When "Neighborhood Watch" Gets Out of Hand

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Danzig

just saw a headline this morning that the voice recognition guy said the screams weren't zimmerman.
and of course he will say trayvon attacked him-he just killed someone. you think he's not going to say he was defending himself?? the fact is had he not gotten out of his car and gone after him-which is what they told him not to do-we wouldn't be having this conversation. he had no reason to get out of the car, he had no reason or right to confront trayvon. on what basis did he accost the boy? and exactly what did he think he was going to accomplish by approaching a total stranger-with him having absolutely no authority to do so. even if he were a member of neighborhood watch-note the name. WATCH. no, try to emulate clint eastwood.
put yourself in trayvons shoes. you're walking home, with skittles and a drink. some guy is following you, which freaks you out. the guy's not a cop, not in a cop car, not a security guy. just a total stranger.

He probably got out his car and followed on foot because he wanted to be able to tell the police where Trayvon was when they got there. Trayvon had left the street and had gone down a grass path. Zimmerman would have lost him at that point if he didn't follow him on foot.

We don't know if Zimmerman had any intention of confronting Trayvon in any way. What may have happened is when he ran after Trayvon down the grass and then turned the corner, he found himself face to face with him. Zimmerman may have never planned on coming face to face with him.

I agree with you that it is possible that Zimmerman was the one who started the physical altercation. I can't sit here and tell you for sure that Zimmerman is telling the truth and that Trayvon attacked him first. Zimmerman could be lying. I haven't ruled that out. To answer your question about what justification Zimmerman had to attack Trayvon, if Zimmerman did in fact attack Trayvon first, I would say Zimmerman would have no justification. If that was how it happened, then Zimmerman is probably guilty of manslaughter.

I agree with you that Trayvon was probably scared or at least concerned when he saw some stranger following him. We will probably never know exactly what was said between the two of him. They say that Trayvon asked Zimmerman, "Why are you following me?" They say Zmmerman asked, "What are you doing here?" I wonder if Trayvon ever told him that he was simply going to his father's house. I wonder if Zimmerman ever told Trayvon that he was simply doing a neighborhood watch.