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However the supposed broken nose is a major part of his defense; one would think that if he thought he really had a broken nose, he would have verified that by going to a doctor to have x-rays done. Also, to be sure there was no other damage done to his skull, etc.
Even with a broken toe you need x-rays. Sometimes the break can be so bad that you need surgery, otherwise you will end up with a stiff toe for the rest of your life.
Ouch, I am crying just reading this. No kidding, I'm in a lot of pain tonight because I did a lot of walking today. I haven't been able to wear shoes in 3 years, just sandals. This is all because of a broken toe that didn't heal properly. I'm supposed to have joint surgery, but I wish they'd just cut the damn thing off it hurts so much.
I suspect you've had some medical training or you've had a foot injury as well.
Ouch, I am crying just reading this. No kidding, I'm in a lot of pain tonight because I did a lot of walking today. I haven't been able to wear shoes in 3 years, just sandals. This is all because of a broken toe that didn't heal properly. I'm supposed to have joint surgery, but I wish they'd just cut the damn thing off it hurts so much.
Oh, no . I feel your pain. I have such a stiff toe from having it broken and misdiagnosed!! I was walking down the sidewalk in a large city to a meeting, there were some pebbles on the sidewalk, I was wearing high heels, slipped on the pebbles, and down I went, briefcase and purse went flying! It was a bad break; although I have no problems still wearing high heels, I do have a stiff toe!
So I would think if someone hit me hard enough to break my nose, I'd FEEL it. I remember how badly my toe hurt. I'd also be concerned enough about it that I would follow up with medical treatment such as x-rays, etc. Btw, I also ended up with an injury to my arm and a black eye and scratches on my face. I went backward, then forward, and sort of landed on my side and face. Needless to say, my feet were all twisted up in a knot sort of and my high heels were no longer on my feet! I looked like someone beat me up, but all those injuries on my face healed up within a few days. After I got up, and was trying to do anything but be sprawled out on the sidewalk , some people came up to me to offer help and asked if I had been mugged! Today, when I remember it, sitting here in the comfort of my home, it's funny. But when I hit that sidewalk, it was really shocking and I physically felt like someone had mugged me.
Zimmerman had a choice, too. He could have waited until the police arrived. But he did not. He shot Trayvon before the police got there, which was only several minutes after he called.
You keep attempting to equate bad decisions to crimes. You can't seem to get it through your head that following someone is not a crime, even when it is a terrible decision. Assaulting someone is a crime. And if you assault someone and they have a gun, there is a good chance that they will shoot you.
Quote:
How long it took Martin to walk home from the 7-11 is irrelevant.
My point about the walk home, was simply to state that Martin was not simply walking home. If he had just walked home, he would have been in his house for over half an hour before the time he was shot. For whatever reason, Martin did not go home. And this wasn't some nice weather where he was taking a carefree stroll. This was a night where it was cool and rainy, so why would he spend about 35 minutes longer in the rain than was necessary?
My point is, I don't believe Zimmerman had intended to just shoot Martin for no reason, if you listen to the tape, he lost sight of Martin and it sounds like he stops walking altogether for a while, and is concerned that if he tells the dispatcher where he lives, that Martin might hear. He simply doesn't sound like some kind of depraved lunatic, and had the dispatcher kept talking to him, he probably would have just stayed on the line, not moving, till the police got there. I mean, he called 911 to report Martin, it wasn't like he was just out walking the streets looking for criminals where he could pretend he was the cops.
This picture of Zimmerman as any sort of aggressor, simply doesn't make much sense. If you apply any logic to the situation at all, it seems pretty obvious that Martin was upset that Zimmerman was following him, and then basically started an argument with Zimmerman, which ended up with Martin punching Zimmerman and jumping on top of him, at which time Zimmerman shot him.
The only piece of evidence that seems possible to be able to contradict the idea that Trayvon was the aggressor, would be the audio tape where someone is crying for help(not just regular help, but a stressed help). But the question is, why would Trayvon be calling for help, because it seems to me from the evidence that Trayvon was by far winning the fight.
Well, I'm 57 years old and I have never been attacked and I'll bet I never will be and I'm certainly not going to spend the rest of my life worrying that it's going to happen.
I am also a single woman living in a very rural area - there are four homes/farms (besides mine) within a mile of me. The back of my property borders national forest with miles and miles and miles of woods and logging roads and clearcuts. I don't lock my doors and I leave the keys in the ignitions of my vehicles (I do have a gate across my driveway).
WHY is everybody so freakin' paranoid that they think they have to go into a 7-11 store ARMED? I swear, it's like you all are HOPING for a confrontation - which could be exactly the type of mentality that caused the death of a teenage boy.
I don't get it. And I'm not even anti gun!
Well, I think you would feel a lot different if you didn't live where you live. Trust me, you can't leave your keys in your ignition in most places in this country. I live in one of the nicest suburbs of Oklahoma City, in one of the nicest areas in the suburb. Most houses are about a quarter of a million dollars. But it is an ungated community, and I used to leave my car unlocked, then it got broken into twice, and they stole my GPS and some other stupid crap.
My friend called me the other day and said he was sitting in his house about 11 pm, and looked out the window and saw some kid going through his car, and they stole some CD's and other crap. The kid is lucky I didn't see him going through my car, I would have shot him.
I'll tell you something sad, I've got family members who are basically from what I can tell associated with something like a Mafia or organized-crime syndicate up in Philadelphia. I've had other family members who were in gangs back here in Oklahoma City. And I've heard about some of the stupid crap they would do.
They call it "kickin in doors", which is their word for robbing houses. And they robbed houses, robbed people, stole cars, stereos, motorcycles, even bicycles. I had my motorcycle stolen before, and I looked up the stats. And something like 40,000 motorcycles are stolen every year in this country. So please don't be so naive.
I have a friend who had people break into his home, while he was in it, and beat the **** out of him and almost killed him because they knew he had money. I'm sure you've seen those shows on tv where similar things happen.
There are places in this country, that a person simply should not walk at night. That is just reality. A lot of the gas stations around here have bullet-proof glass that they put up at night and leave open during the day.
Trust me, just because you are largely insulated from crime because you live in the middle of nowhere. Doesn't mean there isn't crime going on. And really, a large percentage of crime goes unreported. About a third of all murders are never solved.
The reality is, someone could drive to your place tonight, jump your fence, and break into your house. What are you going to do when they are crawling in your window? Call the police? How long before they get there?
Most criminals know better than to break into a country house anyway. People in the country tend to have guns. It is much easier for criminals if they know the houses they break into have people who are unarmed.
The truth is, whether or not Zimmerman followed someone through an area that he had the right to be in, and which he had an intention to protect his neighborhood, really doesn't matter. He committed no crime.
Bad judgement is not a crime.
Bad judgement certainly leads to crime/crimes.
Fragmenting the evidence takes it out of context. When this case goes to hearing or trial, I think you will see that the "evidence" won't be fragmented in the manner you're describing. "Following Martin" could certainly go to intent. At any rate, everything that is known to have happened will be put together in context via witnesses for both State and Defense.
Someone can commit 1st degree murder, and every act leading up to the actual murder can be perfectly legal; however, when you look at the entire incident in context, many of the very legal activities can certainly go to intent and motive and will be used in a trial.
Fragmenting the evidence takes it out of context. When this case goes to hearing or trial, I think you will see that the "evidence" won't be fragmented in the manner you're describing. "Following Martin" could certainly go to intent. At any rate, everything that is known to have happened will be put together in context via witnesses for both State and Defense.
Intent to do what? Kill Trayvon Martin? You think he intended to basically murder Trayvon Martin? Is that what you really believe? Seriously?
You really believe that he called the police and stayed on the line for something like five minutes, then got basically beat up to the point that he could have easily been knocked unconscious. All so he could murder Trayvon Martin?
The problem with your argument is that, those things Zimmerman did, weren't illegal.
If I call you an idiot, and you get mad and punch me in the face. Was there a crime? And who committed the crime?
Sure, if I had never called you an idiot, you wouldn't have punched me in the face. And it was probably stupid of me to call you an idiot. But that doesn't mean I'm guilty or that you're innocent.
You're fragmenting the evidence again. And, yes, if you started the fight with verbally threatening language, you are guilty and you can't use SYG as a defense.
People cannot go out and verbally provoke someone to attack them, then shoot them, and claim SYG. If people could do that, what an easy way for someone to kill someone they hated, or someone they felt had stolen from them, or someone they didn't want around anymore, etc., etc.
Intent to do what? Kill Trayvon Martin? You think he intended to basically murder Trayvon Martin? Is that what you really believe? Seriously?
You really believe that he called the police and stayed on the line for something like five minutes, then got basically beat up to the point that he could have easily been knocked unconscious. All so he could murder Trayvon Martin?
I mean, seriously?
And that would be for the jury to decide....was Zimmerman's intent to "protect" the neighborhood so zealous that he provoked an incident with an innocent person who was a guest on the property because Zimmerman didn't take the time to safely deal with the issue? Was Zimmerman paranoid, and therefore provoked the incident? What, if anything, did Zimmerman say to Trayvon which provoked him to hit Zimmerman, if he struck the first blow? Yes, those are things which can be brought out when testing Zimmerman's credibility, then the argument can be made at closing as to Zimmerman's state of mind before, during, and after the incident.
If you fragment the evidence into little tiny isolated behaviors, you distort the incident.
According to the Sanford Police investigation in a report dated March 13
"The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely, if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an effort to dispel each party's concern," the report says. "There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter."
[url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-17/zimmerman-trayvon-shooting-report/55046944/1]Police report: Trayvon Martin's shooting was 'avoidable'[/url]
Interesting that Trayvon had been living in that community for a week. I didn't know that until tonight.
A police report concluded that at the time he was confronted by Zimmerman, Trayvon "was in fact generally running in the direction of where he was staying as a guest in the neighborhood."
Zimmerman had reported "suspicious persons, all young black males" to police on three previous occasions in 2011, the reports said.
"According to record checks, all of Zimmerman's suspicious person calls while residing in the Retreat neighborhood have identified Black males as the subjects," the report said.
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. I feel your pain. I have such a stiff toe from having it broken and misdiagnosed!! I was walking down the sidewalk in a large city to a meeting, there were some pebbles on the sidewalk, I was wearing high heels, slipped on the pebbles, and down I went, briefcase and purse went flying! It was a bad break; although I have no problems still wearing high heels, I do have a stiff toe!
This is the bottom line
