Following is not the same thing as a confrontation.There was 4 minutes between when Zimmerman lost sight of Trayvon and when the altercation occured according to the dispatch call. During this time (and right before the attack), Zimmerman told the dispatcher he was heading back to his truck to meet police. It sounds like Trayvon confronted Martin for following him earlier, and the fight ensued. From the physical evidence, it appears that Trayvon was the only one doing any punching. Are you saying it's impossible in that 4 minutes for Trayvon to have hidden and/or started following Zimmerman instead? Since he attacked Z after this 4 minute window, we can assume reasonably that his intent in hiding during that 4 minutes was to wait for a time to confront and attack Z, not to get home safely or go for help (which he could have done in that time). If he was pissed off enough to beat Z's head into the concrete (which was corroborated by physical evidence and eyewitness testimony by the way), is there no way that he was also pissed off enough to be the one to start the confrontation?

Following someone during the night time would antagonize most normal people.

Who the hell are you? Why are you following me around? What do you want? Are you some weirdo?

I would have to think that's the normal thought process that goes through someone's mind.

Don't do this people. It's stupid and you're going to get yourself into a bad situation. Leave real police work to real police officers and leave the hero complex at home.

No one cares that your mommy didn't hug you enough when you were little or Nancy Stevenson said no to you when you asked her out to prom. People who have hero complexes like this are often trying to compensate for their own insecurities, but they can't handle a situation when it gets out of control. Zimmerman probably pissed his pants (figuratively) when he was rushed by a 17-year-old kid.

Cops are trained and easily identifiable in this situation for a reason.

Its not about Zimmerman "sucking" at it. That dude was fit. I dont believe he fought Trayvon back anyways so him "sucking" doesn't have anything to do with it.

 Okay... then if he didn't fight trayvon why does it matter if he took classes?

I've grabbed and took people down PLENTY of times and i never got any bruses or ripped clothes. Evidence for "grabbing/holding" somebody? Lol

 Yes, its reasonable to expect that if a Zimmerman tried to restrain Trayvon like you said (even though he has never tried to before with anyone else and had no reason to with Trayvon) then there should be signs of a scuffly on trayvon as well. A bruise? A scratch? A torn hoodie? Anything? But there was no sign of that

And Jeantels testimony DOES support that speculation. Jeantel heard the scuffle as it broke out. She said Trayvon was running( which he shouldn't have did) and she told him to keep running because he stopped and didn't want to run anymore being that he thought he lost Zimmerman and he was close by his house. Then Trayvon says out of knowhere "oh shit! The nigga is behind me!" So Trayvon eventually says "what are you following me for" and Zimmerman responds "What are you doing around here?" Then hears a bump from the micas if another body came up against his body(like somebody grabbed him). Then she hears Trayvon constantly saying "get off! Get off!" 

Thats all good and dandy except she heard "What are you talking about" from Zimmerman... oh wait.. she changed it to the more menacing version. Also, she didn't tell the cops any of this. Also, the story doesn't make sense since according to both Zimmerman and Jeantel Trayvon lost Zimmerman and had enough time to get back to the house.

Some think she's lying about that part though. She was agonizingly hard to understand because she supposedly said tge phone cut off after the 1st bump. You cant really tell if she thought the phone cut off but it didn't because of the bump or if it just cut off according to her.

Zimmerman also had to have eventually wanted to confront him for him to call the police and to get out of his car to look for him telling the police to call him back when thet got there

 there is a complete difference between confronting and following. Zimmerman could have confronted before calling the cops. And if he wanted to confront Trayvon this would make the most sense. Have you ever noticed someone from a distance? Maybe someone you found attractive and you let it be known to your friends that you thought that person was hot? Then they said "go talk to her" How many people then chicken out? A shit load. You know why? Confronting someone is a whole nother beast.

And again, my speculatiinspeculation is supportefsupported by evidence..

no it isnt.

The only way to interpret it is the silliest way possible. It's just that silly of a thing to say.

I think we all know phrases can have different meaning and "you got me" can be taken various ways, but there's really only one way to take "you got me" directly after being shot. Your interpretation makes sense when the alleged fight started or was going on. It makes absolutely no sense after Zimmerman got his ass kicked and brought his gun out in a fist fight. Just use a little common sense is all.

And again, as I told the other guy, Zimmerman changed his tune anyway. He agrees with me. Not going to bicker with you guys about it anymore.

No I think the media is manipulating you, her husband did in fact threatened to kill her. He testified doing so, albeit saying that he didn't mean it, nevertheless he threatened her. And if she felt threatened then. Stand your ground, shoot the fucker even if you brought it on yourself you are right. Ask Zimmerman, he knows.

I don't think it was a sense of morals like that. You mean to tell me that if you saw someone following you in a car at night adn you ran away adn they STILL followed you got out of the car to find you, then found you and approached you that you would be fine with it and feel safe? With EVERYTHING going on in the world, people killing strangers, robbing them, rapping them, kidnapping them you would just be like oh it's nothing?

I know you are a VERY sensible poster on here but come on man that isn't assault from someone just following you it is you feel you are in danger. Also considering the fact that Zimmerman SUPPOSEDLY grabbed him.

There are WAY to many holes in teh case that is why he got off and the prosecution did not fight hard enough.

Lastly to the person who put a pic of Trayvon up...there is a 13yr old in my church who is 6'3 a good 220 or 230? Does that make him a man? No he is STILL a child. Trayvon was a young adult not a child I can admit I was wrong about that. But again this case is just weird in general and a tragedy and should be left at that.

See there again is the issue that is according to Zimmerman(seeing as he is the only one around to tell his story and match it to the eveidence), there is no evidence that he landed a punch not that he didn't throw any. And I may have missed it but did they say Trayvon had any blood on him that belonged to Zimmerman? I mean if he was pucnhing him and slamming his head like that with Zimmerman bleeding from the head I can't see there being none of his blood on him(I missed that part of the case so I am unsure on it). Again itis nothing but here say because there is no one other than Zimmerman to argue another side realy...which is sad.

And to put it bluntly I agree with Soundwave the verdict was indeed correct according to the law and the evidence. But Zimmerman was indeed the root cause of the incident by doing the things that he did(albeit those things were not "illegal")

"you are in danger". No, he didn't feel that way. Witness accounts don't support that. You do not know how young men tend to be very confident and have attitude problems and being very protective of their integrity, manhood and pride? I have no diffuclty imagining this young man was easily provoked just like millions of other young steroid filled young men are. He realized this older man was following him and while walking for a couple of minutes he started to feel increasingly offended and got angrier and angrier until it boiled over.

If there are several people in this very thread alone thinking Zimmerman did something morally very wrong by following the young man and acting like a wannabe cop, then why wouldn't the young man feel the same thing and decide he would teach him a lesson? There are several people in this thread who argue it would have been right and perfectly understandable if Trevyon attacked Zimmerman for stalking him.

I do think it's plausible that Zimmerman physically grabbed his jacket though. I can imagine that from a wanna-be cop who thinks he is on to something, who thinks he is about to catch a burglar. But, we don't have any evidence of that, and on the other hand Zimmermans testimony when he is re-enacting the crime scene he gives a very believable and genuine impression.

Sure, but what about the 4 minutes during which Trayvon was unaccounted for? He could have easily gone home but instead chose to wait, then confront and jump Zimmerman (at least that's what testimony and evidence suggests). Beating sombody's head into the ground when you could have gone home is just as stupid as following somebody in the dark. I'm not saying anybody was right in this, but they both did things that were stupid.