Almalieque wrote:
If Martin ran away, then there is no way that Zimmerman could have caught him without running after Martin.
Unless Martin doubled back and attacked Zimmerman as he was heading back to his vehicle
exactly as Zimmerman claimed happened. It's not like we even have to go far to look for a way for this to have happened. It's being told to us by the defendant. You have a strange idea of what "no way" means.
But as long as we're tossing out hyperbole, it's far more reasonable to say that there was "no way" for Zimmerman to have caught Martin
at all unless Martin stopped running and/or turned and went back the way he came. And, as I pointed out a few posts back, the location where the fight (and shooting occurred) does not make any sense if Martin was actually continuing to move in a straight line towards home. Even if we speculated that Martin slowed down to a walk after initially losing Zimmerman, the only way they end out encountering each other where they did is if Martin doubled back. If Zimmerman had somehow caught up with Martin while Martin was heading straight home, the shooting should have occurred at the opposite end of the row of houses from where it was.
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I'm being as unbiased as I can, but you are obviously bigoted towards Zimmerman.
You also have an odd definition of "unbiased". I'm just looking at the facts here. We can speculate about motivation all day long, but the
fact is that Martin fled away (running) from Zimmerman in a direction that headed him (more or less) in a straight line towards his home. Zimmerman followed him (at best at a brisk walk based on the sounds on the police recording), and thus was behind him. While there are a few different specific routes Martin could have taken to get home from the point where he ran from Zimmerman, there's no real "short cut" to be had. He either runs down the street Zimmerman's parked on, or goes across the complex a bit and down a path between the houses (which includes the back entrance of his home), or continues across to the next street and goes down that street (which is where the front of his home is).
All three paths are more or less parallel. Also, the distance from where Zimmerman's car was and where the shooting occurred is somewhere around 100 feet (and perhaps another 150-200 feet from the Martin home). It's just hard to look at the maps and figure out any way that Zimmerman could have encountered Martin where he did if Martin was actually heading towards his home the whole time. Either Martin doubled back, or he hid somewhere along the route. It's just that there's not enough distance between where they both started from and the shooting location to justify the kind of "pursuit" that some people seem to keep trying to insist happened. Hell. Zimmerman was probably past the T intersection (just north of the shooting) before ending the call to the police. It's that short of a distance.
The physical location of the shooting just doesn't add up to Martin simply heading home. It *does* add up to Martin either hiding and then confronting Zimmerman, or doubling back. I suppose for completeness we could include Martin hiding and Zimmerman finding him as well. Again though *all* of those scenarios completely discount the girlfriends testimony. She claimed that Martin continued to move and headed towards home the entire time. If that was the case, it's hard to figure out how the hell Zimmerman could have caught up with him. Doubly so when we consider the length of the phone call in question. There's not enough distance traveled for the events as portrayed by the girlfriend to have happened.
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No. He chased him. You can't meet up with a running person simply by "following" him.
Sigh. Again, there's no way he ran Martin down. Not only is it unlikely given the relative age and physical capabilities of the two, but there's just not enough distance involved. It would be like you walking past me, then starting to run away from me about 30 feet away, then I get out of my car, and run after you, and somehow catch up with you 70 feet further away. I'd have to be the most amazing track star in the world to do that, and Zimmerman isn't a track star. Also, we
know that Zimmerman was not running. He was at best walking quickly because he continues his conversation with the police for another 15-20 seconds after getting out of his car. And at that pace, he likely was still fairly close to where the shooting ultimately occurred when he ended the call.
There's just too much time and not enough distance for this to have anything remotely like a straight pursuit.
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The fact that he had a concealed weapon is relevant because it was that weapon that killed him. If he had drawn the weapon, as a Police officer would have done, what would have been the result? Neither of us know, but I doubt it would have been the same.
Um... he would have been charged with a felony. Do you know anything about concealed weapon laws? He's not allowed to show it to anyone in public. He's not allowed to brandish it. He's not allowed to threaten anyone with it. He can't say "I have a gun!", even if he's faced with someone trying to mug him. He is allowed to
use it in self defense or to prevent a forcible felony. That's it. So while we can speculate that had he brandished his firearm, Martin might have chosen to do something other than attack him, but that would be specifically in violation of the law. Martin's supposed to not attack other people because it's the wrong thing to do, not because they have the ability to hurt or kill him if he does. The very suggestion you're making kinda suggests that I'm right. If things would have ended differently if Zimmerman had openly revealed his gun, it would only have been because Martin would have made different decisions in that situation. Um... Which is basically saying that Martin did cause the physical encounter and Zimmerman was thus justified to use his weapon in self defense.
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The neighbor was not chasing you.
The neighbor chased me just as much (moreso actually) than Zimmerman chased Martinn. Zimmerman was
sitting in his car. Martin walked towards him, then past him, then ran into the complex. Zimmerman was still in the car when Martin ran. Zimmerman didn't get out of his car and confront Martin while he was heading towards him. He didn't do so as he passed him. He only followed him *after* he ran.
In my case, the neighbor approached me. As in, I got out of my car, and as I walked towards my friends house, he walked up directly to me and started asking me questions about who I was and why I was there. It was at night, no one else was around, and I can only assume he was walking around the complex looking for anyone who he didn't know so as to accost them about why they were there. And it never once occurred to me to run from him, or to attack him.
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As I stated, if Zimmerman asked him the same questions outside of his girlfriends house, none of that would have happened. At most, it would have been a "Eff you" with a middle finger.
Zimmerman did nothing but sit in his car though. It was only after Martin started running that Zimmerman got out of his car and followed him to see where he went. There's no indication at all that he was "chasing" Martin.
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Mistake on the usage of words. I'm fully aware of that, that's why I asked you if you would get out of sight. If he were following you, then he would have moved to be in your sight again.
Except that
he wasn't being followed. I don't know how many times I have to repeat this. Zimmerman was sitting in his car. Martin began running away before Zimmerman got out of his car. Martin ran, not because he was being followed, but because he saw someone sitting in a car watching him and talking on his phone. That's it. This isn't a question of someone following you, so you get nervous and decide to run and hide. This is a case of you walking down the street, seeing someone sitting in a car on the side of the street talking on a cell phone, and deciding to flee from that person.
So no. I would not "get out of sight". I'd continue walking towards my destination. I'd only worry if the person did get out of the car and started heading towards me. And even then it would be more of just being aware that there's someone there just on the off chance that he is some deranged serial killer. And if I did get so worried about him that I'd run home, I'd actually
run home. If you're scared of someone and have clear path to run home (and it's like 200 feet away max), you run. But you wait until you know there's a reason to be scared. Martin ran away from a man sitting in his car. But only far enough to get out of sight, at which point he either hid or doubled back. That's not the behavior of someone who thinks he's being stalked by a killer and home is a couple hundred feet away.
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Once again. He did not "follow" him. He chased him. If he wanted to follow him to ensure that he didn't "get away", then he would have stayed in his car and followed him via car.
Except that Martin moved off the road and onto a pathway between the homes. Can't follow him in a car. It's quite reasonable for Zimmerman to have followed Martin through that walkway area. In the area, he could see if he went down the row, or out to the street on the other side. If he takes his car around the long way, there's too many directions Martin could go. The locations actually do match Zimmerman's story quite nicely. If I were trying to see where someone ran, I'd go to about where he was as well (and perhaps walk a short distance in each direction from the T intersection to have the best chance of spotting someone).
You really should go look up some of the maps of the complex. Some of them are full of speculations about where things were and when, and there are lots of opinions, but at the very least it gives you an idea of where Zimmerman's car was (approximately. there's some disagreement on this), where the club house was, where the entrance was, and where the shooting was. Once you do this and start looking at the actual locations and distances involved, the holes in the "Martin was just a scared kid trying to get home" theory start to get pretty large.