Neighborhood Watch guy chases down a kid, shoots him, charged with 2nd-degree murder

[SportsFromA2]

cell phone could have been a gun, better chase him down, corner him, and shoot first, in self defense...

shoot him in the head, just to make sure... (i believe thats what one witness said in he 911 tape, that he was shot in the head)

[SportsFromA2]

The officials made the admission to ABC News after revealing that Zimmerman can be heard on a recording of one of the 911 calls made on the night of the shooting saying what some people think sounds like "f***ing coons" under his breath.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1368905.html

here's the audio of that:

http://www.wftv.com/videos/news/orig...xplicit/vGbyc/

[sseelhoff]

WTH?

This is messed up.

[SportsFromA2]

He claimed self-defense and was not charged, flaring deep-seated racial tensions between blacks and police, who have a long history of distrust. On at least two prior occasions, the Sanford Police Department was accused of giving favorable treatment to relatives of officers involved in violent encounters with blacks.

In 2010, police waited seven weeks to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was caught on video sucker-punching a homeless black man.

In 2005, two security guards — one the son of a longtime Sanford police officer and the other a department volunteer — killed a black man they said was trying to run them over. Black leaders complained of a lackluster investigation. The guards ultimately were acquitted.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/1...#storylink=cpy

[joeking1978]

****ing Florida... I need to move back to Michigan before I catch it.

[det2orl]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...012/?mobile=nc

1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: “There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away” [Orlando Sentinel]

2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher:
Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”
Zimmerman: “Yeah”
Dispatcher: “OK, we don’t need you to do that.”
[Orlando Sentinel]

3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman’s father released a statement claiming “[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin.” [Sun Sentinel]

4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News]

5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO]

6. Martin’s English teacher described him as “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.” [Orlando Sentinel]

7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times]

8. Zimmerman “was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.” [Huffington Post]

9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald]

10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” [Miami Herald]

11. Zimmerman “had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics” [Huffington Post]

12. A police officer “corrected” a key witness. “The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help.” [ABC News]

13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. “Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.” [Miami Herald]

14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010 when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times]

15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is “standard procedure in most homicide investigations.” [ABC News]

16. In a cell phone call moments before his death, Martin told a teenage girl that he was “hounded by a strange man on a cellphone who ran after him, cornered him and confronted him.” “‘He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,’ Martin’s friend said. ‘I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.’ Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he’d managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin. ‘Trayvon said, ‘What, are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’” [ABC News]

17. Police have Trayvon Martin’s cell phone but never contact his girlfriend.[Miami Herald]

18. Zimmerman told the police “he had stepped out of his truck to check the name of the street he was on when Trayvon attacked him from behind as he walked back to his truck.” “He said he feared for his life and fired the semiautomatic handgun he was licensed to carry because he feared for his life.” [Miami Herald]

19. The incident occurred in a tiny gated community Zimmerman patrolled regularly. [Miami Herald]

20. Zimmerman was not a member of a registered Neighborhood Watch group. Zimmerman also violated basic Neighborhood Watch guidelines by carrying a weapon. [ABC News]

21. The police reports were amended to bolster Zimmerman’s claim of self defense. “Initial police reports never mentioned that Zimmerman had a bloody nose or a wet shirt that showed evidence of a struggle.” [Miami Herald]

22. Police ignored witness whose account was different from Zimmerman’s.“One of the witnesses who heard the crying said she called a detective repeatedly, but said he was not interested because her account differed from Zimmerman’s.” [Miami Herald]

23. Zimmerman still has a permit to carry a concealed weapon in the State of Florida. [ThinkProgress]

[sseelhoff]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...012/?mobile=nc

Reading that, Sanford police are as complicit as Zimmerman.

[det2orl]

Reading that, Sanford police are as complicit as Zimmerman.

Sure seems that way. I got more mad with every detail that comes out. There is very little new info that supports Zimmerman and seemingly an overwhelming amount that incriminates him. Amazing that he still is on the streets...........and more importantly still able to carry a gun!!!

[sseelhoff]

Sure seems that way. I got more mad with every detail that comes out. There is very little new info that supports Zimmerman and seemingly an overwhelming amount that incriminates him. Amazing that he still is on the streets...........and more importantly still able to carry a gun!!!

I've just started reading about it. The more I read, the more dumbfounded I am about this. This kind of stuff should not happen. Zimmerman was a vigilante wannabe looking for a gunfight. Poor kid met the wrong idiot in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the cops' role in this is just disturbing.

[det2orl]

So he got out of his truck to check to see what street he was on in a tiny gated community that he patrolled regularly???

18. Zimmerman told the police “he had stepped out of his truck to check the name of the street he was on when Trayvon attacked him from behind as he walked back to his truck.” “He said he feared for his life and fired the semiautomatic handgun he was licensed to carry because he feared for his life.” [Miami Herald]

19. The incident occurred in a tiny gated community Zimmerman patrolled regularly. [Miami Herald]

[psycaz]

I'm leary of some of the stuff from ThinkProgress.

They list him as white, while only making a notation that he is also Hispanic at the very end of the article.

Trying to enflame the racial aspect a bit much?

It's a tragedy enough as is without trying to turn it into a white on black crime.