If Zimmerman initiated a confrontation, even if Trayvon did react violently, I wouldn't consider him a thug. If Zimmerman caught him spraying graffiti, or breaking car windows, to me, that's thug-like behavior, although even that doesn't constitute shooting.
We do agree that Zimmerman acted foolishly. He's a young man, too, and his life is ruined over this as well. However, if he had heeded the advice of the police and just hung back and waited for them to arrive, what a difference a few minuted would have made!
This is tragic on so many levels.
Well, there's your problem right there. By "confront," I mean Zimmerman approached him, talked to him face to face, perhaps in an accusatory manner. But even if he did that, that's no friggin' excuse to resort to physical violence. If Trayvon was the first to resort to physical violence, it
does make him a thug. Zimmerman shouldn't have approached him in the first place but Trayvon shouldn't have reacted like he apparently did. Zimmerman's suspicions were probably based on a stereotype but all Trayvon did, it seems, was confirm that stereotype.
