Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
He initiated a confrontation after being told by emergency dispatch not to and in that confrontation he shot and killed a kid. It IS murder.
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It's more complicated than that. This all occurred in a gated community where Zimmerman was the elected program coordinator of the neighbourhood watch within that community.
The gated community is private property. It was Zimmerman's job to investigate suspicious people on that property. Zimmerman may have been totally out of line stopping Trayvon in the first place. However, even though that might be racist that's not, in itself, a crime. It should also be kept in mind that Zimmerman is 1/8th black and does not look white in any way. That, however, doesn't stop someone from being racist towards someone who is more black.
Then again, Zimmerman was dealing with a rash of break-ins in the community involving suspects that fit Trayvon's description. Trayvon was also not a resident of the community, but staying as a guest. Zimmerman would, therefore, not have known who he was. The community was 260 town houses, so Zimmerman probably knew all of the residents.
There are a lot of things going on in this case, and the media has been out of control.
If it's true that Trayvon chased Zimmerman down after he'd ended his pursuit, that definitely pushes things more towards the manslaughter realm and away from murder.