Mr. George Zimmerman was not on neighborhood watch duty the night he killed Trayvon Martin. He was driving to the market and saw the youth behaving suspiciously and followed him in his car and lost him and then got out to re-acquire the suspect on foot. The rest is history.
Some say he shouldn't have followed the youth. Some say he shouldn't have exited his vehicle. Some say he should have just left it up to the police.
I'm certain that Mr. Zimmerman, looking back, would have done things differently. But I reject the idea put forth by one side that checking out suspicious behavior in your neighborhood is a bad thing. There must be a way to be a concerned neighbor without putting yourself or others in danger.
What this comes down to is both sides misunderstanding the other person's motives. Martin thought the man following him was a stalker. Zimmerman thought Martin was casing the neighborhood for a burglary.
What white people (or partially white people) should learn from the Zimmerman trial and media passion play.
1. Don't follow persons wearing hoodies. This is now considered racist. If you find yourself behind and walking in the same direction as a hoodie-wearer abruptly halt and change direction one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. If this puts you behind another hoodie-wearer then go to the right or left. If there are still hoodies in those directions, call a taxicab.
Much has been made of the hooded sweatshirt as regards the Trayvon Martin killing. It has been suggested that Martin was targeted (unfairly) because he was wearing a "hoodie".
The reasoning goes something like this: Black youth wear hooded sweatshirts. Some black youth commit crimes while wearing hooded sweatshirts. Trayvon wore a hooded sweatshirt. Therefore George Zimmerman must have figured Trayvon was black and up to no good and thus racially profiled and killed him because of what he was wearing, and all innocent hoodie-wearing kids are now targets. Or so it goes.
I'm going to suggest to you that Trayvon Martin's apparel could not have been a factor in George Zimmerman's suspicions because it was raining that night back in February in Sandford, Florida.
