I’ve looked at quite a few reports now, thank you for your suggestion tomkat. One could charge bias against any source so I won’t depend on any in particular. The largest collection of links I could find in one place is on Martin’s wikipedia entry, though I will not vouch for a single one of them.
That said, I see nothing that convinces me that Martin was a thug. He had not stolen anything, and Zimmerman was not seeing him burglarizing any place, or committing any other offense, when Zimmerman called 911 to say that Martin was walking and looking around. Then he said Martin took off.
I’d take off too if Zimmerman were following pedestrian me in his vehicle. In the dark. I’d have felt threatened.
The dispatcher told Zimmerman the police were on their way. Then, apparently, Martin did not take off successfully for they were again in close proximity.
Zimmerman had been safe in his truck from the person he was following, but then he was out of his truck.
What occurred next is disputed and not yet clear one way or another, except that Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.
Now, the way I see what IS clear: nobody had just committed a crime in the neighborhood, nobody had reported one, nor was Zimmerman personally aware of one, nor was he looking for a culprit for any particular offense; Martin wasn’t breaking any laws when Zimmerman started following him, nor when Zimmerman called 911, nor when Zimmerman re-encountered him after he “took off;” Zimmerman could have stayed in his truck rather than follow someone doing no wrong; and Martin is dead.
By the way, according to police, Martin had no criminal history, so if you call him a thug you ought to tell us why you think so, and what you know that the police don’t.
I don’t know enough yet, and neither does anyone else. Nevertheless it seems quite clear that Martin was minding his own business that night and Zimmerman was not; and that Martin was minding his own business one minute and dying the next.
There are racists here and they are out in force.