yeah, I weigh 98, and I am an ex JAG, female type
Well, I guess if you got the drop on me with a lead pipe or something... THEN you might get shot if I was still conscious. ;-)
But the point still stands. When it comes to males fighting, weight an age can have little to do with who gets the drop on who. I seem to remember reading a lot of stories last year where high school kids where playing “Knock Out” against older adults in several cities. That is, they would ambush an adult (presumably heavier and older) and beat him senseless.
In cases like this, you don’t know what the intent is of your attacker, so you are obliged to defend yourself.
Now, in this particular case, we don’t know how the confrontation transpired. We have no idea who threw the first punch. We only know that an eye witness is reported to have said Zimmerman was getting pummeled. The eye witness does not seem to report that Zimmerman was brandishing at the time, which could indicate that Zimmerman only drew *as a result of being pummeled* and *as a result of no one coming to aid him in the fist fight*.
Bottom line: the cops seem to think Zimmerman acted in self defense. I’m not inclined to disagree with them for the reasons you state.