And I guess this is the reason most Neighborhood Watch groups that I've heard of don't have their members out alone: maybe if Zimmerman had had someone else from the group with him, he might not have - allegedly - decided to ignore the police, who told him they didn't need him to follow this "suspicious" person.  Maybe if he hadn't been alone, he could have been discouraged from getting out of his car to confront what turned out to be a kid.

I know these groups can and do serve a valuable purpose, when they work as they are intended to, not the least of which is the most obvious: if potential criminals know that people in a neighborhood or area are keeping an eye out, they are less likely to cause problems.  But what Zimmerman allegedly did makes me wonder, who watches the Watchers?  I think it's supposed to be the police - these Watch groups are usually done in cooperation with local police - but if the Watchers don't listen to the police, things can easily go sideways.

I wonder if Zimmerman were black and Trayvon white if there'd have been any arrest?

I wonder if Zimmerman felt at all empowered by the recently enacted stand your ground laws in Fla?

Trayvon Martin was on the phone when George Zimmerman was following him. The young lady with whom he was speaking, through her lawyer, talked to ABC News:

"He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man," Martin's friend said. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run."

Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he'd managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin. "Trayvon said, 'What, are you following me for,' and the man said, 'What are you doing here.' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone."

The line went dead. Besides screams heard on 911 calls that night as Martin and Zimmerman scuffled, those were the last words he said.

ABC News verified that Martin did talk to the young lady by looking at his phone records. I don't know that they can corroborate the exact contents of the conversation.

Nevertheless, when you read this, it's worth remembering the tale Zimmerman told the cops:

Zimmerman said he had stepped out of his truck to check the name of the street he was on when Trayvon attacked him from behind as he walked back to his truck, police said. He said he feared for his life and fired the semiautomatic handgun he was licensed to carry because he feared for his life.

Coates is on it.

This kid was me. Living in a mostly white neighborhood in the south as a kid, I was stopped at least once a year as a teenager. When I got a nice car from my parents, they assumed I was a drug dealer. The idea that someone could stop me and somehow at the end of the engagement, end up shooting me is . . . I don't know if any story this year has as directly hit my core as this one.

That's me.  I live in a decent neighborhood now so that could be my kids. That could be a friend's kid coming to visit us.

I don't even know what else to say.  If he's guilty I want him punished but that doesn't bring this kid back.  He's gone.

Because his skin color automatically made him look suspicious.

McClatchy:

When the homeowners association wanted to start a neighborhood watch, only one man stepped up: George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old who admitted to shooting an unarmed Miami Gardens teenager and who is now the focal point of a race-related scandal of national proportions.

Interviews with neighbors reveal a pleasant young man passionate about neighborhood security who took it upon himself to do nightly patrols while he walked his dog.

[snip]

The recent shooting raised troubling questions about whether the homeowners association knew its volunteer was armed with a Kel Tek 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Many residents -- black and white -- question Zimmerman's judgment and wonder why he would have engaged the teenager at all.

The answer may lie in police records, which show that 50 suspicious-person reports were called in to police in the past year at Twin Lakes. There were eight burglaries, nine thefts and one other shooting in the year prior to Trayvon's death.

[snip]

Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival said she met Zimmerman in September at a community neighborhood watch presentation.

"I said, `If it's someone you don't recognize, call us. We'll figure it out,' " Dorival said. "`Observe from a safe location.' There's even a slide about not being vigilante police. I don't know how many more times I can repeat it."

And let's just say I'm skeptical that police did not know Zimmerman wasn't a member of a registered watch group:

According to Chris Tutko, the director of the National Neighborhood Watch Program, there are about 22,000 registered watch groups nationwide, and Zimmerman was not part of a registered group -- another fact the police were not aware of at the time of the incident.

One thing this may have done is brought needed attention to some of the practices of the Sanford Police Department, the actions of which, on this and other cases, have raised more than a few eyebrows.  Not subjecting Zimmerman to drug or alcohol testing at the time of the shooting doesn't seem like it would be in keeping with standard protocol.  Nor does their "we believed his account and no one refuted it" rationale for not arresting him or doing a more thorough investigation.

I respectfully disagree about the potential for federal criminal charges.  Assuming that what I'm reading about the past practices of the police (and their significant working relationship with Zimmerman as a police auxiliary) on this blog and at the Atlantic's blog is substantially accurate, then it would seem to me that there is significant potential for charging under 18 USC §242.   Again, assuming the facts as described are true, such a prosecution would be well within the scope of that law and totally consistent with the purpose of the original Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (which is still on the books as 18 USC §242).

Florida Self-Defense Law

Under 776.012, "a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if: (1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary . . . to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony; or (2)  Under those circumstances permitted pursuant to s. 776.013."

Under 776.008, "forcible felony" includes home-invasion robbery, burglary, and "and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual."  

Under 776.013, "a person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself . . . if: (a) The person against whom the defensive force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering . . . a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle . . . ; and (b) The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring . . . ."

Under 776.012(1), Zimmerman could claim that he reasonably believed Trayvon was about to commit a "forcible felony" such as breaking and entering (which is what he suggests on the 911 tape) or even "any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual."  If he takes it a step further (much less believable, in my view), he could claim Trayvon "was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering" a home, and Zimmerman had reason to believe this felony "was occurring," and he gets a presumption of a reasonable fear of death or imminent injury under 776.013.  (Sure doesn't sound like an affirmative defense).

Also worth noting that 776.032 grants Zimmerman immunity from prosecution (which includes arrest and even detention under the statute) if his acts comply with the statute.  The law enforcement agency can investigate the incident, and only if there is probable cause that the force used was unlawful can they make an arrest.

The only thing working against Zimmerman is section 776.041, use of force by aggressor, which does not allow him to claim self defense as the initial aggressor except in certain circumstances.

I see a huge racial aspect to this story.  Does Zimmerman suspect white kids walking about in his neighborhood and stop & interrogate them?  Doubt it.

You support gun rights?  Fine, but plenty of us think it is nuts that a paranoid vigilante is allowed to walk around with a concealed gun and brandish to those he suspects of ,well, just what exactly? As I recall, the opponents of Fla's stand your ground law when it was in the legislature prohpesized events like this occurring, but we need not discuss that even with a dead teenager.

NO arrest, no cause for arrest under the state's stand your ground law?  Not worthy of dicussion?  Nothing wrong with this picture? "Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents" are not descriptive of this incident.  A 28 yo self-appointed Barney Fife with a long history of paranoia and self importance was allowed under state law to carry a concealed weapon and brandish it against an unarmed, unsuspecting teenage who was walking home from a conveninence store and not breaking any laws.  Suspicious for what? Being black?  There is no negiligence or even recklessness here, there is  the deliberate action of both Zimmerman and the state that allows nuts like Zimmerman to carry concealed weapons and encourages them through the stand your ground law to use them.

To limit the discussion of this horrific incident to the one issue  you deem worthy of discussion is remarkably lame.  Yes, neighborhood watch/vigilantism is a problem here, but is is far from the only problem sourrounding this murder.

Even if this gun discharged in the middle of a fracas it was Zimmerman who, without cause or authority, initiated the fracas and Zimmerman who knew he had a loaded weapon that could go off on his person. Unlike the murdered Trayvon, Zimmerman knew the risk at hand and proceeded to accost a law abiding teenager he deemed "suspicious."  Or then again, maybe Zimmerman just pulled out his gun and shot him after the kid rightfully told him to go pound sand and punched him in the nose.  

He had no legal right to question a law-abiding citizen based on his suspicions.

So, you have no legal right to talk to a stranger!  What a concept.

No charges are filed as yet, after weeks -- but the DOJ being involved in the Martin case now may .

A grand jury will investigate the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old shot to death in a gated community in Florida on Feb. 26, state attorney Norm Wolfinger announced Tuesday.

"I share in the desire of the family and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of Trayvon Martin," Wolfinger said in a news release. "The public is entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate, and just review of the facts. We intend to honor that commitment."

The Seminole County Grand Jury will be called to session on Tuesday, April 10, Wolfinger said.

"In 2000, the Legislature enacted section 775.027, Florida Statutes, which became law on June 19, 2000. The section provides that the "defendant has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence." § 775.027(2), Fla. Stat. (2005). It defines insanity as "a mental infirmity, disease, or defect" that results in the defendant's being unable to "know what he or she was doing or its consequences" or unable to "know that what he or she was doing was wrong." § 775.027(1), Fla. Stat. (2005)."

I don't see any basis under Fla law for an insanity plea.