Trayvon Martin, 17, shot and killed by Neighborhood Watchman

[Rogue planet]

based on the info I've seen on this kid, he was your typical thuggish inner-city type guy. Hell, look up his Facebook profile; that should give you a pretty good idea of the kind of person he was.

Look up his Facebook profile and look at the sort of pictures and comments he uploaded and posted, respectively.

I seriously cannot believe I am reading this. Citing someone's personality, lifestyle and Facebook page to try and tone down the fact they were murdered whilst unarmed? Maybe he was a typical "******", but I don't see any picture of him threatening people or carrying knives. From the tone of your posts you might as well be saying it doesn't matter that he's dead.

Anyway, as much as I don't think he should have killed him, it's not like this guy just went out guns a-blazing and mowed down every black person that came into sight, like some people seem to be trying to play it as.

Oh yeah, not so bad then. Everyone just chill out, there's only one dead teen.

Also, why is this even news? People are shot all the time. The only reason this is news is because the media wants to make this into a racial issue when it should be an issue for the courts.

This at least is truth. But like I said earlier, Stephen Lawrence case here in England. Thanks to the media attention of that murder, we had legal reforms and it helped to make steps towards stamping out institutional racism.

 

[Karma Police]

Hmmm... not much I can say here, I guess. This murder definitely had some racial motive behind it. It's pretty possible that the man did indeed murder the kid because he was a sick racist.

I don't really know how to react. I don't have a lot of points to say about this. What I originally thought was that, if this man didn't really kill him because of racial discrimination, he probably thought that the kid was shoplifting, seeing he was returning home from the shop.

But then, Trayvon himself was unarmed. It had been Zimmerman who was armed, not the kid, and it was Zimmerman who had been following Trayvon. I don't see how a kid who was begging for his life, and was unarmed, really harm an armed person. Plus, really? You're armed, you're a lot more older and stronger than him, you should really be bringing him down, not just whip your pistol out and start shooting. So I don't really see how there can be another side to this whole story.

This Zimmerman was probably just a man with a trigger itch who just wanted to be a hero and kill all people who are differently colored.

Also, why is this even news? People are shot all the time. The only reason this is news is because the media wants to make this into a racial issue when it should be an issue for the courts.

But yeaaah I kind of agree with this. There are quite a few cases out there about unarmed people getting shot, but it's usually the ones with the racial overtones that gets the spotlight.

Here the "innocent until proven guilty" rule does apply, like Twocows said. The details are a bit vague, plus an investigation is still going on. A few important questions have to asked to Zimmerman, exactly why did Trayvon attack him, that made him shoot him? Why didn't he listen to the Police call? Why did he find Trayvon 'suspicious' and Why didn't he work on tackling him or making him incapable to attack rather than just shooting him?

 

[twocows]

I seriously cannot believe I am reading this. Citing someone's personality, lifestyle and Facebook page to try and tone down the fact they were murdered whilst unarmed? Maybe he was a typical "******", but I don't see any picture of him threatening people or carrying knives. From the tone of your posts you might as well be saying it doesn't matter that he's dead.

Oh man, it sure feels good to be self-righteous, doesn't it? Oh, but in the process, you attacked me for something I didn't say at all. No biggie, though, I'll just set you straight.

What you think I said: "It's OK to kill someone because of the way they look." I don't know why you thought I said that, seeing as no rational person would say something like that.

What I actually said: "I can understand why he might feel threatened enough [by a thuggish-looking 6'3" football player who he claimed attacked him] to shoot him in defense. This should be investigated and decided by the courts."

Next time, before getting up on your high horse and stroking your ego all to heck while pretending I'm from the KKK, make sure I'm actually saying what you want me to say and not something completely rational.

In other news, the exact thing that I was worried about happened: a radical black advocacy group put an actual bounty on this guy. No joke. This is why this needs to be handled by the courts.

 

[jpp8]

What I actually said: "I can understand why he might feel threatened enough [by a thuggish-looking 6'3" football player who he claimed attacked him] to shoot him in defense. This should be investigated and decided by the courts."

"Thuggish-looking"? What part of Trayvon Martin is thuggish-looking?

In other news, the exact thing that I was worried about happened: a radical black advocacy group put an actual bounty on this guy. No joke. This is why this needs to be handled by the courts.

Now this is ridiculous. Two wrongs don't make a right. Especially when the situational irony of it is so incredibly thick. Just because George Zimmerman decided to take the law into his own hands doesn't give license for others to do the same in retaliation.
George Zimmerman still shouldn't be allowed to go free however. He needs to at the very least stand trial for this. The courts do indeed need to handle this, but they still haven't for whatever reason.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

They are indeed not pressing charges, citing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws which allow lethal force in cases of self-defense.

We should all stand our ground against Skittles.

 

[twocows]

"Thuggish-looking"? What part of Trayvon Martin is thuggish-looking?

Spoiler:

[agelimit]PG-13 (rude gestures)[/agelimit]

Spoiler:

These two images are reportedly off his Facebook profile. The ones the media has been using are childhood photos, the most recent being four years old.

They are indeed not pressing charges, citing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws which allow lethal force in cases of self-defense.

Well that's just stupid. It's not for the police to decide whether he broke the law, it's for the courts to decide. The police are supposed to arrest if there is reasonable suspicion that a crime may have taken place, which there certainly is in this instance.

 

[jpp8]

Again, wrong Facebook profile. Although I cannot find the source for the 2nd picture, I fail to see how gold teeth could make Trayvon Martin seem like a "thug" when George Zimmerman followed him from a car in the middle of a rainy night.

Why should it even matter if he "looked like a thug" or not? Unless he was doing something to immediately put the health of Zimmerman or those around him at risk, Zimmerman is absolutely unjustified in taking the law in his own hands in this case.

 

[donavannj]

Spoiler:

[agelimit]PG-13 (rude gestures)[/agelimit]

Spoiler:

These two images are reportedly off his Facebook profile. The ones the media has been using are childhood photos, the most recent being four years old.


Well that's just stupid. It's not for the police to decide whether he broke the law, it's for the courts to decide. The police are supposed to arrest if there is reasonable suspicion that a crime may have taken place, which there certainly is in this instance.

Wrong Trayvon Martin, first off. As already mentioned, that Trayvon Martin's Facebook page has added over 200 friends in March. The Trayvon Martin shot to death has been dead since February. This is the Trayvon Martin that was shot to death.

Though the feds certainly will get involved in this case if the local police won't be pursuing the charges.

 

[Zet]

We should all stand our ground against Skittles.

Skittles are weapons of mass destruction and Zimmerman saved America from tasting the rainbow ;_;7

Also Trayvon was killed execution style, so saying this was self-defence is silly.

 

[twocows]

Wrong Trayvon Martin, first off. As already mentioned, that Trayvon Martin's Facebook page has added over 200 friends in March. The Trayvon Martin shot to death has been dead since February. This is the Trayvon Martin that was shot to death.

Ah, didn't know that. Still, my point is that it's something the courts should take care of; a media "investigation" is hardly comprehensive and unbiased. Instead, he's being prosecuted in the court of public opinion, which is tantamount to character assassination. If he's guilty of wrongdoing, he should be imprisoned. If he actually is innocent of any wrongdoing, he'll still have to suffer through personal defamation and probably not ever being able to hold a job again due to a media hype frenzy. Things like this should be kept private and in the legal system, not just for the victim's sake, but also for the defendant's sake; it's completely screwed up that this didn't go to court. We have a legal system for a reason.

 

[Rogue planet]

Oh man, it sure feels good to be self-righteous, doesn't it? Oh, but in the process, you attacked me for something I didn't say at all. No biggie, though, I'll just set you straight.

What you think I said: "It's OK to kill someone because of the way they look." I don't know why you thought I said that, seeing as no rational person would say something like that.

Actually I clearly said that you were trying to tone it down based on appearance and stereotypes, because that is what you were doing lol. If we all went around shooting down anyone who 'looked threatening' there would be a lot of dead bodies around.

 

[Nick]

Let's keep it real. These days, an African American can be dressed in anything and be considered to be suspicious. Especially at night, especially if they're male, and especially when they're teenagers/young adults. For no reason other than because their skin is dark and the darker your skin, the more people stereotype you and place you in that group of mischievous kids that are up to no good. People, subconsciously or otherwise, link dark skin with crime and because of that, suspicion rears it's head.

Personally, I don't really know what to think caused his actions actions past the fact that he found him suspicious looking, race had absolutely everything to do with the suspicions. Even if it had nothing to do with it, not only had he called an officer/dispatcher, but he went against what the officer/dispatcher suggested and followed his suspicions and investigated his suspicions himself. You can argue that he looked suspicious, but if you see someone doing something suspicious, you report it to the authorities and let them handle it. You don't handle it yourself and become a vigilante.

He should be held accountable for his actions regardless.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

You can argue that he looked suspicious, but if you see someone doing something suspicious, you report it to the authorities and let them handle it.

Just like the person did who called to report that they saw a man driving around and following Martin suspiciously. And then the gun shot rang out.

Zimmerman seems waaay more suspicious to me. Stalking the kid, in a car at that (because somehow he felt threatened?).

 

[Mr. X]

Not to downplay things, but have you seen what the New Black Panthers have done?

They put a 10k bounty on him. Supposedly to 'capture' him but given the NBP's track record, odds are that this 'capture bounty' is really a thinly disguised 'hit contract' are very high.

Odds are higher due to what the Black Panthers leader said about it. You know what that was? "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

 

[twocows]

Actually I clearly said that you were trying to tone it down based on appearance and stereotypes, because that is what you were doing lol. If we all went around shooting down anyone who 'looked threatening' there would be a lot of dead bodies around.

I was merely saying that I could understand why he might have done it. The implication was that we probably don't know everything that happened, which I was trying to tie to my point that it's something the courts should handle.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Not to downplay things, but have you seen what the New Black Panthers have done?

They put a 10k bounty on him. Supposedly to 'capture' him but given the NBP's track record, odds are that this 'capture bounty' is really a thinly disguised 'hit contract' are very high.

Odds are higher due to what the Black Panthers leader said about it. You know what that was? "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

Well... that's not good.

We're getting into fighting vigilantism with vigilantism now :\

 

[Karma Police]

The whole bounty thing is incredibly stupid. As of now, there are no facts to prove that Trayvon was actually engaging in 'suspicious' behavior, and that this murder was actually had a racist motive.

While yes, at first look, it does seem like it was a racist attack, but it hasn't been proven yet. Zimmerman did do a lot wrong by not listening to the authorities and taking charge of the law, but just because he did it doesn't mean everybody has the right to do so. This group is no better than Zimmerman for doing so. And here, it's the opinion of the people that this was a racist attack. Just because people think it's that way, doesn't mean it's true. Nothing has been proven in court yet.

 

[Sydian]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but new information on this story has come into light today (or at least I saw it on HLN this morning). But Trayvon, while visiting his dad, was on a 10 day suspension from school for possession of a small amount of marijuana, if I'm not mistaken. But if that's supposed to make us turn and see Trayvon as the bad guy, one should consider it could have been planted on him. We just don't know. And, according to Zimmerman, Trayvon decked him. I don't really believe that though, because if the kid had done anything to Zimmerman, wouldn't he have mentioned that in the first place, and not just recently? But what do I know.

There's still more things to come for this story, but at this moment with what we currently know, it's still a tragic story. I don't believe Trayvon did anything to Zimmerman. I don't think going to get Skittles and tea is anything that someone would need to defend themselves over, though. Like I said though, there's still some missing pieces in this I believe, and we don't know the entire story, so it's hard to really form a solid opinion on this at the moment.

 

[Mr. X]

The thing is that we don't know just why it was their.

He could have been a user, he could have been a dealer, or it could have been planted.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Even if he was a marijuana user, it's not really related to this case or reason to be shot to death execution style. Especially when they're a kid, even if they may be on the wrong track at the moment.

And big woop about decking Zimmerman. Trayvon had just as much right to stand his ground as Zimmerman. Zimmerman was stalking him in a car and then approached him, after a brief exchange of words, maybe he decked him. I think under the "Stand Your Ground" law, it fits.

Today, news also came out that Zimmerman has a history of this... minus that killing part. Repeatedly he has called the cops on black people in the neighbourhood. One time he reported someone for speeding. When the police showed up and questioned the black individual Zimmerman reported, he said that he was speeding because he had this crazy guy (Zimmerman) following him around and he wanted to get away.

With the puzzle pieces we have at the moment, it looks to me like Zimmerman approached Trayvon and made an ass of himself. Trayvon defended himself, rightly so. And then Zimmerman took it one step further.