Two of the witnesses in this case, both young males, could have intervened and prevented the need for Zimmerman to shoot Martin.
Zimmerman, screaming, begged eyewitness John Good to come help him. Good, watching from only 17 feet away, replied to Zimmerman that he was calling the police instead. Zimmerman screamed that the police were already on the way—that he needed Good’s help. Good could have knocked Martin off Zimmerman and stopped the deadly confrontation just by putting himself a bit at risk, but no, he didn’t want to get that involved, just like Kitty Genovese’s neighbors (some readers have no idea who Kitty Genovese was, I realize) didn’t want to get involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese
There was another young male witness in the Zimmerman case, who testified that told his wife, “stay away from the window, don’t look out, we don’t want to make this our problem.”
You get my point.
Lots of cowardice.
Now the opposite of cowardice is courage. Courage is a word derived from the French “coeur” meaning heart. Hearts are made for love. In love, one dares to take risks to prevent the works of hatred from progressing.