If he's smart he goes all in. No pleads, jury trial, everything. Force the "prosecution" to do their job.
Zimmerman and his lawyer are "planning" on pleading not guilty. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/12/george-zimmerman-trayvon-martin-court-hearing
I see "The Guardian" is still posting the sweet and innocent pic of TM instead of his most recent gangsta photo: Fuck the MSM and their twist on events. Research.Agree with 0699.
Just to be fair Martin had some issues in school but Zimmerman was arrested for resisting arrest and obstruction of justice back in 2005. He was able to plead it down to a misdemeanor and had to go to anger management classes. Not that either person's prior actions indicate guilt or innocence for this matter.
Key word here is arrested. Not convicted. The police only need probable cause to arrest someone but the State needs proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Those are the standards to which everyone is held. In a continuum from 0 - 100 probable cause sits right at 49% IIRC. Might be 50 ( i forget the exact number lol). Regardless being arrested for something is nothing. Ultimately it is the conviction. What's more is his record was expunged and this should have never came out. I believe it was the result of a felony diversion program for people that make mistakes and are not career criminals. I am not defending whatever he did but it is important to understand what happened and how it relates to everything else. Martin was suspended for possession of paraphernalia I believe. That in it of itself is not a huge deal. The main issue I have with Zimmerman is he though he could handle the situation himself and was heard saying on the tape that they always get away. I have dealt with people like him on more than one occasion and then they get frustrated because they don't comprehend what is going on or how things work they make ridiculous statements amounting to them taking the law into their own hands. I always had to warn them their course of action would usually cause worse problems for them. It seems to me so far that Zimmerman created his own exigent circumstances that required him to fear for his life. Was he justified in defending himself? Absolutely (at least so far as what info has been published). Did he bite off more than he could chew and take matters into his own hands by not leaving this to professionals? Yeah sounds like it. The big question is will the stand your ground law protect those that create their own life or death scenarios and are forced to react?
Zimmerman, that hulk of a man, is 5'8", 170lbs. Reading all these reports, I didn't realize Zimmerman was a little guy. I listened to some radio talk show hosts on this, saying "Zimmerman was a grown-assed-man," emphasizing this apparent disproportionate size differential between the two men. They made it sound like some lumberjack beating up a kid at the after-school care center. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/04/george-z/
Ummm... The judge presiding over the case was said to be pretty hot, so I did a Google search and found this: I think it's safe to say Sandra Bullock will play the judge when they finally make the film:
Well, so much for that movie. Judge recuses herself out of concern for potential conflict of interest:
A racist, prejudice, and sterotyped one! Everyone with their bullsh*t propaganda about how free and equal the world is. Racism, discrimination, sterotypes, and being prejudice never went away, it just wore bad camoflague. I honestly hate the race card bullsh*t, but I hate when people are so naive to say racism doesn't exist. My bullshit filter is definitely full!
The thing is if you grew up in, or around a big city- Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, LA, or any of a hundred other cities, the fact of the matter is thugs wear hoodies. You can PM all the hate mail you want:nerd: . If you ignore the fact that in the inner city, and in rap videos, and among wannabe gangsters, the hoody has been worn as the "I'm a badass lil' thug" headgear, then you are ignoring reality. When you want to wear the thug life apparel, people are going to read what you project. Right or wrong, it is a fact. The only place people legitimately wear a hoody is in very cold weather, or at the track meet / wrestling tourney. If you come into my gas station, and there are 30 people in there, and it is 72 degrees, and you come in at 11:00 at night with your hoodie on, I am the owner, I am going to mentally prepare for the possibility of a gunfight within the next minute or two. If I am a bank teller, and you come into my bank with a hoody and it is 72 degrees outside, I am going to put my hand on the duress button. Whether you- or I- or anyone else agrees with the evil stereotype of the hoody is irrelevant, and if I am with my girl at the downtown concert at 12:00 midnight, and a group of hoody-wearing young men start to congregate around me, if I do not get the f*** out of dodge, I am a dumbass for not reading the obvious signs; I will deserve what comes after. Edited for grammar...
OK folks, don't let this thread go the way of so many other good ones in the past. If personal attacks are necessary, take it to private message.
I deleted a bunch of posts that I felt were either personal attacks or did not contribute to a rational discussion of the topic at hand. If you have something that is for all of us to read, make an appropriate post. If you have something for a specific individual, use the private message function. This is last time I expect to have to give this kind of warning.
Okay we can go on and on about hoodies, who was at fault, blah blah blah. The simple fact is neither one of us were there, and GZ is the only one here to tell his side of the story. My original point wasn't aimed toward GZ being racist and killing TM. It was solely meant to point out that racism still exists no matter who you are.
Whatever the outcome, this is devisive. I think doing a neighborhood watch patrol with a gun is different than protecting your own home. Could a 17 year old look threatening, yes. More so if you are looking for the threat. Media focuses on pictures of a younger boy which is encouraging the outrage. They are profiting from this tragedy. They focus on Zimmerman being white, they have just recently clairfied that he is hispanic. No surprise they encourage further racial misunderstanding, it sells papers. Today in this heat, I've seen several young boys wearing hoodies. a statement is being made, lines are drawn. I think whatever the truth is, there will continue to be a rift between black and white, made worse by this. Racism does exist, I saw it growing up being hispanic. I lived through it when Robinson wanted to get whitey and killed Erik. I was also fortunate to grow up in a diverse area and have friends of all nationalities and races. The benefits of growing up near a big military base. Racism still exists and perhaps even in the heart of George Zimmerman. I know things get very heated around here but you all seem to have respect for each other, you have each other's backs. I enjoy reading the different perspectives. The nation will get through this, maybe we'll learn something. Hopefully truth and justice will be served and you can all get back to your unreasonable hatred of Nickleback.
