Arathain Kelvar wrote:
Some guy is chasing me around my neighborhood, I'm going to at a minimum contemplate some violence as self defense. We don't know how it went down.
We do know that he was probably not being "chased"; his phone call to his girlfriend indicates he knew Zimmerman was following him. His girlfriend wanted him to run; he said "I'm going to walk fast". We also know he was not being followed around his own neighborhood; Zimmerman was following him in
Zimmerman's own neighborhood.
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If some stranger, in my neighborhood, starts accosting me and demanding to know who I am and why I am there, he's not going to get a polite response. If he threatens me or touches me, it's quite likely mild violence will ensue. He very well may have gotten violent with Martin, but bit off more than he could chew. Martin may have been defending himself. If I'm defending myself against a guy, and he pulls a gun, slamming his head into the ground is a very reasonable reaction.
No one said Martin needed to be polite. However, the fact is that he was not in his own neighborhood.
As to Zimmerman, no, we don't know how it went down. He may have gotten violent with Martin, Martin may have been defending himself, but as long as that's the case, Zimmerman should remain free. None of those things create probable cause, much less proof beyond a reasonable doubt. They make it reasonable to
suspect Zimmerman provoked a physical altercation, but unless we can get beyond reasonable suspicion there's no cause for arrest.
Furthermore, even if Zimmerman provoked the altercation, if Martin got him down, then got in his mount and started hitting him in the face (as the police report indicates is likely due to Zimmerman's grass-covered back and bloody nose and head) then Martin already escalated the incident well beyond defending himself and into deadly force. When someone is in your mount, that's a life-or-death situation. They can start swinging at your head and it's very difficult for you to get them out of your mount unless you are a skilled ground fighter (as in, at least have basic instruction in ground fighting) or have a
significant size and strength advantage and there's no indication Zimmerman was either; he looks like some overweight guy while Martin was young, and evidently fairly strong (football player). Zimmerman might still be on the hook for manslaughter if that's the case, but it makes it pretty much impossible that he's guilty of murder.
If someone chases you around a neighborhood, yours or not, and you want to be impolite, fine. If you feel threatened or are actually attacked, fine. That does not, however, allow you to beat them to death once you have them down.