[lisualsethelp]

Because she's Floridian.

[Annewsded]

But, if we are going to do this we should hurry. New leaves are falling, endlessly falling.

A disturbing rationalization for an possible unsolved crime. Would you want the leaves to cover the body of your own son?

What?? Hof is saying nothing of the kind. You are completely misinterpreting his statement.

[dolaBeetCeage]

^
Maybe you should let people explain themselves, instead of doing it for them.

I took the entirety of two posts to figure out what I think he is saying, and from the first, he said:

Frankly, I'm already tired of the story. We still haven't figured out why Casey Anthony was mentioned, other than as Stache said, she's Floridian.

[spineeupsenry]

A news report about Zimmerman's claims about the events:

There is another version of events, which involve Martin's cellphone, and records from T-Mobile of a conversation between he and his girlfriend at the time of the incident:
ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Crump about the last moments of the teenager's life. Martin had been talking to his girlfriend all the way to the store where he bought Skittles and a tea. The phone was in his pocket and the earphone in his ear, Crump said.

"He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man," Martin's friend said. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run, but he said he was not going to run."

Eventually, he would run, said the girl, thinking that he'd managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin.

"Trayvon said, 'What are you following me for,' and the man said, 'What are you doing here.' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again, and he didn't answer the phone." http://abcnews.go.com/US/trayvon-mar...7#.T3JLvNXvyWh

[MackBranon]

The unexplained missing minute = BS

Clearly Zimmerman pursued TM. How could the cops not have pressed Zimmerman for details about what happened once Z encountered TM? How did the earpiece get knocked out of TM's ear?

So in Florida if you aggressively approach a stranger, and possibly / likely assault that person for whatever reason (any physical interaction is an assault under the law) and the assaultee pushes back in defense, then that gives the assaulter the right to shoot and kill?

[thomaskkk]

i wouldn't have a problem is they charged this guy with manslaugter, and let a judge and jury sort it out. However, given the law as posted above, an aquittal is a real possibility. DAs are notoriously unwilling to go to trial with cases the arn't sure they can win.

[Desflahd]

That's true.


Tue, Mar. 27, 2012

Sanford cops wanted to charge Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin case
By Frances Robles
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

Despite public claims that there wasn’t enough probable cause to make a criminal case in the Trayvon Martin killing, early in the investigation the Sanford Police Department requested an arrest warrant from the Seminole County State Attorney’s office, the special prosecutor in the case told The Miami Herald on Tuesday.

A Sanford Police incident report shows the case was categorized as “homicide/negligent manslaughter.”

The state attorney’s office held off pending further review, The Miami Herald has learned.

The Miami Gardens high school junior was killed Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. The 28-year-old insurance underwriter and college student was never charged, triggering a nationwide crusade on the dead teen’s behalf.

Asked to confirm that the police recommended a manslaughter charge, special prosecutor Angela Corey said: “I don’t know about that, but as far as the process I can tell you that the police went to the state attorney with a capias request, meaning: ‘We’re through with our investigation and here it is for you.’ The state attorney impaneled a grand jury, but before anything else could be done, the governor stepped in and asked us to pick it up in mid-stream.”

A capias is a request for charges to be filed.

The Seminole County State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on whether its prosecutors ever recommended against filing charges.

“If you go with what was reported in the press the first night, there would have been an arrest right away, but obviously something gave investigators pause,” said a source in the Seminole State Attorney’s office who did not want to speak publicly, because the case is now assigned to a different prosecutor. “We get capias warrants all the time. That doesn’t mean we file charges right away. We investigate to see if it’s appropriate. That’s the responsible thing to do.’’

The Seminole County State Attorney’s Office was consulted the night of Trayvon’s killing, but no prosecutor ever visited the scene. As the controversy intensified, Gov. Rick Scott replaced Seminole State Attorney Norm Wolfinger with Corey, the state attorney for Duval, Nassau and Clay counties, based in Jacksonville.

“The case now has a new state attorney, and they didn’t file charges the first day they got it, either,” the Seminole prosecutor who asked to remain anonymous said.

The development is in stark contrast to the statements repeatedly made by Bill Lee, the Sanford police chief who has since stepped aside and was lambasted for his handling of the case. Lee publicly insisted that there was no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman, leading many critics to say he came across more like a defense attorney for the security buff.

“Zimmerman provided a statement claiming he acted in self defense which at the time was supported by physical evidence and testimony,” Lee wrote in a memo posted on the city’s website. “By Florida Statute, law enforcement was PROHIBITED from making an arrest based of the facts and circumstances they had at the time.”

He cited the statute number for Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which provides immunity to people who kill someone in self defense.

Lee’s was criticized for his explanations, because many people thought he was bending over backward to protect the shooter based on the results of a shoddy investigation.

A spokeswoman for the city said the police department would make no further comments on the ongoing investigation.

The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement took over the case. An FDLE investigator and the new prosecutor were spotted in Zimmerman’s neighborhood Tuesday interviewing witnesses.

Many of the facts of what happened at the Retreat at Twin Lakes that night remain murky.

What’s clear is that Trayvon was staying at his father’s girlfriend’s house in a gated community in Sanford while serving out a 10-day suspension for getting caught with an empty baggie of marijuana at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School.

He went for a walk shortly before the start of the NBA All Stars game to buy Skittles and iced tea. Zimmerman, who had a history of reporting “suspicious characters,” spotted Trayvon when he was on his way back from 7-Eleven and called police saying he saw someone who looked high, walked too slowly in the rain and appeared to be looking at people’s houses.

The neighborhood watch volunteer, who was licensed to carry a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in a holster, was recorded on the police line muttering profanities and a possible racial slur. He tailed Trayvon until the boy took off running.

Trayvon’s attorneys say the dead teen’s cell phone records show he was on the phone with his girlfriend, who told lawyers that Trayvon was alarmed that someone was following him. She heard him ask Zimmerman why he was pursuing him, then heard a scuffle before the line went dead.

Zimmerman told police that Trayvon approached him from behind and attacked him. An unnamed police source told the Orlando Sentinel that Zimmerman said Trayvon decked him with one punch and slammed his head on the concrete.

The two tussled on the ground, and Zimmerman took the gun from his waist and shot Trayvon once in the chest.

Zimmerman, Lee told The Herald two weeks ago, was able to articulate that he was in “reasonable fear” of great bodily harm or death. Witness statements and a doctor’s report corroborated his injuries, Lee said. A police report said he had a bloody nose and a grass-stained shirt.

Miami Herald staff writer Toluse Olonnuripa contributed to this story.

© 2012 Miami Herald Media Company

[Gymnfacymoota]

The Colbert Report

"This content is unavailable from your location."

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .

[dodsCooggipsehome]

Can we still keep the Geico gekko.

[Foriaelalse]

At least it has the best part about Geraldo Rivera.

Merry, you might be able to get the video as posted on the TV Guide site.

http://video.tvguide.com/Colbert+Rep...o+Kill/9595593

[CKDIWEQ]

Zippy--

Again, thanks for your vague, misdirected comments.
MY comments had everything to do with the local--and ultimately, national-- news outlets endlessly drumming the same alleged facts about the Zimmerman/Martin encounter over their airwaves and into my skull. The local news team's failure to pick up and run with the Z/M story is not something that I was concerned about when I initially posted, because the story, when it emerged, was nothing more than a routine shooting, something reported almost daily. Orlando has quite a serious violent crime problem and those kinds of stories are rather common.
Also, Zippy, I forgot that you don't have access to Orlando news reporting way up there in New York, so there is no possible way you could have followed the story, from the very beginning, as I have.

Because the story eminated from the Orlando area ( like--wait for it--the Casey Anthony story) and rose to national prominence, I consider it a local piece of news that has gone Big Time. I was initially surprised when-- after about TWO WEEKS--the local folks once again began reporting about it. I seem to recall a reporter on one of the local stations saying..."Remember the story about the security guard shooting a teenager that we reported on a couple weeks ago? Well, here are some new developments..." Almost instantly, the story went viral and I began hearing MY LOCAL NEWS reported from New York by the likes of CNN, FOX,CBS and NBC.
"Interesting", I thought;.. "its just like the Casey Anthony story" (which began as a missing child story , then sort of went away until the national networks began their endless dissection of the case). I hope that clears up the mystery of Casey Anthony appearing in a post about Zimmerman/ Martin.
Also, I hope that THIS post does not lead you to more confusion and missing-of-the-point. If it does, I suggest that, when you read my posts, you read them slower. That way, you may even get my metaphors.

By the way, I have still not arrived at any viable opinion about the Z/M situation, aside from thinking how unfortunate is was for a young man to die early. The story is still developing, but with the absence of any new information, it has become a repetitious rehash of a local incident, and no bad guys seem to have emerged. That could change, and I depend upon my local news outlets to keep me up-to-date.

[Nikkytas]

I became aware of this story on the weekend of March 18th, when news came out that the case was headed for the Justice Department. That's what made it national - which you described as "going viral." I waited until a coherent story developed before posting this thread, devoid of all the hysteria - eight days. On March 26th, this was a national story; we don't typically post local news from other areas. The topic also dovetails with other issues many of us discuss here, such as concealed-carry laws and gun-control.

Your post #11 seems to be more about you and your fatigue at having to hear this over and over. Some people with that mindset might choose to just ignore this thread, but to each his own.

Still wondering though, why you believe they have to rush.

But, if we are going to do this we should hurry

The special prosecutor assigned to the case has advised an opposite approach:

The special prosecutor investigating the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer pleaded with the public Tuesday to give her team the time it needs to uncover the truth. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...tory?track=rss

[skiboyx]

A police surveillance video has emerged showing George Zimmerman arriving at a police station in handcuffs.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/...zimmerman.html

[TRASIAOREXOLA]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

[muBXvWIC]

Is that a metaphor?

I'm not too good with them.

[Nemerov]

yes

(as you probably know)
Shakespeare - Hamlet.
"Hamlet." Act I, Scene 4: Marcellus (an officer) says "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," having just seen the ghost of Hamlet's father, the late king of Denmark.

meaning "things are unsatisfactory; there is something wrong."

[bestonlinepharmasy2]

Thank God I heeded a warning to read these posts more slowly. Otherwise that metaphor might have escaped me as well.

[ClaudeMarkus]

That vid sheds a much needed light on things. Uncovering the real truth here is going to be difficult, given what appears to be a whole mass of folks trying to cover their asses after the fact.

[homerdienru]

Sanford Police Department "Partial Report" filed by an officer who responded to the scene of the killing.

[PaulCameron]

Notice at the top of Page 2 of that police report, which shows it was filed in the early morning hours of February 27 (shooting took place early evening of February 26), that this is written:
Name: MARTIN, TRAYVON BENJAMIN DOB: 2/5/1995

Person Type: VICTIM / JUVENILE

So if they knew who he was and ID'd him then why did it take them 3 days to contact TM's father?