Originally posted by inimalist
see, my point would be that simply being hit by someone shouldn't give you the right to end their life.
There is a difference between "being hit" and "I thought he was going to bash my brains out with one more head smash so I moved my head over the sidewalk so he would smash it against the grass instead of the cement". Again, this is what Zimmerman was saying. We still do not know how true his story was/is about the repeated head smashing against the cement. His medical report would certainly clear things up if they released it.
Originally posted by inimalist
We have seen pictures of Zimmerman's injuries, they are not life threatening.
IMO, it looked pretty bad. Looked like he needed stitches in two different directions. If Zimmerman's brother is to be believed...
Additionally, Zimmerman feared his brains were about to be bashed out. It doesn't take much to kill someone by busting their head against the cement, so his life was definitely in very real jeopardy from the beat down he was getting from Trayvon.
Originally posted by inimalist
There is no evidence at all that Zimmerman was, provably, in lethal danger.
Well, no, the opposite is true. There is direct evidence, from the footage alone, that Zimmerman was in lethal danger. The degree of lethal danger can be better determined by Zimmerman's medical report. Did he need stitches? Did Zimmerman experience a concussion? Did he receive a skull fracture? How bad was his supposed nose break? Did he experience a subdural hematoma or even a subarachnoid hemorrhage?
The only fact we have is he had head wounds on the back of his head. They did not look like slices (if we compare it to a knife, for instance), it looked like impact trauma. "But neither of us are medical experts." True. But we do know he had head wounds on the back of his head and he claims it was from getting his head bashed against the cement, multiple times. The head wounds alone are evidence enough than there was very real lethal danger, going on. The degree is yet to be determined until we get his report.
Originally posted by inimalist
"he could have been you never know there might have been yadda yadda yadda"
You dismiss that as though it is something unimportant but it has direct bearing on whether or not Zimmers should be given a criminal smack-down.
Originally posted by inimalist
is actually the justification that I think proves my point. Zimmerman being armed and taking the law into his hands like this is the problem in the first place.
Did he "take the law into his own hands"? I think you're confusing Trayvon's death with "taking the law into his [Zimmerman's] own hands". Trayvon was not killed because Zimmerman executed him for crimes (if that is what you meant). The verbal confrontation was also perfectly legal. So, no, Zimmerman did not take the law into his own hands, as the idiom is commonly understood.
Originally posted by inimalist
Martin was breaking NO LAWS. Zimmerman [sure, lets be generous] wanted to "investigate" and ended up shooting him.
I think you have already concluded that Zimmerman was in the wrong and have convicted him in your mind. You're using too strong of language, here, against Zimmerman.
I would rephrase that to: "Martin was breaking NO LAWS. Zimmerman wanted to confront what he thought was the person who was perpetuating recent burglaries in the neighborhood and the verbal confrontation quickly escalated into a physical confrontation where the young man sadly ended up shot to death."
Originally posted by inimalist
The problem is this armed idiot walking around in the first place.
Ahhhh. I see, now. I understand where you're coming from. It is the gun problem. Edit - At the end of my reply, you will see that we partially agree (read point #3 in my "what did you mean by 'it'" reply).
Originally posted by inimalist
Modest gun control removes the whole "well maybe Martin could have potentially might have almost killed him?" question from consideration, because people aren't just allowed to be vigilantes, or at least they can't do it while armed.
Couple of things...
1. I thought in the case of a minor, it was appropriate to refer to the person by their first name? I always refer to minors in news stories by their first names. It is semi-diminutive, I admit, but I thought it was proper writing style? This is why I refer to him as Trayvon and the shooter as Zimmerman.
2. There's a difference between a vigilante and what Zimmerman is claiming went down. Trayvon was not executed for supposed crimes: he was killed in a physical altercation that probably went further than it should have at the fault of both parties. There is nothing vigilante about verbally confronting someone in your neighborhood. Now, you may wonder why I keep protesting your use of "vigilante" in this case: vigilantes carry out punishments. Verbally confronting a supposed "suspicious" person is not vigilantism. Vigilantism would be Zimmerman shooting Trayvon, on the spot, for crimes that Zimmerman supposed Trayvon committed. I do not think what we know shows that Zimmerman did that. Let's be real: Zimmerman got his ass kicked for confronting Trayvon (maybe that's the only reprieve Trayvon will get is that he, a kid, kicked the ass of a grown-ass man that should have minded his own business and let the cops confront the "suspicious" boy).
3. Define "modest gun control" because modest gun control, imo, is less strict gun control than what the US has now, in most regards. Here is the gist of what I would consider modest gun control: convicted violent offenders would not get to touch a gun most of the time (someone would have to flesh out all the scenarios in which a violent offender could use a gun). You would have to pass a test, both shooting and written to get a gun. There would be varying degrees of licenses you would have to obtain to get various kinds of kinds. Fully automatics would be legal. Someone would have to convince me on legalizing things like RPGs, though. You would have to be drug tested and pass on an annual basis. All guns would required to be stored safely and securely or fines would happen. I could go on but you get the picture.
Originally posted by inimalist
no, not at all.
We will forever disagree, then. My question was rhetorical. You should have the right to verbally confront someone supposedly loitering in your neighborhood. I know ever last family living on my street. I know of their children, too. If I saw someone just hanging around the neighborhood, who was not part of any of those families, I would indirectly confront the person with a question, "Hey. 😄 What's up, dude? I haven't seen you around here, before. Did you just move in to the neighborhood?" Obviously, that is NOT what Zimmerman did. lol Zimmerman was like, "*That's the SoB that has been robbing our houses. That little sh*t. Imma ask him WTF he is doing here.* What are you doing?"
Originally posted by inimalist
I do think an armed person who "investigates" someone breaking no laws and ends up shooting them bares far more legal liability in that situation.
Well, wait a minute. We have hindsight, Zimmerman did not, at the time. At the time, Zimmerman thought he was onto the perp breaking into their houses. Sure, you and I can look back and say things like, 'Man...Zimmerman was wrong." But, at the time, we would not know for sure.
Unrelated: cheese and potato casserole sounds delicious, right now:
Originally posted by inimalist
lets use a more comparable scenario.If I were walking home, and a man on a phone was staring at me, to the point it spooked me enough to run off. Then, he pursues me. What would I do? oh, also I'm 17 and way smaller than this adult male
1. We do not know if he was "spooked". We only know that Zimmerman thought the young man saw him and ran away. We also have his GF's bias account of the situation. If we had the phone records for both parties, we may be able to conclude more directly what happened.
2. You'd sh*t your pants even more and/or you'd run away more OR you'd call the police: most especially because the person is an adult and you are not.
3. Your reaction would NOT be to kick his *ss nor would mine.
We have talked about this before and we determined that you are much less aggressive than I am. I am telling you that not even I would start the scenario out by kicking his *ss...you definitely would not. 😆
Originally posted by inimalist
well, its likely I'd do one of two things. The first is run away completely and call the police,
I believe this. I promise, I did not/do not read lengthy posts before replying to them. I reply point by point and read them in order and respond in order so I did not see this portion of your post before typing my above #2.
Originally posted by inimalist
the other would be probably exactly what Treyvon did.
I do not believe that. That's definitely not the type of person you have claimed to be in the past. Unless you're a Guido, DudeBro, or other some type of overly aggressive US male stereo-type which you do not strike me as.