Several weeks ago I wrote about the death of Trayvon Martin, mainly in order to express my horror at a law that apparently permits one when in Florida to follow and eventually shoot dead an unarmed man engaged in no criminal act.
On 11th April, a special prosecutor, appointed in reaction to the public outrage at the case, charged the shooter George Zimmerman with second degree murder: he has been released on bail. Before and since, more evidence has been made public, including photographs which make it clear that Zimmerman did sustain minor scalp wounds (scalp wounds bleed a lot and do not easily close). One such photograph is now included in the wikipedia article, which is long and fairly balanced (read the Talk page for an insight into how wikipedia now handles articles on controversial subjects).
There is disagreement around the question of whether it was Martin or Zimmerman who started the physical confrontation that ended with Zimmerman shooting Martin. It may be that Florida law permits one to follow an unarmed man and shoot him only if he turns and attacks you. That would still not be a law I agree with.
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Your post makes assumptions that are not supported by witness statements. Also Martin cannot have injured Zimmerman after Zimmerman shot him.
ReplyDeleteFor you to get the above remark from someone whose initial reaction on seeing the story was to want the police to try Zimmerman for murder is pretty good going.
I still agree with the last sentence - except that "would" should be replaced by "is".
What are the unsupported assumptions? Please be specific.
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