After posting this thread yesterday, ekg made a comment I'd like to share...
I think it's a legit observation. Even if I had been in Zimmy's shoes, even if I agree 100% with Zimmy's actions, I would step back following this horrendous experience that affected so many people's lives forever and reflect...
the entire quote is hyperbole and nonsense. It refuses to actually understand another perspective all the while pretending to.
I'll break it down.
1. TM was supposed to be there that night
this is not part of anyones contention. Zimmerman had every legal right to be where he was as well.
2. TM wasn't carrying a weapon
It doesn't matter if TM wasn't carrying a traditional weapon, the self defense claim is not dependant on that. As zimmermans lawyers assutely pointed out, Trayvon martin was armed with a concrete sidewalk. Our laws do not define weapons solely as guns and knives:
___
deadly weapon n. any weapon which can kill. This includes not only weapons which are intended to do harm like a gun or knife, but also blunt instruments like clubs, baseball bats, monkey wrenches, an automobile or any object which actually causes death. This becomes important when trying to prove criminal charges brought for assault with a deadly weapon. In a few 1990s cases courts have found rocks and even penises of AIDS sufferers as "deadly weapons."
Source: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/deadly+weapon
___
Trayvon was armed that night when the altercation started. A concrete sidewalk is a blunt instrument that can cause death or grave bodily injury.
3. TM could have maybe smoked a joint sometime that day so he wasn't 'on drugs' or anything else GZ implied
irrelevant. He made an observation that Trayvon martin was walking around suspiciously and lackadaisical. Zimmerman said he
might be on drugs, and whether he was right or wrong about that says nothing as to his self defense claim.
4. He was armed with skittles
hyperbolic nonsense. He was armed with a concrete sidewalk.
5. He had no idea who GZ was.. why GZ was following him..what GZ wanted with him..
There is no evidence that GZ was threatenly following him. I walk around where I live at night all the time too, and sometimes I see other people. Chances are if you see a guy in a nice pickup truck that clearly is in a gated community, that it's very likely a neighbor and not some dangerous criminal. Furthermore, zimmerman had every legal right to be where he was. Trayvon martin also had a history of fighting, with his cousin even texting him asking him to teach him.
after all the 'hindsight'.. wouldn't any of us have some sort of inkling of guilt for taking the life of another human? shouldn't he have some kind of.. idk compassion? for what he did? hardened soldiers from every war have guilt over being forced to justifiably kill women/children.. children who were holding grenades or aiming weapons at them or in suicide vests.. circumstances where there was no ambiguity, where it was kill or be killed. They have ptsd over these absolutely necessary killings..They have feelings of doubt and guilt.. Veteran police who have had to pull their weapons on anyone and kill them, adult or child.. have issues of guilt that haunt them forever..
The problem with this paragraph is that it once again ASSUMES that trayvon was innocent. This is not likely (I would say definitively isn't) true. Trayvon viciously attacked somebody that was doing nothing illegal. He put zimmerman in fear for his life. I would feel zero remorse for killing somebody that was violently attacking me. Trayvon was the perpetrator, zimmerman was the victim. Women that shoot their rapists aren't going to be feeling bad, people shooting robbers breaking into their house aren't going to be feeling remorse, and zimmerman shooting his violent attacker shouldn't feel remorse either.
You feel remorse when you have done something wrong, and zimmerman did nothing wrong.
and then we have George..
who's still celebrating...basking even... in the death he caused..
Trayvon deserved to die. I also would celebrate the death of my violent attacker.
I don't care if you're on "my" side in this argument... shouldn't there be something other than "basking in the glory of.." on GZ part? instead of this lack of common decency.. or sociopath-like behavior..
Fuck no. He just beat being unjustly railroaded. I would be estatic too. I think it's important for him to constantly remind people he was the victim, and trayvon was the violent, lawbreaking attacker that night.
I think it's a legit observation. Even if I had been in Zimmy's shoes, even if I agree 100% with Zimmy's actions, I would step back following this horrendous experience that affected so many people's lives forever and reflect...
You are certainly entitled to your own viewpoint, but don't pretend you have any grasp of the other perspective. You would NOT "reflect" or think about "the peoples lives that have been affected forever" if those peoples lives were of an attempted murderer that tried to kill you.
Trayvon was not a victim anymore than scott peterson is a victim. Their deaths are caused by their own hands and actions.
