[maxwellsmart_agent]

Everybody forgets that Zimmerman was functioning as a neighborhood watch volunteer. As such, he was doing what a neighborhood watchman should do. If he hadn’t been attacked, Martin would still be alive. Therefore, if Martin had continued on his way, his death would have been avoided.

[ExTxMarine]

Everybody forgets that Zimmerman was functioning as a neighborhood watch volunteer.

I need to make a slight correction to your post. Zimmerman was NOT functioning as a neighborhood watch volunteer during this situation. He was out on a personal errand and saw something which caught his eye and as a concerned CITIZEN he initiated calls to the police (on a non-911 number) to describe the scene.

I point this out because if he was on "neighborhood watch" then I think Zimmerman would have been arrested on the night of the incident. Since he would have failed to follow the rules and standards of the neighborhood watch program - no guns allowed. If that was the situation, I think the police would have arrested him because they could then show that he was actually acting as a self-appointed "policeman." That would have completely changed the perspective of the police department - I think.

The fact that Zimmerman did, in the past, make rounds as a neighborhood watch volunteer have no bearing on this particular situation. The media points this out as a way of discouraging people to act in their own defense and to discourage home owners from establishing neighborhood watch programs.