TexasCHLforum.com

drjoker wrote:the carnage would be greater since the police have "qualified immunity" from prosecution.

Police have no immunity from prosecution whatsoever and will be charged for any crime they commit. They also are usually charged at higher levels because many crimes (especially theft) get an upgraded penalty for being committed by a public servant. Police do have some immunity from civil lawsuits but that has nothing to do with criminal charges.

puma guy wrote:Mr. Zimmerman exited his vehicle against the orders police gave him and confronted Trayvon Martin and a fight ensued according to neighbors. I will cede the point on who started the fight, but this was instigated by the shooter.

Realizing that this case did not happen in Texas, every time I hear that the police told him not to confront the kid, I am reminded of a Houston case where the same claim was made. The recording of the dispatcher shows him telling the shooter not to leave his house to stop those burglars. I thought we all agreed then that the dispatcher is not necessarily (or usually) a police officer and has no legal authority to tell the person on the other end of the line what to do or not do.

I agree that we do not have enough information to make any determination. The shooter may have approached the kid or the kid may have approached the shooter first. The shooter may have started a fist fight or the kid may have swung first. All we know is how the fight ended and one side of the story on how it started. I have doubts we will ever learn enough to be sure how th whole thing went down.