Quote:
Originally Posted by Nitehawk013
You assume a lot of things that don't appear to be true. Let's think this through slowly. First, if I am on a neighborhood watch and there have been break ins and such in my neighborhood I am going to have my eyes open. When I see a suspicious person walking around who doesn't appear familiar, perhaps doesn't belong int he neighborhood, I'm probably going to look into it. I would call the authorities as Zimmerman did, but lets not be fools about this. The average response time to a 911 call in some places is upwards of 30 minutes. The suspicious person is long gone by that time. Not to mention, the dispatcher did NOT tell Zim NOT to follow Trayvon. They said they didnt need him to do it. BIG difference.
Second, if you or I are following a person who appears suspicious...why would the person we are following feel the need to assault you or me? I can follow someone around and if they didn't like it, the normal response would be to ask me why I am following them or call the police if they were really worried, not come at me and attempt to smash my head into the ground. There is no report that Zimmerman did anything BUT follow Trayvon. You don't turn around and attack a person for following you. You ask why they are following you, run away, or call the police.
Now, if the person we are following does decide to turn around and attack us, to me it tells me two things: first that I was right to be suspicious of them because innocent people don't just attack other humands and second, I better defend myself. And if I am armed, you better believe the person attacking me is the one getting put down.
It amazes me that no matter how much we keep finding out about "innocne tlittle" Trayvon people just seem to ignore it. One person in the story is a neighborhood watch member, passed the checks to get a concealed carry, volunteered weekends to help minorites and was respected and liked by his neighbors...INCLUDING many blacks. The other was kicked out of school for drugs and has the appearance of yet another thug with gold teeth. Yet somehow...the good guy is the teen druggy here?
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I too am not terribly swayed by the history of the people involved, but if you are I think it is terribly disingenuous to ignore Zimmerman's history. How do you reference the school record of a juvenile, but totally disregard the actual violent arrests of the adult?
Everything I read said that Zimmerman was a "self appointed" neighborhood watch captain, but I will go along with him being neighborhood watch. Neighborhood watches have certain stated principles that they go by for this very reason. First of all they are not to be armed. Secondly, they are to observe and call the police if they see anything and not chase down anybody. I would imagine that this case will be incorporated into future training.
I highlighted your run option because that's exactly what Zimmerman said he did...then he got out of the car to chase him.
At the end of the day, if the message you want to send is that it is okay for armed, grown men to start chasing teenagers around for no reason, I just have to disagree. What if it were a 17 year old white girl? Would that change anything in your mind?
And if you listen to the recording, it is obvious what dispatch is telling him they want him to do.
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