Zimmerman Trial Part 5 The Jury Decides (gasoline, illegal, activist, weapon)
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We might not hear from jurors, but I'd bet they didn't believe everything gz said. But they don't do what you'd like --- disbelieve some, disbelieve all. They probably believed the essence of what he said because that's what the testimony supported.
TM punched and banged his head on the ground a number of times. TM was on top. GZ was yelling for help. He had a reasonable fear of great bodily injury. Verdict: Not Guilty.
That's exactly how I came to my conclusion on this trial as well.
I have my own experience with profiling and how I profiled some young black males, but did nothing, and then 15 minutes later a 20 year old black male was gunned down by these very same suspects. This is a bit long, but maybe worth a read.
I live in a downtown area in a dangerous city, but it’s pretty nice where I live. Still, the projects are not far away. I live in a loft building and my windows look out on the parking lots. Over the course of 10 years, I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve called the police on suspicious people and people breaking into cars, etc. I guess that makes me a busybody, but those of us who have a good view of the backside of our building try to be good neighbors by monitoring the alley and parking lot at night.
About 2 years ago–right around Halloween, I was returning from walking my dog at night and as I was coming into the back entrance of my building, I saw a car down the alley with some very thugged out looking black males congregating about. To be honest, I don’t know you empirically quantify a gut reaction, but something you can just tell who’s harmless and who’s really up to no good. Something about the stripe of these guys just did not sit well with me.
I got back to my unit and looked out the window at them. I was definitely picking up a bad vibe from them and I started thinking that maybe I should call the police to come down and run them off. This alley is a rather busy alley because it connects to a museum on the other side, so it’s not uncommon for people to be there at night.
Then I started having this conversation in my head, imagining my call to the police– usually it’s a black female dispatcher who answers the phone and when they ask what the situation is, over time it becomes embarrassing to have to describe the suspects because it always just sound like I’m profiling black males– but it’s not like we’ve ever had a rash of white criminals hit our area. It is what it is.
And I couldn’t think of one concrete reason that wasn’t going to sound like profiling to a black police dispatcher, so I paced back and forth debating with myself whether or not to call the police.
After about 15 minutes, as I was walking around in my living room, I started hearing some very loud POPs. I ran to the window and I saw this car full of these black males starting to speed down the alley– and the guy in the passenger seat was pointing a handgun out the window and firing indiscriminately at a rapidly dispersing crowd of random bystanders. Fortunately, he didn’t hit anyone at this time.
I grabbed my phone and finally dialed the police. As I was waiting– about 45 seconds after I heard and saw the shots being fired, I heard another series of shots– coming from the opposite side of my building. Unfortunately, I have no windows on that side so I couldn’t see what was happening.
It turns out that this car full of thugs had driven around to the other side of the block and saw a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk and they pulled up and shot a 20 year old black male and killed him in cold blood before speeding away. Right next to the front door of my building.
I would ask some of the anti-profiling Trayvon hoodie wearing sympathizers to listen to me for a moment. If I had listened to the voice of my gut–and my logical mind– and had called the police the second I saw these guys and knew they were up to no good. It’s very likely that this 20 year old black male would be alive today.
Instead, I listened to that nagging PC white guilt voice in my head and did nothing. A young person is dead because of it.
These people have got to be realistic about crime. They may not like being profiled, but they never realize that sometimes in this world of black-on-black (and yes, black-on-white, but I don’t even have time to go there) violence, sometimes the person who gets profiled could be the person who could have gone on to kill someone– black, white, whatever– in the subsequent minutes, hours, days.
Profiling is one word for it, but what it is really, is just listening to one’s instincts and sense of reality. And it can save lives.
The case itself really wasn't inherently racial. The same fact pattern could have involved two white people or two black people. It became racial when black activists ignored the facts of the case and went looking for an excuse to scream, "We are still being persecuted! Our problems are Whitey's fault."
The end result is that now the black community is showcasing its racial hatred and cultural values by defending a would-be murderer in Trayvon Martin.
Yes because blacks are the only ones supporting Trayvon. What this case is more about is parents not wanting their children to wind up dead just from walking to the store. This situation hits close to home for MILLIONS of people, regardless of race.
According to Zimmerman, he and TM were tussling around on the ground for quite a while. Yet TM STILL received no injuries. Methinks that GZ isn't too good at fighting.
But he had his gun, so that gave him some confidence. And he used it.
We DON'T KNOW who the initial aggressor was. But we do know that GZ was following TM, against the advice of professionals, which in itself can be construed as aggressive behavior, especially in the dark.
No we dont. There is no evidence that he continued to follow him either.
B.S. You can't say that you're open-minded and then just accept GZ account of what happened, especially when the circumstantial evidence of that night would suggest different motives for BOTH people from what GZ said. You don't even need to think he's lying, but to accept his account w/o a shadow of a doubt is NOT open-minded.
Your words suggest exactly that: "you are trying to claim Martin was justified in attacking Zimmerman." The only way you consider that a fact is by believing GZ.
JG testimony was about what happened after the initial confrontation, so there's no corroboration about what happened to lead up to the confrontation.
I was talking about Martin attacking Zimmerman, which was proven by both the prosecution and the defense. I did not make assertions as to the very initial encounter between the two. Perhaps you are confusing me with someone else?
We might not hear from jurors, but I'd bet they didn't believe everything gz said. But they don't do what you'd like --- disbelieve some, disbelieve all. They probably believed the essence of what he said because that's what the testimony supported.
TM punched and banged his head on the ground a number of times. TM was on top. GZ was yelling for help. He had a reasonable fear of great bodily injury. Verdict: Not Guilty.
Maybe, but the argument that the prosecutors didn't have a strong enough case to convict is much different than the narrative being floated by CD's GZ supporters of a thug looking to punish GZ for challenging him.
“There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life,than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Jesse Jackson
Good post. I profile, and Im proud of it. And those against, seem to forget Martin profiled that night too. CREEPY ASS CRACKER. Maybe he shouldve stuck with is profiling and went home and not assaulted Zimmerman. Then hed be alive.
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