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Subject: ideas on Trayvon vs Zimmerman

Bart,

After reading everything I could--including extremists on both sides (there's no reason to offer $10k for his kidnap
and delivery to any group)--about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, I began thinking that maybe Zimmerman
is borderline paranoid, rather than racist.  He's had a difficult life, has not completed many things he tried, but he apparently
took his position seriously as head of the unofficial neighborhood watch group he helped start in his gated community. 

Based on that position, and his desire to become a police officer (as shown by taking the four-month training program
twice in four years), he became the person that people in the community would call to report minor crimes.  He then reported
this information to the police, 46 times in the year prior to the confrontation (out of 402 total calls from his community). 
Zimmerman bought a gun and got a concealed carry permit, legally; no doubt he felt it was necessary to help protect
the other members of his community.

So consider a relatively emotional man (shown by the fact that, right around the time his fiancée left him in 2005, he got
into a fight with police and had an injunction filed on him for domestic violence), feeling the need to protect members of
his community, and (from his neighborhood watch position) seeing the results of a lot of minor crimes (vandalism, theft, etc.),
mostly by people who did not live in the community.  He's driving his SUV to the store and sees someone he doesn't
recognize walking through the community and looking around (this assumes Zimmerman saw Martin when he was
looking for the 7-11).  This unrecognized person starts walking towards Zimmerman, then starts to walk away. 

Zimmerman is suspicious, and calls the police; he's angry because these outsiders have been vandals and thieves in the past,
and "these assholes always get away."  So he feels its his responsibility to follow this potential criminal, keep him in sight
until the police get there.  He may even have been angry enough at the police, and how long they take to respond,
to refer to them as "f'ing goons."

Consider the possibility that he followed Martin, who turned around and confronted him, saying, "What are you following me for?" 

Suddenly Zimmerman is not in control of the situation any longer.  Perhaps he tries to grab Martin, who twists away. 
If Martin was 6'3" and Zimmerman was 5'9", it's not surprising that, in jerking away and turning around, Martin's elbow
may have hit Zimmerman in the face -- may even have broken his nose if Zimmerman was moving forward.  If Zimmerman
then fell down (whether from the elbow hit or because he tripped trying to get away), he could easily have hit the back of his
head on the sidewalk; then all his injuries would be explained.

So you have this highly emotional man who feels a responsibility to defend his community, who loses control of the situation
and is knocked to the ground injured.  If Martin did not immediately run away, Zimmerman may have felt he was still under attack. 
In the mind of Zimmerman as I have postulated, the obvious response would be to shoot your "attacker" in "self-defence."

But, had Zimmerman minded his own damn business, everyone would still be alive.

Note that I am not trying to justify Zimmerman's actions, just explain them -- and, I hope, show how a borderline paranoid
put under a lot of stress (in this case, self-inflicted) could snap and kill someone.  He wouldn't need to be a racist.

On the other hand, the Sanford police department seems to have responded incredibly poorly.  Even back in Indiana,
which had something similar to Florida's "stand your ground" law when I was growing up, if you killed someone you spent
at least one night in jail.  Also, despite how racist Indiana is (and as the home of one of the "greatest" Grand Dragons of
the KKK, it's up there), if a black teenager were killed, the police would make a significant effort to find out what he had
been doing there and to find his family. 

The police on the scene claim they wanted a warrant before arresting Zimmerman, and the
way Martin's parents found out he was dead was that they filed a missing persons report. 

Of course, it's possible that Martin didn't have any ID on him, since he was just running out to 7-11,
but you'd think the police would have tried to find out what an unknown teenager was doing in the
gated community, carrying an iced tea and some Skittles.
 Russ

On Trayvon's Wikipedia page, it says Zimmerman told police he had stepped out of his truck to check
the name of the street he was on, when Martin attacked him from behind as he walked back to his truck.

That's very suspicious.

Zimmerman was "patrolling" the streets in "his neighborhood" but didn't know what street he was on?
How far away from home did Zimmerman need to go to "find trouble?"

According to Zimmerman, if he had known what street he was on, Trayvon would still be alive.

Plus, I'd say it's at least likely that Zimmerman had his gun out the whole time.

Why would a "neighborhood watch commander" (that makes the shooter sound so important
- and so official) have a gun in his possession but not have it in his hand when confronting trouble?

And why in the world would Trayvon attack an armed man? 

Odds are we'll never know the truth.

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