When "Neighborhood Watch" Gets Out of Hand

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Riot

Ah. Got it. I don't know how they would keep him safe. He certainly can't go out in public.

He's in for a hell of a life, no matter what happens to him.

Did you read the wording in the affidavit of murder charge? Zimmerman "profiled" Trayvon is what was said.

"Zimmerman "profiled" Trayvon is what was said."

They can say whatever they want. Saying it doesn't prove it. They need to prove it.

While we're on this subject, I'm going to give you a hypothetical. Let's pretend you spotted me walking in your neighborhood and you didn't recognize me. You thought my body-language looked somewhat suspicious. In addition, let's say that I was black and this made you slightly more suspicious because there had been a recent string of burglaries in your neighborhood committed by black people.

So you call the police and then you follow me. You finally confront me and grab me by the arm. I punch you in the face and knock you to the ground. Then I get on top of you and continue punching you in the face and start banging your head on the cement. Then you pull out a gun and shoot me. Even in that scenario, I don't think 2nd degree murder would be a slam dunk. Even though you followed me and grabbed me by the arm, I still don't think it would be a slam dunk because when you finally shot me it was to save yourself from death or grave bodily harm. You probably couldn't claim self-defense since you grabbed me first.

Granted you would be at fault for starting the whole altercation. But if you had no plans to harm me and only wanted to hold me until the police got there, I think 2nd degree murder would be hard to prove. I think manslaughter would be more likely.

My hypothetical is a much stronger case for the prosecutor than the Zimmerman case because in the Zimmerman case I don't think there is any evidence that Zimmerman started the physical altercation.