How is it that a teenager doing nothing but walking home from the store is now implied to be the

[FBaggins]

76. Nope.

Hearsay is a claim on my part (in this case) that someone else said something (get it? "hear"... "say" ?). And not all hearsay is inadmissible as evidence... let along in debate. But that again is another discussion. Obviously, anything GZ said on tape can't be hearsay. GZ's statements to police re: what TM said to him are hearsay (despite being recorded) and could not be presented as evidence.

it was a statement that Zimmerman made with no corroboration

Yep. It's what he "reported" to 911. It's the only evidence apart from the call to the girlfriend as to what he was doing at the time. As a point of reference, the GF's claims re: what TM said are hearsay, but are not always inadmissible (since the speaker is dead).

I have seen no one on DU make that claim, so that's an irrelevant straw man.

Then you haven't paid attention... but again, that's irrelevant.

Instead, it appears that Zimmerman chose to initiate a confrontation with a person who had every right to be at that location, even though Zimmerman was instructed not to confront him.

Close. It appears that he intended to initial a confrontation with someone who may or may not have had a right to be doing what he was doing (which doesn't give GZ the right to accost him), and GZ was not "instructed not to confront him"... he was told "we don't need you to do that" when he replied that he had gotten out of the car.

Why are you so motivated to establish Martin's culpability in this?

If the situation weren't so tragic, it would be hilarious that you think that's what I'm doing. As I've said multiple times... you don't need to be a good guy to be the victim of a crime. I don't need to assume that TM was a little angel who never harmed a fly in order to say that GZ was acting as a vigilante. For some reason... others feel a need to paint him as such in order to say that GZ was out of line.

He doesn't strike me as a role model for other kids... anything but. And I have no faith that he was just minding his own business. But none of that means that GZ was justified in his actions.