[ssgjohnson]

posted this on the FFS forum, thought i would share:

From what I have heard, there are a lot of things that have been polluted or forgotten since the story first broke. keep in mind, im not stating facts but rather what i read in the first days of the story.

Zimmerman was a "self appointed" neighborhood watch, and the community didnt have an official program. Also, i have never heard of armed neighborhood watch. generally its an observe and report type thing.

Zimmerman's race origionally was listed as white, with an update to the story stating that his father had said he was hispanic... that update was no where to be found (on that story at least) a few hours later. as if someone had decided that particular information needed to be forgotten.

The eyewhitness reports of Zimmerman basically getting his a$$ beat WERE reported in the origional news transcripts, but as days went by, those reports became HARDER to find, rather than easier.

Now for some opinion. I believe simply that Zimmerman made a stupid decision. When you are walking around with a firearm in a city environment, especially one with a high crime rate, you lose a certain level of fear or apprehension that would otherwise keep you from putting yourself into a precarious situation. I do not believe that race was what got martin killed, but a combination of decisions and events led up to an unfortunate ending. Zim made the wrong decision to follow, martin made the wrong decision to react aggresively (if you are on top of another man who outweighs you, you are being aggresive). Under the law here in FL, if you reasonably believe that your life, limb, or eyesight is threatened, you can meet that threat with deadly force... i think if i had a big bad dude on top of me beating my brains in for no reason, id be in my rights to shoot him. IF I FOLLOW A KID THAT I OUTWIEGH BY 45 LBS AND IM GETTING LICKED, I SHOULD SHOOT MYSELF!