George Zimmerman not guilty.

[Acker79]

(ironically one such White-on-Local Hawaiian murder in Honolulu is underway now).

Quick, get out there and stop it.

 

[Kosmonaut]

There is absolutely nothing redeeming about any of this whole sad mess.

There is a silver lining, the jury acted based on actual evidence and forensics, or in other words science, rather than being emotionally manipulated by sensationalist media reporting or sanctimonious political scaremongering, a sign of at least a semi functional legal system. Whatever offenses he may or may not be guilty of, it is not those he was charged with.

 

[martyn20]

It looks like a civil case may not be all Zimmerman has to worry about, the Federal government is looking into whether they can charge him with any crimes.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Did Zimmerman **** up, resulting in the death of Trayvon? Yes. But when he pulled that trigger, Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman being attacked in the head in an altercation that lasted long enough to be life threatening, this is what the forensic evidence says and cannot really be disputed; it was clear cut self defense, he did not just shoot him point blank without provocation.

I'm probably arguing against the system (which I believe to be outrageous) as opposed to Zimmerman (whom I believe pretty much entrapped Martin).

Only Zimmerman would be able to paint the picture of what actually happened. I don't hold all of the alleged facts, but in my opinion, I fail to believe that the evidence was 100% factually correct. His word against the deceased.

Zimmerman clearly has already suffered from the whole ordeal and will continue to do so and I don't believe he is a cold blooded killer, but he orchestrated it, whether intentional or not. He's a big guy against a slight teen, but then guns will always trump fists.

The system needs to change, but I don't expect 'the most powerful man in the world' has the power to do that.

 

[The Spanish]

I have two teenage black sons.

This verdict is heartbreaking and confirms my perspective of the way minorities are viewed in this country when push comes to shove and not much different to the UK really).

the same UK that overturned a 1000 year old cornerstone of English law to secure convictions for Stephen Lawrence's murder?

 

[martyn20]

the same UK that overturned a 1000 year old cornerstone of English law to secure convictions for Stephen Lawrence's murder?

You think that was about Stephen's colour?

 

[omgitsjames]

If I were in trial, I would hope a conviction would be based on evidence and not on a he said she said testimony. It is that simple. The burden is on the prosecution to PROVE that Zimmerman was not acting in self defense but all they did was bring in character witnesses to evoke an emotional response.

 

[Kosmonaut]

against the system (which I believe to be outrageous)

Can you be more specific?

 

[The Spanish]

You think that was about Stephen's colour?

what was it about then?

 

[martyn20]

what was it about then?

Justice

 

[The Spanish]

Justice

hahahaha yeah alright.

because there had never been poorly conducted investigations and police ineptitude in any failed murder trial before eh.

there are many many factors to why the stephen lawrence case is so high profile and still in the public eye, not all of them honourable or helpful.

previously you didnt want things to be in black and white, whiilst grandly pronouncing "justice" as the sole reason for the law change. you may have thought that was a brilliant thing to say, but contradicts your earlier views on things in this very thread, and is simply not true.

 

[martyn20]

hahahaha yeah alright.

because there had never been poorly conducted investigations and police ineptitude in any failed murder trial before eh.

there are many many factors to why the stephen lawrence case is so high profile and still in the public eye, not all of them honourable or helpful.

previously you didnt want things to be in black and white, whiilst grandly pronouncing "justice" as the sole reason for the law change. you may have thought that was a brilliant thing to say, but contradicts your earlier views on things in this very thread, and is simply not true.

I didn't want to use the phrase in the Zimmerman case as black v white because George Zimmerman is not a white man, he is Hispanic. Think you have misunderstood what I meant by black and white, I literally meant the colour of their skin, not the nature of the case.
There was a clear case of new evidence in the Lawrence case, something we do see more and more of due to scientific advances, so a very old law was changed for our updated times.
While it's true this was a high profile case if anything that hampered the 2nd trial as major steps had to be taken to keep it out of the public eye.
You think the law would not have been changed the 2nd case would not have happened if Stephen had been white?

 

[The Spanish]

I didn't want to use the phrase in the Zimmerman case as black v white because George Zimmerman is not a white man, he is Hispanic. Think you have misunderstood what I meant by black and white, I literally meant the colour of their skin, not the nature of the case.
There was a clear case of new evidence in the Lawrence case, something we do see more and more of due to scientific advances, so a very old law was changed for our updated times.
While it's true this was a high profile case if anything that hampered the 2nd trial as major steps had to be taken to keep it out of the public eye.
You think the law would not have been changed the 2nd case would not have happened if Stephen had been white?

correct.

this view in no way affects my belief that his parents deserved justice and his murderers certainly deserved to be bought to justice.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Can you be more specific?

I'm glad you ignored the rest of my waffle!

Other than the general dislike of the 'Right to bear arms' (which is another debate for another time), I don't agree with their 'stand your ground' policy.

At a push, I can understand if one was on their own property and one shouldn't have to retreat. However, there must be so many loopholes that can be exploited. Without doing research on individual cases, I am sure people have been admonished for shooting/killing people who have fled the scene.

Without wishing to get too sidetracked or burble on, I think that the 'stand your ground' law opens up a huge amount of eventualities that could be avoided. Zimmerman was clearly well versed on the law. At least, he should have been, in his position. He knew he had the law on his side.

When did Martin realise that his life was at stake, if at all? As far as we can tell, he went to the shop and was returning home when some chap decided that Martin needed confronting.

I prefer our neighbourhood watch system to theirs.

 

[martyn20]

I'm glad you ignored the rest of my waffle!

Other than the general dislike of the 'Right to bear arms' (which is another debate for another time), I don't agree with their 'stand your ground' policy.

At a push, I can understand if one was on their own property and one shouldn't have to retreat. However, there must be so many loopholes that can be exploited. Without doing research on individual cases, I am sure people have been admonished for shooting/killing people who have fled the scene.

Without wishing to get too sidetracked or burble on, I think that the 'stand your ground' law opens up a huge amount of eventualities that could be avoided. Zimmerman was clearly well versed on the law. At least, he should have been, in his position. He knew he had the law on his side.

When did Martin realise that his life was at stake, if at all? As far as we can tell, he went to the shop and was returning home when some chap decided that Martin needed confronting.

I prefer our neighbourhood watch system to theirs.

I think Black teenagers who live in Florida would prefer our neighbourhood watch system as well!

 

[The Spanish]

I didn't want to use the phrase in the Zimmerman case as black v white because George Zimmerman is not a white man, he is Hispanic. Think you have misunderstood what I meant by black and white, I literally meant the colour of their skin, not the nature of the case.
There was a clear case of new evidence in the Lawrence case, something we do see more and more of due to scientific advances, so a very old law was changed for our updated times.
While it's true this was a high profile case if anything that hampered the 2nd trial as major steps had to be taken to keep it out of the public eye.
You think the law would not have been changed the 2nd case would not have happened if Stephen had been white?

once again, hahaha yeah alright. he has a latin background but he is not hispanic in the general florida sense. its been played up to dilute the racial issue. its obviously worked on you!

 

[martyn20]

once again, hahaha yeah alright. he has a latin background but he is not hispanic in the general florida sense. its been played up to dilute the racial issue. its obviously worked on you!

He calls himself Hispanic and so does the State of Florida legally so you can call him white if you want that's fine. I was just explaining how you had misunderstood my meaning earlier in the thread.

 

[The Spanish]

He calls himself Hispanic and so does the State of Florida legally so you can call him white if you want that's fine. I was just explaining how you had misunderstood my meaning earlier in the thread.

bloody hell this is hard. yes he does. when he is on trial for murder. as for the state of floridas legal application of his ethnic background, who decides that?

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

Land of the free and home of the brave.


Makes me laugh every time.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Its the law to defend themselves in anyway, its their stupid laws that allow them to use weapons on this.

This has been blown up massively as to what it actually is. If this was a black guy shooting a white kid in America then no one would care. Also no one seems to care that (according to a tweet seen on Twitter) since Trayvon was killed, over 1000 black teenagers have been killed in America. I cant really see much racism about it, he was attacked so defended himself in accordance to the law. Its the law that needs changing about guns there, Obama keeps saying about it but nothing will happen because of the NRA.

This is one of the good things about living in the UK, we dont have cases like this.