The Zimmerman Trial

[Aeson]

Zimmerman is changing his name to Ben Ghazi so Obama and the media never mention him again

[MrFun]

By the way, wasn't Trayvon Martin within his rights under the "stand your ground" law in Florida if he attacked Zimmernan because he felt endangered or threatened by Zimmerman?

[Wiglaf]

How did no one think of that?? The answer was right there for us the whole time. That is a very smart insight.

[SlowwHand]

Zimmerman lived in the neighborhood, which is a stretch of stand your ground. Did Martin?

[giblets]

By the way, wasn't Trayvon Martin within his rights under the "stand your ground" law in Florida if he attacked Zimmernan because he felt endangered or threatened by Zimmerman?

Well, how about reading the actual law:

(3) A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html

Trayvon wasn't attacked and the law doesn't authorize the use of force simply because you "feel threatened" .

[SlowwHand]

In Texas it's included to your whole property. If someone is stealing your car, or just breaking into it, they're taking a big risk, for instance.

[Wiglaf]

Where either person lived is irrelevant. Mr. Fun is irrelevant. I think gribbler is right re: Florida stand your ground laws, but self defense law generally (including FL self defense law) does permit violent self defense based on reasonable imminent fears.

[Felch]

I think Martin would have had a tough time proving a "reasonable imminent fear" if he went back to confront Zimmerman, at least if I were on the jury.

[molly bloom]

[I]

I'd call you names, but I realize there's nothing in the world worse than being British. You have no freedom of speech, no freedom to assemble, you have an established church, and you can't even go to the store and buy an AR-15 to defend your home and loved ones from Redcoats. What's worse, you're ****ing retarded, probably because British schools taught you that all good things come from Her Majesty and Her Majesty's Government. You're life is worse than death, and I hope you persist on this earth for many years to come.

Oh dear. Which Brits rattled your cage ? We do indeed have a freedom of speech, as attendance at (for instance) Speakers' Corner will confirm. There may well be a Church of England, with the reigning monarch as its head, but it has little if any impact on the religious freedoms of anyone in these isles- where you'll find a separate Church of Scotland, the Methodists, the Baptists, among a horde of others, some of which we exported to your country (the Shakers, for instance).

As for freedom to assembly, that has been trashed so many times in the U.S. on any number of occasions and for spurious reasons, that it's about time your amnesiac self woke up and read some decent history books about the suppression of the American trade unions, the Native Americans, the Black Panthers, the anarchists, the I.W.W., et cetera.

I'm not sure exactly how many U.K. citizens would wish to rush off to their local gun store and buy whatever an AR-15 may be, but after Dunblane and Hungerford not terribly many, except perhaps the firearms fetishists and the usual paranoid looney tunes.

[Wiglaf]

I think Martin would have had a tough time proving a "reasonable imminent fear" if he went back to confront Zimmerman, at least if I were on the jury.

Yes.

[Wiglaf]

And I mean that not just to affirm that I agree with your assessment but also to add an interjectory cheer, i.e. YES! YES! I SUPPORT YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY, like you would hear from a football audience excited by a recent touchdown or Krazyhorse masturbating in front of a mirror.

[MrFun]

Well, how about reading the actual law:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html

Trayvon wasn't attacked and the law doesn't authorize the use of force simply because you "feel threatened" .

I'm not sure why Florida and other states legislated "stand your ground laws" then.

It sounds like "stand your ground" laws already allow one to carry out action that is allowed under the natural right to defend oneself and protect one's own life.

[Wiglaf]

Stand your ground deals with the rare case when someone reasonably fears harm but still has a reasonable option to retreat and chooses to fight back instead of flee. As Slowwhand clumsily alluded to in his typically retarded way, this is a form of the "castle doctrine" (where you are never expected to retreat from your own home), except extended to the mean streets.

Without stand your ground, it is possible to convict someone who shoots someone in self defense if the prosecution could show that they could have run away instead of engaging someone they thought was an imminent danger. None of this applies to the martin case because the defense pointed out there was no evidence Zimmerman started the fight, or that he could get away once trayvon was on top of him.

[Wiglaf]

Zimmerman Reappears to Pull Family From a Rolled-Over Truck [Update: Which Was on Fire]

Posted at 1:23 p.m.: George Zimmerman, last seen leaving a Florida courtroom after being acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, finds himself back in the news today for a much (much!) less polarizing reason: According to police, he came to the rescue of someone who was trapped in an overturned truck. ABC News with the mini-scoop on Zimmerman's good deed:
Sanford Police Department Capt. Jim McAuliffe told ABC News that Zimmerman "pulled an individual from a truck that had rolled over" at the intersection of a Florida highway last week. Florida Highway Patrol is now handling the case, McAuliffe said.
Police say the crash occurred at the intersection of Interstate 4 and Route 417, a site less than a mile from where Zimmerman shot and killed Martin last year. Other than that, however, little is known about the rescue or the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer's involvement in it.
Update at 2:16 p.m.: NBC News has a little more info on the accident:
Zimmerman and another man were assisting a family of four when officers with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office arrived on the scene of the accident. A blue Ford Explorer had traveled off the road and rolled over and caught fire, according to officials.
Zimmerman and the other man were helping the two children and their parents get out of the overturned vehicle, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said. The former neighborhood watch volunteer left the scene after making contact with police and did not witness the crash.
None of the vehicle's occupants were injured, according to police.

Almost convicted of crime he didn't commit, he escaped to the Miami underground. Today, still wanted by the Federal government, he survives as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem...if no one else can help...and if you can find him...maybe you can hire... George Zimmerman.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/22/zimmerman_accident_george_zimmerman_helped_pull_an_individual_trapped_in.html

[regexcellent]

George Zimmerman. Have gun, will travel.