I'm really concerned about a riot in the event of a not guilty verdict - something terrible could happen. Like an innocent teenager getting killed.

comical, but predictable response.

Well let's be clear. No matter what you believe, if Zimmerman is found not guilty then any vigilantism against him would be completely unacceptable.

Abge. There will be riots. Watch twitter and they are already bragging about it. Gz.may not get hurt.but.people will

And it will be on the rioters for hurting innocent people, not on the prosecutors for losing or the defense team or GZ for "winnning" or on the jury or the judge, but the people who can't control themselves and decide to behave like rabid animals. Even my dogs no better than to bite me when they don't get their way.

Draug,

Florida has a Stand Your Ground law, so there is no duty to retreat. Here is the text:

"(3) A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

Here is the text:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html

Drau. This is what should really concern people. If these rioters riit in places like where I live a lot of them will end up dead or hurt and that will simply escalate shit

OK, so you have proven that TM didn't have an obligation to retreat. Likewise, GZ fired in self defense *because* TM had no obligation to retreat and continued with the pummeling. But I should point out that not having an obligation is not the same as not being allowed to. Once TM had GZ down, he could have gotten up, given him one final swift kick and said, "stay down, you mother fucking cracker" and walked away. I have no obligation to stay at my desk at lunch, but that doesn't mean I have to go out. Likewise, I have no obligation to go out for lunch, but that doesn't mean I have to eat at my desk. It's a three state system. Obligated to stay and fight, obligated to leave once you have the upper hand, or free to choose your own path once you can.

@ NigeeBaby

If you preach non-violence, do you think Martin should have assaulted Zimmerman? Surely, someone as intelligent and educated as yourself knows of the inherent and unavoidable intellectual/philosophical folly of pacifism.
_________________

@ all commenting about rioting in the event of Zimmerman's acquittal.

Looters should be shot. That is all. They should call in the Guard, shoot all looters, and beat the hell out of anyone being disorderly. Civil disorder over something as stupid as this is completely unacceptable in a civilized society.

Oh, by the way: http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/03/28/funeral-director-saw-no-signs-fight-trayvons-hands

@Stressed

There very well may be riots. They should be dealt with as such. I would hope that every one with a voice in the Black community is going out of their way to preemptively forbid such retaliation. It will help nothing.

Abge. Yes. The blood from trayvon will be a drop in the bucket if these riots go nationwide

Whenthe riots start in Florida, I hope there are a *lot* of well-armed, law-abiding citizens ready to stand-their ground and reinforce the law by which Zimmerman was acquitted...

Abge - it is the "LEADERS" of the black community - Sharpton and the like - that created the angst in the black community regarding this case to begin with instead of quietly letting justice takes it's course!!!! What world do you live in where you don't recognize this?

I'm starting to think there won't be riots if Zimmerman is acquitted. We're probably getting fooled by over-hyped media coverage just like people got fooled by the initial coverage of the shooting. Would I make this weekend the second time I venture to the South Side of Chicago (I went to a Sox's game once)? Nope. But I also am pretty sure nothing all that bad will happen. Well, nothing bad connected to the case. We'll probably have another dozen fatal shootings in Chicago alone this weekend.

A world in which my entire life isn't consumed by every story cable news decides to broadcast.

How strange that the state medical examination found cuts and scrapes on dear old trayvons knuckles.

@mendax - So now we take the word of the funeral director over that of the ME who did the autopsy and his official findings (which show *all* the wounds on TM's hands). The funeral directory is *not* an unbiased source. The ME is supposed to be. I'll take the ME's word over the funeral director's thank you very much.

The only non-gunshot injury found in the autopsy was a "small abrasion on the left fourth finger", implying that there was very little contact between the two. Hardly cuts and scrapes on his knuckles.

Abfe -- I don't even have cable TV....so your thinly veiled assertion that I am parroting FOX News or whatever is, sadly, ridiculous.

Instead, I simply need to go back to reporting when the entire story first hit the press. Sharpton held rallies in support of Martin before anything was known about the case, for example.

So, again, pull your head out of the sand and stop pretending that the left/the black community/the left-wing media/etc isn't at least partially culpable for the disastrous media coverage, and possible violence that will erupt when *justice* is done.

It isn't cable new's that created the story of black leaders riling up the black community.

Seriously, Abge, you're smarter than this -- and not everything is a right wing conspiracy. Time to grow up and look at the world as it really is, not through ideological blinders.

That's not at all what I was saying, which should have been clearly understood by the words I wrote.

Every time a story breaks, I don't drop what I'm doing to learn every possible detail. I learn enough as is appropriate to how it pertains to me.

@mendax - I can pummel a person's face and not get a single cut or abrasion on my hands.

I think it's interesting that everyone read the Medical Examiner's report except for the dimensions of Trayvon, which are exaggerated several times in the thread.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/05/17/martin.autopsy.pdf

71 inches (5 foot 11, not the over six foot that gets thrown around), 158 pounds.

I haven't seen a height "thrown around" once here. Of course, I could have overlooked it.

So according to those defending Zimmerman on here, TM had cuts and scrapes on his knuckles, and then when that's shown to be a lie we're told that the lack doesn't show anything. Quite how you're supposed to have any sort of rational debate/discussion with people willing to hold quite such contradictory positions is beyond me.

But the funeral director saw no wounds? It's irrelavent what the funeral director saw is what my point was. Seriously, bruises require a pumping heart to form after the impact. Any bruising that *would* have developed from punching GZ repeatedly didn't have time to form. Heart stopped when the bullet struck it and so did blood flow, stopping bruising. Of course, anyone who took a basic biology course in high school (something the funeral directory obviously didn't do) knows bruising occurs sometimes hours after the impact. So no cuts or scrapes... Big deal. he only hit soft flesh pummeling that wimpy, wannabe cops face. Had he lived, his hands would have shown the bruises the next day.

The most recent mentioning of the height was Stressedlines saying Martin had six or seven inches on the 5'8" George Zimmerman. And mentions of him being a football player and talking about how built he was seem to run against the 158 pounds and medium build that the ME gives him.

What I'm saying there is...I don't doubt he played football, but it's being taken as evidence that he was pretty ripped and Zimmerman stood no chance in a purely physical confrontation without a gun. I don't see his listed dimensions and build as being consistent with that.

I point out that the funeral director saw no wounds, so you said that the ME described wounds on TMs hands. I post exactly what the ME said, and now, since the wounds are clearly not good evidence for you, you claim it doesn't matter. You can't have it both ways.