Neighborhood watch captain shoots innocent black youth and doesn't even get arrested

[Bump]

This is some ****ED UP SHIT, they aren't sure if the racist neighborhood watch idiot should be arrested? If anything, local gangs might take notice of this and start shooting up that neighborhood or just random white neighborhoods. I could never live in the south, it's ridiculous. The guy shoots an innocent teen walking to the store to buy skittles. Should be life in prison, that's cold blood man.

http://news.yahoo.com/family-florida...044537742.html




ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The family of a 17-year-old African-American boy shot to death last month in his gated Florida community by a white Neighborhood Watch captain wants to see the captain arrested, the family's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Trayvon Martin was shot dead after he took a break from watching NBA All-Star game television coverage to walk 10 minutes to a convenience store to buy snacks including Skittles candy requested by his 13-year-old brother, Chad, the family's lawyer Ben Crump said.

"He was a good kid," Crump said in an interview, adding that the family would issue a call for the Watch captain's arrest at a news conference on Thursday. "On his way home, a Neighborhood Watch loose cannon shot and killed him."

[Related: Fla. teen avoids deportation]

Trayvon, who lived in Miami with his mother, had been visiting his father and stepmother in a gated townhome community called The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, 20 miles north of Orlando.

As Trayvon returned to the townhome, Sanford police received a 911 call reporting a suspicious person.

Although names are blacked out on the police report, Crump and media reports at the time of the shooting identified the caller as George Zimmerman who is listed in the community's newsletter as the Neighborhood Watch captain.

Without waiting for police to arrive, Crump said, Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, who was on the sidewalk near his home. By the time police got there, Trayvon was dead of a single gunshot to the chest.

"What do the police find in his pocket? Skittles," Crump said. "A can of Arizona ice tea in his jacket pocket and Skittles in his front pocket for his brother Chad."

Zimmerman could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening at a phone number listed for him on the community's newsletter.

Crump said the family was concerned that police might decide to consider the shooting as self defense, and that police have ignored the family's request for a copy of the original 911 call, which they think will shed light on the incidents.

"If the 911 protocol across the country held to form here, they told him not to get involved. He disobeyed that order," said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the family.

"He (Zimmerman) didn't have to get out of his car," said Crump, who has prepared a public records lawsuit to file on Thursday if the family doesn't get the 911 tape. "If he never gets out of his car, there is no reason for self-defense. Trayvon only has skittles. He has the gun."

Since Trayvon, a high school junior who wanted to be a pilot, was black and Zimmerman is white, Crump said race is "the 600 pound elephant in the room."

"Why is this kid suspicious in the first place? I think a stereotype must have been placed on the kid," Crump said.

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and Peter Bohan)

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

And if he has a gun you may die. Sounds a lot like you did know exactly what happened yet you don't understand that on private property as in a gated community, yes they can stop and detain you for possible trespass.

And the guy who does the shootin' just might be looking at a long prison sentence.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by alnorth

He's just a resident, and the black kid lives there. He doesn't have a uniform on or any color of authority. He's just some random hothead white dude, in this hypothetical, who just, from out of the blue for no reason whatsoever while the kid is walking home from the store, tells him he has to wait for the cops for "looking suspicious", and attempts to restrain him.

He can't do that.

Bolded part is wrong, he was visiting his grandparents who I assume are also black.

Secondly, you are wrong about pretty much the entire rest of your post as well.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

Strip everyone of their guns. It's the only way to stop this shit. How many stories do we need?

Obama?


Yeah, good luck with that one.

[blaise]

Even if the kid's whipping your ass you have no right to shoot him. The only way it could even be close to justified is if the guy actually feared that the kid was about to actually beat him to death, which I doubt, or, if the kid grabbed your gun, you struggled, and the gun went off.
If you leave the house with your gun you're the one that needs to make sure retarded incidents don't happen.
Call the cops and let the cops handle it. That's it.

[FAX]

Exactly.

I don't know ... maybe you guys know a lot more about the kinds of persons attracted to neighborhood watch volunteerism than I, but the ones with whom I've become personally acquainted, appear to be bored house-husbands with some kind of weird, semi-political, quasi-macho, club-joiner, locker-room, homoerotic, mental disorder.

I mean, seriously.

I never felt any safer.

FAX

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

People fail to understand that while they cant just ****ing shoot you for no reason, yes you can be stopped and asked to hang for a bit to wait for the police if you don't have a a good answer as to why you are on said private property and decide to get physical instead.

He was on a sidewalk and lived there. He didn't climb over his fenced-in yard to harass his dog. You don't get to detain someone in this situation.

[WhiteWhale]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

And if he has a gun you may die. Sounds a lot like you did know exactly what happened yet you don't understand that on private property as in a gated community, yes they can stop and detain you for possible trespass.

People fail to understand that while they cant just ****ing shoot you for no reason, yes you can be stopped and asked to hang for a bit to wait for the police if you don't have a a good answer as to why you are on said private property and decide to get physical instead.

You're asserting he's something he's not.

A neighborhood watch isn't security. People go through ****ing training to handle these kinds of situations for a reason.

If what you're saying holds up, then the HOA should be held accountable for letting an unqualified dumbass 'protect' their community. That just makes the HOA look terrible.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by Brock

And the guy who does the shootin' just might be looking at a long prison sentence.

We shall see but honestly I doubt he even gets convicted of a felony.

Nor do I have enough info to be sure he should be.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by blaise

Even if the kid's whipping your ass you have no right to shoot him. The only way it could even be close to justified is if the guy actually feared that the kid was about to actually beat him to death, which I doubt, or, if the kid grabbed your gun, you struggled, and the gun went off.
If you leave the house with your gun you're the one that needs to make sure retarded incidents don't happen.
Call the cops and let the cops handle it. That's it.

Thanks for injecting some reason into the situation.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Bolded part is wrong, he was visiting his grandparents who I assume are also black.

Secondly, you are wrong about pretty much the entire rest of your post as well.

stupid semantics. He had every right to be there.

And your unexplained hand-wavy opinion that an ordinary homeowner in a gated community can detain any and everyone who is in his gated community just because he feels like it, is obviously wrong.

[blaise]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

We shall see but honestly I doubt he even gets convicted of a felony.

Nor do I have enough info to be sure he should be.

He's going to prison would be my guess.

[frazod]

Originally Posted by Brock

yeah, sure. I'm on here blathering about how guns are bad.

Oh wait, no I'm not.

You're making assumptions based on an obviously politically-skewed story with no knowledge whatsoever of the actual events leading up to the shooting.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

And if he has a gun you may die. Sounds a lot like you did know exactly what happened yet you don't understand that on private property as in a gated community, yes they can stop and detain you for possible trespass.

People fail to understand that while they cant just ****ing shoot you for no reason, yes you can be stopped and asked to hang for a bit to wait for the police if you don't have a a good answer as to why you are on said private property and decide to get physical instead.

???

A neighborhood watch guy can detain you? Good luck with that. In what universe did neighborhood watch guys become members of the SS?

They can keep a weather eye on suspicious, potential neer-do-wells and call the cops. That's about it, man.

FAX

[FAX]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

You're asserting he's something he's not.

A neighborhood watch isn't security. People go through ****ing training to handle these kinds of situations for a reason.

If what you're saying holds up, then the HOA should be held accountable for letting an unqualified dumbass 'protect' their community. That just makes the HOA look terrible.

Now, that makes sense.

FAX

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by alnorth

stupid semantics. He had every right to be there.

And your unexplained hand-wavy opinion that an ordinary homeowner in a gated community can detain any and everyone who is in his gated community just because he feels like it, is obviously wrong.

Who said he can detain anyone and everyone for no reason?

A stranger in a gated community late at night hardly qualifies as anyone and everyone just because he feels like it.

Did you miss the part about him calling the police to report a suspicious person prior to any of this happening? I suppose you think that has zero bearing on this.