Most people don't have a racist nut with a gun stalking them when they walk out of a 7-Eleven. Are you really this dense?

Poor Ikes, we should get a title change so that people quit grunching over where Ikes admits he was most likely wrong.

How often have you found yourself truly worried that a person was following you, as Martin seemed to be from the call to his GF, that most times it turned out to be nothing? That seems like such a low occurrence event that if/when it does happen, you're probably right to be worried.

I like that he then came back into the thread to inform us that the shooter wasnt white but latino.

+1

All the Monday morning quarterbacking here is absurd, esp since none of us know exactly how things went down. Kid was walking around in what sounds like a pretty safe neighborhood, he likely didn't realize how much danger he was in until it was too late. And even if he had snap-called 911, it's not clear that the outcome would have been any different.

I would be more than even money that he was already on the phone with his g/f when he notched Zimmerman following him and the route from when he noticed Zimmerman to where is got shot is towards his house. Standing in a well lit area sounds good, but it's a residential area in one of the lesser part of town. Standing in a light just means your going to be mugged,shot, or harassed under a light, people need to be there. He thought of going back to the store or back home and decided home was quicker and tried to run. I really can't see anything wrong with that.

Indeed. This is called being in "condition white".

It's not a bad thing to look at a tragic event and begin thinking about what you would do in such a situation. This goes for other events too, like that cruise ship running aground, or a plane having an emergency.

Lolololol at everything here.

LDO when seconds count the cops are only minutes away.

Idk i would still call em. At minimum it puts you in a good spot if something bad happens. Unless your a compete bloodthirsty idiot like it seems this Zimmerman is.

Really? You're just sad dude.

no im just trying to understand the thought process. And I am having trouble with why it didn't involve getting to a public/well lit place and calling for help be it cops or not...

He told his GF on the phone that he wasn't going to run, just walk fast.

I don't understand this resistance to looking at this situation and hypothesizing ways of getting out of a similar situation. Ya'll look at past hands of poker you've played and thought about how you could have done better, right?

Not anymore, but when I lived in more urban areas, it certainly happened a time or to. Yes, calling a gf seems like something you might do if you think something *might* be out of the ordinary. I think the point is, I don't think he was *truly* worried. I think he thought there was a crazy guy possibly following him, and even if it was a crazy guy following him, the chances of anything bad happening that he couldn't get out of himself is still pretty low. If he thought he was in significant danger, he is running, not walking. He underestimated those odds. I'm not an expert on this case, but I did see his own actions. If he wasn't willing to run, certainly calling the police which would be a huge hassle if it was nothing and potentially could be harmful for him, seems like a play further down the road. Add in teenage overconfidence, and it's easy.

And yes, walking through a really crappy part of town in college at night, we would have people we thought were following us. Sometimes shouting stuff at us and even threatening us. You walk fast, keep your head down, and if it gets to be trouble, you run. Very little chance one of these people is going to actually shoot you or harm you, but you still feel that sense of danger. Maybe you are going to get mugged at a worst reasonable case. Calling the cops basically does nothing there. Look at Zimmermann, who did call the cops. Why weren't they on the scene already? Add in that Zimmermann isn't going to be as scared of cops as a typical black teenager, and you have even more reason not to call the cops.

These are all also excellent points.

Maybe because he was already in a fairly safe residential neighborhood with people nearby who could hear him scream for help? It could have been well-lit for all we really know.

OK, maybe he should have snap-called 911 the instant he noticed he was being followed, but he didn't really have a lot of time to act and he was in a scary situation. It's also not clear what dialing 911 is going to do to help if you're about to be mugged or shot by a rando lunatic.

/agree

ill just put this here (NSFW audio)

I'm confused, kid was getting stalked by a tubby creeper and he chooses walking over running? Clearly the kid is not a Ron Paul supporter or he would have known he had the fleet-footed advantage and snap-ran. And then gone and knocked off a liqour store.

I'm sure all this was floating around in his mind. But we've seen what can happen if you don't take it seriously enough to call the cops so I'm not sure why some are still pooh-poohing the notion of calling. Worst case, nothing changes. Any better than worst case and it's helped. I don't believe this kid was doomed to die that night no matter what he did.

Sounds alot more like ****ing punks than ****ing coons. I make out a pretty distinct puh at the beginning of the word. Hard to make out anything until the s at the end.

Edit: Now I'm listening to another version and it does sounds like coons.

i cant hear anything besides coons. the puh you mention i cant hear, and the "oo" is distinct imo. listening to it repeated at about 2:45, + context is pretty conclusive

There's perfectly good context for either one. I do here the oo sound in the middle as well, but I still here the Puh at the beginning.

Who says "coons" these days? That's pretty archaic.

I thought that was a racial slur against white people?

I'd make such a lousy racists, I can't keep all this **** straight.

Yeah, obv if he didn't "be black" he'd probably still be alive, but them's the breaks.

Yeah, that was my first thought, too. It might still be popular in the south though.