Zimmerman made at least 4 decisions of his own volition and corresponding to his own character and prejudices that made this tragedy all but inevitable
1. He left his house to provide a 'neigbourhood watch' with a gun instead of cell phone. Which is all a neighbourhood watch volunteer needs OR should be allowed. Zimmerman came out loaded for bear, coveting a confrontation.
Actually I don't think he was on NH duty at the time. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I heard that.
2. He profiled a young man who was doing nothing illegal, unarmed, as a threat when any rookie police officer could tell he was no such thing. He was young black male, wearing the requisite 'gangsta chic' of young males between 17 and 21.. at 8 pm at night.. a time when real criminals are not out and about, and certainly not drawing attention to themselves.. on a public sidewalk, minding his own business. He was not skulking and trespassing with a knife or burglary tools at 2 am in dark non-descript clothing.
It may not have been 2:00 am, but according to the 911 call, Trayvon was skulking and looking suspicious.
3. He disobeyed police instructions NOT to follow or confront him. Had the police had time to respond they would have quickly determined they had NO probable cause to stop the young man.
There were no police instructions not to follow him, there was a suggestion from the 911 operator that they didn't need Zimmerman to follow Trayvon, and in fact, Zimmerman did NOT follow Trayvon after that suggestion.
4. He confronted Treyvon with the implicit threat of hand gun, without any authority or cause, which immediately escalated into a fight.. which Zimmerman was so weak and incompetent at.. that he was left only with his gun as a last recourse.
He didn't confront Trayvon with a gun, he was ambushed by Trayvon as he was walking back to his truck. I don't know about Zimmerman's competence at fighting, but Trayvon was apparently quite an accomplished fighter.
Zimmerman is criminally responsible for a reckless disregard of human life.. provocation.. and moral imbecility. He should be in jail.
A jury says otherwise. The facts say otherwise. You're 0 for 4 here, better rethink.
