George Zimmerman Not Guilty

[SaintPendulous]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/13/19442498-zimmerman-jury-holds-second-day-of-deliberations?lite

Thoughts?

 

[Fatalshizot]

Correct call hands down

[SaintPendulous]

I gotta Agree, the way the media portrayed this was SERIOUSLY tryin to portray Martin in an innocent light and make Zimmerman seem racist, if i remember correctly the media REALLY tried screwin Zimmerman. Im all about this verdict!

[A Sharrp SYBIAN]

I agree with the above there were scar's on zimmerman's skull / top of his head before any gun shots happened... How can that not be self defense. I mean was their proof that zimmerman did that out of hate? I think the media twists almost everything as of late. 

[Tyler]

I think that people need to stop treating trials like they're a sporting event.

[ChicagoRSX]

The right verdict was handed down. Anyone who watched the prosecution would have seen this coming a mile away.

[Rani]

I just find the whole thing incredibly sad.  Martin is dead and Zimmerman's life is effectively over.  And all because ego got in the way of common sense.  I don't think anyone is qualified to say whether the verdict is right or wrong because we weren't there that night and what's admissible as evidence at trial isn't always the whole of the events that happened.  There will be a wrongful death suit I'm sure with additional evidence given, and there may be a civil rights trial.  This trail dealt only with murder.  

 

And what I find saddest of all?  All these people crowing about a tragic event all around that really illustrates why we have so much wrong with the country.

 

'Rani

[DrSmokes]

Watching the video on the part of the trial where they go over the 911 call really makes me think that the right verdict was made.  He wasn't racist in the phone call.  He called, said there was a suspicious guy in a hoody and that he was going to follow him.  I didn't hear the operator say not to, maybe I wasn't listened to that part hard enough....idk...but then he said as he got closer "I think he's black", then he got closer and confirmed the description of Trayvon, letting the operator know the location they were at, etc.  He was quite calm in the whole call.  So either he's a complete lunatic that is calm before a preemptive murder or it turned into a self defense situation, where he was calm all the way up until the confrontation.

 

Also, I think people forget, Trayvon had his cell phone, why didn't he call the police too?  I remember one time when I was a kid (16/17), I was driving my wife (girlfriend at the time) home.  We get to this stop sign and I'm not fully stopped yet and this guy comes running at us so I blast through the stop sign.  I drop her off, call the security of our community and the crazy guy was there complaining about me while I was on the phone complaining about him.  The situation was portrayed differently by each of us, probably like this case was to each of them.  But we will never know because (it sounds like) Trayvon wanted to take the matters into his own hands, beat a fat adult, and that fat adult happened to be carrying a concealed gun.  For those of you that don't have guns, if you have a concealed gun, at least here in florida, if you pull it out, you HAVE to shoot it at the person attacking you.  Otherwise, you will end up like the lady who got 20 years in prison for firing warning shots to keep her ex-husband away from her.  Everything I'm reading, seems Zimmerman did everything he needed to in order to stay within the law. 

[Chreees]

Dispatch advised him to not follow him. He continued to anyway. I'm not qualified to say if the verdict is right or wrong as I do not know all of the evidence, but why did Zimmerman keep following? Had he just walked away everything would have been just fine. When I see trouble, I turn around and walk away.

[DrSmokes]

Dispatch advised him to not follow him. He continued to anyway. I'm not qualified to say if the verdict is right or wrong as I do not know all of the evidence, but why did Zimmerman keep following? Had he just walked away everything would have been just fine. When I see trouble, I turn around and walk away.

If you watched the court video of when they were going over the audio of the call, you would hear that he essentially didn't want another "punk" (prior to him knowing Trayvon's skin color) to get away.  And maybe I missed it, I see everyone saying he was told to turn around, I didn't hear the dispatcher say it.  I could have missed it.

[SaintPendulous]

Im pretty sure it was in his neighborhood too? i cant say as i blame the guy for wanting to keep hooligans away from his place. if indeed it was his Neighborhood.

[DrSmokes]

Im pretty sure it was in his neighborhood too? i cant say as i blame the guy for wanting to keep hooligans away from his place. if indeed it was his Neighborhood.

Zimmerman was on the neighborhood watch.  His neighborhood had something around 20 crimes committed in it leading up to the event.  He didn't want to allow a suspicious person get away again...  In the call, he doesn't sound racist and doesn't sound like their is hostility in his voice when he describes Trayvon.  It's sad Trayvon's family were the ones that played the race card, making the black community up in arms against white people and claiming "white supremacy".  While I sort of understand why people would called a Peruvian "white", I think most people who are claiming white supremacy haven't even followed anything with the case, don't know what Zimmerman even looks like, and believes everything the media has told them (if you didn't know, CNN released part of the audio from the 911 call...it was edited making him sound like a racist, but the one they went over in court, had a whole different tone to it, if you haven't seen/heard it, go check it out...so sad how media has thrown all this FUEL on the growing wildfire).

[Fatalshizot]

It's like the media is trying to start another Rodney king incident. You guys seen the interviews of people saying he's just a "racist cracker" and things like that. How does that happen? I mean he's Mexican.

[DrSmokes]

It's like the media is trying to start another Rodney king incident. You guys seen the interviews of people saying he's just a "racist cracker" and things like that. How does that happen? I mean he's Mexican.

Peruvian*

 

 

I guess the definition of cracker has expanded to other ethnicities....

[Chreees]

The dispatcher advised him to not continue following him, from what I read. But yes, you have to be careful with the media these days. Ethics in journalism has essentially been thrown out he window and everything is sensationalized now. There's always focus on the bad, and every media outlet has its certain spin or bias on every story. It's a shame, but you just have to filter through the bullshit and come to your own conclusion. Never be a sheep and believe what one entity says.

[DrSmokes]

The dispatcher advised him to not continue following him, from what I read. But yes, you have to be careful with the media these days. Ethics in journalism has essentially been thrown out he window and everything is sensationalized now. There's always focus on the bad, and every media outlet has its certain spin or bias on every story. It's a shame, but you just have to filter through the bullshit and come to your own conclusion. Never be a sheep and believe what one entity says.

Have you listened to it?  I heard the first 5-10 min and didn't hear the operator advise him to not continue.  Perhaps it was after the cut off the audio in the trial when the dispatcher was on the stand, but there is no law stating you must listen to a dispatcher, as they are not cops.

[Fatalshizot]

I'm just amazed about the level of uninformed people running their mouths about the case. So many unintelligent fb posts and people saying "can you believe the Zimmerman case?". I have the same philosophy about major decisions. Like presidency, you should not be allowed to vote unless you've listened to equal, fair amounts of campaigning from all sides. Granted this is unrealistic in this society but I hate stupid people.

[Chreees]

Quickest transcript I could find: http://phoebe53.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/zimmerman-911-call-transcript-trayvon-martin/ "OK. We don't need you to do that."

[Rani]

Honestly, the transcript makes Zimmerman look more guilty.

 

1)  He knew he was a teenager.

2)  He saw potential for a gun saying the kid had his hands in his waistband.

3)  He said the kid was running away.

4)  A trained dispatcher told him they didn't need him to follow him.  For all those who said it wasn't a cop telling him, I'm calling bullshit.  Dispatchers are professionals who are trained and also have a book right in front of them on what to tell callers on specific situations.  The fact that the dispatcher isn't wearing a badge doesn't mean they aren't giving you the correct information.

5)  The police were in route to handle it and Zimmerman didn't need to follow.

6)  The kid was looking around.  He didn't have a television in his hands, he didn't have drug packages, etc.  He was looking around.  Period.  The police couldn't have arrested him anyway, he hadn't committed a crime.

 

This is the is the first time I've read the transcript because I've always felt not being there, I shouldn't have an opinion or get involved in it in any way unlike everyone else on seems to be insisting on.   However, I would suggest that you all hope that a George Zimmerman is never on your neighborhood watch when your teenager is out in the early evening doing nothing criminal.  Just looking around.

 

'Rani

[DrSmokes]

Honestly, the transcript makes Zimmerman look more guilty.

 

1)  He knew he was a teenager.

2)  He saw potential for a gun saying the kid had his hands in his waistband.

3)  He said the kid was running away.

4)  A trained dispatcher told him they didn't need him to follow him.  For all those who said it wasn't a cop telling him, I'm calling bullshit.  Dispatchers are professionals who are trained and also have a book right in front of them on what to tell callers on specific situations.  The fact that the dispatcher isn't wearing a badge doesn't mean they aren't giving you the correct information.

5)  The police were in route to handle it and Zimmerman didn't need to follow.

6)  The kid was looking around.  He didn't have a television in his hands, he didn't have drug packages, etc.  He was looking around.  Period.  The police couldn't have arrested him anyway, he hadn't committed a crime.

 

This is the is the first time I've read the transcript because I've always felt not being there, I shouldn't have an opinion or get involved in it in any way unlike everyone else on seems to be insisting on.   However, I would suggest that you all hope that a George Zimmerman is never on your neighborhood watch when your teenager is out in the early evening doing nothing criminal.  Just looking around.

 

'Rani

You need to actually LISTEN to the call.  The words on paper make it sound much worse.  His tone of voice and the way he says everything changes the whole atmosphere of what was actually said.

 

And yes, dispatchers are not police officers...they can recommend things but that's about it.  You can choose to listen or not listen, he chose not to as he didn't want "another punk to get away".

[Chreees]

The words he spoke during the 911 call, regardless of tone, were very aggressive... Had he just called 911, not followed him, and let the police do their job, Martin would still be alive, and Zimmerman wouldn't now have a ruined life (he's basically going to have to be in hiding from now on, just like Casey Anthony). I've called and reported suspicious people before myself. But I was smart enough to do it well out of view of the suspicious people and not just standing there staring at them on my cell phone with 911. Now I do believe there's fault on Martin's part as well, even though he is not alive to tell his side of the story, because of the forensic evidence showing he was on top of Zimmerman when he was shot (the whole shirt 3-4 inches away from his body argument). Based off of that fact, I do believe Martin was guilty in this fatal situation as well. Fault on both sides. But does that mean Zimmerman should not receive any consequence for his part in this? I don't know. I am not the person to decide. All I can do is make an observation that both parties were at fault in some way and had they chose different actions that night, things would have played out much differently- Zimmerman would have gone about his way, and police would have stopped Martin and found he was just a kid with a bag of Skittles.

[Fatalshizot]

Have any of you lived in a "rough" area? With lots of vandalism and theft? I'm sure if you've experience either you would be tired of "punks getting away with it". Not saying what his intentions were as far as killing or scaring off but eventually you get sick and tired of the city crime bullshit thug wannabes. I grew up by Oak Park in San Diego and had my fare share with this type of demographic and noticed an EXTREME difference when moving to Tennessee. Granted that was his neighborhood and not his property but have you ever had a sense of community where people look after each other? Should he have pursued him? Probably not but his intentions were that of preserving his community though no one can know "how" he was intending to do it. Zimmerman won when trayvon pounce and gave Zimmerman the RIGHT to protect himself. And before you say he didn't have to shoot because he didn't have a gun let me tell you this, if someone is significantly bigger and stronger is on top of me and slamming my head into the ground ill be glad I'm a gun totting American.

[Chreees]

I grew up one street over from the ghetto in my hometown in West TN. Heard gun shots, screams, police sirens, you name it. These same people would walk past my house everyday to get downtown. Zimmerman is a very brave man for following someone he found to be suspicious. I learned very quickly growing up you avoid people who you think may be dangerous. In a way, he was asking for trouble by following/looking at Martin. Martin, while he may or may not have been a good kid (I don't know him personally obviously), probably felt threatened as well by Zimmerman's actions. What happened exactly we will likely never know, because all we have is the 911 call and Zimmerman's account of what happened. I don't fully believe Zimmerman's story, however, because he hasn't been consistent when telling it to various media outlets. Either way we can all agree that this was a tragedy that very well could have been avoided.

[DrSmokes]

I'm surprised you don't think his tone of voice has anything to do with this.  His tone of voice was that of someone who wasn't mad, angry, aggressive, etc., just someone using words that have harsh meaning without any harsh tone in his voice.  

 

Here's the link to the video in the court room where they go over the call.  It's quite a good watch/listen and IMO sheds some light on Z's intentions...or non-intentions.

 

[media]http://youtu.be/fsuYjBrIwFI[/media]

[Bawhee]

One person dying isnt a tragedy, its an unfortunate event. Whether it was racism that caused him to follow the kid or not doesnt matter cause in the end if theres proof it was self defense then it doesnt matter. What led up to the events is all circumstantial evidence and one possibly totally false story. Neighborhood Watch is a stupid concept cause it leads to people that are a bit too brave and nosy for their own good to out themselves and lets them enter situations they shouldnt be in.

 

Also seriously much worse stuff happens globally and also just in the US or just in any one of your major Cities worse things happen daily (or at least once per week). Just cause some media outlet decided to make this into a major story on racism (which it may not have been a case of anyways) the entire US public shouldnt be alarmed like this... Youz need to get your media under control :P