Black Teen Shot 3

This past deer season my son had a black bear run right at him. He ran away . And he had a loaded 308 in his hands. It wasn’t bear season and tagged bear was actually running away from hunters, but my son is A. Smart and B. not OG.

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]overstand wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

In this whole argument I never saw anyone put out the possibility that he was up to know good. It was always assumed he was not doing anything wrong .
I read his twitter feed before it was pulled . At best he was a moron.
And why not get away when he could if he felt threatened ? Why attack if he did?
[/quote]

According to Professor X:

If you are being chased a bear and the bear stops and starts walking away, the wisest course of action would be to double back and punch it in the nose. [/quote]
Haha, a fantastic summary.[/quote]

I think another good possibility is that he was selling weed and waiting for someone to come pick it up. Would explain why he was hanging around outside in the rain and why he ran away.

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:
The real moral of the story is that if you are going to fuck around with people and their stuff, do it at your own risk.[/quote]

What? What are you talking about?

And my son is fast. Running away is a great option.

I’m sorry, but Zimmerman equals bear?

Zimmerman was small, fat and weak. The only thing that made him “a bear” was the gun.

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:
The real moral of the story is that if you are going to fuck around with people and their stuff, do it at your own risk.[/quote]

What? What are you talking about?[/quote]
Hm. Stupid questions do exist.

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:
The real moral of the story is that if you are going to fuck around with people and their stuff, do it at your own risk.[/quote]

What? What are you talking about?[/quote]

Doing bad things is a way to cause yourself problems. Or while you have the freedom to make choices you do not get to chose the consequences .

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I’m sorry, but Zimmerman equals bear?

Zimmerman was small, fat and weak. The only thing that made him “a bear” was the gun. [/quote]
Well I think Martin was the charging “bear”. I’d have shot a bear. Unless it was retreating. Don’t get lost on semantics.

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:
The real moral of the story is that if you are going to fuck around with people and their stuff, do it at your own risk.[/quote]

What? What are you talking about?[/quote]

Doing bad things is a way to cause yourself problems. Or while you have the freedom to make choices you do not get to chose the consequences .

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]
The point would be it supports his assertion of suspicion. Don’t play dumb.

Doesn’t matter. What he did was not legal. The kid looked suspicious . Do you have kids? I have 17 year olds . Ok knows wsgedn they’re up to something . Ok have a 19 year old stepl daughter who was a lot of trouble. She practically take out a billboard that she was up to no good.

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]
The point would be it supports his assertion of suspicion. Don’t play dumb.[/quote]

Innocent until proven guilty.

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]
The point would be it supports his assertion of suspicion. Don’t play dumb.[/quote]

Innocent until proven guilty.[/quote]
Yep. However, meeting conjecture with conjecture supported by evidence is fun.

[quote]four60 wrote:

[quote]Thuggish wrote:
Can we just sum this shit up? I think I can.

Either Zimmer-moron continued pursuing Trayvon (God I’m starting to hate that name) and deserves something between manslaughter or murder for causing him to feel threatened enough to turn and fight, which it doesn’t look like (especially the murder one, seeing as how even an idiot murderer shouldn’t get as hurt as Zimmer-moron did), or he stopped pursuit as he said, in which case Trayvon must have escalated things to violence BEYOND any “stand your ground” rules, which exonerates Zimmer-moron.

It has to be one of those scenarios.

THERE. THAT’S IT. DONE.[/quote]

Even a idot murderer shouldn’t get as hurt as Zim-Moron did? But a person going home from the store and is killed in the street is a victimless crime.

I believe Zim will get off but not because any evidence validates him. He will walk because reasonable doubt is a question around when they stood face to face. [/quote]

Do you not get what I was saying?

I’m saying that if he set out to kill some black kid in cold blood, premeditated, all that… even if he was a Forest Gump level idiot, he would not have been as injured as he was. I’m saying that in all likelihood his injuries alone mean that it wasn’t murder in the first degree.

What does

have to do with anything I said?

See? This is the problem with discussions like this…

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:
Innocent until proven guilty.[/quote]

Oh, the irony.

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
Just a dumb punk. Speculation of course but he probably was casing. The real moral of the story is that if you are going to fuck around with people and their stuff, do it at your own risk.[/quote]

That “moral” would only apply if Martin was caught doing such a thing(and with evidence) by Zimmerman. You had it right at “speculation.”

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]
The point would be it supports his assertion of suspicion. Don’t play dumb.[/quote]

Innocent until proven guilty.[/quote]

The reason this whole discussion has momentum is because of the assumption that Martin was a “good kid” and the only reason Zimmerman took an interest in, followed and subsequently shot and killed Martin is because a) Zimmerman is a “racist pig” and b) Martin was black.

If you add in a history of antisocial/criminal behaviour on Martin’s part that picture begins to change somewhat, regardless of whether Zimmerman was aware of that history. There are certain patterns of mannerisms, body language and behaviour that criminals or people who like to style themselves criminals tend to exhibit. Even a moderately observant person can generally pick up on this. I live in a very “white” area so our street criminals are often white, and regardless of race, age or anything else they tend to “look like” criminals. Any sensible person knows what I mean by this. I has nothing to do with innocent until proven guilty. We all assess people in seconds based largely on their outward appearance and demeanour. This is obviously not justification to shoot somebody but it may very well arouse suspicion.

If I saw a guy who looked, moved and acted like one of these guys in my neighbourhood at night, in the rain even if I knew nothing about his history, I might very well take an interest in him and what he was doing. I would handle it differently than Zimmerman, but we’re talking about the initial suspicion here and the totality of circumstances that contributed to the decisions that were made that night. It is very a different picture if Martin were a volunteer/honour student/youth group type of kid who just happened to be black than if he was legitimately a young man who was beginning to explore/engage in criminal activity. I only mean this in so much as how his general attitude and demeanour would likely be perceived by an observer on the night in question.

Of course this discussion is a total clusterfuck anyway and I am about to regret clicking “SUBMIT” but there you go.

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]

What does any of this have to do addressing the furtherance with the race issue??? At best you just pointed out the obvious that Martin wasn’t a totally innocent and straight-laced member of society…as neither was Zimmerman.

[quote]batman730 wrote:

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]HoustonGuy wrote:

[quote]Swolegasm wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I have not seen this addressed. I’d like to see if possible if the duke lacrosse case was addressed here and what certain people said about it.

I like how people openly lie in furtherance of their incitement of racist attacks and murders.

'(T)he Miami Herald reported that there were “multiple suspensions” on Trayvon’s record. Even more important, the Miami Herald article reports "In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area ‘hiding and being suspicious.’ Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with ‘W.T.F’ - an acronym for ‘what the f-.’ The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.

“Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a ‘burglary tool,’ according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald.”

“Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.”


So we know he’s a thief.


“Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.”

“‘Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,’ he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.”


So we know he’s a liar and stupid.


“Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.”


So we know he was under police investigation.


This revelation is extremely important when you consider that George Zimmerman claimed to have seen Trayvon casing homes in the neighborhood for future burglaries. Trayvon had “burglary tools” and women’s diamond earings and wedding bands, which were burglarized from somewhere.


And we know that Zimmerman is obviously good at spotting criminals. Trayvon was suspended from school three times for his increasingly anti-social behaviour. His twitter account makes reference to him assaulting a bus driver. Drug use, theft, violence, vandalism, truancy, police investigation etc.[/quote]
[/quote]

So Zimmerman knew all this before he followed him?
[/quote]
The point would be it supports his assertion of suspicion. Don’t play dumb.[/quote]

Innocent until proven guilty.[/quote]

The reason this whole discussion has momentum is because of the assumption that Martin was a “good kid” and the only reason Zimmerman took an interest in, followed and subsequently shot and killed Martin is because a) Zimmerman is a “racist pig” and b) Martin was black.

If you add in a history of antisocial/criminal behaviour on Martin’s part that picture begins to change somewhat, regardless of whether Zimmerman was aware of that history. There are certain patterns of mannerisms, body language and behaviour that criminals or people who like to style themselves criminals tend to exhibit. Even a moderately observant person can generally pick up on this. I live in a very “white” area so our street criminals are often white, and regardless of race, age or anything else they tend to “look like” criminals. Any sensible person knows what I mean by this. I has nothing to do with innocent until proven guilty. We all assess people in seconds based largely on their outward appearance and demeanour. This is obviously not justification to shoot somebody but it may very well arouse suspicion.

If I saw a guy who looked, moved and acted like one of these guys in my neighbourhood at night, in the rain even if I knew nothing about his history, I might very well take an interest in him and what he was doing. I would handle it differently than Zimmerman, but we’re talking about the initial suspicion here and the totality of circumstances that contributed to the decisions that were made that night. It is very a different picture if Martin were a volunteer/honour student/youth group type of kid who just happened to be black than if he was legitimately a young man who was beginning to explore/engage in criminal activity. I only mean this in so much as how his general attitude and demeanour would likely be perceived by an observer on the night in question.

Of course this discussion is a total clusterfuck anyway and I am about to regret clicking “SUBMIT” but there you go.[/quote]

Nothing to regret…here…because it was unbiased. You did what SexMachine couldn’t.