Veek, mate on the contrary, what I read and hear is , this bloke sees what he thinks is a suspicious character, then against advice from his collegue gets out of the car and chases him down, or follows him and confronts him, the kid tells him to piss off, a scuffle happens, Zimerman cops a clout on the snoze, so he pulls a gun and shoots the kid, mate if your law allows that shit to happen no wonder you have all the troubles you have. yep you and everybody every where has a right to defend oneself, but you pick a fight you don't shoot the other guy cause he beat you for Christ sake, be a man take your licken and wise up next time.
now if you were to tell me the young fella pulled a knife or some other form of weapon things might have been different , but that wasn't the case was it.
John, according to testimony at the trial, Mr. Zimmerman was alone driving through the neighborhood when he reported Mr. Martin walking in the rain. Because of recent neighborhood break-ins, he called 911 for police assistance as he has done before in similar circumstances. He described an unknown male "just walking around looking about" in the rain and said, "This guy looks like he is up to no good or he is on drugs or something." Zimmerman reported that the person had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes. On the recording, Zimmerman is heard saying, "these assholes, they always get away."
About two minutes into the call, Zimmerman said, "he's running." The 911 dispatcher asked, "He's running? Which way is he running?" The sound of a car door chime is heard, indicating Zimmerman opened his car door. Zimmerman followed Martin, eventually losing sight of him. The dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was following him. When Zimmerman answered, "yeah," the dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that." Zimmerman responded, "Okay." Zimmerman asked that police call him upon their arrival so he could provide his location. Zimmerman ended the call at 7:15 p.m.
After Zimmerman ended his call with police, a violent encounter took place between Martin and Zimmerman, which ended when Zimmerman fatally shot Martin 70 yards (64 m) from the rear door of the townhouse where Martin was staying.
Mr. Zimmerman's defense contends that he the was returning to his car when he was assaulted by Mr. Martin. The defense further contends that in the altercation, Mr. Martin was repeatedly bashing Mr. Zimmerman's head against the concrete. Mr. Zimmerman had injuries consistent with that assertion as well as a witness that generally supported this contention as well. The witness did not see the gunshot as he was calling police.
In his statement to police, Mr. Zimmerman is quoted as saying, "As soon as he punched me I fell backwards. He was whaling on my head and I started yelling help," said Zimmerman. "He grabbed my head and started hitting me into the sidewalk. I slid into the grass to get out from under him. I was still yelling out for help."
Zimmerman said Martin told him, "You are going to die tonight" and kept banging his head into the sidewalk, and that he shot and killed the teen soon after.
The defense contended Mr. Martin prior to his initiation of the physical altercation with Mr. Zimmerman, had the opportunity (four minutes or so) to flee prior to the point he punched Zimmerman apparently disfiguring and possibly breaking his nose and they fell to the ground in what ended in the deadly confrontation. Ms Jenteal, a witness for the prosecution partially, supports this contention. She testified she told Martin to run to the townhouse where he was staying with his father in a cell phone conversation they had immediately prior to the scuffle.
The prosecution did not produce compelling evidence to dispute the defense claims. The arresting officers indicated they believed Mr. Zimmerman was credible and forensic testimony also supported his story. The jury indicated found Mr. Zimmerman's claim that he was in fear for his life believable and therefore justified in their minds the use of deadly force.
You are certainly free to look up the actual testimony and evidence provided and come to your own conclusions and decide what exactly how our "law allows that shit to happen" and contrast it to your own legal system. I'd also defer to Jeff and some of the other attorneys on the forum as to the comparative nature of our legal structures.
This whole series of events is tragic and stupid. It's stupid that Mr. Zimmerman's neighborhood is in a state of fear over the robberies. It's stupid that Mr. Zimmerman gets into a scuffle, especially when he is wearing a weapon. It's stupid that Mr. Martin was using Miami street confrontation rules on an armed overzealous neighbor hood watch volunteer. They both should have walked away. It's stupid that the media edited the 911 call to paint Zimmerman as a white murdering racist and it's sad that the narrative has devolved into the divisive and hate filled dialog with death threats to everyone from the jurors, to the judge to the police departments on the other side of the country. It's just stupid...