Protesters rally over Florida teen's death, demand arrest

[Beet]

Sanford, Florida (CNN) -- Protesters upset about the shooting death of an unarmed Florida teen rallied outside a local courthouse Monday, demanding the arrest of a neighborhood watch captain who told police he shot the teen in self-defense.

...

According to the 911 calls released on Friday, terrified neighbors implored dispatchers to send police as a voice in the background screamed for help.
Martin was carrying a drink and candy when George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain, called 911 to report a suspicious man, authorities said.
The 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman not to confront him. But by the time police arrived, Martin lay dead with a gunshot wound in the chest, according to Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/justice/florida-teen-shooting/?hpt=hp_bn2

Florida has some draconian laws. Murder is legal so long as there is no evidence you weren't acting in "self defense", the cops can't touch you.

"Zimmerman told police he shot the teen in self-defense, authorities said, and remains free as the state attorney investigates. Police said he has not been charged because there are no grounds to disprove his story of what happened.
"The evidence and testimony we have so far does not establish that Mr. Zimmerman did not act in self-defense," the police chief said. "We don't have anything to dispute his claim of self-defense, at this point, with the evidence and testimony that we have.""

[Beet]

Be careful here. The media coverage is favorable to a rush to judgement but there is a lot of uncertainty over what happened. Zimmerman claims he was the one who screamed for help. Three witnesses say the boy was the one who screamed for help. The police say one of the witnesses changed her story, which she angrily denies. One of the witnesses claims the police officer corrected her she reported that it was the boy who screamed for help.

Zimmerman claims he was attacked, and he has a wound in the back of his head. Of course, that only proves that there was a fight at some point.

All we can say for certain at this point is that 1.  Zimmerman should not gotten out of his vehicle and pursued Martin, and 2. IMO, since Zimmerman was 100 lbs. heavier and armed, it's hard to believe he could not have subdued Martin without deadly force, and 3. Florida's "Stand Your Ground" / "Shoot First" law makes it much more difficult for the police to arrest Zimmerman.

According to the so-called Duty to Retreat under English common law:

"If a person can safely retreat and, therefore, avoid killing the aggressor, deadly force is unnecessary. Nonetheless, jurisdictions are sharply split on the issue of retreat.  A slim majority of jurisdictions permit a non-aggressor to use deadly force to repel an unlawful deadly attack, even if he is aware of a place to which he can retreat in complete safety. Many jurisdictions, however, provide that a non-aggressor who is threatened by deadly force must retreat rather than use deadly force, if he is aware that he can do so in complete safety."

In other words, if the police wanted to arrest Zimmerman, their best reasonable suspicion that he broke the law would have been that he violated the duty to retreat. However, Florida repealed its duty to retreat laws in 2005 and replaced it with the above-linked "Stand Your Ground" / "Shoot First" law. Since then, 17 states have rapidly followed suit, with little debate. Needless to say I think this is a mistake.

[Beet]

Considering that Zimmerman was the one who engaged him it doesn't matter, if the kid fought back it was self-defense on HIS part. The real tragedy here is that the kid WASN'T armed, then there'd be just one less racist piece of sh!t in the world instead of one less innocent teenager.

Zimmerman claims he was attacked from behind though. I'm not saying I believe it... but that is what the claim is and that is the only reason he's not under arrest. I don't think this would have ended better if there were 2 guns instead of one. You're assuming the kid was innocent (again, he may well have been, but we don't know) and you're assuming the kid would have killed Zimmerman first, and you're assuming Zimmerman deserved to die (even if he is a racist bigot).

[Beet]

Zimmerman definitely got out of his car and pursued Martin but there aren't any witnesses as to who initiated physical contact.

[Beet]

Apparently there was a witness that said he saw Martin beating Zimmerman, backing up Zimmerman's story. But it has only been reported on "myfoxorlando". If this is true then it's quite surprising that this has not been picked up more broadly. I am curious to see what the justification could be, because without this account the story is far more unfavorable for Zimmerman. The news outlets are whipping people into a frenzy, so if it turns out that this guy did see it and backs up Zimmerman's story, then it'll be a disaster.

[Beet]

Apparently there have been conflicting reports of what Zimmerman's account is. I'm not sure if this is because Zimmerman himself was inconsistent or if the facts that were leaked to the media simply have been misleading. But the latest I have read is not that Zimmermain claims he was jumped from behind... he claims that Martin walked up to him from behind and asked him if he had a problem with him, or something to that effect. Martin's girlfriend's story would fit into this more latter account. If they exchanged words, then no one was jumped from behind.

[Beet]

The greatest criminal here is the FL legislature for passing such an idiotic law and opening the floodgates of bogus "self-defense" claims. Self-defense was permissable before, but this law is the definition of "unintended consequences".

It's not just Florida. Although Florida was the first to enact it and it's been in effect for the longest there, between 17 and 24 states already have this enacted (depending on which report you listen to). If your state doesn't already have it, there's almost certainly someone trying to push it through. In Ohio, an effort is underway to enact this law and lobbyists were campaigning for it today. It's worth nothing that in Florida it was enacted over the objections of law enforcement and prosecutors, who feared exactly what is now happening.

[Beet]

So apparently a new video is out showing Zimmerman being led in handcuffs out of the police cruiser into the station where he has no bruises or blood anywhere on him that can be seen. No bandages, his shirt is clean and dry, no sign of grass. Yes, the police report says the fire department treated him at the scene, but for a guy who's defenders have been portraying him getting decked onto the ground, and "hammered" for at least a minute possibly much longer while crying for help, he sure doesn't look the least bit scratched.

[Beet]

I don't consider anything the father says to be anything more than entertainment value, because the father wasn't there. That claim's only significant if it is relaying a claim made by Zimmerman himself. But even then, there's no evidence whatsoever to support it.

[Beet]

Watch in the middle of the video when the one cop is putting his jacket in the trunk of the car.  The other cop comes around and is checking the back of his head.

Here's the video itself, for the lazy who don't want to search for it.

Go to the City of Sanford web site and you can see the complete video of all their surveillance cameras and not the edited media versions.

Here's that video. You get more angles, no annoying logos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=youtu.be