I completely agree with Gregorysmom! We are allowed ro defend ourselves and I believe that is what Zimmerman was doing. Al Sharpton did not get on his ranting soap box when OJ got away with murder and call for whites to riot...he said justice was served! The media is fueling the flames to keep this going. A black adult killed a 17 month white child and it hardly made the local news! Drop the hype and move on with life.

He's only been found not guilty based on the evidence presented. Doesn't mean he's innocent.

What I don't understand is why the SYG law didn't apply to Trayvon Martins actions. Was he also not defending himself? A whole lot of "no body really knows what happened" going on in this incident and that's why George Zimmerman wasn't put on the stand - he would have had to tell the truth.

edited to add = he would have had to tell the truth.

This post was edited by blfenton on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 19:50

WOW...ONLY 72 shot in Chicago? Being from Chicago this is nothing new. There is a saying "when the heat finally hits the city the guns come out". It's true....you never hear about that many shootings in the winter. I know many a police officer who will tell you that the bad areas of the city go crazy when it gets warm outside.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

George Zimmerman was not tried under the stand your ground defense. He was tried under self defense. He waived his right to stand your ground. The jury has spoken.....it is time to move on. It is ridiculous for the powers that be to keep on trying to find some way to bring up charges against him. They can't say he was a racist. The phone call to the 911 operator was edited to make it sound like he was. He used to mentor black kids. He dated black girls. He is a registered democrat who voted for Obama. The whole thing was a farce from the get go. The president should have kept his mouth shut and not involved himself. The DOJ should not have used taxpayer money to organize rallies against him. The news media should not have edited tapes and photos to sway public opinion. The chasm between the races is wider now than ever and a lot of it is due to the way the news media handles things....I believe they want rioting. And the race baiters....Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson....keep stirring the pot. It is shameful the way the whole thing has been conducted.

And now it is nothing but a witch hunt.

If they bring any other charges against him, they will never stick. It is past the point of ridiculous.

Let it go.

The prosecutor had one piece of evidence that he did not use and I do not understand why. After Zimmerman made the first call, he was told to hold off and let the police handle this event. It would seem to me that he was responsible for what happened after being told to lay back but did not. Why wasn't that point brought up in court?

When he walked back to the corner and towards his vehicle, TVM had also returned, therefore the self defense came into play, would be my guess on that. It appears that way on the map, formed by the evidence.

Just sign my name to marilyn c's post above: my beliefs exactly.

Poor Zimmermans. One successful son...and then there is George. He's not a 'bad kid', you know. He didn't intend to kill that boy. (Yes, but he did kill. He persisted in looking for trouble -- with a loaded gun -- and he found it.)

I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the local police station. I bet there is an 'understanding' about how to tip-toe around the judge's son George.

This false idea of justice is what bothers me.

Me , too Chisue. His parents are well spoken ,and although I have seen the brother , I never heard him. Then there's beady eyed George who would scare me to death if he followed me. Why were not his former assault cases brought up and the mis- -spending of money they got in contributions?

It's all about the rating. The media will rehash this until the next big story comes along, so will the talk shows. I agree with Marilyn also, it's time to move on. You may not agree with the verdict but it is what it is. I see nothing at all about Zimmerman that would scare me to death and his past records probably didn't come up because of the same reasons Martin's past didn't come up. One thing I can say for sure though, If I ever need a lawyer I would hope to get one just like Don West, you might not like him but he did his job and he did it well.

Lizzann

The fact that a completely innocent BOY was killed for no reason other than paranoia, is why many cannot "let this go."

I didn't watch the trial, but I think that the fact that the officers & police dept's not doing a thorough investigation @ the get-go, undoubtedly to some degree hamstrung the prosecutors in the trial. It seems that the officials were quite willing to give GZ a "pass" on the inconsequential murdering of a black teen. The deck is stacked against black males when they take their first breath.

Martin's past & GZ's past were 2 entirely different things. GZ was the one on trial,,, not Martin... & some of GZ's past actions were significant & relevant to the case it seemed.

Is there a reason the deck is stacked? Have they in some way contributed to this 'stacked deck' ? When good character becomes the hero for young black men (or all men), life will change considerably for them.

There are plenty of young blacks loosing their lives every day. Why is George being singled out? 75% of black teens killed are killed by other blacks. What is their excuse why they are NOT the medias talking point every single day?
It's time to let this one go, so people can work on caring for each other and not fighting.

If the perpetrators are caught, they are presumably tried and most likely jailed, we hope. George confessed to killing the boy, and was let off scott free. How many other murderers confess and do not pay for the crime of murder?

Here's the bottom line. Here was a 17-year old kid walking to his stepmom's home, minding his own business and not looking for trouble. Now he's dead. He did not have a weapon. He had done nothing wrong and wasn't planning to.

Now how can anyone find any justice in THAT outcome???

Exactly

He came back to fight with Zimmerman . Don't forget that part. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure they both would re do it all if it were possible. Each had their own mind set. Their own ideas on reality. T.v. M. Should have kept on walking instead of going back for a fight IMO . With the robberies in the area, the neighbors were nervous and on alert.

And Trayvon was not the innocent that he is being portrayed as here.

His past was also not allowed in court either. You can't have it both ways. If they brought up GZ's past then they would have had to bring up Trayvons past history of drug use and other things, like the pile of jewelry that did not belong to him that they found in his room.

I do not think he should have been shot and killed but you cannot deny his part in all this and play him off as completely innocent either.

>> And Trayvon was not the innocent that he is being portrayed as here.

Correctamundo.

And neither is Zimmerman, but he's not dead. ..

There is another trial coming soon on TV, July 29th. About a woman killing her husband. This should take the spotlight off this case. The media will now be ripping this woman apart.

toni_ne -- We have only the shooter's word that the teenager attacked him, and not the other way around. If someone came after me, followed me, I would feel threatened. I wouldn't turn away for fear he'd take me from behind. What choice would I have when HE threatened ME?

Bottom line, the teenager was walking in a public place before being harassed by a weird guy. The guy was carrying a fully loaded gun -- why?

I still cannot understand this killing being somehow "OK".

I couldn't bear to hear all the details, but from what I did hear, I thought there was certainly 'reasonable' doubt. I think the prosecution did the best they could with the evidence they had.

This was not, imho, a cut and dried case.

I do wonder however, if GZ would have gotten out of his vehicle and done anything at all, if he had not had a loaded weapon strapped on him. I think there are far too many gun toting individuals, that do things they wouldn't normally do if they didn't have the protection of a loaded firearm.

Just my 2 cents.

Evidence does show that Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman, banging his head onto the ground. Grass stains on Zimmerman's back, grass stains on Trayvon's knees. Powder burns on Trayvon's shirt shows that the shirt was not against his body, gravity made the shirt fall away. He was shot while over Zimmerman. I feel sorry for Trayvon, I wish this didn't happen, but I do think that the verdict was right. Both families will never be the same again.

I, too am so tied of hearing this rehashed over and over...And I also agree with the previous poster...Has anyone seen the other picture of TM, not the little boy imagine but the grown up, TM? And I also wonder, if it had been the other way around and GZ had been shot, would we be having these protests?

chisue, did you hear the testimony of an eyewitness who saw Trayvon on top of Zimmerman, pounding on him? This was a witness who didn't "have a dog in that race"...so his testimony carried a lot of weight with me--and apparently with the jury also. The physical evidence clearly showed that Trayvon was the agressor, and I absolutely can understand being afraid of him (especially now that we know he was on drugs).

The jury has spoken and the case should be OVER. And if Holder wants to investigate this for a hate crime, he should be prepared to investigate other, similar, cases also--starting with OJ Simpson.

BTW, if Zimmerman is a "White Hispanic" (a race designation never before used), then the president should be called a "White African-American" or "White Black".

I'm wondering if enjoyingspring clicked the reply box when she posted this thread. If so, she is REALLY sick of hearing about the Zimmerman case, lol.

My goodness. I cannot fathom why some feel it's ok for Joe Blow to kill an innocent person, a person minding his own business. You can talk about Travon's character all you want, but it doesn't matter a whit. I think many of you have lost sight of the basic fact here: a completely innocent man was hunted down and killed. It doesn't matter whether the victim attempted to fight back or not.

Zimmerman was prancing around after his life threatening injuries. I have had worse scratches on me while wrestling with bushes in the yard. He was NOT hurt badly but still had to kill the kid. He was a macho man but really a little coward wannabee cop.

"...Zimmerman is a "White Hispanic" (a race designation never before used), "

Sorry, but that is a legitimate designation. Whites in the US are classified as "White Hispanic" or "Non-Hispanic White". "Hispanic" is an ethic category and is independent of race.

edited to add link

Here is a link that might be useful: White Hispanic and Latino Americans

This post was edited by sushipup on Fri, Jul 19, 13 at 12:24

NO ONE ever said it was okay.

But Trayvon was not completely innocent in all this.

It IS a tragedy but the Jury made their decision based on the evidence submitted so they obviously felt that GZ was acting in self defense.

You can make Trayvon out to be this innocent little baby all you want but that is not what the evidence supports and since none of us were there, that's what they had to go on..

I can't wait to see Trayvon's text messages..surely they will come out now and .they will be very interesting...I just watched Charles Barkley's interview...finally a black man that called it...a media misjustice....

What I find interesting is people who didn't even bother to watch the trial or read the pages of evidence all of a sudden have become experts at criminal justice..and experts at racism...I have never in my life heard a Mexican called any thing but a Mexican no matter what the other half of his ethnicity was...all of a sudden Zimmerman became white...and Zimmerman was profiling when there had been numerous burglaries in the neighborhood by young black men..why wouldn't Zimmerman follow Trayvon...that's why he was out there and what he was supposed to do...they didn't tell him not to follow they just said they didn't need him to follow....A Tragedy because Trayvon wanted to whoop the white boys arse...he just wanted to give it to him for a few laughs and because he knew he could...

Here is a link that might be useful: Charles Barkley

How many of you heard of an incident in KS that a black man shook a white 17 month baby to death?....didn't think so...it barely made the local news~~~~ This poor little girl did not have any way to defend herself and she is just as dead as TM~~

Zimmerman is not Mexican. His mother is from Peru.

I thought someone said he was a white ass crackaa?? Oh ya that was his advisor.

Sorry add creepy ass white CrackA, it's all the same.

There was a reasonable doubt, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Not a good system, but the best we have.

Not a good system? I completely disagree. Regardless of the case being discussed here, innocent until proven guilty is a good system. Which way would you rather have it? Guilty until proven innocent?

I'm with MarilynC on this one

Let's see...the original poster said she was sick of reading about this case, and here we have over 50 replies rehashing it, including much speculation about what really happened that night.

Only Zimmerman and the teenager he shot to death really knew. It's done, it's over, and all of us who are not as informed as the jury are even less qualified to make a judgment.

The only thing that was informative to me is this thought problem: How would you would feel if a black guy with a gun got out of his car, confronted a white teenager, somehow got in a fight, shot the teenager to death, and was acquitted by a jury? If you have a different reaction to this outcome than the one in the Zimmerman case, there's a lesson there.

"How would you would feel if a black guy with a gun got out of his car, confronted a white teenager, somehow got in a fight, shot the teenager to death, and was acquitted by a jury? If you have a different reaction to this outcome than the one in the Zimmerman case, there's a lesson there."

There in lies the problem.

It has nothing to do with black versus white, Hispanic versus white or white versus Hispanic.

If the evidence was not there and he was acquitted of the crime then so be it.

It does NOT matter who was what color, the evidence was not there to convict and Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and all the other media W****s need to get over it.

You're right, it should make no difference. We're in heated agreement on that point. However, reading through all the comments preceding mine made me realize that there seemed to be a wide range of sentiment expressed here either consciously or subconsciously. I wasn't judging anyone's opinion here, and I'm not even saying what mine is (in fact I'm still trying to digest the result). It was just a hypothetical question that I thought some might find instructive.

But I'm not convinced that the outcome of the trial proves race played no part in this incident, or that people now have to forgo their right to examine what this whole situation may say about the role of race in American life.

sleeperblues-"I don't think Trayvon Martin was as innocent as he was purported to be. What about the text messages and pictures on his cell phone that were deemed inadmissible by the judge."

I wondered about this myself. Why did they show pics of Travon at age 12, instead of what he looked like at the time of the incident?

He didn't live in this gated community. He was visting his father after receiving a ten-day suspension from High School. The suspension stemmed from the discovery of drug residue in Martin's book bag.

Was he aware that this gated community had at least 8 other burglaries by persons dressed similarly within the past year? And that this was why Zimmerman was stalking the streets?

I think it is a sad situation and Zimmerman should have listened to the dispatcher instead of taking matters into his own hands.

I also think it is a distraction/smoke screen for another 'issue' that is inconveniencing our gov.

Whistleblower Ed Snowden.

I am appreciative of the rational disagreement in this thread. It's a nice change from the 'you're one, you're another one' schoolyard language on the ''Comments" section on news stories.

I'm also glad that this discussion was not knocked down for *being* something beyond bland.

kudzu9, I don't think any evidence was presented that Zimmerman "confronted" Martin unless his presence in the same general vicinity is to be construed as a "confrontation".

dreamgarden, have you seen any photos of Martin that are current? I saw some online and they don't convey the impression of angelic innocence like the much earlier ones.

I agree that one big reason for this to continue to be in the news and talked about and spurred on by every talking head on television and many politicians is that it is a smokescreen for inconvenient things going on with the administration, and not just Snowden and his revelations. It also distracts people from the Benghazi tragedy, the IRS scandals, and more.

Pictures of Martin are irrelevant. Zimmerman himself looks like a beady eyed thug. What's that say? Zimmerman was arrested before if you want to bring up Martin's past.

Unless you are a young black man, you don't have a clue. We have a local young black teen who saved a little girl's life last week when she was abducted by a local pedophile who previously served 20 years for raping a child. This teen chased him down on his bike and the ped threw her out of the car. He already had raped the five year old. Why isn't Fox news celebrating THIS by showing footage??

What does Fox news have to do with any of this?

By the way, I did see footage of those boys saving that girl on the news. Very cool.

magic_az -- We're thinking about Fox because of posts completely rejecting the idea Zimmerman could be at fault.

Now Anna Kay is bringing up an "IRS scandal". There is no scandal. That's very "Fox". The IRS is *supposed* to investigate applications for tax avoidance from organizations that claim to deserve special status. There was no special profiling of *only* right wing organizations.

I can see why people are thinking 'racial profiling' was at work in the Martin/Zimmerman trial, but to me the problem was that the police *assumed* Zimmerman's story was true. They failed to take his blood, although they took Martin's. They failed to preserve the scene of the crime. IF there was blood on some concrete, they did nothing to preserve or test it. I just think it was very shoddy, and possibly deliberately so, since they knew Zimmerman's dad had clout. Meanwhile, Martin was a 17 year old kid who was 'not one of them'. (The year *our* son was 17 was the year my husband's hair turned grey!)

I don't think that kind of 'law' -- or the whole shoot at will thing -- should be allowed to stand.

If someone believes that Zimmerma could not be at fault, then that is their opinion. Just like I have seen posts that say because TVM was a black youth, then GZ MUST be guilty. Why else would he shoot him if he wasn't black?

The media is biased and that goes both ways, the conservative and the liberal media. I could point out stories from the more liberal media that wanted to tar and feather GZ without a verdict from a jury of his peers. The prosecution had just as big a hand in the selection of this jury as the defense did and like it or not, he was found not guilty.

I just don't understand what Fox news has to do with the discussion here. Just seems like an attempt to divert and confuse the issue. At least that's how it appears to me.

The IRS scandal? That's a whole new post! LOL