It's Watch!... Neighborhood Watch. Not shoot.

This guy should prolly go to jail.

Neighborhood watch captain of a Florida gated community reports "suspicious" character in the area. Turns out to be a 17-year-old black kid armed with skittles and a drink.
Kid, who was visiting his dad and stepmom, ends up dead with a single gunshot wound to his chest.
No charges for watch captain, who is white .... yet.

http://news.yahoo.com/family-florida-boy-killed-neighborhood-watch-seeks-arrest-044537742.html

 

Why is the "neighborhood watch" armed with anything but a flashlight and a cell phone?

 

Doesn't sound like much of a self-defense claim, according to eyewitnesses.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/witness-sanford-police-blew-us-teen-slaying/nLSqk/

 

The cops might be doing this guy a favor by arresting him. Before these gentlemen do.

www.washingtonpost.com/national/militia-group-says-it-will-make-citizens-arrest-of-fla-community-watch-leader-who-killed-teen/2012/03/15/gIQAwZ2xES_story.html

 

FWIW, the guy is a "white hispanic," not white. I don't know what that means.

 

It's Florida, so I'm guessing he's a light-skinned person of Cuban descent. One of my best friends is Cuban, and she's blond haired and blue eyed.

 

This guy will probably be a hero, just like the old guy in Houston who shot two guys in the back.

 

Because Florida has one of those "Stand Your Ground" laws that basically allows anyone to shoot to kill if he or she believes himself or herself to be under threat.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57398005-504083/the-trayvon-martin-case-exposes-the-realities-of-a-new-generation-of-self-defense-laws/

According to the National Rifle Association - which has lobbied for and in some cases assisted in writing laws expanding self-defense statutes - since 2006, at least 29 states have passed amended self-defense laws that the gun rights advocacy group supports, including four last year. Although each state's statute is slightly different, generally, this new crop of laws allows citizens to use deadly force on someone they reasonably believe is a threat to their life. Instead of having a so-called "duty to retreat" from perceived danger, a citizen can "stand their ground" and meet force with force. Some laws also create immunity from civil lawsuits for those found to have reasonably used deadly force.

Florida's law is one of the strongest:

According to the statute, a person in Florida is justified in using deadly force against another if he or she "reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

Was Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed, posing a threat to Zimmerman's life? We may never know for sure, but in Florida - and a growing number of states - what matters isn't whether or not Martin was actually a threat, only that Zimmerman "reasonably" believed he was.

But what is reasonable? Ekow Yankah, an associate professor of criminal law at Cardozo School of Law in New York, says that to some people, it is reasonable to be suspicious of a young black man walking alone in the dark.

For what it's worth, the shooter was found with a bloody nose and blood on the back of his head. So if there was a scuffle, was it "reasonable" for Zimmerman to feel he was under a deadly threat?

 

How about we arrest Mr. Zimmerman, go to trial, and find out?