The Murder of Trayvon Martin

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

A lot of things are hard to make up yet they are still fabricated.

Nah. His attorney is handling this spectacularly. Everything which has been released from their side has been released purposefully, at least from what I've seen. If they say his nose was broken, it was. It would be up to the state to prove that Martin broke Zimmerman's nose in self-defense. There has been quite a bit of stuff, i.e., this, the Martin's juvenile charges, etc. which really don't fit with the narrative found in the first few pages of this thread. I'm not making the call either way at this point, but whether Martin is any kind of a victim at all in this thing is yet to be seen.

Or a cautionary tale for neighborhood watchers where if they watch too closely, follow, and do what can be interpreted as veering into vigilante justice...and just so happen to have a gun...they may be brought up on charges. We shall see.

"Following closely" cannot be vigilante justice. Period. As far as carrying a gun while on neighborhood watch, you'd be nuts not to. There are bad people out there and sometimes it's you or them. To think otherwise is naive.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Kevin

As far as carrying a gun while on neighborhood watch, you'd be nuts not to. There are bad people out there and sometimes it's you or them. To think otherwise is naive.

I've always been under the impression that the operative word in "Neighborhood Watch" was "watch." In all of the neighborhoods that I've lived in with a NW program, the participants kept an eye on things and contacted the proper authorities when things were fishy. I have never seen or heard of someone try to take down a suspicious person.

Is this not the case in most places? That was one of the things that stood out to me the most with this incident.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I've always been under the impression that the operative word in "Neighborhood Watch" was "watch." In all of the neighborhoods that I've lived in with a NW program, the participants kept an eye on things and contacted the proper authorities when things were fishy. I have never seen or heard of someone try to take down a suspicious person.

Is this not the case in most places? That was one of the things that stood out to me the most with this incident.

This is my understanding of the term and has always been the case from the time my childhood neighborhood formed a watch. If my parents knew the watchmen were carrying guns, we probably would have moved.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I've always been under the impression that the operative word in "Neighborhood Watch" was "watch." In all of the neighborhoods that I've lived in with a NW program, the participants kept an eye on things and contacted the proper authorities when things were fishy. I have never seen or heard of someone try to take down a suspicious person.

Exactly.

As for the bolded, I assume you are talking about people who are affiliated with NW rather than the Joe Horns of the world. The national rep for Neighborhood Watch was on on Nancy Grace talking about this.

Interesting:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/o...9.story?page=2

http://www.walb.com/story/17193827/n...-phone-not-gun

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Kevin

If they say his nose was broken, it was.

Maybe.

Originally Posted by Kevin

"Following closely" cannot be vigilante justice. Period.

Exactly what Zimmerman was doing is not yet determined.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Exactly what Zimmerman was doing is not yet determined.

Sure. All I can go on is what evidence is out there. The evidence we now know about, that he did have some wounds consistent with his story, etc., this was plausibly self-defense. The state is going to have to prove it wasn't.

That doesn't mean Zimmerman isn't a dumbass for doing what he apparently did, but that also doesn't make him guilty of murder.