When "Neighborhood Watch" Gets Out of Hand

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i read he wasn't even a member of neighborhood watch. then there's the 911 operator telling him not to follow martin. and it's certainly not nw rules to carry a gun, or confront a person. other than all that, you're right.

A lot of people carry guns in Florida. It is very easy to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Florida. It was totally legal for Zimmerman to be carrying that gun. If you have a concealed weapons' permit and you do neighborhood watch, I don't think it would make much sense to leave your gun at home.

I guess Zimmerman got out of his car and started following Trayvon on foot after Trayvon cut down a grass path that went between houses. Zimmerman obviously couldn't drive on the grass path. Most people would have probably given up the chase at this point but Zimmerman was obviously a little overzealous.

We know that at some point Zimmerman and Trayvon came face to face and they had some words. Trayvon supposedly asked Zimmerman why he was following him. Zimmerman supposedly asked Trayvon what he was doing there. We don't know what else, if anything was said after that.

According to Zimmerman, at some point he walked away and was heading back to his car. If that is the case, then the confrontation was over at that point. If Trayvon attacked him while he is walking back to his car, after the verbal confrontation is over, then I think Trayvon was the aggressor. Some of you have argued that Zimmerman was the aggressor, which he may have been at the beginning. But after he walks away and is heading back to his car, neither man is a threat to the other. Trayvon has no justification to attack him at this point and I think Zimmemran is totally justified in defending himself.

If this in fact is how things went down, I don't think prosecutors have much of a case. Prosecutors will need to come up with some evidence that shows that things did not go down like this.