Family of Florida boy killed by Neighborhood Watch seeks arrest

[PK Gaming]

http://news.yahoo.com/family-florida-boy-killed-neighborhood-watch-seeks-arrest-044537742.html

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/man-who-shot-killed-teen-sanford-neighborhood-has-/nLPgL/

This is so incredible fucked up to the nth degree. I don't have much to say so... have it I guess.

 

[Zacchaeus]

The story was horribly written but it seems to me like it was just one stupid person making a terrible mistake or unfortunate accident. But that's after I waded through the THIS IS RACIST BECAUSE ONE PERSON WAS BLACK AND THE OTHER WAS WHITE shit

 

[Mercy]

Only in America...

 

[Surgo]

This is why we have police, and discourage vigilante yahoos with guns.

 

[NatGeo]

Saw this on Facebook earlier today, and yes it is seriously fucked up. I mean seriously, they're meant not to do things like that, and then BAM this happens. I mean seriously America, we aren't that dumb.

Kids these days...

 

[Danmire]

Welp, time to move out of Florida.

 

[Oglemi]

Since Trayvon, a high school junior who wanted to be a pilot, was black and Zimmerman is white, Crump said race is "the 600 pound elephant in the room."

This story is really sad but this made me lol

Anyway, hate crimes are terrible and this shouldn't have happened to begin with. I can't wait for the day when people can walk to the store in a strange neighborhood and not have to worry about getting shot. I really want to know what compelled this guy to confront the kid and then shoot him. It's bad enough he made a 911 phone call about a "suspicious" person in the neighborhood, but then he had the gall to disobey the dispatcher's directions and do what he was going to do anyway. So sad :(

 

[November Blue]

What really struck me about this is that the kid was a minor. This guy ignored police and confronted him, killed him for seemingly no good reason. I guess they can make a proper case to arrest him once it's determined what happened.

 

[Fishy]

it's called a neighborhood watch, not a neighborhood arsenal

this kind of thing is really sickening - it's sort of wacky for anyone to consider themselves a captain of a neighborhood watch, as if they are the righteous authority against any and all evil doers. i wonder if it was even advertised to the rest of the neighborhood watch that said captain had a gun, jesus

 

[pookar]

the policeman in the video angered me a bit... a unarmed person vs a man with a gun and the man with the gun had to use it for self defense? And even now you cant make a decision?

idk man people who create and enforce laws just sometimes dont make any sense at all

 

[Stratos]

saw this on yahoo yesterday, agreeing that it is so fucked up. feel realllly bad for the family

 

[Wikey]

I don't think it's the job of Neighborhood Watch to patrol the neighborhood looking for trouble but there needs to be some kind of law preventing them from having guns while they are "on duty." We have police for a damn reason. Because they at least have some kind of, "Don't shoot black kids just cuz" training. I'm all for having a gun to defend yourself but when you are out on the streets at night playing Batman that is not self-defense.

And I hate when people play the race card as much as the next intelligent person but it needs to be played here. There is no way this kid gets shot if he's white. There is no way the police even think the word self-defense if he's white.

 

[YTP]

If the shooter was black and the teen was white there is no way the shooter isn't in jail lol

 

[iDunno]

hmmmm maybe guns SHOULDN'T be legal!

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

itt idunno attempts to derail the thread

really tragic occurance, stuff like this shouldn't ever happen


also fuck, I'm leaving for florida today :/

 

[Raverist]

iDunno, weren't you banned from 4m for being stupid once?

This is a damn shame, though considering it was a white guy in neighbourhood watch, doesn't surprise me at all. The thing's called WATCH for a fucking reason.

 

[internet]

even though iDunno may be trying to derail the thread, he does raise a valid point

 

[Cherub Agent]

even though iDunno may be trying to derail the thread, he does raise a valid point

 

[PK Gaming]

That's true. If you disregard "race" and "circumstance" and look at the situation from a basic point of view.

"One person shot and killed another person." It's always seeing someone that's basically my age murdered before they could really find a place in this world.

If you check out his Facebook profile (btw he conveniently changed his profile picture) he seems to have an obsession with "justice" and being a vigilante.

 

[kd24]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...illed-sanford-police-20120308,0,1380794.story

Police found Zimmerman standing nearby, a gun in his waistband and blood seeping from injuries to his nose and the back of his head.

That was Sunday, Feb. 26. Sanford police cuffed 28-year-old Zimmerman, took him to police headquarters, interrogated him then let him go.

He told them he had acted in self-defense.

theres not really enough to go on at this point, and no one can be sure what really happened yet. the fact is, however, that the man was bleeding from the back of his head and his nose, so self defense is still a possibility.

i will say that if it was a black man and a white boy instead of the other way around, this would be life in prison.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

the most disturbing thing about this story is the "i trust no one [especially not a (BAN ME PLEASE)]" attitude of this guy. not only did he report the black kid as 'suspicious', he then followed him around, monitoring his every move, until they finally got into some sort of altercation.

if i was that kid, i would be creeped out as fuck if somebody was following me through my neighbourhood -- even if i knew it was the head of the patrol club. my reaction would be to knock on the closest door and ask whoever answers to let me in.

he was essentially stalking. given his actions, there can be no argument for self defense. even if the kid outright attacked him, you can't do what this kook did.

also guns obviously

 

[Kinneas]

If a 17 year old kid attacked me and I had a gun, I would probably use my size and strength advantage to overpower him rather than KILL him. I dunno, I just don't think having a gun with you makes it okay to use it in self defence in any situation unless your life is immediately in danger.

Edit: Oh yeah, his brother was 13. My bad.

 

[Stratos]

he was actually 17 and in someone else's neighborhood but i mean no that doesn't make this even slightly right

 

[Birkal]

Unfortunately, racial bias happens all the time within law enforcement, whether it's a conscious or subconscious occurence. Police officers have the right to arrest and search anyone that they please (minor traffic violations can make this incredibly easy, for example). From that point, they can continue their search to whichever degree they choose. While this particular case is a bit extreme, I am not in the least bit surprised that this happened. As much as our country would like to believe that racism is dead, that is simply not the case. Look at our incarceration rates as a country sometime, specifically in arresting individuals in an effort to perpetuate the War on Drugs. It's ridiculous how many black people we're arresting when statistically, whites posses drugs just as frequently, if not more often. If you're really interested in this stuff, check out "The New Jim Crow" and get informed.

Also, this sort of reminds me of the Rodney King incident that occurred some time ago. Really unfortunate stuff. In this case, I hope Trayvon Martin's family is granted any courtesy possible for the murdering of their son.

 

[Ivysaur]

I am consistently baffled by the amount of threads that consist of little more than a headline that are posted when the headlines thread is literally RIGHT THERE

like seriously, UD, are you seeing this??