I don’t know the ins and outs of every issue and vote dforest. All I am saying is that based on this article it seems to me that “dangerous hobby” refers to Zimmerman’s participation in the communitie’s neighborhood watch program, and his willingness to confront people (before anyone flames me I am not passing judgement as to who started the fight, but it appears to me that Zimmerman left his truck to pursue Martin with the intention of questioning him; that is all I mean by confronting). What is the role of a neighborhood watchmen anyway? I’ve always thought of it as reporting suspicious behavior to the police.
Zimmerman had been told by the police dispatcher not to follow Martin any more but to let the police take over (they were on their way).
Some of the people who get involved in neighborhood watch programs are what the police call “buffs” - that is, they’re wanna-be cops who were unable to get onto the force because they couldn’t pass the physical or the psychological or some other test. For them, it’s like playing cop.
I don’t know what happened at the end, but if Zimmerman had done what he was told to do by the police - that is, stopped following Martin - none of this would have happened. His only job was to report it to the police and let them take it from there.