Posted on 04/16/2012 12:33:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The state of Florida has charged neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman with second-degree murder for shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman will defend himself by claiming Florida law allowed him to "stand his ground" against Martin's threatening behavior.
Evidence of what really happened is scant. Martin is dead, and no eye witnesses saw the encounter. A 911 recording casts doubt on Zimmerman's account, but the Florida law will make it hard to get a conviction.
It's hard to believe under the circumstances that a large armed adult had to shoot an unarmed teenager in self-defense, but the extra layer of justification provided by the ridiculous "stand your ground" law invites this sort of mayhem.
The law, passed at the behest of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights promoters, gives people the broad right to use deadly force without having to retreat from a fight. It gives a decided edge to someone like Zimmerman, who hauls out a gun and eliminates an adversary. In defense, he need only show "by a preponderance of evidence" he was acting in self-defense to get a judge or court to deny a second-degree murder conviction.
Many observers think prosecutors made this relatively tough charge expecting it to fail, moving the onus to the court.
The basic culprit in this and similar cases is the law itself. Unless indisputable video or eyewitness evidence exists, proving self-defense is easy. Martin and Zimmerman did meet face to face. Who is to say which one was trying to "stand his ground?" Even without anything beyond the evidence at hand, a reasonable person would conclude the big, adult neighborhood watchman confronted the teenager.
That this is a "white on black" killing injects a toxic racial overtone. If Zimmerman walks, the surrounding black population might erupt; but regardless of race, the law is misbegotten. The only justifiable defense in such cases is "self-defense" without the legal encouragement for deadly force. Since hardly ever will evidence to the contrary clearly exist, shooters are almost always assured of protection under the law.
In a perverse sense, it's too bad the black kid was the victim instead of the shooter. If the killing had been black on white, the white public might be more eager to recognize the paucity of the "stand your ground" law, a sad but true indication of continuing racial bias.
In an earlier day when white vigilantes threatened black people, nobody proposed a "stand your ground law." Today the law tends to cast the likes of Trayvon Martin as a predator in an interracial encounter. If the killing had been black on black, would the "stand your ground" law be in play?
Good catch, could also be a relative of Henry Waxman
Unjustly accused.
This article deserves a barf alert.
Well, yeah. FTA:
... it's too bad the black kid was the victim instead of the shooter.
He sure looks similar. Any one got the original picture to compare?
Did you notice it’s in backroom?
“The Race” threw him under the bus < 1 week after the story broke.
He’s sounds like a lib-dem *turd polisher*...
http://www.columbiatribune.com/staff/hank-waters-editor-and-publisher/
...cranking-out 1-2-3 “editorials”/day, for-pay:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/staff/hank-waters-editor-and-publisher/stories/
I’m ashamed of our ‘leader’ who gave his nod of approval for injustice to proceed by his first coming out and adopting trayvon DESPITER the FACTS that were coming otu at the time showing trayvon was NOT the sweet little angel the media was tryign to falsley make him out to be, and hten later when our ‘deaqr leader’ refused to weigh in on the case pretendign to ‘be above it aqll’ AFTER he had already set the raqcist injustice in motion!!!
Amen.
They are not and that is the plan, From start to finish it will be a kangeroo court.
“The basic culprit in this and similar cases is the law itself.”
Trayvon is the only culprit in this case. And he paid dearly for his attack on George.
Kind of hard to retreat when you are on your back being beaten to death.
The other culprit in this case is Mr. Waters, and other like him, who are murdering the truth with this type of screed.
We are all Zimmerman. Long live Zimmerman!
Gotcha—and I agree!
Color me unreasonable. Martin had height and being on the football team to Zimmerman's weight so that's a wash. If Martin had headed straight home rather than backtracking to confront Zimmerman with "You got a problem? Well, now you do" as he punched him in the nose and proceeded to pound the sidewalk with his head, he might be alive today.
The glasses, watch and hairline may be the same....but does this guy have the bug-eyes of that famous counting judge?
I dunno....he could have been a central Florda volunteer who assisted the Broward (Dade?) county election officials to help out with the tallying in the Gore recount fiasco.
The original photo is on an FR thread titled "Kerry: I'll Fight for Each Fla Vote". I don't know how to post a link here. Maybe someone can bring that old thread up and post the pic here.
Leni
Zimmerman stands in chains while Jon Corzine walks around free as a bird.
I hasten to add there is no evidence thus far that Trayvon was taking drugs - but before we assume that Zimmermann had a strength advantage, we might just want to wait for the toxicology reports. Conversely, if Zimmermann was high on something it could explain why he would "stalk" and "attack" a teenager - which some allege, and which appears to make liittle sense.
That's why, silly me, I like evidence first, judgement after.
Well yea, duh. You can't be surprised when a nation becomes corrupted from the Prez down to the janitor.
Sent to editor@columbiatribune.com :
“Henry J Waters III is a complete fucking moron. Either that or a race baiting far left POS. I’m not sure which. That may be the most disgusting one sided and patently false account of the Zimmerman/Martin shooting I’ve seen yet. You should be ashamed of yourselves but I suspect you’re actually proud.”
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