Should the guy that shot Trayvon Martin be arrested

If it's true he was shot in the back of the head then yes. I don't buy the self defense argument if you are shooting a young man in the back. I don't know if that is fact, I just remember hearing it mentioned in the news. 

The cops need to be fired. They dropped the ball. As a parent I am outraged at their lack of investigation. You send a narcotics cop to investigate my child's shooting death I would be screaming mad. 

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Originally Posted by aliadam 

Was he shot in the back of the head? I hadn't heard that. What I think is that everyone should calm down UNTIL the police decide what they're going to do and then, and only then, get upset or be satisfied with the verdict. The thing has gotten so out of control with the Black Panthers putting a bounty on Zimmerman, Spike Lee posting his (erroneous) address so that the elderly couple had to leave their home, etc.
I just read a thing today that was blasting the media for their role in all this. They make money by sensationalizing it and riling everyone up and don't seem to really care about anything but their ratings.
The guy is OBVIOUSLY an idiot for following the boy. But I have no way of knowing what really happened after that. There have been witnesses that stated they SAW the guy in the red shirt on the ground and the other guy bashing his head repeatedly into the walk. Zimmerman was the one in the red shirt. Now if he shot the kid in the back, then yes, I think he's guilty. If the kids was beating his head into the pavement, then I'm not sure he is.
Luckily I'm not the one who has to figure this all out, and I think I'll leave it to those who have seen the evidence and interviewed the witnesses to do that and not be influenced by sensationalist reporting.

I had edited my response to mention that I don't know that is fact. I remember hearing it on the news at some point. 

Do states have different rules for self defense? I think in some states you can only use the same amount of force as the attacker. 

I don't think he had any business following that boy. He sure as heck shouldn't have had a gun on him. I think he was looking for a fight and I think he should have been arrested. Even if Martin fought back, Zimmerman was following him and confronted him, he had a right to defend himself. I think Martin is the one that could have claimed self defense. I will teach my kids to run if possible or fight if needed, when confronted by a stranger, especially at night when all alone. Zimmerman could have shot him in the leg or arm, or somewhere non-deadly, if he needed to defend himself. OR, he could have listened to the 911 operator and left the kid alone in the first place. However, I have to say, this case is a huge mess. So many "witnesses" have different accounts of what happened, the real story might never come out. I will be very interested to learn how/where/from what distance Martin was shot. I think that will be telling. 

I think they should have arrested him at the time & then done a thorough investigation. The problem is that they just let him go with no investigation of the matter. Here in Michigan, if 2 high school kids fight & one hits another, even though they were both fighting and a bunch of kids are all gathered around watching, if one kid hits the other, the 2nd kid falls, hits his head, dies, then the kid who hit him will be arrested & tried for manslaughter. That has happened here several times. I find this Zimmerman guy to be a lttle off. He has called 911 repeatedly reporting every little thing; he follows the kid when told not to; he doesn't just threaten the kid with the gun & hold him at bay until cops arrive, or shoot to scare, or shoot to maim; former co-workers indicated he had a violent streak & was let go from work due to it. If this kid Trayvon was being followed by a guy in a car, and then the guy gets out of the car & starts following him, he would be right to be scared. And turning around and confronting the guy who he thinks is following/targeting him is within his rights as well.

Also, Trayvon did have the right to be in the area (it's not been shown that he should not have been in the gated community), so he was not an "outsider."  I have not heard anything about him being in trouble with the law in the past, so why would he go after Zimmerman unless he felt threatened?  I definately think Zimmerman should be arrested. He said the voice on the tapes crying out for help was his own, but 2 experts have already examined the tapes and it was not Zimmerman calling for help, so he lied there too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliadam 

Stacia, where did you hear that ZImmerman attacked Martin first? I hadn't heard that either. Or that Martin was hitting Zimmerman in self defense? The eyewitness accts that I've heard has Martin beating up Zimmerman rather than the other way around.
I totally agree he shouldn't have gotten out on foot and followed Martin. Very, very stupid even for his own safety. Not sure why he did that. But that isn't against the law and neither is carrying a weapon if you have a concealed permit for it. May not be smart, but it's legal and many people do it.
My understanding (which could be totally wrong) is that Zimmerman DIDN'T confront Martin. Zimmerman was walking back to his car and Martin came up to him and hit him first (at least according to Zimmerman). A fight ensued and Zimmerman was getting the worst of it from eyewitness accts (unfortunately there have been no reported eyewitness accts of the first hit to know for sure who instigated the altercation). Now what happened then is another story......I'm not sure anyone knows as I don't think there were any eyewitnesses to the actual shooting. Was Martin still hitting him? Was Martin walking away and Zimmerman shot him anyway? Were they struggling for the gun? I think those will be the important question for the police to figure out.
Unfortunately I believe now that even IF Zimmerman shot him in self defense (not saying he did as I have no clue) he will be arrested anyway. The public outcry is so great that I think the authorities are probably afraid of rioting if they don't arrest him. That's why I think it would have been so much better if the media and the public hysteria had stayed out of it. I want a guilty man to go to jail, but don't want someone to go "just to make everyone happy".

Have you seen the security videos from the night Zimmerman went down to the police station? He was taken down to the station and questioned that night, but never charged. He has not a mark on him, for someone who was having his face bashed into the sidewalk he looked awful pristine. Second the police wanted to charge him, but he prosecutor's office did not issue the warrant. Which that person has stepped down now. I am not a lawyer or police officer, but I have witnessed a young man get beaten like that in front of my house. He had his head bashed into a telephone pole repeatedly. He had to be carried away in an ambulance and looked like a bloody mess.

I am not saying Zimmerman killed the kid, because in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. I am saying there seems to be enough evidence to warrant further investigation, and IN MY OPINION a trail. He should of been arrested that night, been tested for drug and alcohol (since it has been reported by the police and 911 his speech was slurred), and then leave it to a defense attorney to prove self-defense. The FL law is to lax and even know is being re-evaluated. In our state you can only claim self-defense if you tried to take yourself out of the situation, every police report out there states he did not. I would also like to point out that this weekend some information about Zimmerman's past is starting to surface as well. This is going to be a long drawn out process.

I don't think either of them is squeaky clean and everyone needs to calm down.