Well, it's all over the news the last few days. What a sad, sad story this is. There are so many things about it that just make me uneasy, and I'm having a hard time believing George Zimmerman is telling the whole story the way it really happened.
The way I understand it, Zimmerman spotted this young man walking in the neighborhood and thought he looked suspicious. He started to follow him and called 911. The operator asked Zimmerman if he was following the young man. When Zimmerman told him he was, the 911 operator told him they needed him to stop following him.
There are lots of conflicting accounts regarding what happened next. Zimmerman claims he was concerned because the kid had a hoodie on, had his hand in his waistband and had something in his hand. He says he continued to follow the young man because he didn't want him to get away.
At some point the kid starts running and Zimmerman tries to chase him down. Now, as if he hadn't already done everything wrong up until now, this is where Zimmerman's story really falls apart for me. He claims he gave up the chase, turned to return to his car and that's when the kid turned around and attacked him so viciously that he had no choice but to shoot him in self-defense. Really? Someone is running away from you and suddenly decides to turn back and attack you? That just doesn't make any sense.
There are so many unanswered questions: Why did Zimmerman keep following the young man after the 911 operator told him to stop doing so? Who appointed Zimmerman a neighborhood watchman in the first place? Why was Zimmerman carrying a gun? (That's not watching; that's policing!) Most troubling of all, why in the world would a kid that was running for his life away from him suddenly turn on his heels and attack once Zimmerman had given up the pursuit?
I certainly don't have any answers, but this whole mess fills me with a lot of unsettling questions. I understand a grand jury will review the case soon. Let's hope they can get to the bottom of some of these questions and get some satisfying answers for everyone. Perhaps some good can come out of all this and measures can be put in place to try to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
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