Re: Family of Florida teen killed by neighborhood watch volunteer feel 'betrayed' by
THE LESSON LEARNED...
Often, I've told people "if you go looking for trouble you just might find it."
Zimmerman went looking for trouble - the dispatcher telling him not to. Miminally, even if not charged or convicted, he was getting the s...t beat out of him, both families have had to move out of their homes for death-threats, he is an exorbitantly hated person, and this will negatively follow him all his life. It likely never crossed his mind that the football player weight lifting 17 year old might turn him on as decide to kick his ass - and unless he was willing to shoot him that kid would be beat him into the ground - and maybe take his own gun and kill him with his own gun. In a sense, Zimmerman never likely imagined it could become "kill or be killed."
It appears Martin turned and wanted trouble - seeing opportunity to strike back at the older Latino guy who had harassed him - despite his girlfriend telling him to leave the situation. He may have accurately decided he could kick Zimmerman's ass, if not worse. But it likely never crossed his mind that the wacky Latino guy had a gun, for which maybe he decided to take the conflict into a serious physical fight. He's now dead.
People don't think. They don't think out potentials. I was in hundreds of fights, maybe more, and saw far more. I've seen a lot of people hurt, hurt badly, permanently and I've seen them die. FEW people are actually prepared to deal with sudden physical confrontation and often misread the potential dangers or really correctly understand how people will actually reacte.
BOTH THOSE YOUNG MEN (and I call Martin a "young man," not a "child") way, way over-rated themselves, both were fully unprepared or unskilled for the potentials, and both went looking for trouble at different moments - and both found it.
I do not equate the two, certainly not same levels of loses, but both acted foolishly and stupidly. And that is what makes for many tragedies.
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Neighborhood watch and others should NEVER confront anyone UNLESS to the rescue of someone under attack - maybe. Not because neighborhood watch are noisy busybodies. People watching out for the neighborhood is a good thing. Not because they-re doing some is illegal - generally going over to someone seemingly suspicious with "what are you doing here?" isn't illegal or even a big deal. It is because they are NOT prepared for what may happen when they do.
The same is true overall for anyone. If some crazy person is harassing you, while you maybe CAN stand your ground, you probably are not mentally prepared if not otherwise capable, might what a crazy person might do then - or even later as a fixation.
There is a wrong headed notion that having a gun protects you as much as it might. A wrong view that showing it or pointing it stops the other person. In my private life I never carried a weapon. It was too great a liability. I have had people pull weapons on me. I "disabled" the person ("broke him") taking it away. In ANY situation the other person demonstrated a weapon, I could have killed him with his own weapon.
Verbal conflicts can quickly, instantly, become violent - and very, very violent. Its not like old westerns in which minutes after the fight is over, their having joking and having a drink. He, they may well be in the hospital, seriously or even permanently damaged.
Finally, trying to circumstantially calculate what both did micro-moment to moment and why each did so is nonsense. They both were completely unprepared for what unfolded on what I suspect each their own stupid actions and there was little rationality in either of them in those decisive few seconds.
