You may call this nit picking but he was not told to stop following Trayvon.
The words were, “you don’t need to do that.”
The half-truth has become so prevalent now most people believe it.
It’s not nitpicking at all. Words are supposed to have meaning. Taken literally (which is the only way that words from a 911 operator should be taken), the operator merely stated what he didn’t need. At best, it was a very ambiguous statement. It would have been perfectly reasonable for Zimmerman to respond: “That’s okay, I don’t mind”. For all we know, that’s what Zimmerman was thinking.