A few things.
Trayvon Martin had no criminal record. Zimmerman did.
Zimmerman had no business going up to Martin and challenging his right to be where he was. Zimmerman is not a police officer.
It is amazing, well really more amusing at this point in my life, to see people who claim to be for individual rights, suddenly decide that treating people differently is just fine, as long as it's black people, cause they're scary.
The Stand Your Ground law does not mean that you can initiate a confrontation with someone and then shoot them should you feel yourself in danger.
The reason this case has taken off is not because an unarmed young man got shot but rather because the police did not arrest the shooter. Usually arguments of self-defense or the like need to be made AFTER the arrest.
A writer I like put it more bluntly
here Ten Points
1) I first heard about the shooting two weeks ago. Unarmed black youth shot by white patrol officer, was the impression I got. In Florida. Well, this automatically played into my feelings about the South, and those feelings came from my parents (especially my mother) who had fled it, making it clear in no uncertain terms that, in their opinion, violence against blacks was institutionalized and supported as late as the 1960's.
2) When I found out Zimmerman wasn't even a cop but a "neighborhood watch" guy, I thought, certainly he would be arrested. Apparently, due to a Florida gun law, what happened was legal--if it was self defense. Hearing that Zimmerman observed and stalked Trayvon, confronted him, seemed to weaken that case. The fact that he outweighed Trayvon by over 100 pounds made him a coward and fool at the very best. And at worst...again, I didn't want to think about that. Certainly justice would be done.
...
