George Zimmerman found not guilty

Thoughts?

I'm just waiting to see if the black community in Florida starts rioting to protest a hispanic guy "profiling" a young black man as a violent criminal. Nothing like a good ol' riot to dispel that stereotype.

Well, if you look at the objective evidence of the crime scene, the testimony of the eye witness that had the best view of the fight, the testimony of a world renowned forensic pathologist and all the objective evidence associated with the gun wound, the police reports by the investigating officers and detectives, etc. It all supports the not guilty verdict that was reached by the jury.



On the other hand, if you want to engage in supposition and be swept away with emotion, you will conclude that the jury was wrong and injustice was done tonight with this verdict.



I believe the fired police chief of Sanford PD was vindicated tonight. His dept.'s investigation concluded Zimmerman acted in self defense. It turns out they were correct.



I personally feel the verdict was correct and justice was done.



Now, it will be interesting to see what Eric Holder and the DOJ does.

The bias in reporting is unbelievable on this. Sentence structure is a good indication of where bias lies. The stories I'm reading tilt their structure heavily towards a "Zimmerman is a racist" by first presenting something as fact, but then informing you it's just what the prosecution argued, but when addressing the defensive argument, first informing you it is the defense's argument to present it as opinion only without the tilt towards fact.



Examples:



"Zimmerman acted out of hatred and malice and wanted to shoot one of these f---ing punks, the prosecution argued"



"The defense argued that Zimmerman was merely defending himself."



See the trick?

I loved the media objectivity. AP reported that Zimmerman was "a self proclaimed Hispanic." :lol: Really? A Peruvian mother does not qualify a person to be Hispanic?

It was the right, and only just verdict that could have been delivered. Glad that it actually happened that way.

I expect a civil trial by the family next.

scott715 wrote:
I expect a civil trial by the family next.

If that's the case, Zimmerman may want to make friends with Snowden.

So many different ways it could have ended. What if GZ doesn't get out of his truck and tries to find TM - after losing sight of him - by driving around? What if TM, who is concerned about some "creepy-ass cracker" following him, just continues on his way home? What if a fight doesn't start?

I loved that the media portrayed GZ as the racist when the racist was shown to be TM. Not guilty was the only logical verdict given the evidence, and this should never have gone to trial in the first place. If GZ's name were Carlos Lopez, none of us would have ever heard about this event in the first place.

SpiffCoug wrote:
So many different ways it could have ended. What if GZ doesn't get out of his truck and tries to find TM - after losing sight of him - by driving around? What if TM, who is concerned about some "creepy-ass cracker" following him, just continues on his way home? What if a fight doesn't start?

You can "what if" anything to death. All that can be done is look at the facts as they happened.



Q: Did Zimmerman commit any crime by being part of a Neighborhood Watch?



Q: Do American citizens have a right to look out for each other, and help protect their neighbors?



Q: Did Zimmerman commit any crime by getting out of his vehicle and walking around his neighborhood looking for a person that he thought was suspicious? No.

It appears that the justice system worked. I can't help but think that in a better world Zimmerman walks over and offers Martin a ride home in the rain and he accepted and says thanks

BoiseBYU wrote:
It appears that the justice system worked. I can't help but think that in a better world Zimmerman walks over and offers Martin a ride home in the rain and he accepted and says thanks

In an even better world, Martin's not there in the first place because he's not suspended from school.

BoiseBYU wrote:
It appears that the justice system worked. I can't help but think that in a better world Zimmerman walks over and offers Martin a ride home in the rain and he accepted and says thanks

Not in the world I live in. Not a chance. I teach my kids to never get into a car with a stranger, and I would never let a stranger into my car.



In a better world, Trayvon Martin would not be smoking pot, hanging with gang members, and getting suspended from school for drug use. In a better world Trayvon would have walked straight to his dad's home and not have turned back, and attacked George Zimmerman, who was lawfully walking in his neighborhood.



It's interesting that the FBI dispatched a team of agents to investigate George Zimmerman after the tragic shooting. They interviewed Zimmerman's friends, co-workers and an ex-girlfriend. About 35 people total. The generated a 300 page report on who George Zimmerman is. Conclusion? He has shown no racial bigotry or animus in his life. In reality, the real Zimmerman is quite different than the character the Prosecution tried to spin and create.



http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/12/155918/more-evidence-released-in-trayvon.html#.UeOu0Y6hClJ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was watching CNN yesterday and there was a black, female lawyer talking about the verdict. She had some really weird leaps in logic that I just don't understand.



She said how she has a teenage boy. And she's always telling him that if he gets in trouble to call the police, call for help, run away, flee, don't stay and fight. And then she said, "What do I tell him now?"



Don't you tell him the exact same thing? Don't you use Trayvon Martin as an example of what NOT to do?



Ask your son if Trayvon called the police? No - he kept talking to his girlfriend even after he was concerned about some guy following him.



Ask your son if Trayvon called for help? No - he asked George Zimmerman if he had a problem. He didnt' call out to any of the bystanders/witnesses.



Ask your son if Trayvon ran away and/or fled? No - because if he had, he was about 100m from the place he was staying and easily could have made it.



Ask your son if Travyon stayed and fought? Yes - because if he hadn't, there wouldn't have been a fight and he would be alive.



Don't you tell your son to do the exact opposite of what Trayvon did?



Use Trayvon as an example for your boy to learn from to keep him safe.



Don't use Trayvon as a victim who was powerless to change the outcome of his tragic death.

It was the only possible verdict. There simply was never going to be enough evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman was guilty. Now, if he did not have a scratch on him, it would be a closer case. If he had shot TM in the back three times, maybe even a conviction. But with the facts we had, this was a waste of taxpayer dollars, which is why he was not indicted in the first place.

He was only prosecuted in the first place because Obama desperately wanted to feed the fire of racial animosity in this country.

87, you are right but j jackson, a sharpton, the black woman layer Spiff refers to and the rioters see it completely different. They find him guilty. Do they think trayvon is innocent? I don't know, but do they see this as an opportunity to advance one race over another? Sadly I believe the latter to be the case.



Our local news people are saying there were a large number of blacks killed during this trial. They were killed by other blacks. I have not heard a thing about them.



Another point is the lack of resolution on Benghazi, fast and furious, Solendra, NSA, IRS and other scandals. Is this a big reason we are hearing so much about the Zimmerman trial?

scott715 wrote:
I expect a civil trial by the family next.

The civil action won't come until the family is certain that all criminal proceedings have run their course. Until the DOJ/FBI wind up their case or pass on prosecuting Zimmerman, Zimmerman can/should just take the 5th in any civil deposition or proceeding. Once the criminal jeopardy has passed, Zimmerman's 5th amendment rights won't cover as much ground and he can be forced to answer questions in discovery and testify at trial, and he can be forced to produce evidence for the plaintiff as well. If the family jumps the gun and there is still criminal jeopardy out there for Zimmerman, they lose those advantages.



All that said, I don't know that a civil case turns out any differently. While the burden of proof is lower--preponderance of the evidence as opposed to beyond a reasonable doubt, and the mental state is different, in Florida civil juries have to be unanimous to reach a verdict, and I don't see, on the basis of the evidence presented in the criminal trial, 6 people finding some negligent or reckless act on the part of Zimmerman that caused TM's death. What unreasonable act did Zimmerman commit that caused Trayvon to die that 6 people will agree upon? Is the family still going to have the desire to go after Zimmerman in a pure comparative fault state where Trayvon will be in the crosshairs and equally on trial with Zimmerman? If the jury does find negligence, it will have to assign a percentage of fault to Zimmerman and to the victim, so all the stuff the idiot judge kept out of the criminal case on tenuous grounds of irrelevance will be extremely relevant in the civil case. Are they even willing to risk a jury coming back and saying "Zimmerman was negligent and was 15% to blame for the death, Martin was also negligent and was 85% to blame"?