Ah hell, you don't even need to follow somebody. All you need to do is find yourself in a place with no witnesses and it becomes your word against that of a dead man. That's the problem I'm seeing here. I haven't considered it enough to form an opinion, but I'm not sure the onus shouldn't be on the shooter to prove self defense. What I do know is that the state of Florida seems to have made it too easy to kill someone; hence the huge increase in justifiable homicide cases there.
That's bad enough, but so far what's happening is basically saying you can have evidence describing your behavior as provactive,
and still claim self defense. I agree that the law is insane if it just says, "kill someone in private." It reminds me of medieval Japan.
As for Travon, I agree he had every right to feel threatened. I would have too. What I probably wouldn't have done is confronted the guy following me. He was talking to his old lady on the phone, why didn't he call the cops?
I don't know much about it, but form what I hear, black people don't tend to trust the police too much, and I don't blame 'em. He's also just 17, maybe he wanted a good story to tell his friends.
Seems to me like they probably both fucked up, and the whole thing is compounded by the state legislature making a mess of their homicide laws.
I can agree with this, but in terms of who fucked up more, and who is more responsible, I'd say that's Zimmerman. He decided to carry a gun, making it a possibility for someone to grab it. Plus, after Trayvon saw it, maybe
he felt threatened. Some guys who's following you, and he has a gun? I'd still say Trayvon has the much better claim for self-defense, and I don't see how two people can really be defending themselves from each other, at the same time.
So in terms of justice, Zimmerman deserves some punishment. Manslaughter is made for cases like this.
Topic: The P/R-side Chat Thread v.2 (Read 339334 times)
