The George Zimmerman verdict. Justice denied for Trayvon Martin. Update!

I have refrained from posting about this trial while it was going on, and believe me I watched ALL of it, because I became too emotional, and knew I would end up writing a long and rambling post that I did not have time to write and you probably did not have time to read.

However now that it is over, ramble I must. Though I will try to keep it as short and on topic as I can.

You know I thought I was prepared for last night's verdict. But I was wrong.

It hit me hard, and also made me furious.

From the outset I found nothing defensible about Zimmerman's actions.

His muttered "These assholes always get away" was evidence of racial profiling in my opinion.

The fact that he left his vehicle in defiance of instruction, determined his intent to confront in my opinion.

And his use of a gun to end an altercation with a teenage boy determined his guilt in my opinion.

Open and shut case right?

 Nope.



Not if you have $300,000 in Kickstarter donations from NRA supporters to fund your defense it isn't. And let's face it, without this high priced group of lawyers, Zimmerman would be cowering in a corner in fear of his new prison cellmate right about own.

Look I have watched my share of CSI but I am no expert on forensic evidence. However I will say that rain is not very good at washing away blood that ha seeped into clothing or become encrusted on hands.

It might wash away blood on grass and concrete but, as somebody who has washed blood off my hands a fair number of times, I can assure you that it takes a substantial amount of scrubbing to get them clean.  And even then, according to CSI's Gil Grissom, you would still find trace amounts that could be detected by forensics.

So the idea that Trayvon Martin was pummeling Zimmerman, and then showed virtually NO trauma or blood on his hands as a result, is the end of the case for me.

Then you have this.

Now we get to my actual area of expertise. Your Uncle Gryphen knows how to fight.

In fact your Uncle Gryphen has trained law enforcement in hand to hand techniques, and let me just tell you that IF Zimmerman's story about his gun being in the BACK waistband of his pants, and his story about Trayvon Martin being on top of him while hitting him are both true, and I have my doubts about both, then Trayvon Martin would alive today. Period!

Because as out of shape as Zimmerman was, and as aggressive as he swears Trayvon was being, he could NEVER have brought his ass up high enough to get his gun. Nope, did not happen.

Now let's talk injuries.

I probably do not have to tell most of you that the head bleeds profusely when it is injured, even slightly. I cannot tell you the number of times I thought some child's brain was falling out their head after a fall only to clean it up and see small cut causing all of the fuss.

And as for nosebleeds? Please, I once broke a man's nose and had to throw away the shirt I was wearing because it was doused in so much blood.

And that was MY shirt, not his.

But where was Zimmerman's blood on Trayvon? Not one tiny bit.

Here is what I think happened.

Zimmerman was upset that this black kid was walking around, because it made Zimmerman feel fearful in some way. In response, and because he knew he was armed, he decided to follow Trayvon. At some point he very well might have lost Trayvon, and then when Trrayvon reappeared he was startled. If he looked at all fearful, Trayvon, who may have been a little frightened himself, became emboldened and approached Zimmerman. A scuffle probably took place, and Zimmerman, feeling outclassed and in a panic, shot that young man to death.

I think most of that scenario matches the facts pretty closely don't you?

Now, as to the gun.

No gun, no approach by Zimmerman. No gun, no confrontation. No gun, no young man's death.

The gun gave a cowardly man the courage to follow Trayvon in the dark. The gun gave him the confidence to engage with Trayvon instead of running away when surprised by him, And the gun gave him the power to steal the life of that mother's child away from her.

Here let me tell you a short story.

Years ago there was a bear mauling in the interior of Alaska.

The guy that was mauled had a sidearm with him. He was warned by some hikers that there was a large brown bear up ahead, but the gun gave him confidence and he did not do the intelligent thing and turn around.

When the bear burst from the underbrush, the man was terrified, fumbled for his weapon but was too slow, and the bear ripped away part of his scalp and chewed him up pretty good before wandering off with bits of dumb ass between his teeth.

You see that gun gave the man a sense of invulnerability, as if just having it made him too bad ass to be fucked with. And also gave him the confidence that if he WERE fucked with he would regain dominance by virtue of his powerful weapon.

Without that gun he would have turned around. There would have been NO attack, NO mauling, and NO man with half his scalp ripped off walking among us today.

Now for the fight.

I have trained a number of people in self defense. At no time have I EVER suggested that a student buy a gun.

The reason? Guns are not for defense. Guns are for ending a life.

Self defense means using ONLY the force required to protect yourself from bodily harm, or death.

Hear are the guidelines that I was given by my first martial arts teacher when I was just a boy, to use in response to a confrontation.

"It is better to walk away than to talk. Better to talk than to injure. Better to injure than to maim. Better to maim than to kill. And better to kill than to allow innocents to suffer."

I have to admit, to my shame, that I have not always followed those guidelines to the letter, but I have never jumped from the first response to the last. I may have used more force than was necessary a time or two but I did not end an opponents life, nor maim them for the remainder of that life.

Oh and don't get me wrong the ability to do both is well within my skill set. But I DO NOT have the right.

And that is finally what this comes down to. Did George Zimmernan have the right to kill that young man?

The young man who HE decided to follow in the dark? The young man who HE did not bother to warn that he was carrying a gun? The young man who HE did not inform he was part of the neighborhood watch. The young man who HE did not give a chance to walk home that rainy night?

Well you know what I think.

Update:

Okay here's another thing that I cannot get out of my head. I don't know how many of you have been pummeled by somebody, but your instinct in that situation is to cover your vulnerable head and maybe strike back once the opportunity presents itself.

The action of moving one hand away from its defensive posture to reach for a gun, and leave that side of your face and head vulnerable, is very non instinctual. Which means that Zimmerman would have made the choice to accept a number of blows to his face in order to retrieve his weapon.

That is not a defensive maneuver in my mind. It is a murderous one.

According to reports Zimmerman had some training in MMA style fighting.  The list of counter moves to use while on your back and straddled are too numerous to name. If Zimmerman knew even one or two he could have easily gained the upper hand and used his superior size to overcome his smaller opponent.

In fact several of these moves would have used the same motion of lifting his hips that he would have HAD to use to get that gun out of his back waistband.  Hips up, grab you opponent by the clothing on his left shoulder, while pushing him from the right near his hipbone or waist, and suddenly YOU are on top.

But apparently, according to his police statement, he did not even attempt that. Instead he CHOSE to end Trayvon's life.

Like I said, for me there should be NO chance that this guy would have walked free.