The Zimmerman Trial: The Scream

[lexington filly]

87. Personally, it's too horrifying for me to believe the screams are Mr. Martin's.

If I were on the jury, I don't think it would be relevant which person's primal screams were recorded. Given the facts so far, Mr. Zimmerman instigated all the actions which led to Mr. Martin's death. Even if Mr. Martin punched Mr. Zimmerman first, by then it was apparent to him he was being stalked by an older man and I'd think this 17 yr old was scared out of his wits. It's rainy, dark, he's in unfamiliar territory, he keeps trying to get back to where he's a guest---and this strange, silent man keeps coming. As just an ordinary citizen, I think Mr. Zimmerman drove the situation to the point where Mr. Martin was absolutely justified in feeling the man wasn't harmless and he needed to protect himself the best way a teenager could think of that night.

Mr. Zimmerman's actions from almost the beginning point to some character flaws to me. Neighborhood Watches I thought want to prevent neighborhood crime. So either you see something suspicious, call the police & sit tight for them to show up and do their job. Or, you could prevent by: when Mr. Zimmerman saw Mr. Martin had caught on to his watchfulness in the parking lot, why didn't Z roll down his window and say something non-adversarial & identify himself in a non confrontational way? Call me a woman, but that's how I would have handled genuine suspicion.

But Mr. Z didn't even show the tiniest courage by cracking his window. He sneaked, he crept, with a ready to fire gun on his hip, escalating a benign circumstance situation every step of the way. The man obviously thought if he were playing with matches, he had all the fire: cops on the way, a gun, sneaky in the dark.

It could have been Mr. Z screaming because no one screams louder than a bully who's had the table turned on himself. That's what his behavior reflects: a passive-aggressive bully.
Frankly I'd rather believe it wasn't Mr. Martin's primal screams because it means he saw his murder coming for inexplicable reasons and was powerless to stop it and not one damn person had the backbone to do anything but make a weak, token gesture. I feel so much more horrified visualizing and hearing the screams in that context.