Zimmerman needed to be in danger of immediate death or great harm to be justified to shoot a person. He could just point gun and say don't move.
This is crazy, "point a gun and say don't move". A gun is used to stop a behavior not to threaten a person. You obviously have never used a gun before and only seen their use on TV. When police pull a gun on someone they do 2 things. 1. shoot for the center mass (the chest) or 2. wait for the man in stripes to give the signal to shoot for center mass. They aim for the chest because the shooter is more likely to hit the target.
Zimmerman had his concealed handgun license so he went through the training. Everyone going through those classes know that if you actually do use your self defense weapon then you will need to hire a lawyer. The only reason I see that Zimmerman is actually in jail is because of the mob pressure and the special prosecutor charging him anyway knowing the state will lose the case or because Zimmerman said something to the police before his lawyer arrived to shut him up.
At least this case will give an interesting precedent to the case law on "stand-your-ground" laws in Florida. I am sure glad to be living in Texas. We already had to deal with this anti-self defense crap where people think the individual does not have a right to defend their own lives. We also had a case where someone was defending themselves but a stray bullet killed a bystander. The shooter is spending the rest of their life in prison. Florida is the birthplace of the concealed handgun movement and I hope this case does not take that away.
In the link see the New Black Panther mob be chased out by the pro-self defense mob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ5WWzJ4VR8&feature=related
(See 1:38 for bouncing fun)
Better Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEZ9s0ZBAu8&feature=related
Zimmerman and Horn, who is referred to in the video, did stupid things that got media and legal attention toward them. They should have just minded their own business. Protect yourself and your family but for other people let them take care of themselves.
Zimmerman has absolutely no convictions for those listed arrests that I know of.
This is pretty much split down conservative and liberal lines. Most liberals are not the cops best friends or advocates, so unless we can all admit that cops make bad decisions and mistakes and that those records of prior arrest (without convictions) mean absolutely nothing (or very little), then we will have to admit that cops dont make mistakes and all of Zimmermans arrests are the same as if he were convicted. I dont really see where you can have it both ways.
I don't believe he has those convictions either, if he had then the FBI criminal report would have pulled those records when his fingerprints were sent in for his Florida concealed handgun license.