Has George Zimmerman Become A Right Wing Folk Hero?

[XemaSab]

22. I'm FASCINATED

by the narrative being spun by both sides.

Zimmerman and Trayvon both seem to be perfect blanks that both sides are projecting all their socioeconomic and racial anxieties onto.

There are people here totally denying that there was even a fight and disregarding all the testimony and evidence in the trial to make it sound like Z set out that night to go kill a black kid and chased down and shot Trayvon from afar, and then Z and the cops and the witnesses together colluded to falsify a self defense claim.

There are people on the right who are making it sound like Trayvon was this vicious thug who set out to beat up Zimmerman, and Zimmerman was this wide-eyed naif who just happened to be out for a walk in the same place as Trayvon.

Based on my understanding of what happened and the personalities involved, they were two flawed people who ran into each other at the wrong place and time. Zimmerman's cowardice led him to chase down Trayvon, and Trayvon flipped out and started wailing on him.

Trayvon wasn't a saint, he was a normal kid who had some problems but who was minding his own business at the time. Zimmerman's not the devil, he's just a garden-variety busybody with a gun.

Zimmerman was responsible because he had the gun and he set out looking for trouble instead of waiting for the cops, and he ran into a kid who was not afraid to fight him. Zimmerman was the one screaming on the tape, and it's the sound of a desperate man who knows he's getting his ass kicked and he's powerless to stop it.

Manslaughter or negligent homicide would have been a just verdict if the prosecution had proven its case, but poor witnesses and a lack of evidence meant that there was a possibility that Zimmerman was fearing for his life when he pulled the trigger. Whether or not he should have actually feared for his life or not, I don't see how the jury could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.