To be fair, I don't know what actually happened. I'm not giving Martin a pass on this. I would assume he would have copped an attitude if he was called out like it seems he might have been. I can see how he could get pissed off because he probably felt like he was being profiled (which he was, right?). I can also see that he did seem to have the appearance of someone that might look suspicious to someone in charge of neighborhood watch (if in fact Zimmerman was). Seems like something that got out of control, for several reasons, many of which make sense.
There are two important things about what I know about this case that I can't get past. First, as I said, Zimmerman was told specifically to NOT approach the kid. He did the right thing in calling it in, and was told it would be taken care of. Moving past that actually CAUSED the problem, and he should be held responsible for that. This is why I'm not sure this was a true neighborhood watch thing - I haven't seen much about that or people talking about that situation FROM the neighborhood. And I would think there would be some of that if he was appointed and respected in that position. Maybe there has been talk about that, I don't know. Second, there are only two people that really know what happened that night. One of them is dead and we'll never know what he has to say. The other one has the ultimate motivation to protect his own interests and would most likely say about anything at this point. And his story has changed as time has gone on - from that night to later on.
Seems those are two important things that some gloss over. I'm guessing there is truth and falsehoods being told on both sides. And people will believe what they want to believe, which I think definitely hurts Martin's side of the story - as we can see here, for instance. People extrapolating things and turning them into negative complete falsehoods built on stereotypical beliefs. And that is just plain wrong. But - those people clearly don't care, and that's also part of the problem. And sadly, probably always will be.
