Uechi-Ryu.com

Good question Glenn.

But I think that standing your ground had to do with response to physical attack.


Granted Z did not act prudently in following Martin after being told by 911 not to.

But...following someone is not an attack. And Fear of being followed is not a physical attack.

The question would be...who threw the first punch?

From what we know Martin launched an attack ... punched Z and then slammed his head into the concrete.

Why did he attack? Was he pre-empting some attack by Z?
I think this is the crux of the matter.

Not clear cut but let us place ourselves in the Z shoes.
You get punched ...and your head is slammed in the concrete...and your attacker is now on top of you to finish his work.

Even if you want to run away from the fight, now you can't.

Did Z really stand his ground? Or was he pinned to the ground unable to get away?

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Van

Maybe Martin threw the first punch maybe Zimmerman did, and if Martin did maybe he was trying to pre-empt...also did Martin approach Zimmerman as Zimmerman claims or did Zimmerman approach Martin as the lady Martin was talking to on the cell phone claims? We will never know all of the details of what happened. Particularly given only one person survived and there were no visual witnesses. It seems clear however that the jury believed Martin was the aggressor and Zimmerman was defending his life.


By this point in the incident though Zimmerman's response seems clear and he did what he felt he had to do to survive. I am more curious about what options Martin had before this. Could he have just walked away? Did he feel threatened and felt like he had to attack first? Was Zimmerman trying to detain him with his gun drawn as the prosecution claims? If so and you were walking alone at night and an armed stranger tries to detain you, what would you do?

By the way, I am not trying to debate the verdict, I am merely trying to get some dialogue going about what would have been Martin's best strategy under certain scenarios that may have actually occurred before the situation reached the end game.

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Glenn

Good points Glenn.

As to your question...tough decision...it would mean charging a firearm.

This is what our Clarence did, years back, when held up on the way up the stairs of his house.

The gunman had Clarence get in the house at gun point, and when in the kitchen, Clarence fearing he was about to be shot, charged the gunman from six feet away and took a number of bullets in his body.

George,

Agreed. A nightmare notwithstanding Florida laws.

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Van

Of interest

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Van

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Van

The Constitutional Challenge

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Van

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Van

Seems to me there are some facts that need to be addressed.

There is no evidence that Zimmerman drew his firearm on Martin before Martin attacked him. A number of witnesses reported the sequence of events from their viewpoint.

Per Zimmerman's testimony, Martin also tried to reach for his gun. But of course by the time you are on top of a man, have broken his nose, and have shoved his head into the concrete, I'm thinking that's just insult to injury.

And finally... no charges were going to be filed until federal officials put pressure on the prosecutors. Now all the news outlets are talking about the DOJ contemplating filing federal charges. At the end of the day, this is political. Zimmerman is arguably victim of a ploy to win votes for the party in power. They probably don't even care if they win. As long as the race baiting keeps on, Florida gun laws are put on trial and a minority group's passions are whipped up into a fury.

I don't care if the minority group is purple Martians; the whole thing is unseemly. And again... I think Zimmerman needs to get a lawyer and start by suing NBC for damages. An 9-figure lawsuit should get their attention. Fight fire with fire.

- Bill

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Van

Good post, Bill. What a can of worms

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Van

Do you think that Obama may have spoken out about this to distract people away from Snowden?. There have been rumours on the net that Snowden has stuff that could bring down the US Government. It is unusual that the US should bring down and search the President of Venezuelas plane for Snowden, risking public outcry especially in south America, an international incident by all accounts, they must want him bad.........because all this stuff that he has said has been known of at least a year in the public domain.

we don’t need you to do that

What does this mean in the English language?

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Van

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Susan Rothstein

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Van

Richard Conron

Bourne

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Van