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)

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by frazod

Zimmerman or Wickedson?

Yes.

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by frazod

Zimmerman or Wickedson?

Zimmerman (FYI) lol

[PGM]

Originally Posted by Dave

Could Wickedson be more ignorant?

I would say no, but he seems to be growing more so by the day.

[PGM]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

I believe all that carry handguns and shoot people without cause should be in prison.

Yet, you want a couple black guys to "kill whitey" for "revenge". You really can't fix stupid

[siberian khatru]

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/naked...-immunity.html

Stand Your Ground fathers: Trayvon Martin's killer should likely be arrested, doesn't deserve immunity

The fathers of Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law implicated in the death of 14-year-old Trayvon Martin say the man who shot him to death probably should be arrested and doesn’t deserve a self-defense claim of immunity.

Former state Sen. Durell Peaden and current state Rep. Dennis Baxley say the law they passed in 2005 was designed to protect citizens by giving them the right to “meet force with force.”

Both men say they don’t know all the facts of Trayvon's case. But, they say they believe the law would not allow a person like George Zimmerman to pursue and confront a person like Trayvon and then use deadly force. Zimmerman has not been charged.

“They got the goods on him. They need to prosecute whoever shot the kid,” said Peaden, a Crestview Republican who sponsored the deadly force law in 2005. “He has no protection under my law.”


Peaden and Baxley say their law, at its heart, is a self-defense law. It says law-abiding people have no duty to retreat. Nowhere does it say that a person has a right to confront another. The law does say a law-abiding citizen can use deadly force if "if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

The 911 tapes strongly suggest Zimmerman overstepped his bounds, they say, when the Sanford neighborhood crime-watch captain said he was following Trayvon and appeared to ignore a police request to stay away.

“The guy lost his defense right then,” said Peaden. “When he said ‘I’m following him,’ he lost his defense.”

Under the law, a person who claims he was acting in self defense can be immune from arrest. But, like Peaden, Baxley said Zimmerman might have lost that right because he could have “aggravated” the situation and provoked a confrontation.

Said Baxley: “There’s nothing in this statute that authorizes you to pursue and confront people, particularly if law enforcement has told you to stay put. I don’t see why this statute is being challenged in this case. That is to prevent you from being attacked by other people.”

Baxley, R-Ocala, was a little more circumspect than Peaden in calling for Zimmerman’s arrest.

“I don’t want to make that judgment call based on speculation,” Baxley said. I just want to reinforce that there’s nothing in this statute that authorizes people to pursue and confront people.”

Still, there’s a chance Zimmerman could avoid an arrest or a conviction if he were charged because the law gives broad protections to those who claim they had reason to be afraid and to use deadly force.

There’s a chance, for instance, that Zimmerman decided to stop following Trayvon after he was told by a police dispatcher “Okay, we don't need you to do that.” After that, Trayvon could have changed course and confronted Zimmerman.

It’s unclear. Only Zimmerman appears to know. Still, the 911 tapes suggest Zimmerman may have gotten out of his car just after he admitted he was following Trayvon.

Baxley suggested that doesn’t bode well for Zimmerman’s defense.

“If he provoked it by pursing him, I think he’s on thin ice,” Baxley said.

Both Baxley and Peaden said the law didn’t need to be clarified. Peaden said he sponsored it in 2005 after an old man from Pensacola shot an intruder who tried to loot his hurricane-ravaged home. The old man, whose name Peaden could no longer remember, had to hire a lawyer and fret he’d be charged.

Baxley said the law isn’t the problem. It’s the “application” of the law that’s at issue.

If anything needs to be changed in law, Baxley said, it’s making sure that crime-watch captains aren’t acting like armed vigilantes.

“If you want to pass something, pass something that limits their ability to pursue and confront people,” Baxley said.

“It’s about crime watch. What are the limitations of crime watch? Are you allowed to jump out and follow people and confront them? What do you think is going to happen? That’s where it starts.

“I don’t think it’s about that statute. I think it’s about the crime-watch role and limiting people’s role in feeling like they have the authority to pursue and confront people. That is aggravating an incident right there.”

[Predarat]

Glad they are defending the Stand Your Ground Law and making it clear this had nothing to do with the Zimmerman idiot.

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by Predarat

Glad they are defending the Stand Your Ground Law and making it clear this had nothing to do with the Zimmerman idiot.

exactly.

[Bambi]

I love when people don't get the point to posts.

Makes me chuckle.

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Plow

I didn't read the whole thread, just caught the first 2 pages & the last page & 1/2, so I missed that one. Thanks for adding it because it only further proves the point.

Why would you support that statement when I already addressed the point?

It's like going in circles here.

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

THAT is some racist shit right there. Screaming kill whitey and when he turns out to be a lighter shade of brown and suddenly you start the back peddaling.

I'm offended both as a hispanic and as a white guy.

Again, you are not seeing the point.

But whatever. If some are not able to comprehend a scenario invented to relate the ridiculousness of defending Zimmerman in the first place then I can't help you.

[Bambi]

Great article here by Max point out many, many violent murders in Florida recently against blacks.

http://gawker.com/5894647/how-to-get...tin-teaches-us

[blaise]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

Great article here by Max point out many, many violent murders in Florida recently against blacks.

http://gawker.com/5894647/how-to-get...tin-teaches-us

Were they committed by a bunch of "typical" white people? You know those freaking white people. Freaking racists and stuff.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

Why would you support that statement when I already addressed the point?

It's like going in circles here.

Yes, it is like going in circles. KILL WHITEY!

[Mr. Plow]

This guy has a a solution to the problem...

[Dayze]