Hectorthehero said:
After watching Peter Schiff's You Tube rant on the George Zimmerman , Trayvon Martin case...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqbIZqznaX0
I felt like Dorothy peaking behind the curtain and finding Oz wasnt all he was cracked up to be. Of course just because he is stupid enough to promulgate his ignorance of common and criminal law and proper judicial process doesnt mean he doesnt know precious metals, does it?
He shows no understanding of judicial process or criminal justice system but comments vociferously on them. The U.S judicial system is adversarial, fundamentally
the same as ours, Schiff's principal beef is that Trayvon Martin had a violent history, it is simply not relevant in this case the accused has no prior knowledge of this.
In all jurisdictions in Australia the defence of self defence is a full defence in cases of manslaughter and if proven demands an acquittal. Of course you dont expect some one to be carrying a hand gun here. The burden for the accused is to prove he was acting lawfully.
I just dont see it. I think the whole thing is a tragedy. Both parties contrabuted to the situation and both parties had the opportunity to not escalate the situation.
As far as I can tell, its not illegal to carry a weapon with a license in the US, its not illegal to follow, watch and monitor someone as long as your not physicaly interfearing with them - private investigators for 1 do this all the time (even though we all may hate this if it happened to ourselves), he was advised not to follow but again, doesnt break the law by continueing to do so. Advice is exactly what it is, advice.
Trayvon decides to take matters into his own hands (who can blame him really, most of us would probably do the same thing) and he decides to escalate the situation and physicaly assult Zimmerman (breaks the law) then takes it further and beats him on the ground, again escalating the situation even further (forensics supports this)
As for Trayvon's background in MMA, yes by all means this was a very important piece of infomation and should have been included. Of course Zimmerman had no knowledge of this when it happened but it most certainly would demonstrate that Trayvon knew how to punch, dominate, control and use force in a situation and that Zimmerman would have been overwelmed by Trayvons abilities to fight.
This most definatly would have come to light if it was here in Australia, this very thing happened to a mate of mine when I used to work security. He had a background in kick boxing and because of it, they classed his hands and feet as using "deadly weapons". He was assulted by 3 blokes while he was working and they got the jump on him but he sure as hell ended it. He was charged with "grievous bodily harm" by the police on behalf of the 3, they of course claimed he attacked them and granted, they were pretty messed up. There was no footage because it happened outside camera range and he was going to go away for it because he was deemed to have used deadly weapons. Luckly, another business close by came forward with their own recorded footage that showed the whole thing from start to finish and it showed he used reasonable and proportionate force to stop the 3 attackers. He didnt pursue the fight on the ground, if he had of, then it would be classed as unreasonable force. The police were pissed about it and to this day, 8yrs later, he is still hasseled about it by them and they still try to pin excessive force on him if he is involved in fights.
As much as Zimmerman is a dick for following Trayvon, he never broke the law in doing so. Trayvon did break the law when he decided to escalate the situation by assulting Zimmerman, his skills at fighting provided an edge to overwelm Zimmerman and are relevant, Zimmerman feared for his life at this time and only at this time and used the only option he felt he had available once Trayvon escalated the situation by commiting a crime and Zimmerman feeling he was overwelmed due to Trayvons skills to dominate and control because of his training.
Sure Zimmermans a dick but Ive never seen a law against that. I just cant see how he can be held responsable for murder, manslaughter or anything else.
The only law I can see that was broken is the Trayvon assulted Zimmerman and that ultimately was Trayvon choice to do that. He had the choice to get away from the situation but chose to instead break the law when up to that point no law had been broken.
It just happened to be that Zimmerman had 1 last choice to fall back on to defend and protect himself and that was his gun
I think Shliffs commentry is quiet good, its just not the popular view.
MSM has just used it to get their ratings up.
Civil rights groups have used a tragedy to get a emotional platform.