Why hasn't Zimmerman been arrested?

The cause of the anguish is not that he hasn't been convicted but that he wasn't even arrested or charged.

 

I agree the home is a different story.

But I think in public, if you have an opportunity to avoid the situation or retreat without using lethal force you should have an obligation to do so.

Otherwise it makes it to easy for killers to get away with murder.

 

if a guy is on top of you, there is no retreating... he was actively getting hit and Trayvon was in a dominant position according to "John" the anonymous eye witness


There is ZERO ability to have to retreat.... and nothing in EITHER SYG or self defense laws in FL says you have to retreat. However, since there was no ability to retreat when Zimmerman was put in danger.... you have an uphill battle.


Questioning a suspicious looking teen why he's in the neighborhood does not justify getting hit and beat (according to the witnesses)

 

Brought in, questioned, and released based on the available evidence. You can't hold someone without evidence. The evidence pointed to Z having been battered which is enough reason to expect self defense.

 

Why not open the debate about segregation instead of focusing on the crime? Oprah Winfrey has lots of money and has officially weighed in on this debate. She should be financially held accountable for her decision. She should have to pay for the expenses of the blacks in USA society and not me. Has anyone tallied the dollar count? (Welfare, NAACP, incarceration expenses, legal expenses (police, lawyers, judges), rent subsidies, housing subsidies, energy subsidies, cell phone plans, etc.). Tally up the bill and send it to OPRAH WINFREY, SPIKE LEE, AL SHARPTON and JESSE JACKSON. They have volunteered to pay for all of the atrocities committed upon USA society for blacks in the last 50 years.

 

that's opinion, and not what FL law says.


Believe it or not.... I have avoided getting stung by bees by simply not throwing rocks at hornet nests.... but some call that appeasement. The hornets nest needs to be removed..... I would just prefer someone else do it for me.


Zimmerman was that "someone else" trying to put an end to robberies, home invasions and vandalism. Trayvon simply tried to up the ante and got called.


ignoring the fact that his neighborhood was under a rash of crime dismisses Zimmerman's legit reason to be concerned with ANY teen walking around at night, in a hoodie, while it was raining, on a school night....

 

That is the very intention of the law! Indeed, it is its entire raison d'etre!

The burden of proof should be on the prosecutor. The law abiding citizen should not be charged with a crime for merely defending himself. Otherwise, he is placed in the existentially absurd position of having to choose between obeying the law and defending his own life. There should be some evidence that he was NOT merely defending himself before he is charged.

In the Zimmerman case, there is considerable evidence that Zimmerman went out of his way to accost Martin, and thus deliberately provoked the incident through his own actions. Therefore, SYG does not (or at least should not) apply. If Zimmerman never got out of his vehicle and proceeded around the corner to confront Martin in the courtyard, if he had listened to the advice of the dispatcher, there would have been no incident.

 

You are right, we don't know who started it. What you seem to want is a presumption of guilt instead of a presumption of innocence when lethal force is used. That will lead to people who justifiably used lethal force being put in prison for murder.

There is no perfect solution of course as man is fallible. I'd rather live in a world where innocent people are not afraid to defend themselves by force than a world where no guilty man walks free.

 

and to think, a month ago, Zimmerman would have been agreeing with iriemon....


just shows how quick a liberal will flip-flop when it suits his purpose.

 

That's a sick attitude. The very idea that a law abiding citizen should have to retreat from somebody he believes to be a criminal is absurd.

The police were going to drop this case, But now they are going to be forced to tell the world about the real Travyon Martin. Burglar, dealer,gold toothed thug.

 

The call to police that he did not follow the advice from proves that. The only case I see being made is a grown man was getting beat up by a child. So he had to shoot him to save his own life. Since Zimmerman put himself in harms way he didn't "stand his ground" he "advanced his ground". The only debate in my mind is should he get manslaughter or murder 2. Defending your self in that situation is not crimefree. That is why they passed the law because victims were being put in prison for defending themselves in a situation they did not seek out.

 

Should a citizen be able to blow someone away when the could have simply walked away from the situation?

I'm not saying a persons shouldn't have the right to defend themselves.

I'm saying they should have the obligation to avoid a situation or retreat if the can without killing someone.

I don't know of any evidence that Zimmerman accosted him.

That is certainly true.

 

Actually, what is said to Zimmerman while running is that he did not need to do that and if you listen to the tape, you can tell he quits running. He says that Treyvon approached him after he started returning to his truck or something to that effect. You cannot know that anything different happened.

 

I read what the lawyer said, but Zimmerman hasn't been charged with anything yet much less gone to trial, so we don't know what the defense will do.

I think they'd be absolutely insane not to refer to the SYG law. If the defense has to show that Zimmerman tried to avoid the situation or escape before using lethal force they have a much tougher defense.

I'm not sure I follow. We know that Zimmerman went after Martin, but we don't know if Martin attacked him and if he did if Zimmerman provoked it.

To the contrary, if he did defend himself and didn't provoke the altercation he does get off free.

And since the only other real witness is dead, he may get off free regardless of what he did.

 

If that's the case then there is no case at all. Zimmerman is not guilty by your own reasoning.

 

That is how I believe it to be as well. It will be a jury to decide of course. I am only offering an opinion. I do not claim to be a lawyer or to have all the evidence but I believe it to be manslaughter at the least.

 

No kidding?

Baseless speculation.

He may have had a legitimate reason to be concerned. He's not a cop. He didn't have a legitimate reason to confront him in a way that created an altercation.

 

That's just crazy. Confronting someone non-violently does not give another justification to assault you, assuming that Martin initiated violence. Once the altercation became physical and Zimmerman had the need to protect himself from serious physical harm through lethal force, the law should protect his right to do so assuming Zimmerman is the assailee and not the assailant.

Whether Zimmerman was justified in getting out of his vehicle and confronting Martin is irrelevant. We are human beings not wild beasts who fly into fits of violent rage at the slightest provocation and should be expected to behave as such.

 

Your logic is faulty because lack of evidence does not mean lack of guilt.

But I agree there may be no case under the current law. Even though Zimmerman went after Martin and that resulted in an altercation and death under circumstances were it sure seems like he could have avoided it, under the current law Zimmerman under the SYG had no obligation to back off or retreat in his confrontation with Martin and before shooting him.

 

Understand that Zimmerman could still use self-defense as his defense during trial. However, he should not be immune to charges of homicide under Florida SYG.

Using your analogy, there is a very big legal difference between throwing rocks at a hornets nest for fun and getting stung for being stupid, pretending to be an authorized hornets nest remover and getting stung because you don't know what you're doing and have no business doing it, and actually being an authorized hornets nest remover after being trained in the science, but nevertheless still getting stung.

 

Zimmerman should be able to operate under that assumption that his fellow citizens will obey the law and not attack him. A non-physical confrontation breaks no law as far as I am aware.

 

Why not?

I don't follow how your analogies is relevant at all. But to the extent I think what you're are saying, there is a very big difference between an authorized law enforcement office confronting someone and a civilian.

 

And Martin should be able to operate under the assumption that he can walk home without some unknown guy confronting him and blocking his way.

 

More assumptions.

 

you are allowed to confront someone....


"Excuse me sir, you can't cut, the line starts back there" is a confrontation


"what are you doing in my neighborhood" is a confrontation


neither warrant the "victim" of the confrontation to jump them and beat them


so unless you have some proof that Zimmerman had a gun drawn on Trayvon.... which would COMPLETELY change everything I've said about SYG and self defense as it applies to this case... then you got nothing.