Do you think Zimmerman will be convicted of murder?

I agree that nothing yet made available to the public suggests intentional homicide, a required element of the murder charge

In order to convict a defendant in Florida of Second-degree murder, the State of Florida must prove the following three elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

The victim is dead;
The death was caused by the criminal act of the defendant;
There was an unlawful killing of the victim by an act imminently dangerous to another and demonstrating a depraved mind without regard for human life.

I think that Bill's certainty of Zimmerman's innocence is, at least equally, absurd and narrow-minded.

In the months before their fatal meeting, Zimmerman’s Twin Lakes community was hit by a crime wave that saw young black men commit a number of break-ins and burglaries. As the collapse of Florida’s housing market took its toll on the community, depressing home values and driving up crime, Zimmerman and his neighbors increasingly began to fear for their safety and for the security of their homes. Reuters reports that in the 14 months before Martin was killed, there were at least eight burglaries reported in Twin Lakes. Residents also reported dozens of attempted break-ins and incidents of burglars casing homes. Zimmerman’s city of Sanford was especially hard hit. According to Neighborhood Scout, a website that aggregates crime in American cities, on a 100-point scale where 100 is most safe and zero is least safe, Sanford had a dismal rating of 3.
Zimmerman was well aware of the breadth of the crime problem in Sanford. Indeed, he was one of the victims. The Reuters report notes that in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman’s front porch and stole a bicycle. Zimmerman also saw his neighbors victimized by burglars. On August 3, just a few months after his bicycle had been stolen, two black men broke into the home of Zimmerman’s neighbor Olivie Bertalan and attempted to steal her television. Bertalan, then home alone with her infant son, called the police, who arrived just as the burglars fled. Police reports show that Bertalan subsequently reported a digital camera and a laptop computer as stolen. Among those who had seen the robbery was Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, who witnessed a black male teenager running through her backyard and reported it to the police.
Such incidents suggest that Zimmerman was justified in worrying about crime in Sanford. If he was suspicious of unfamiliar black men in his neighborhood, he was not the only one. “People were freaked out,” Bertalan told Reuters. “It wasn’t just George calling police … we were calling police at least once a week.” Significantly, those worried about crime committed by young black men included Zimmerman’s black neighbors. One black neighbor interviewed by Reuters said:

Quote:

“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK? There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood. That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”

Tellingly, the woman refused to be identified. One can hardly blame her. By investing Martin’s shooting with racial connotations, the popular media and race demagogues like Al Sharpton have already incited a violent backlash, with black militants attacking whites under the banner of “justice for Trayvon.” That she wouldn’t wish to join the list of casualties of this racial revenge is understandable....

There are a half a dozen or so of the seriously messed up on A2K, the two worst being paradork and monkeyjerk; I just vote their **** down wherever I see it, I don't usually read any of itl

The question in this case is did Zimmerman have no regard for human life.
It is certainly arguable and I have stated I think he acted stupidly
but probably not to the level of depraved.

I go by Occam's razor as far as the likely events that happen that night with what is known.

Well from my understanding Zimmerman had lost contact with the teenager and was returning to his car when he was attack from behind now to blame him for that seems a little silly.
URL: http://able2know.org/topic/188223-41

Do you feel that all black people should arm themselves for "self defense"?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121724

In Florida and Alabama, for instance, the figure is 31 percent, while in Mississippi it is 29 percent. In Virginia, 25 percent of otherwise eligible black men cannot vote

Of course any citizen with no criminal record should be allow to be arm!!!!!!

Should everyone become a self-appointed vigilante? A one-man "neighbood-watch", who was armed, contrary to neighborhood watch guidelines, and who couldn't wait for police to arrive on the scene and do their job, and winds up shooting and killing someone he followed and considered "suspicious", could quite accurately be referred to as "a vigilante", couldn't he?