Teenager shot/killed while Tweek's hero gets off free

[Chun Liroy]

Well to start off, I'm not sure if this even belongs in this section, but I figured this would be a safe place to put it.

Original story: http://globalgrind.com/news/trayvon-...-watch-details

17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a Neighborhood Watch captain inside his own gated Orlando, Florida community where he was living with his father, stepmother and little brother, according to the family's lawyer.

Martin was shot after returning home from a local convenience store, where he bought snacks including Skittles candy requested by his 13-year-old brother, Chad.

According to the family's lawyer Ben Crump, the family is calling for the Watch captain's arrest, saying Martin was "on his way home and a Neighborhood Watch loose cannon shot and killed him."

The man in question is Neighborhood Watch Captain George Zimmerman, who was present at the time of the shooting.

According to Crump, while Martin returned to the townhome, police received a 911 call reporting a suspicious person; Zimmerman was the man that made the call.

Without waiting for police to arrive, Crump said, Zimmerman confronted Martin, who was on the sidewalk near his home. By the time police got there, Martin was dead of a single gunshot to the chest and the only thing they found on him was a can of Arizona ice tea in his jacket pocket and Skittles in his front pocket for his brother Chad.

Crump said the family was concerned that police might decide to consider the shooting as self defense, and that police have ignored the family's request for a copy of the original 911 call, which they think will shed light on the incidents.

Family spokesman Ryan Julison said:

"If the 911 protocol across the country held to form here, they told him not to get involved. He disobeyed that order."

Crump believes that race is definitely a factor in the shooting saying:

"The 600 pound elephant in the room. Why is this kid suspicious in the first place? I think a stereotype must have been placed on the kid."

Here is a clear cut case of stereotypes of a black male leading to the death of an innocent young student.

Two weeks later, police refuse to arrest the neighborhood watch that killed him, and told the family that he had a squeaky clean record, despite being charged with assault and battery of a police officer/resisting arrest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...ef=mostpopular

An attorney for the family of Trayvon Martin, the teenager shot to death last month by a neighborhood watch captain in an Orlando, Fla., suburb, said police withheld the shooter's violent past from the slain youth's family.

Police initially told Martin’s family that George Zimmerman, 28, admitted to shooting Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, after he called 911 and reported a suspicious person, said the attorney, Benjamin Crump. Zimmerman said the shooting was in self-defense, police said.

Zimmerman, who is white, has not been charged in the death of Martin, who was black. Police in Sanford, where the shooting occurred, told Martin’s family that Zimmerman had a “squeaky-clean” record and that’s why they had not arrested him, according to Tracy Martin, the teen’s father.

Crump said public records show that Zimmerman was arrested in Orange County in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.

“They just lied to the family,” Crump said. “They just couldn’t see why [Zimmerman] would do anything wrong or be violent. But not only do you know the guy killed this kid, because he admitted to it, you knew that he has a propensity for violence because of his past record.”

The Orange County Clerk of Courts website shows a man named George Zimmerman, 28, was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.

An email to Sanford Chief Bill Lee was not immediately returned on Friday evening. A phone number for Zimmerman has been disconnected. He could not be reached for comment.

In an interview with HuffPost on Thursday, Tracy Martin said that when he asked police why Zimmerman hadn't been charged, officers told him "they respected [Zimmerman's] background, that he studied criminal justice for four years and that he was squeaky clean." He continued: "My question to them was, did they run my child's background check? They said yes. I asked them what they came up with, and they said nothing. So I asked if Zimmerman had a clean record, did that give him the right to shoot and kill an unarmed kid?"

Crump has asked law enforcement officials to turn over the 911 tapes recorded the night Martin was killed. He has since filed a public records lawsuit to get the recordings.

The teenager was on his way back from a convenience store during halftime of the NBA All-Star game when Zimmerman began following him in his car, police said.

Chief Lee on Thursday said that Zimmerman called 911 and reported a suspicious person. “For some reason he felt that Trayvon, the way that he was walking or appeared, seemed suspicious to him,” Lee told HuffPost. “He called this in and at one part of this initial call [the dispatcher] recommends him not to follow Trayvon. A police officer is on the way at that point.”

Lee said Zimmerman instead followed Martin. A confrontation ensued, and soon after he shot the teen, the chief said.

Then, today the 911 phonecall from Zimmerman is released, shit is fucking stupid and disgusting.

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news...nford-shooting

TL;dr

Black 17 y/o kid goes to the convenience store to get skittles for his little brother, gets shot by over-zealous neighborhood watch. Police refuse to arrest him, find him acting in self-defense.

Inb4: Lolflorida, warzone, waterbottle etc. etc.

[Lucavi]

Neighborhood vigilante that deserves to have the book thrown at him. With those tapes released and the FBI getting involved, he should be facing charges soon.

[Sera]

Neighborhood vigilante that deserves to have the book thrown at him. With those tapes released and the FBI getting involved, he should be facing charges soon.

This. Truly fucking terrible. The police department should be ashamed.

[Alleya]

I love how the police lied about pretty much everything to cover for this guy.

Kid shouldn't have been black in a white neighborhood, his own fault really.

[jmc]

Neighborhood vigilante that deserves to have the book thrown at him. With those tapes released and the FBI getting involved, he should be facing charges soon.

This.... its called neighborhood WATCH. Not neighborhood vigilante group.

Lock the guy up, took matters into his own hands instead of waiting 5 minutes for the police.

[Kiehl]

Wow. Listened to 4 of the calls before I couldn't take anymore. This guy deserves way worse than he is going to get.

[Brill Weave]

I read about this when it was first reported. How this man is not in prison is a gross insult to the justice system. The cops should expect to face some heavy repercussions for not putting this man behind bars. Neighborhood watch do NOT carry weapons. This was vigilantism. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Milkster]

"These assholes, they always get away." Ironic. I like how he keeps repeating that he's black and he looks suspicious. Could this be considered a hate crime?

[Brill Weave]

Only if the kid was gay Milk. Who knew Skittles were a deadly weapon.

[Niiro]

There's a joke about the guy that was shot by a cop because he thought the candy bar in his hand was a gun in there somewhere.

[Lucavi]

I love how the police lied about pretty much everything to cover for this guy.

Kid shouldn't have been black in a white neighborhood, his own fault really.

Shouldn't have been living in a white neighborhood. Amazing how the police could cover for the guy when other neighbors clearly recalled the fact that the kid lived in the neighborhood and heard him crying for help. Justice cannot come soon enough. I'm angered that its taking this long.

[Chun Liroy]

Yeah, that's the infuriating part. The police claim there wasn't enough evidence at the crime to disprove his self-defense argument, so they let him go; Since when is candy and iced tea a threatening weapon? I bet the guy didn't even have any bruises, or any signs of a scuffle, not to mention all the 911 phone calls that came in. I understand that you have to do your due diligence and not arrest willy nilly, but it's pretty obvious that they should at least detain the guy that night.

[Correction]

Was the guy on his fourth deployment in 10 years for the Neighborhood Watch? Are they overlooking it because he just snapped?

[Chun Liroy]

I don't get what you're trying to imply. What would it matter what deployment or how long he's been doing neighborhood watch if he killed an innocent, unarmed RESIDENT of the community he's trying to protect. Who are you saying is overlooking (as if it truly matters in this case) it?

[Lucavi]

He's definitely trying to be funny, but the joke fell flat. I think the fact that the guy was "questioned" and wasn't at least detained at the station when someone was shot and died that he had direct contact with, should be a huge indicator of the quality and investigative integrity of the police force down there.

I don't say that as a knock against cops in general. I know that if the local police force in my town was faced with a similar situation, the man would have been detained and would have been arrested following, at worse, the release of the calls.

[Chun Liroy]

That's the thing though... it's not like the police didn't have instant access to the 911 calls.

[Brill Weave]

In all likelihood this guy is going to get charged with manslaughter at worst.

[Headspace]

. I understand that you have to do your due diligence and not arrest willy nilly, .

Due dillegence? LOL. That doesn't exist.

White guy in neighborhood watch over someone who was clearly guilty of walking while black.

Oh, gated community? Aggravated walking while black.

He lived there? Aggravated living while black.

If its all white, it's all right.

[Correction]

Shooter doesn't look white from the photos btw. Looks pretty hispanic.



Or maybe he's just a tanned douchebag trying to look more ethnic. idk it's Florida.

[Chun Liroy]

Does it matter?