Zimmerman verdict: Not Guilty.

[Tiberius]

FFS, this is like training a cat to play piano.

Zimmerman said that Treyvon saw the gun, and went to grab it (with the intent of using it against him) and that Zimmerman (on his back, apparently semi-conscious from the assault) managed to get the gun first and used it. This is from Zimmerman - and nobody else. What we're supposed to believe is that Treyvon intended to shoot Zimmerman. That is utter bollocks. If Zimmerman was as impaired as he claimed to be, how did he get to the gun before Treyvon (in a position of considerable advantage) not manage to get to it before him? I would suggest that Treyvon never saw the gun and the Zimmerman is a liar. But hey... far be it from you to think something like that, eh?

You are ignoring the main point. It doesn't matter the logistics of the thing. We can only go on the facts, and we have eye-witness testimony to confirm that Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman. Whether Trayvon saw the gun and went for it is irrelevant. Given the beating that Zimmerman was undergoing, he was still within his rights to respond with deadly force.

He left his truck, looking for Treyvon. I don't know what kind of dictionary you're using, but that means that he followed him. Or did he go in a completely random direction and (by utter chance) stumbled upon him? No. He followed him.

Let me clarify; he initially started following Trayvon after he lost sight of him. The police dispatcher then said they didn't need him to do that. Zimmerman then, by all accounts, started walking back to his car looking for a place to meet the police. Trayvon then attacked Zimmerman.

Look at a map of the distance between Zimmerman's car and the place where Trayvon was found. It does not suggest that Zimmerman was following Trayvon at the time of the attack.

I've seen you repeatedly decry the whole "we don't need you to do that" when it was suggested that he had been told not to chase after Treyvon. It's pretty fucking clear that the operator was politely telling Zimmerman to get back into his truck and leave the pursuit to the authorities (who were on their way to the scene). But, no. You'll determine that he was told no such thing... that it wasn't an order (it was a heavy suggestion) and that everything Zimmerman did was reasonable.

The police dispatcher testified that it was not an order, because as a matter of policy, they do not give out orders over the phone. It is you who is repeatedly ignoring this. Additionally, it is not illegal to follow someone, especially if you think they are up to no good, as I have also mentioned. So yes, following someone if you think they are breaking the law, or about to break the law, is a reasonable course of action.

From memory, he said no such thing during his conversation with the 911 operator. Happy to be proven wrong on that if you can link the audio and time-stamp. If he said that after the event, then I couldn't give a flying fuck. As I've repeatedly said, Zimmerman shouldn't be trusted wrt anything that was said after the event... because he was looking out for numero uno.

He said it after the phone call in testimony to the police if I recall correctly. In the phone call, he mentioned that Trayvon was walking around in the rain, looking around. Previously he had mentioned break-ins, so I'd have thought the implication of "looking around" was clear.

Seriously, Tiberius, next time there's a racially-motivated killing, you will be a shoe-in for jury service because you're so obviously race-neutral in all of this.

Ah, good. I was wondering when you'd have to resort to personal attacks to bolster your argument rather than logic. Well done.

There is no evidence this was a racially motivating killing. I challenge you to provide one piece of evidence that Zimmerman killed Trayvon "because he was black". I, on the other hand, have plenty of evidence to suggest it wasn't a racially motivated killing. The main evidence is the eye-witness testimony that suggests Trayvon was attacking Zimmerman (so the killing was self-defense), and of course the character of Zimmerman himself; a man who not only mentored African American kids, but was one of the only people who stuck up for a homeless African American man who was being beaten by the police.

That certainly sounds like one bigoted racist motherfucker. </sarcasm>