Witness Says Trayvon Martin Attacked George Zimmerman

[Zatch]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-witness-claims-trayvon-martin-attacked-george-zimmerman/

“The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: ‘help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911,” he said.
Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.
The witness only wanted to be identified as “John,” and didn’t not want to be shown on camera.
His statements to police were instrumental, because police backed up Zimmerman’s claims, saying those screams on the 911 call are those of Zimmerman.
“When I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point,” John said.

 

[Elfshadow]

Well I gotta tell you if you where following me around well I walked around a neighborhood I might attack you to. Being hunted will trigger a flight or fight response. The big question is how zimmerman got out of the vechical to be attacked in the first place. The whole thing stinks of a couple people who "thought" they where defending themselves because of the actions of an idiot.

 

[osan]

Well I gotta tell you if you where following me around well I walked around a neighborhood I might attack you to.

And you might then get yourself shot as well.

Being hunted will trigger a flight or fight response.

It is far from concluded whether the boy was being "hunted", as you put it.

The big question is how zimmerman got out of the vechical to be attacked in the first place.

One usually opens the door and then steps out, though I have seen people crawl out a window on an occasion or two.

The whole thing stinks of a couple people who "thought" they where defending themselves because of the actions of an idiot.

And how, precisely, do you know this? Have you read any eyewitness accounts of what happened from the beginning?

I would agree, however, that something appears not to be adding up. The boy is being touted as this great angel, but if he in fact attacked Zimmerman, then someone in all of this is perhaps lying because good kids do not usually act so out of character. That leads me to wonder whether Zimmerman was the bad guy or if the boy was not quite so angelic as is being depicted.

This is likely to go to trial, I would imagine, given the tensions that are building. Even if Zimmerman is clean on this I see him standing trial because of the politics.

 

[UtahApocalypse]

I get the feeling that this ends one of two ways....

Zimmerman in prison
or
riots ala Rodney King style

 

[Toureg89]

Well I gotta tell you if you where following me around well I walked around a neighborhood I might attack you to. Being hunted will trigger a flight or fight response. The big question is how zimmerman got out of the vechical to be attacked in the first place. The whole thing stinks of a couple people who "thought" they where defending themselves because of the actions of an idiot.

as a person who carries a gun and lives in Orlando, i would hope that you dont ever suspect me of following you.

and, last time i checked, following someone in public isnt illegal. attacking someone, is.

as for this case specifically, im not going to comment further because the whole one-news-agency-says-one-thing-and-another-news-agency-says-the-opposite is a total crap shoot.

 

[iGGz]

//

 

[pcosmar]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-witness-claims-trayvon-martin-attacked-george-zimmerman/

One witness after the fact that contradicts the 911 calls, and the phone calls is not going to help.

Zimmerman shot an unarmed man, after instigating a confrontation.

The kid did not pull him out of his vehicle. If he had stayed in his vehicle there would have been NO fight.

The kid had a right to be there, and Zimmerman had NO Right to assault him.
The witness only saw the end of it,,

The police are protecting a cop wannabe. Why they are is a whole nother question.

 

[William R]

One witness after the fact that contradicts the 911 calls, and the phone calls is not going to help.

Zimmerman shot an unarmed man, after instigating a confrontation.

The kid did not pull him out of his vehicle. If he had stayed in his vehicle there would have been NO fight.

The kid had a right to be there, and Zimmerman had NO Right to assault him.
The witness only saw the end of it,,

The police are protecting a cop wannabe. Why they are is a whole nother question.

And how in the hell do you know Zimmerman assaulted him???

 

[moderate libertarian]

I get the feeling that this ends one of two ways....

Zimmerman in prison
or
riots ala Rodney King style

Rodney King race riots were black-white race issue, his father is claiming that George Zimmerman himself is a minority:

Friday, March 23, 2012

Florida shooter George Zimmerman not easily pigeonholed
By Manuel Roig-Franzia, Tom Jackman and Darryl Fears
The Washington Post

The shooter was once a Catholic altar boy, with a surname that could have been Jewish.

His father is white, neighbors say. His mother is Latina. And his family is eager to point out that some of his relatives are black.

There may be no box to check for George Zimmerman, 28, no tidy way to categorize, define and sort the man whose pull of a trigger on a Sanford, Fla., street is forcing America to once again confront its fraught relationship with race and identity. The slain victim, we know, was named Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in a hoodie.

The images of Zimmerman — not just his face, but the words used to describe him — can confound and confuse.

Why are they calling him white, wondered Paul Ebert, the Prince William County commonwealth's attorney who knew Zimmerman's mother, Gladys, from her days as an interpreter at the county courthouse. Zimmerman's mother, Ebert knew, was Peruvian, and he thought of her as Hispanic.

Emphasizing diversity

Zimmerman's father has sought to emphasize his family's diversity in hopes of saving his son from condemnation as a racist.

While images of protests from across the country skitter past on television screens, the elder Zimmerman has tried to do what others have been doing, in various ways, for days: define his son. George is "a Spanish-speaking minority," the father wrote in a letter delivered to The Orlando Sentinel. "He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever." George, the father insisted, was more like the boy he killed than people thought. George was a minority — the other — too.
The argument the father is making feels hollow and self-serving to Michaela Angela Davis, an African-American writer and activist who lives in New York. In her eyes, George Zimmerman's Hispanic roots don't give him cover.

"You being a minority doesn't make you immune to racist beliefs," she said in an interview Thursday. Davis sees a pervasive cultural imprint, reinforced by media and entertainment imagery: the black man as a symbol of "violence, fear and deviant behavior." A young man could be susceptible to the influence of that image whether his "mother is from Peru or Norway."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2017819414.html

 

[Cowlesy]

That does not fit the narrative. Ignore this eye-witness!

 

[moostraks]

What is with all the concern that he was in a hoodie??? Must admit I have not payed close attention to this story but it is bubbling in daily news reports now and all I keep hearing is the emphasis on his hoodie. Is this to add to the big bad image to give the one guy more cred in being afraid because of what the boy was wearing?

 

[azxd]

One witness after the fact that contradicts the 911 calls, and the phone calls is not going to help.

Zimmerman shot an unarmed man, after instigating a confrontation.

The kid did not pull him out of his vehicle. If he had stayed in his vehicle there would have been NO fight.

The kid had a right to be there, and Zimmerman had NO Right to assault him.
The witness only saw the end of it,,

The police are protecting a cop wannabe. Why they are is a whole nother question.

And how in the hell do you know Zimmerman assaulted him???

Because the guy is a biased cop hater who always sides against the law.

 

[pcosmar]

And how in the hell do you know Zimmerman assaulted him???

Reports of the 911 call by Zimmerman.
He called in a "suspicious person" (questionable in itself)
He was in his vehicle and was told NOT TO FOLLOW.
He was following (was on the phone, and reported being followed)

Zimmerman got out of the vehicle and confronted him (also heard on phone).
If the Cop wannabe had stayed in his own vehicle (and minded his own business) there would have been NO incident

 

[phill4paul]

Reports of the 911 call by Zimmerman.
He called in a "suspicious person" (questionable in itself)
He was in his vehicle and was told NOT TO FOLLOW.
He was following (was on the phone, and reported being followed)

Zimmerman got out of the vehicle and confronted him (also heard on phone).
If the Cop wannabe had stayed in his own vehicle 9and minded his own business) there would have been NO incident

This in itself is a criminal offence. It is called 'stalking.'

Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them. The word stalking is used, with some differing meanings, in psychology and psychiatry and also in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offense.

 

[specsaregood]

Because the guy is a biased cop hater who always sides against the law.

And which law would that be? Zimmerman or whatever wasn't a cop. One man is dead and the only one with a weapon has walked free.

 

[coastie]

Methinks azxd is a cop....

 

[angelatc]

and, last time i checked, following someone in public isnt illegal. attacking someone, is.

I believe the "Stand Your Ground" law gives a person the right to attack first if he has a reasonable belief that there is imminent danger to himself or another person.

Therefore. my position is that Trayvon indeed had the right to attack Zimmerman, since Zimmerman was the aggressor through the entire episode, beginning when he disregarded the advice of the 911 operator not to follow the kid. Zimmerman provokeded the confrontation.

If the DA had decided to press charges and at least take it to a Grand Jury, this wouldn't be the national "crisis" it is. Instead, the odds of Zimmerman actually getting a fair trial are nil.

 

[angelatc]

Because the guy is a biased cop hater who always sides against the law.

So am I. That still doesn't mean other people can kill me.

 

[coastie]

I believe the "Stand Your Ground" law gives a person the right to attack first if he has a reasonable belief that there is imminent danger to himself or another person.

Therefore. my position is that Trayvon indeed had the right to attack Zimmerman, since Zimmerman was the aggressor through the entire episode, beginning when he disregarded the advice of the 911 operator not to follow the kid. Zimmerman provokeded the confrontation.

If the DA had decided to press charges and at least take it to a Grand Jury, this wouldn't be the national "crisis" it is. Instead, the odds of Zimmerman actually getting a fair trial are nil.

Correct. The law does not allow you to actively pursue and confront someone, and in that case, the law protects who you are pursuing-not you, the pursuer..

 

[economics102]

and, last time i checked, following someone in public isnt illegal. attacking someone, is.

There's a difference between what's illegal and what's threatening.

If you think someone's about to attack you, yes, in your head part of you is thinking about the legal ramifications and your options.

But if your instinct is saying "I'm about to be attacked and running away isn't feasible," sometimes attacking first is a reasonable action even though it might not be legal. The determination of whether the other person really is about to attack you is a judgement call the potential victim is in a unique position to make.

If someone follows you into a dark alley, you may not have legal ground to pre-emptively attack but some might say you'd be foolish to wait until your likely assailant pulls out a weapon to start reacting.

In your minds eye, imagine the Travyon-Zimmerman encounter. Zimmerman is following Travyon, and then gets out of his car. Now we don't know exactly what that looked like, what the expression on Zimmerman's face was, the speed with which he was walking, etc. But maybe he had a clear look of menace on his face, maybe the nonverbal communication was obvious enough to Travyon that he knew he was about to get into a physical encounter. Maybe he saw Zimmerman had a gun and (logically) concluded he had better of odds of running up and trying to pin Zimmerman down rather than running away and getting shot in the back.

I'm not saying the law should necessarily cater to these kinds of scenarios because obviously it's dangerous to give people legal cover for pre-emptively attacking others, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be understanding of the fact that there ARE scenarios where attacking first is still self-defense even if the law can't label it self-defense.

So, if the scenario played out as I described above, and Travyon was not killed, he would have to stand trial for physical assault. And in that trial, he'd have to try to make the case that his action was a reasonable self-defense response to the situation and hope the jury/judge are sympathetic.