@BillRM,
Spendius, as usual, BillRM, is trying to disseminate inaccurate information.
Zimmerman and Martin did not weigh "roughly the same"--it wasn't even close.
According to the Sanford Police Department Offense Report for February 26, 2012, the night of the shooting, Zimmerman's height was shown as 5 foot 8 and his weight was 200 lbs.
According to the autopsy report, Trayvon Martin was 5 foot 11 and weighed 158 lbs.
So Zimmerman outweighed Martin by over 40 lbs.
So much for BillRM's credibility regarding facts.
.
In addition, Zimmerman had taken boxing lessons at a gym for over a year--he had training in fighting.
The physical advantage would have favored Zimmerman.
Zimmerman also had a prior history of aggressive behaviors toward others, and had been court-ordered to take anger management after a prior incident. Trayvon Martin had no history, at all, of any aggressive acts toward others, or of any problems controlling aggression. There is nothing that suggests Martin was a "thug" or "hoodlum" of any sort--he was a middle class high school student, from a good family, with plans for college in his future, and not some ghetto street kid. These are character assassination tactics leveled at Martin, tinged with heavy doses of negative racial stereotyping, which initially originated on right-wing Web sites, and were promoted for the deliberate purpose of destroying sympathy for the victim in this situation in order to make Zimmerman's actions seem more justified. And it played no part in the trial or any evidence presented to the jury, but, as is clearly evident, the Zimmerman supporters in this thread continue to present and repeat this crap about Martin as though it were factual.
Zimmerman's very minor injuries after the shooting did not support any "beating" or "head pounding" by Martin, and none of Zimmerman's DNA was found on Martin's hands. Zimmerman required no medical treatment, not even a Band-Aid, for his extremely minor injuries the night of the shooting. That was one reason the police investigator did not believe Zimmerman's account the night of the shooting and he wanted him arrested and charged with manslaughter.
The jury made
no determination that Martin had "attacked" Zimmerman as opposed to Martin acting in his own self-defense. How the final altercation/struggle actually started is not known, apart from Zimmerman's questionable version of events, and Zimmerman did not testify at his trial. But there was no evidence to support a "sucker punch" or an "attack"--BillRM is simply regurgitating what Zimmerman told the police. Martin, who had been pursued in the dark by this stranger, who never identified himself or his motives, may well have been acting/reacting in his own self-defense to direct provocation by Zimmerman.
The jury found Zimmerman Not Guilty of murder. They didn't find Trayvon Martin guilty of anything, including "attacking" Zimmerman--Martin wasn't the one on trial, and no one witnessed how the confrontation/struggle came about. The verdict pertained only to whether Zimmerman shot Martin because he wanted to, or because he felt he had to in order to protect himself from grave harm, and Zimmerman was given the benefit of the doubt regarding self-defense, in accord with Florida law. That doesn't mean Zimmerman wasn't responsible for creating the events that led to the shooting, it means simply that the jury gave him the benefit of the doubt about why he pulled the trigger.
The verdict does not completely absolve Zimmerman of all moral responsibility for this death. The police investigation concluded that this was an avoidable and needless death, had Zimmerman simply remained in his vehicle after his phone call to the police, instead of pursuing Martin as he did, and that he further failed to defuse the situation he created by never identifying himself to Martin.
And Zimmerman has continued to menace and threaten others since his acquittal, and he assaulted his father-in-law during one of these domestic violence incidents.
There is a reason this killing, and the verdict in this case, was so controversial, but you'd never know that from the clearly skewed, distorted, and often inaccurate, one-sided narrative offered by BillRM, and the other Zimmerman cheerleaders in this thread, comments which also often reek of racism.
It's absolutely sickening that these people should be rejoicing at the needless and avoidable death of an innocent unarmed black minor, who was simply walking home from the store and talking on his cell phone when Zimmerman decided he looked "suspicious" and pursued him because "these f--king punks always get away". It was Zimmerman's inaccurate perception, and his own inability to control his reckless impulses, that led to a tragic death, something for which he deserves no praise. Whether or not one feels he acted in justifiable self-defense when he fired his gun, his impulsive and ill-considered vigilante actions were what created the conditions for this avoidable confrontation and tragedy, and, no matter how much his supporters try to smear his victim, that teen did not deserve to be hunted down and killed by an emotionally unstable wannabe cop.
