General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A couple of years ago, I was personally responsible for starting a lot of OPs on Zimmerman [View all]Tommy_Carcetti
(43,173 posts)Hence the whole "these assholes, they always get away" and "fucking punks" comments you heard on the dispatch call.
Zimmerman sounded frustrated on that phone call, noting he had previously reported suspicious individuals in the neighborhood (with the implication that nothing had happened to his satisfaction to address the situation). He saw Trayvon, figured he fit the profile (as a young black male) of people he believed to have been committing crimes in the neighborhood, and frustrated that "these assholes, they always get away", figured he'd get out of car and try to chase this "suspect" down and hold him until police arrived. And he knew he had a gun in his belt so that had to have emboldened him.
The problem was, Trayvon hadn't actually done anything wrong that evening, and was running simply because a strange man was chasing him for no apparent reason. And given that Zimmerman himself never said he identified himself to Trayvon before the altercation, if Zimmerman happened upon Trayvon and attempted to grab him to hold him for police, yeah you might expect someone to fight back with all their might.
But you have Zimmerman, who not only is probably raging because he thinks Trayvon's a criminal trying to evade him, but also has been in a major argument with his wife that day and she's left the house in anger. So he's pissed off. And it's dark and it's rainy and now this guy has punched him in the nose trying to resist him and they're tussling on the ground. And maybe he pulls a gun because he thinks that will cause Trayvon to stop "resisting" Zimmerman's self-perceived authority. But if that only causes Trayvon to scream for help (because having a gun pointed at you by a strange man who was chasing you for no apparent reason might cause one to panic and scream for help), it only makes Zimmerman even more angry. And we know he's a highly volatile person, and highly volatile people do snap. And I think Zimmerman snapped at that moment and pulled the trigger. He then quickly composed himself, still thinking that Trayvon was in fact a criminal intruder and therefore police wouldn't press too hard if he claimed he was only acting in self-defense. (And in fact, that's more or less what happened originally before public outcry demanded further investigation.)