Shot for getting skittles

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/seminole_news/030712-Father-of-teen-shot-in-Sanford-to-speak

The amazing thing is that the guy who shot him was questioned and released - after shooting an unarmed kid who evidently had every right to be where he was.

Until more information is released, it was because the shooter was a racist and shot the kid because he was black. I'm assuming he was black because "Trayvon" sounds like a blackish name. Zimmerman sounds Jewish and they hate blacks.

ETA: Cops also hate blacks and that's why they didn't arrest the shooter.

Also, the shooting took place in Florida.

And we know everyone in Florida is batshit crazy.

English is apparently not this reporter's first language.

At any rate, apparently the cops refuse to release the 911 tapes as well.

Wouldn't surprise me if Zimmerman were some notable local offical's son.

Believe it or not, that's usually the way it works.

In the absence of probable cause, unless there is another charge on which I can arrest, I can't, by law, detain a person until the investigation turns up something. That could take days or weeks.

It's going to take the better part of a day to get the store's security camera footage, talk to any witnesses, review the footage in detail, and compare all of the witnesses stories. To detain someone for that long because I think they may have committed a crime is an egregious breach of the fourth, and maybe the fifth, amendment.

Being unarmed is irrelevant. It sure is damning in the court of public opinion, but as we talked about in the last thread, it's irrelevant as far as the law is concerned.

Based on that bullshit account, none of the possibilities should really surprise anyone. For all we know, dude left the house that day hoping to shoot someone. Or the kid shouted "FUCK YOU I'LL BUST A CAP IN YOUR ASS!" before making a furtive gesture meant to look like he was pulling a handgun out of his waistband.

Not really. It's intent is to prevent from making a bad situation worse through abuse.

Lets say you own a small convenience store. What's going to happen to your business and your life when you defend yourself, legally, against an attack but you spend the next six months to a year in jail because the police thought you were guilty? Would your business and home get foreclosed? Your car(s) repossessed? Your life destroyed even though you did nothing wrong?

Can't happen? Yeah. With the way our court dockets are loaded, if I arrest you for murder today it will be at least one year before you actually go to trial.

We tried one murder case on this last rotation and we have another one coming up on the next rotation. Both took place in December of 2010. The defendant on the latter case could afford to post a bond. The former could not. So, an 81 year old man sat in the county jail for 14 months. The jury ended up convicting on a much reduced charge because the victim was a scumbag.

Never having lived in a gated community, I have to ask: Is it SOP for the head of the neighborhood watch to carry a gun?

If that were my kid, I'd find neighborhood watch boy and blow his brains out the back of his head.

Instead of tasting the rainbow, he tasted lead.

As reported, it would seem that something very wrong happened.

However, there are important details unreported in the story. What (if anything) was Martin doing to provoke suspicion? What did Zimmerman report on his 911 call? What was said between the two men during their encounter? What were the circumstances under which Zimmerman fired (if, indeed, he did)? Why did the police decide not to arrest Zimmerman?

I suspect there's more to the story that will add weight to Zimmerman's defense. If there wasn't, the cops would've arrested him. And the "prior to police arriving" bit leads me to think that the police were already responding when the incident occurred. What was reported to them?

And regarding this thread's misleading title, Martin's going for Skittles appears to have nothing to do with the incident.

Besides the fact that he was out to get skittles and returning home when he was shot dead.

To this point, there's been no justification of that shooting, and as Elwood indicated, its pretty much SOP to let a shooter go in this case.

And of course it will be impossible to get the kid's POV on this now, because, you know, he's dead.

As indicated, the victim's family wants the police to turn over the 911 tapes. We'll see if anything more comes of this.

At best, he was shot while getting Skittles, not for getting Skittles.

No justification provided does not mean no justification. And the cops would've arrested the shooter if they thought he was killing people willy-nilly.

It's unclear if there are witnesses.

That's all that can be said now: we'll see.

That's what I like about my county. The bar for "probable cause" for shooters is pretty high, so they never get arrested unless witnesses think it seems fishy.

The standard of "Perception of imminent jeapordy" may be at work as well, depending on what the cops gleaned from the initial investigation...
You and I both know that it's not THAT hard for an unarmed man to create that reasonable perception.

Wonder what happened to the skittles.....

What would he do for a Klondike Bar?

Hey!

I resemble that remark!

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to get back to work:

Here's a case where it did happen:

Guy wasn't able to make bail. Lost his job, his apartment (got evicted for being arrested), everything in the apartment (hopefully he sues the landlord who knew he was in jail but didn't send any notices to him), and was ultimately found not guilty by a jury.

112 days in jail.

Did manage to get his job back.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/ar...an-acquitted-shooting-happy-free-now-homeless

No. It is not.

There is too much left out of this story.

We need more details.

That the police didn't arrest the shooter seems to indicate that the police believe that the shooter was justified. So what did the kid do to get shot?

And the shooter is not out of the woods yet. The police might not arrest him on the spot but the DA can still press charges and have him arrested.

Oh and the kid was from Miami. Was up there because he was suspended from school for a week.

Looks like two idiots bumped heads and one got shot.

Guy could still be charged.

That account is pretty damning to the shooter.

Bet the guy was wearing his pants halfway off his ass.

I feel his pain. When you're temporarily jailed the clock on your life is still ticking. Bills/obligations are due, you can't pay them, too bad.
Can't get to work (being jailed and all) I guess you hope you have vacation time saved up, or you're ass out of a job.

Charges get dropped, nobody retroactively puts everything straight.
If people work with you on your busuiness/work/financial obligations, great. But they aren't obligated to. And if you couldn't afford a lawyer for your criminal charges, you sure can't afford one to sue your boss/landlord/utilities company/etc.

Even if you know you are innocent (or will beat the charges) that doesn't mean JACK SHIT if you can't settle your affairs in a timely manner. You can't even call a lawyer - because if you get an answering machine, that counts as your "one phone call." Nobody said life was fair.

My point? If at all possible, bond out and lawyer up ASAP. If it's a weekend (isn't it always?) camp out on your lawyer's office steps until Monday morning.

And Zimmerman was probably getting his ass kicked which is why he probably went to the gun.

I think he's getting charged. It's just going to take time for the DA to go through the paperwork the police give them.

There is no such thing as one phone call.

When you get arrested and the process you into the system they give you a chance to use the phone right there in the processing center. The best thing to do is call family or friends and let them handle the bondsman/lawyer. They've got more time then you do.

When you go to your cell there are phones for you to use to call your family or lawyer or a bondsman.

And you don't need to camp out on your lawyers office until Monday. If you bond out go home and stay out of trouble until you can contact the lawyer. (actually you should stay out of trouble all the time until the case is done)

That one phone call stuff is from TV. And in some cases, there are no phones in the cells. You probably have no change and you can't call collect to a cell phone.

You are lucky if they let you use the phone in the processing center.

And this means what???

Do you fear guys wearing sagging pants??