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George Zimmerman: Prelude to a shooting

Phoenix said:
A completely different viewpoint on who George Zimmerman is and where he came from.

Link HERE.

It's not a portrait of a racist man who was out to shoot a person for being black.
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(Reuters) - A pit bull named Big Boi began menacing George and Shellie Zimmerman in the fall of 2009.

The first time the dog ran free and cornered Shellie in their gated community in Sanford, Florida, George called the owner to complain. The second time, Big Boi frightened his mother-in-law's dog. Zimmerman called Seminole County Animal Services and bought pepper spray. The third time he saw the dog on the loose, he called again. An officer came to the house, county records show.

"Don't use pepper spray," he told the Zimmermans, according to a friend. "It'll take two or three seconds to take effect, but a quarter second for the dog to jump you," he said.

"Get a gun."

That November, the Zimmermans completed firearms training at a local lodge and received concealed-weapons gun permits. In early December, another source close to them told Reuters, the couple bought a pair of guns. George picked a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun, a popular, lightweight weapon.

By June 2011, Zimmerman's attention had shifted from a loose pit bull to a wave of robberies that rattled the community, called the Retreat at Twin Lakes. The homeowners association asked him to launch a neighborhood watch, and Zimmerman would begin to carry the Kel-Tec on his regular, dog-walking patrol - a violation of neighborhood watch guidelines but not a crime.

Few of his closest neighbors knew he carried a gun - until two months ago.

continued
 
Boo Radley said:
it's simply true. I grew up int the Brentwood Projects in Jacksonville FL. I also lived off Phoenix Ave. Anyone form Jacksonville should know these places. .
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apdst said:
Common sense.
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honestly there is no more intelligent & legitimate reason to question whether or not he lived in a black neighborhood, than there is to question that you are black.


its his claim, and without evidence to disprove it, we should accept it.
 
sharon said:
(Reuters) - A pit bull named Big Boi began menacing George and Shellie Zimmerman in the fall of 2009.

The first time the dog ran free and cornered Shellie in their gated community in Sanford, Florida, George called the owner to complain. The second time, Big Boi frightened his mother-in-law's dog. Zimmerman called Seminole County Animal Services and bought pepper spray. The third time he saw the dog on the loose, he called again. An officer came to the house, county records show.

"Don't use pepper spray," he told the Zimmermans, according to a friend. "It'll take two or three seconds to take effect, but a quarter second for the dog to jump you," he said.

"Get a gun."

That November, the Zimmermans completed firearms training at a local lodge and received concealed-weapons gun permits. In early December, another source close to them told Reuters, the couple bought a pair of guns. George picked a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun, a popular, lightweight weapon.

By June 2011, Zimmerman's attention had shifted from a loose pit bull to a wave of robberies that rattled the community, called the Retreat at Twin Lakes. The homeowners association asked him to launch a neighborhood watch, and Zimmerman would begin to carry the Kel-Tec on his regular, dog-walking patrol - a violation of neighborhood watch guidelines but not a crime.

Few of his closest neighbors knew he carried a gun - until two months ago.

continued
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Your Point?
 
Phoenix said:
A completely different viewpoint on who George Zimmerman is and where he came from.

Link HERE.

It's not a portrait of a racist man who was out to shoot a person for being black.
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I agree, it was a well written article. The real problem as I see it, is that he had a gun and all too willing to follow somebody simply because he had the gun to protect himself. In a way, he became fearless because he had the gun.
 
pbrauer said:
I agree, it was a well written article. The real problem as I see it, is that he had a gun and all too willing to follow somebody simply because he had the gun to protect himself. In a way, he became fearless because he had the gun.
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This is nothing but assumption.
 
Arbo said:
This is nothing but assumption.
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More accurately, it's an opinion I expressed. Would you be more apt to follow someone if you had gun or didn't?
 
pbrauer said:
More accurately, it's an opinion I expressed. Would you be more apt to follow someone if you had gun or didn't?
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No, you are making an assumption that he would only follow someone because he had a gun. As if you know him and know what he is like and how he thinks.
 
pbrauer said:
More accurately, it's an opinion I expressed. Would you be more apt to follow someone if you had gun or didn't?
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Considering he had a gun when he dealt with other incidents before, I tend to agree with what the writer said:


Ten days after his father was hospitalized, Zimmerman noticed another young man in the neighborhood, acting in a way he found familiar, so he made another call to police.

"We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy," Zimmerman said, as Trayvon Martin returned home from the store.

The last time Zimmerman had called police, to report Burgess, he followed protocol and waited for police to arrive. They were too late, and Burgess got away.

This time, Zimmerman was not so patient, and he disregarded police advice against pursuing Martin.

"These assholes," he muttered in an aside, "they always get away."​
 
Phoenix said:
A completely different viewpoint on who George Zimmerman is and where he came from.

Link HERE.

It's not a portrait of a racist man who was out to shoot a person for being black.
Click to expand...

Nothing grates my nerves more than the emotional efforts put into trying to make us identify with suspects / victims / perps on their 'personal daily life' level.

Taht doesn't fly in court - I don't like being spoonfed it.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
Nothing grates my nerves more than the emotional efforts put into trying to make us identify with suspects / victims / perps on their 'personal daily life' level.

Taht doesn't fly in court - I don't like being spoonfed it.
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I mostly agree with that. However with the media spin on this case from using an old pic of TM that looks younger than he was, reports of GZs arrest record, TM's school records, *** my opinion here but I think stations lightened the initial picture of GZ to make him look more caucasian***, I felt it was fair enough to provide an account that was favorable to Zimmerman.
 
Grim17 said:
Considering he had a gun when he dealt with other incidents before, I tend to agree with what the writer said:


Ten days after his father was hospitalized, Zimmerman noticed another young man in the neighborhood, acting in a way he found familiar, so he made another call to police.

"We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy," Zimmerman said, as Trayvon Martin returned home from the store.

The last time Zimmerman had called police, to report Burgess, he followed protocol and waited for police to arrive. They were too late, and Burgess got away.

This time, Zimmerman was not so patient, and he disregarded police advice against pursuing Martin.

"These assholes," he muttered in an aside, "they always get away."​
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Trayvon didn't away did he? I agree with the great Bill Cosby who says if you have a gun, use it to protect your life and property, don't use it roaming the neighborhood. So, the person got away, so what? Zimmerman is not a cop, and it not his place to append a suspicious person. He's just a neighborhood person. The fact is that you can replace stolen property, but you can't replace a life.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
Nothing grates my nerves more than the emotional efforts put into trying to make us identify with suspects / victims / perps on their 'personal daily life' level.

Taht doesn't fly in court - I don't like being spoonfed it.
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It most certainly does fly in court. The prosecution will try to paint him as an aggressive man prone to acts of violence and establish the possibility of an underlying motive by examining every aspect of his life, and the defense will use things like what was in that article to debunk such theories.

The left has already tried to paint Zimmerman as a racist, wannabee cop that took the law into his own hands, so finding out that he bought the gun to defend his wife from a neighborhood dog, based on advice he got from Animal Control, paints a totally different picture. As does learning about his personal and business relationships with black people does. Just as learning about the rash of burglaries and break-ins in his community, and what had happened days earlier when he didn't follow someone suspicious who ended up being a criminal responsible for local robberies and ended up getting away before police could arrive at the scene, changes the picture many have painted about the man.

That article brought to light things about the man that needed to be made public, to counter all the false and baseless stories that have been used by the media and others to persecute him, put him and his family in danger, and has sparked racial tensions that have so far lead to several acts of barbaric violence.
 
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pbrauer said:
Trayvon didn't away did he? I agree with the great Bill Cosby who says if you have a gun, use it to protect your life and property, don't use it roaming the neighborhood. So, the person got away, so what? Zimmerman is not a cop, and it not his place to append a suspicious person. He's just a neighborhood person. The fact is that you can replace stolen property, but you can't replace a life.
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Assuming you meant "apprehend a suspicious person", there hasn't been any evidence that's surfaced that indicates that Zimmerman was doing anything other than following Martin. If he did in fact try and apprehend him then that changes everything, but based on what has been made public, that was nothing more than a baseless and unfounded assumption on your part.
 
Grim17 said:
Assuming you meant "apprehend a suspicious person", there hasn't been any evidence that's surfaced that indicates that Zimmerman was doing anything other than following Martin. If he did in fact try and apprehend him then that changes everything, but based on what has been made public, that was nothing more than a baseless and unfounded assumption on your part.
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You are correct, other than the fact he had a gun, there is no evidence he was trying to apprehend Martin, so I erred when I wrote it.
 
Grim17 said:
Yes, he was following him... What's your point?
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Depending on how he was following him and what happened when they confronted each other, it matters quite a bit.
 
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