I'm surprised so much of this thread has been devoted to the appearances of Zimmerman and Martin. How is that at all relevant to the fact that Martin was pursued by Zimmerman when the police told Zimmerman to back off and then Martin was shot dead by Zimmerman?

This discussion about Martin's weight, his clothing and the fact that he flipped the bird in photographs has nothing to do with whether or not he was such a threat to the man who was pursuing him that night that he needed to be shot dead to be stopped.

We do not know that Martin was attacking Zimmerman beyond what Zimmerman has said. Witnesses who have stated that they saw one on top of the other and beating going on couldn't tell who was on top of whom.

Additionally, I would guess that the vast majority of youth who wear their pants 3" below their boxer waistbands never have to pull them up when they're running from the police because they are never running from the police. And probably most suspects running from the police are wearing their pants at a height where they don't need to pull them up while they are trying to outrun the police.

There seems to be a lot of stereotyping going on in this thread. I don't get it. The reality is that a seventeen year old boy coming home from a convenience store got shot dead when a man who was told to back off pursued him. I think it's a tragedy and I can't understand why anyone would try to disparage the reputation of a dead boy regardless of whether or not they believed him to be murdered.