I agree with this - people should be able to walk around without fear of being suspected of doing more. Women should be able to walk at night without fear of being stalked and stared out, and made to feel afraid (real or imagined). I am staying away from home right now - not familiar with the neighborhood at all. Last night I went to walk my dogs and a guy was just standing around by the gates smoking. He watched me walk out and I could feel him watching while I walked and I started getting the creeps (my two chi-pins don't instill fear, they just annoy). I let them pee and started walking back to my place while one was still in mid stream. I couldn't get back in and lock the door fast enough.
This guy, and he was either spanish or white, hard to tell in the dark, really scared me. He wasn't doing anything but watching me. In my mind though, I know the guy could overtake me easily - so I made sure I was somewhere safe quickly. I had my cell, but I'd have felt really silly calling 911 at that point.
What I would not have done is say eff it, I have a right to be here as much as he does. Would I ask him what the he** he's looking at, no, that would be weird. So this is all on me ... until he starts following me - then I have to make some choices - a)take my bum home as fast as my legs will carry me, b)call 911, or c)put on my big girl panties and confront him. Of course I would choose "a" while simultaneously performing "b". "C", would not be an option - he could definitely take me, and he might have a gun. In Texas, the gun is always a pretty good bet.
Sounds scary.
So there is my sticking point - why didn't Trayvon just keep running all the way home if GZ was scaring him? The ONLY thing I can come up with is he wasn't scared and wanted to put a little fear into this *advertiser censored** 'le. Right or wrong, this is all I can come up with....and that it backfired, TM didn't consider there might be a gun.
He ran to where the guy with the car could no longer continue following him, then thinking he had lost him and that he was safe -- fifteen seconds run from his door -- he went back to talking to his girlfriend. With his hoodie up in the rain he never noticed GZ coming up behind him until it was too late.
When I get scared, I also get ticked off because I feel so helpless. I always think if I were a guy I could at least confront the jerks. So do I blame TM if this is what happened? Not at all - good for him. I just don't think anyone is going to buy that he was scared - and therefore, the arrest will never happen. I hate the SYG law as it applies to this case - but I hate more that Trayvon didn't just walk or run away from it. Guns give otherwise cowardly jerks confidence.
If Trayvon NEEDED to sprint all the way home in order to be safe from Zimmerman, if he needed to hide inside to avoid being killed, then the problem is not with Trayvon.
Trayvon had a right to be there, he had a right to be outside, he had a right to walk or stand on his own sidewalk, he had a right to not be harrassed, he had a right to ignore this clown, he had a right to STAND HIS GROUND. What Trayvon did instead was run. He ran away from the scary guy. He ran all the way to where the potential maniac in the car could no longer follow him, to where he was safe in the middle of all these houses.
Except he wasn't safe ever there.
Zimmerman, on the other hand, had no legal authority to do any of the things he did. Not as a private citizen, and not as a neighborhood watchman. He's not empowered to stop and question people he doesn't like and expect answers. Even the police cannot just stop random people and demand to know their identity and business. Nor was Zimmerman empowered to follow people around, scaring them. That's not his job, it's no one's job. Again, even the police are not allowed to follow people for no reason.
As scary as your encounter was, let's expand on it. Instead imagine that your creepy guy was following you as you took your walk. He's behind you in his car, so you cut through an ally. He's waiting on the far side. Staring, watching you, creeping along in his car. Then he gets out of his car in front of you. You have enough of this nut and you run for it.
Now YOU would likely go all the way home and then phone 911. I would too, and I am an adult male. But Trayvon was a young, black, teen boy -- and taken together that's a powerful disincentive to phone the police. Trayvon, Mr Macho, didn't even tell his girl that he had ran, he said just walked real fast. In short, he did what any teen boy would do, he got away from the nut and went back to his business. That business being girls.
We can stand back and critique Trayvon's survival performance. We can say 'If only he had done this or that, run here, jumped there, gone home, locked his door, climbed a tree, bought a snickers instead of skittles, or whatever.' That's okay to discuss when we are trying to figure out how to survive if we find ourselves hunted by a maniac, but let us not make the mistake of confusing our critique with assigning blame. We don't blame a woman for drinking at a party, or wearing a short dress, or looking attractive, we blame the monster who raped her. We don't blame the little girl helping the nice man find his 'lost puppy.' we blame the monster who slaughtered her.
And here, I don't blame the kid walking home from 7-11 in the rain with candy for his little brother. I blame the <mod snip> who hunted him down and killed him.