It is possible for a series of events to take place within moments of each other. Didnt Zimmerman follow Martin, lose him, find him again (basing this off the conversation overheard by Martin's girlfriend) and then engage in a scuffle which ultimately resulted in Martin's death? The following him, losing him, following him could be considered a series of events even though it is contained within an overarching event.
I dunno, that seems like a stretch to me. As you said, these different elements took place within one over-arching event.
I would also think the fight is separate from any stalking/harassment. I'd put that as it's own thing above and beyond stalking/harassment, with whoever threw the first punch likely committing assault.
That said, I'm not a judge, and I've already disagreed strongly with at least one FL judge in this thread (RE the Marissa Alexander case).
Actually, it gave him cancer.
Ed & Larry : "Doesn't matter."
I recently was gifted a thing in Steam. If it was from you, thank you very much!
My point is that there's this fixation on the skittles as though they have any meaning, because a colorful candy helps reinforce the emotional response that Martin was a child (though really he was a "minor," because upper teens is getting big enough to move past childhood and pose a real threat to others).
I'm gonna suggest that there is little to no correlation between skittles consumption and violent behavior. Somewhere, right now, a hardened killer is probably eating skittles...and loving them.
now, if he had followed him twice within a couple hours, sure, maybe.
What thug?
Smug "I don't think anyone was ever killed by skittles arf arf" comments are pretty pointless.
No, the point of the Skittles is that a) Martin was present in that neighborhood because he was buying candy and iced tea from a convenience store, and b) he was not carrying anything that could conceivably been mistaken for, much less realistically used as, a weapon. He wasn't found with a knife or a gun in his pocket, such that Zimmerman's dad could say "Martin pulled a weapon on my son! See!", or that anyone could argue that Martin was objectively a threat and so even if Zimmerman didn't know the kid was armed, he got lucky with the self-defense.
What NODe said. Waiting for the first "but you can beat somebody to death with a soda can!".
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But have at it if that's the only way to participate, I guess.
Man, it's almost like you didn't bother to read. Please re-read the first sentence there. The point is not "Martin could not possibly have been a threat ever". The point, AGAIN, is that Martin was not a sekrit mugger or burglar, and Zimmerman can't point to the presence of a weapon as a reason for being in fear of harm.
There are women who are 4'10" and 90 pounds soaking wet who are Krav Maga instructors and could snap your neck while playing Angry Birds. Does that mean if a 6'6" guy with 200 pounds of muscle sees a tiny little thing walking around his neighborhood and shoots her, that's OK because dude, she MIGHT have been a threat, who knows?
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Ed & Larry : "Doesn't matter."
I recently was gifted a thing in Steam. If it was from you, thank you very much!
It all depends on how Florida interprets a short time. You can go from self defense to murder 1 in a split second, I dont see why you couldnt harass someone twice during the same overall incident (the amount of time Zimmerman lost sight of Martin could be considered a cooling off period which could lead to the second "encounter" with Martin to be a separate act).
Man its like you almost didn't bother to read the thread. It doesn't matter what is in Martins pockets, whether he had 10 years of Krav Maga, and orange belt from the local McDojo, or whatever else training. What matters is who started the physical fight. If Martin started then fight, then Zimmerman was in the right to defend himself. That is what the case hinges on.
Every thing else is emotional bullshit to obfuscate the issue because ultimately if Zimmerman was attacked, he was in the right.
Well, assuming that Martin actually attacked first, if your response to being followed is to assault somebody "thug" may well be an accurate descriptor.
The alleged tangential involvement in theft and drugs increases the odds.
Still, that's the "even if" scenario. It's entirely possible that Martin was a perfectly innocent skittles-bearing angel, who had merely been misunderstood.
However, if he attacked Zimmerman then the fun part is that he was indeed a criminal. A violent one, even. That he he was coming home from a skittles run doesn't change that one bit.
No. If Zimmerman reasonably believed he was in fear of great bodily harm or death, AND he was not the sole aggressor, he was in the right.
If he assaulted Martin and then Martin pulled a gun to fight him off, he would have a very strong argument of "I had to shoot or he was going to kill me". It's much harder for him to argue that he was afraid Martin was going to kill him bare-handed.
It's also entirely possible that "angel" and "thug" are not the only two options here, particularly if we're not trying to slant the discussion.
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Wait what? Who started the fight doesnt matter. If Zimmerman started the fight, then it depends on whether he reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that he had exhausted every reasonable means to escape such danger other than the use of force which is likely to cause death or great bodily harm to the assailant. If Martin started the fight then it just depends on whether he reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.
However, given any veracity to Zimmerman’s story, I'd say that at that moment Martin's actions leaned more toward the thug end of the spectrum.
Frightened would probably be better.
Sure thug could be accurate given that scenario, but that doesnt mean it necessarily is.
Or, you know, your fists/the side walk.
If you start a fight, and then are getting your butt kicked it is going to be really hard to escape at least a manslaughter charge if you shoot them. This thing is going to hinge on the prosecution proving Zimmerman was the physical aggressor. Everything else is largely irrelevant.
Hence "may well."
Earlier I spoke more concretly, but that's because I was focused more on making a statement about zomgskittles.
LOL yes it does. It is the core of the case with the state law in place. If Martin attacked Zimmerman then he will walk. It doesnt matter that he ignored the 911 operator (ask the guy from denver about this), it doesnt matter he followed him through public property, it doesnt matter that he was armed. If it is true that Trayvon truely followed Zimmerman back to his car and attacked him then he will walk. That is what the prosc has to prove.
Thing is you dont have to retreat in florida to use deadly force.
This is valid. I will give you that. But apparently the Police Department didnt think devoting the resources was worth the time with the evidence they had in place. That is at least my opinion.
oi, I meant in jail due to being found guilty of manslaughter/murder 2/whatever they've decided to charge him with. sorry for being unclear