I don’t agree with you that following someone is ‘starting a fight’. A poke in the nose is starting a fight, not following someone. Following someone is just that, followoing someone. Don’t tell me that following someone is starting a fight.
How close was he 'following someone?' You can speak from a distance. If you - a stranger - are following me after I try to avoid you and get you up to close contact distance (ie reach) with clear notice that you are not to do that, I'm assuming you have bad intentions and will act accordingly. I'm not waiting for you to hit me.
Cereal, baby, lemme tell ya from experience in a big city. A young man being followed by someone who is of male persuasion is likely to be followed by a queer, as I have been multiple times (my mother made a pretty boy, not my fault) in my distant youth and even in middle age. I punched one out, but others, following old advice, I didn’t lead to my house, which is what I suspect Martin was trying to do. One fag did find a way to my apartment once, and then spent months scowling under the window, I kid you not. I never called 911.
My theory is that Martin thought he was being followed by a fag, and decided to teach him a lesson, which would earn him street cred points. Young black males are particularly sensitive and prejudiced against homosexuals, which we on this forum and elsewhere kindly and stupidly refer to as being ‘gay’.