i think based on everything that what it all comes down to is t martin would be alive and well were this guy not hell-bent on being some sort of wanna be cop vigilante. he had no business doing what he was doing, and trayvon reacted the way any normal person would. the guy wasn't a cop, wasn't a security guard-trayvon probably figured the guy meant him harm. why would he think otherwise? the guys is a loose cannon and a nut.
zimmerman didn't act in self-defense, he went out of his way to force a confrontation. he was the aggressor in this whole sordid mess. had he done as told by the 911 operator, the boy would be alive and all this would never have happened. but no, he's a kook who acted improperly from start to finish.

:tro:

Without testimony from the kid Trayvon this will never be resolved to everyones's satisfaction, not even close...just do a thorough investigation and charge or release him....and as per Geraldo, don't wear hoodies, they are dangerous...

When "Neighborhood Watch" Gets Out of Hand
 

You mean like this guy:

http://profootball.scout.com/Picture...Bill+Belichick


Ocala Mike

Lori, this misses my point. My point is that many are jumping to conclusions without all the facts. I am not taking either side here, but to conduct a witch hunt without knowledge of the true facts and to believe everything the media spouts out as if it is true is just as much a disservice to everyone as letting a guilty man go free. People should allow the justice system time to resolve this without resorting to vigilante justice.

Especially not - if you are playing the Saints..

i agree with this.

Though.. if somehow this man is not even arrested, it send a very dangerous message. It almost makes it okay to act like a cop and follow someone for no reason, and then shoot when you feel like you're in danger.

Pam Biondi could 'prosecute' me anytime. She puts the cute in prosecute.

i fully expect that if they arrested GZ and put him on trial, he'd walk.

These people let that lady what killed her little girl free.

Where yo hood at? Represent yo hood. Lets make a mockery of the house and represent my district with multiple murders this week.

Such a shame what this country has become. That ass clown should be removed from office immediately.

that's true. and with the law as currently written, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a not guilty verdict. now, what they would need to do is allow a finding of guilt to a lesser charge-in this case manslaughter. for that i can see a possible guilty verdict. but if they go for 2nd, i don't think it'll happen based on the law on the books, purported shoddy investigating and lack of witnesses.

and yes, absolutely they should wait and no one should jump the gun and have a witch hunt-the duke rape case taught many people that. but right now i can easily say that the one wouldn't be dead were it not for the irresponsible actions of the other. whether that makes him guilty of murder i don't know.

The most they could charge him with is voluntary manslaughter. Good luck with a conviction on that one.

yep. people want to know why he hasn't been arrested yet. he may never be.

If they had arrested Zimmerman, even on manslaughter, even upon unlawful discharge of a weapon, then at least all the witnessess, the cops, the tapes of the 911 calls, etc. could have a court-ordered slap of silence on it. They could have released Zimmerman on his own recognizance, not bail, depending upon what the judge that night chose, and the prosecutor could always drop charges and choose not to prosecute after an investigation.

The horror is that the family had to go to their congresswoman to get any investigation whatsoever of this at all in the first place, weeks after it happened.

A kid is dead in public, at the confessed hand of another citizen, with that phone call to the police, and zero investigation more than the cops at the scene that night? That's crazy.

And it turns out some cops at the scene wanted him charged.

Zimmerman's camp has to be thrilled it's playing out this way in the media, as it's contaminating jury member after jury member, even if moved to other venues in Florida.

Absolutely this should be resolved through the proper channels, but what started the whole media circus was the authorities choosing not to do anything about the situation, and in fact, doing things that sure don't make sense if one assumes they were acting in good faith (tagging the child as a John Doe even though they'd identified him, for one). And the more the media digs, the more weird stuff that comes out. If the Martins hadn't been smart enough to retain a good lawyer, and if the media hadn't picked up the story, it's entirely possible the whole thing would have been dropped, as the lead investigator, it's claimed, wanted to charge Zimmerman (sorry, I can't refer to him as GZ because I read that as Ghostzapper!) and the state attorney refused. That would have been the end of it without the media stepping in and not letting the story drop. And the state attorney and the chief of police have both stepped down. Which I find it hard to believe they would have done if they were acting in good faith.

If he is charged, more will become clear- at this point, without a charge, there's no way to subpoena hospital records to see if Zimmerman actually went to one for treatment for his alleged broken nose, of which there are no pictures, there's no way to demand an X-ray of him (a broken nose is, I'm told, is visible for years afterwards); there's no way to do lots of things that will, one hopes, make the picture of what happened clearer. For that matter, there's no way for a defense attorney to attempt to challenge the content of the final phone call Trayvon made, because he can't question Trayvon's girlfriend without her being called to testify at a trial.

The media circus is tedious, and as with OJ, and Casey Anthony, and I imagine, the Lindbergh Baby, there's a frenzy, and the media will certainly shape the story they want to tell (that Anthony did it, for example). And it may or may not be true. But in this case, at least it's forcing the state of Florida to do a thorough investigation.

But, yeah, as Riot said, it's contaminating the jury pool. By the time he is charged (if he is), Florida is going to have to start combing the Everglades for swamp people. Everyone else will have an opinion.

You keep saying that Zimmerman was following the kid "for no reason". He was following him for a very good reason. Zimmerman is the neighborhood watch captain. He knows the neighborhood and he knows the people who live there. It's a gated community. He sees a person that he has never seen before, walking through the neighborhood. Why wouldn't he follow him? What would be the point of neighborhood watch otherwise? If you were working neighborhood watch and you see a person in your neighborhood that you've never seen before, would you ignore them?

I've never officially been involved in neighborhood watch but I always keep my eyes open. When I do see something suspicious, I call the police. And I always follow the person until the police arrive. If I didn't follow the person, the police would never find the guy. The police usually don't arrive for at least 10 minutes. The person may be 10 blocks away by then.

Some of you have commented that Zimmerman should have already been charged with manslaughter. Whether we are talking about this case or another case, the police are not going to charge a person until they have a strong case. You have to remember that if they charge a person, the preliminary hearing is usually held within a couple of weeks.

At the preliminary hearing, the burden on the prosecution is not as a great as it is at trial. But the prosecution does have to show the judge that there is a strong case against the person. If the prosecution doesn't have some pretty strong evidence of the person's guilt, the judge will throw out the case. It won't even go to trial.

This is why it can often times take a long time for a district attorney to file charges. They want to wait until they feel they have a strong case. They want to wait until they feel they have enough evidence not only to present the judge at the preliminary hearing, but enough evidence to prove that the person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. The last thing in the world they want is to have such a weak case that the judge throws it out at the preliminary hearing, before it even gets to trial. That has happened before too.

In this particular case, as of right now you have Zimmerman saying that Trayvon attacked him and was beating the crap out of him. He says he acted in self-defense. The police and prosecutors need to find evidence that contradicts this. If they can find some forensic evidence that contradicts this or if they can find a witness that says Trayvon didn't attack Zimmerman first, then they might be able to build a case against Zimmerman. But at this point, I don't think they have anything that contradicts Zimmerman's story. At this point, I don't think they have much of a case. In Florida, if a person is beating the crap out of you, you have the right to use deadly force.

Would you continue to persue even when the police dispatcher clearly tells you not to. To me he becomes the aggressor at this point.

I would continue to pursue in my car but I would certainly keep my distance. I would stay in my car and I would stay a good 50 to 100 yards away while I followed. You don't know if the person is armed. And even if they're not armed, you don't want to get into a physical confrontation.

Zimmerman obviously made a huge mistake. He got way too close. He should have never gotten out of his car.