Zimmerman apologists always run into same problem. Person minding their own business ended up dead.

[Youngat50]

85. Following suspicious persons...

Hi all. I'm a new participant here at DU. I have taken a great interest in the Zimmerman/Martin case since it became news, for reasons I'll explain below. First allow me to say that while trying to keep up with all that is out there on the topic, I kept being coming back to conversations here at DU that have proven to be a great source of links to articles, etc. You guys rock at keeping up with information as it is released, and the format of your forum makes it so easy to follow the conversations. I've also found that some posts have made me think twice about opinions I had that were (I thought) solidly entrenched - in this and other topics.

Allow me to explain my interest in one aspect of this case...

In 2009, my neighborhood began experiencing a rash of break-ins and thefts. I had been the victim of a break-in twice in a six-month period. I can't begin to explain the sense of violation, fear and helplessness that comes from having a stranger break into your home and steal your property. I am a single woman, and the brazen manner in which the perpetrators ransacked my home while searching for valuables the 2nd time was astounding and frightening. Some of the items stolen were keepsakes that had been given to me by my father right before he passed away 2 months before, making the thefts all the more emotionally crushing. After the second break in, during which the house was ransacked, I commenced to living in a spare room of the house, the one room that had very little in it, and appeared to have been untouched. I could not bring myself to be in the rooms where a stranger had walked through them with such malice and criminal intent. I lived in fear all the time, could not sleep, could not eat. Just being in those rooms in the house would cause me to break out in a sweat and have a panic attack. I could not afford to rent somewhere else while paying the mortgage on the house, so I had to live there until the house sold, which took almost 8 months. I even considered getting a dog for protection and alarm, but I felt that the hair and smell might deter from selling the house, so I didn't. It was the most awful experience of my life.

Thanks to a diligent neighbor reporting a kid not known in the neighborhood suspiciously walking around our street, the perpetrator was eventually caught. He wasn't really doing anything, but he was meandering, if you can understand that. And my neighbor did not recognize him as being from our neighborhood. When my neighbor walked out and pretended to get something from his car, the kid was still there. The kid then walked through a side yard across the street and disappeared into the backyard. My neighbor called 911 and followed the kid on foot for over 4 blocks, leading the police to the kid. The police found that the kid had a heavy-duty screwdriver and gloves such as those used in a doctor's office on him. A subsequent search of his home found items stolen during thefts in our neighborhood, including two of my belongings. Sadly, the items from my father were not found. Had my neighbor not followed this kid, he would have simply walked away and not been caught.

I wanted to try to explain why someone would follow a suspicious person in their neighborhood. My neighbor explained that he was angered by the effect that the crimes had on me, as well as others on our street. And he too felt helpless to protect his family and his neighbors from the continued crime that was occurring. And we were all frustrated at the fact that the perpetrators kept getting away with the crimes because either they are gone by the time the theft is discovered, or the police are limited to how quickly they can get there to investigate suspicious activity. When one reports a suspicious person, the police still need a few minutes to get there. In that time, a person can easily disappear and hide – and more often than not, they did.

My issue is the subject of citizens following suspicious persons in their neighborhood. I guess because my neighbor doing so helped catch the young man that caused such fear and sense of violation in my life. It gave me the closure I needed to move on and get back to living. (That and a little bit of counseling. Many thanks to the local crime victim's fund which helped pay for the sessions.)

I'm not making excuses. I don't know what happened out there - I don't think any of us really do. But I can understand why someone would follow another person who wasn't doing anything they didn't have a right to do in such a circumstance. I am admittedly biased on my reasoning and understanding, and I know that readers must take that into consideration. A neighborhood is a community, and we should all watch out for each other and come together to help, and I feel that is what my neighbor did.