March 25, 2012
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The Killing of Trayvon Martin
The media is having a field-day with the tragic death of a teen in Florida, so why shouldn't I offer my 2-cents worth? Afterall, I know as much, or as little, about what happened as the media does. So here is what I would speculate as to what happened:
You got a 16 year old, and as we all know, 16 year olds can be obnoxious and love to challenge authority; and we have a want-a-be cop who didn't make the grade. Perhaps he couldn't get past the psych examiners who felt he had an attitude problem not condusive to smooth dealing with the public. Who knows.
So the kid wanders through the area minding his own business. He is challenged by the neighborhood watch captain, who is being a little over zealous in performance of "watching" the neighborhood. The want-a-be assumes a 'tough-guy' attitude and an air of authority that he really doesn't have. (It's funny how packin' heat can help do that to a guy.) The teen reacts as we all know teens can react, by arguing and even challenging the want-a-be. He may use abusive language; he may even get in the what-a-be's face and demand to know what the guy is gonna do about it. The want-a-be starts to feel insecure because the kid is ignoring his challenge. That leads to fear setting in and he loses it, finally shooting without first assessing the situation to determine if a true threat existed. That is why he's just a want-a-be and not a real police officer.
Did it happen that way? I don't know, but I feel confident in saying that I don't think the Florida law makers had this kind of scenario in mind when they wrote the "I felt threatened" law. There was never an intent to allow someone to respond to an unarmed threat with deadly force. This guy, at the very least, is guilty of criminally negligent homicide and wrongful death or perhaps even manslaughter. Whether or not it was a murder remains to be determined by the investigators.
Comments (4)
So at what point did the watch captain get injured scrapes and a bloody nose?
Unfortunately, the "Stand your ground Law"is almost tailor-made for situations like this. FL already had laws concerning use of deadly force in cases of home/car/ invasion. This carried FL back into the old wild west.
Curious how the scrapes and bloody nose wasn't mentioned in the first reports, nor has the Stamford police report ever been made public.
If a policeman had done the shooting, he would have been suspended and there would have been extensive investigation.
There are several unanswered rather basic questions: Exactly what organization was Zimmerman a part of? What were his duties supposed to be? What happened right after the shooting and the police arrived? What has been Zimmerman's past experience as a "Watch officer'?
The newspapers have been quick to vilify Treyvon; the latest is reports that he was suspended for possession of women's jewelry and "burglary tools" (a screwdriver) in his backpack, but so far almost nothing about Zimmerman.
I'm a long-time Florida resident (over 80 years) and I'm disgusted by this whole mess - which, no matter what Treyvon said or did, should not have happened.
@tychecat - I don't doubt that Zimmerman was provoked in some way or another, but I agree with you that this shooting should not have happened. As for the unanswered questions, we all saw what happened in the Casey Anthony affair. The woman was tried and convicted in the court of public opinion long before sh ever came to trial, all because of too much public information being made available too early in the investigation. I've sure we don't need Nancy Grace trying Mr. Zimmerman too.
@thereluctantsinger - According to the Miami Herald, the Sanford police actually pushed the case up to the local DA who had not decided to prosecute. The police seemed to have wanted a charge of negligent homicide or manslaughter or some such. The case in now in the hands of a special prosecutor - the tough DA from another part of FL.
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