The Zimmerman Trial

[PLATO]

[insert joke here to liven the mood]

Whew! That was timely!

I had thought in the beginning, when the police didn't charge him, that it was self defense. Then the state AG gets involved, and I thought maybe there is something else. Now that we are at trial, I think that my original thoughts must be correct.

It is sadly seeming that this prosecution is race motivated to me at this point.

[The Mad Monk]

I don't believe it's as bad as that, and I don't think it's incompetence, either. I think it's just a really weak case. The arresting officer said on the stand that he believed Zimmerman was being truthful when he said he didn't go out there to hurt anybody.

[DaShi]

Whew! That was timely!

I had thought in the beginning, when the police didn't charge him, that it was self defense. Then the state AG gets involved, and I thought maybe there is something else. Now that we are at trial, I think that my original thoughts must be correct.

It is sadly seeming that this prosecution is race motivated to me at this point.

The prosecution is doing it's job. If it tried to cover up the facts that lend credence to Zimmerman's innocences, then one could argue they are in breach of ethics. However, I'm kind of leaning on the innocence side myself atm.

[regexcellent]

It turns out that Trayvon Martin was a punk got into fights, attempted to purchase illegal firearms, and used drugs. Also, he got suspended from school for possession of a "burglary tool" (screwdriver) and possibly stolen jewelry and then kicked out of his foster home for it. The neighborhood the shooting occurred in had a series of burglaries prior to the incident. Martin was acting like he was sizing up burglary targets. Zimmerman was calmly standing next to his vehicle when Martin beat the living **** out of him.

So the whole case is one of some dumb kid commits unprovoked assault and battery and the victim is thanking his lucky stars that he had a CCW permit so that he could be tried by 12 instead of carried by 6.

And the prosecution's star witness hardly saw anything and can't read cursive.

[Berzerker]

Is it really that unreasonable to put someone on trial after they kill somebody?

with the evidence showing self defense, yes

[DinoDoc]

So the whole case is one of some dumb kid commits unprovoked assault and battery and the victim is thanking his lucky stars that he had a CCW permit so that he could be tried by 12 instead of carried by 6.

What part of the fact that these people are told repeatedly not to follow or confront people or to even be armed is in Spanish for you? **** none of the facts you listed were known by Zimmerman at the time. He was in his view simply following a "punk" kid and armed himself with a gun.

[The Mad Monk]

Understood, but it's still not meeting Murder 2, and that's the standard they have to use.

[regexcellent]

SHUT UP YOU'RE RUINING MY TROLL

You can point to a number of decisions made by Zimmerman and say they were dumb (and you would be right!) but none of them were illegal.

(xpost)

[regexcellent]

Travyon, played by Jaden Smith, is shown at school, raising his hand in lit class. The wise Hispanic teacher, played by Antonio Banderas, calls on him. Trayvon stand up and recites lines of Shakespeare in a hip, cool, but moving rap. As he sits down Banderas smiles and nods at him with a wise, knowing approval.

Trayvon is seen hanging out after school on the lush greens of the front school yard with his friends, featuring the girl who played Precious, plus a mix of races: a white blonde girl, a Hispanic kid, an Urkel-looking black nerd, a white kid with his hat on backwards. A veritable Burger King Kids Club.

Cut to a dark apartment, where Zimmerman, played by Luis Guzman, is doing pull-ups, with the words FEAR and HATE inked on his knuckles. He then practices shooting his empty gun at himself in a mirror. "You talking to me?" Guzman says. "You in MY neighborhood?" He then sits down to watch Birth of a Nation.

Cut to Trayvon at home, at the dinner table with his parents, played by Jamie Foxx and Maya Angelou. They discuss Tray's future plans of being an airline pilot. "It's a mighty big responsibility," Jamie Foxx says. "Having all those souls onboard." "I know," Jaden/Tray says. "I want to be like Sully some day though."

After dinner his little brother asks him if he can go get some candy and tea. Even though it's raining out, Tray agrees. In slow-mo he zips up his hoody, pulled from the dryer.

Cut to Zimmerman patrolling the streets as rain pours on his uncovered head. He does tuck-and-rolls across neighbors' lawns, pulling out his gun and pointing it at dark shadows. A cat crosses his path and he fires at it. He chuckles mercilessly.

"Keep the change," Tray says with a smile to the woman working at the convenience store. With the snacks for his brother he walks out of the store, not before passing by a magazine with Sully on the cover. Tray smiles.

Cut to Trayvon skipping down the sidewalk. A group of multicultural young maled is there smoking pot. "You wanna get high?" one asks. "No," Trayvon answers, "then I'll never be able to be a pilot." He continues to skip down the path and eventually enters the condo complex.

As Trayvon turns a corner, a sweaty and enraged Zimmerman emerges from the shadows. "Where do you think you're going, ******?"

Trayvon stumbles on his words and tries to answer but is silenced when Zim cold cocks himself with the gun and starts beating himself on the back of his own head. "Help! Help! Somebody help me!" Zimmerman screams.

"Please sir, I just want to return home to my brother and finish my homework," Trayvon pleads.

"That's too bad," Zimmerman says. He then empties his entire gun cartridge into the baby-faced teen. "It looks like your dog ate it."

The scene turns slow-mo as Trayvon's body is riddled with bullets, one after the other with the sound FXs mixed loud. Hundreds of emotions across his face, as he fights to remain alive, his whole life flashing before his eyes, all the unfulfilled dreams. The bullets keep coming and after a minute in ultra-slowmo he hits the ground with a heartbreaking THUD (punctuated by the studio orchestra maybe hitting a dissonant chord or percussion)

Another long slowmo shot showing his precious bag of skittles flying into the air as Trayvon's body falls back, arms outspread and Christlike. Once airborne the bag of Skittles rips apart and the dozens of individual candies fly everywhere, raining down over the scene. . . representing the scattered hopes and dreams and wasted potential of this promising black youth.

Camera zooms out to look down on his dead body from above. The audio track is replaced by a minor key piano playing a few bars, then a mellow hip-hop beat begins. Cut to a montage of Trayvon as a young boy learning to ride a bike, smiling and laughing with his friends and family over the years, then to the present with his concerned parents wondering what's taking so long, a thin light-skinned Rachel Jeantel desperately trying to call him back, his little brother staring out the window expecting his skittles still, George Zimmerman sitting on the sidewalk with a twisted grin, letting the rain fall on him, the slow approach of police sirens and lights. Then over the instrumental track comes a famous conscious rapper to put it all in perspective.

A false end as the screen fades to back. Then after a pause, here comes an army of people in grey hoodies. Each one lowers his hood to reveal the entire cast of the film (sans Zimmerman), who looks into the camera and says I Am Trayvon Martin. And then a brief shot of a mirror held up, as the audience reveals they too are Trayvon Martin.

(not my work)

[The Mad Monk]

x-you

Yeah, but you're ending up trolling DD on this, and that's too Twilight Zone for me.

[Colon™]

It would have been fun if this was about that telegram.

[Docfeelgood]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WViPbHuiaiQ/T3bLhjsqQCI/AAAAAAAAALw/Q9Yl25EIKMw/s1600/skittlesmuhfugga.gif

[Wezil]

nm

[DaShi]

I agree with Wezil.

[Lonestar]

It turns out that Trayvon Martin was a punk got into fights, attempted to purchase illegal firearms, and used drugs. Also, he got suspended from school for possession of a "burglary tool" (screwdriver) and possibly stolen jewelry and then kicked out of his foster home for it.

None of that matters. Martin isn't on trial, Zimmerman is.

Even if Martin was on trial, it still wouldn't matter. I'll tell you what I told other jurors on a case I was on; I don't care if he has a rap sheet a mile long, what matters is the scenario in question.

The neighborhood the shooting occurred in had a series of burglaries prior to the incident. Martin was acting like he was sizing up burglary targets.

He was walking through a neighborhood with his hood up in the rain. Zimmerman couldn't even describe how he was acting suspiciously to the 911 dispatcher. Hardly "acting like he was sizing up burglary targets".

You know I once had the GWNF rangers called on me because I was open-carrying while hiking? No other "suspicious behavior". Martin got called because(and I'm being generous to Zimmerman here), Zimmerman didn't recognize him. "Suspicious behavior" without specifics is one of the most worthless discriptors ever.

Zimmerman was calmly standing next to his vehicle when Martin beat the living **** out of him.

Bull****. Martin kept walking away from Zimmerman, even entering a part of the complex where there was only a walkway. He never approached Zimmerman's truck. Zimmerman had to leave his vehicle to follow Martin (follow may not be a strong enough word), against the suggestion(911 dispatchers can't order citizens) of the person he was tlaking to on the phone.

So the whole case is one of some dumb kid commits unprovoked assault and battery and the victim is thanking his lucky stars that he had a CCW permit so that he could be tried by 12 instead of carried by 6.

When I was 17, if I'd been walking through a secluded section of the city on a dark dreary night and someone was casing me from a car, and I turned down a side street unaccessible by car and the dude got out and started following me on foot, and I sped up and tried to lose the guy and he sped up too, at some point I would have rounded on him and beat the snot out of him. I also would have felt quite confident that I was acting in self defense and that the guy had gotten what he had coming.

I don't think I'm alone in this.

Also, if they tested my blood, they would have found some THC.

And the prosecution's star witness hardly saw anything and can't read cursive.

I agree that the prosecution doesn't have a case for murder two, I'd say that it's within the realm of possibility they could have a case for manslaughter though.