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)

[KChiefer]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

I'm going to go with the guy who was on top and showed no signs of receiving any blows for a thousand, alex.

Furthermore, it doesn't even matter who started it. If you are on the bottom of someone pummeling you and you are afraid for you life, imo you defend yourself.

So say I walk up to you in a bar and ask you, "What did the 5 fingers say to the face?" *SLAP!* Then, because you are understandably pissed off, you start kicking my ass, I can simply up the ante by shooting you?

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

I'm going to go with the guy who was on top and showed no signs of receiving any blows for a thousand, alex.

Furthermore, it doesn't even matter who started it. If you are on the bottom of someone pummeling you and you are afraid for you life, imo you defend yourself.

If you start the confrontation, and can't back it up against a teenager that you outweigh by 100 pounds, then you deserve the pummeling.

Next time, don't start a ****ing fight.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Apparently there are witnesses to corroborate his story:

Apparently you can't read. Where does it say the witness saw how the fight started?

[Pants]

Originally Posted by KChiefer

So say I walk up to you in a bar and ask you, "What did the 5 fingers say to the face?" *SLAP!* Then, because you are understandably pissed off, you start kicking my ass, I can simply up the ante by shooting you?

J Diddy is OK with you shooting him at that point. You're just defending yourself.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Bowser

If you start the confrontation, and can't back it up against a teenager that you outweigh by 100 pounds, then you deserve the pummeling.

Next time, don't start a ****ing fight.

It took a while but I got to my point. How did the kid get on top of someone who outweighed him by 100 pounds?

I find it more likely that the kid throw the punch first when zimmerman wasn't ready for it, than I do that a guy with a sizeable weight difference gets down and pummeled after initiating the fight.

Again, no proof, but reason.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Pants

J Diddy is OK with you shooting him at that point. You're just defending yourself.

First of all I'm 5'6 and 150 pounds. If you find me on top of you kicking the crap out of you, you probably ought to use the gun on yourself.

Second, If I am on top and am not stopping when you are screaming help, help. Yes you should shoot me, because you don't know how far I'm going to take it.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

First of all I'm 5'6 and 150 pounds. If you find me on top of you kicking the crap out of you, you probably ought to use the gun on yourself.

Second, If I am on top and am not stopping when you are screaming help, help. Yes you should shoot me, because you don't know how far I'm going to take it.

It's good to know that I can start a fight with you and if you end up on top of me, I can shoot you.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Pants

It's good to know that I can start a fight with you and if you end up on top of me, I can shoot you.

If you feel that your life is in jeopardy by all means. I warn you though afterwards it will turn into a huge media circus, Al Sharpton, Obama, and the Miami Heat will get involved, because you shot a white kid while in fear for you life.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

If you feel that your life is in jeopardy by all means. I warn you though afterwards it will turn into a huge media circus, Al Sharpton, Obama, and the Miami Heat will get involved, because you shot a white kid while in fear for you life.

My life is in jeopardy because I, myself, started the fight.

So in your world, all I have to do to kill someone is start a fight with him and then I can simply commit a murder and walk away because my life was in jeopardy. Do you understand how ****ing nuts you are?

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

It took a while but I got to my point. How did the kid get on top of someone who outweighed him by 100 pounds?

I find it more likely that the kid throw the punch first when zimmerman wasn't ready for it, than I do that a guy with a sizeable weight difference gets down and pummeled after initiating the fight.

Again, no proof, but reason.

Reason would dictate that he should have squashed his inner "Barney Fife" and kept the bullet in his pocket. If he was so fearful of this teen he shouldn't have followed him as the dispatcher advised him. Of course he knew he was carrying a piece so he ignored it. He is not an officer, had no reason to follow the kid, and then when he eventually confronts him gets his ass kicked. Sounds more reasonable that Martin felt threatened.

The guy has a history of assaulting a police officer and had a domestic assault claim filed against him, yet the police release him without an investigation.

[VAChief]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

If you feel that your life is in jeopardy by all means. I warn you though afterwards it will turn into a huge media circus, Al Sharpton, Obama, and the Miami Heat will get involved, because you shot a white kid while in fear for you life.

You are assuming the police would not take him into custody. There wouldn't be the media circus there is right now had the police exercised due diligence.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by Pants

My life is in jeopardy because I, myself, started the fight.

So in your world, all I have to do to kill someone is start a fight with him and then I can simply commit a murder and walk away because my life was in jeopardy. Do you understand how ****ing nuts you are?

Hypothetical:
I'm in restaurant with my wife. You call my wife a whore, I tell you to back off. I punch you, and you get the drop on me and are on top of me unloading everything you have on me, that because I threw the first punch that I should just lay there and let you kill me?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Hypothetical:
I'm in restaurant with my wife. You call my wife a whore, I tell you to back off. I punch you, and you get the drop on me and are on top of me unloading everything you have on me, that because I threw the first punch that I should just lay there and let you kill me?

Let's twist it a little. I come and call your wife whore then punch you. You hit back and get the upper hand, but don't back off and keep pummeling me. I fear for my life. So I unload my gun into you. I get an assault charge for the first punch but am not liable for your death, right?

[banyon]

I have not decided how I feel about this yet. Seems like both sides are jumping to conclusions more than usual without even the generic facts all being in.

Did Zimmerman follow him?

Did Martin come back and start the fight?

Did Martin jump a gated neighborhood fence?

Why are all the news media pictures of him at age 12 when he was much older and larger?

Did Zimmerman say "****ing c**n?" on the 9-11 call?

Too many questions for me to say if it is a viable prosecution yet.

I don't see how DOJ is all ready to charge up the local LEO's with civil rights violations though. That seems pretty premature when this is a normal amount of investigatory time.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Let's twist it a little. I come and call your wife whore then punch you. You hit back and get the upper hand, but don't back off and keep pummeling me. I fear for my life. So I unload my gun into you. I get an assault charge for the first punch but am not liable for your death, right?

Depends what state you are in. If you commit a crime, in this case assault, that results in a death then YOU are on the hook for murder.