Stuebenville High School Rape

[Greenday]

I agree that the majority of pro-Z camp are bigots, but it's unclear whether their racist, classist, or they just have an issue with "young punks."

Most of the people I've spoken in person about this that support Zimmerman just hate young punks. Something about him being a punk means he deserved to be shot or something.

[Duelist925]

Most of the people I've spoken in person about this that support Zimmerman just hate young punks. Something about him being a punk means he deserved to be shot or something.

From what I've managed to gather, Martins supposed crimes that resulted in his death were:

Being a punk
Being up to no good
Dressing suspiciously
Being disrespectful
Being black in a well off neighborhood (I wish I was kidding)
Being a "hood"
Being a teenage out after dark (Which may be related to him being a punk or hood)
Being a gang member (I remember when that was floating around..and discredited)
Looking "ratty"
Etc, etc.

[Sarah Valentine]

How does carrying a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles make him seem like he's "up to no good"?

[Nekojin]

From what I've managed to gather, Martins supposed crimes that resulted in his death were:

Being a punk
Being up to no good
Dressing suspiciously
Being disrespectful
Being black in a well off neighborhood (I wish I was kidding)
Being a "hood"
Being a teenage out after dark (Which may be related to him being a punk or hood)
Being a gang member (I remember when that was floating around..and discredited)
Looking "ratty"
Etc, etc.

The one that's usally trotted out that I see is that Zimmerman was justified in self-defense because Martin jumped him. But again, that gets back to relying on Zimmerman's word about how the encounter went down...

[Andara Bledin]

The tea and Skittles were in his pocket. Originally he was carrying and talking on his cell phone with the hood of his hoodie up. Just about the most typical behavior you can expect from a teenager walking while it's raining.

While Zimmerman was perfectly reasonable in his call to 911 to report a "suspicious person," every action he took subsequent to that was not only unnecessary and directly contrary to the instructions by the 911 operator, but it seems that he was intentionally looking to get into a fight with the kid. It's unlikely that he anticipated that he'd shoot him, but I would not at all be surprised to learn that he had a history of bullying people when he thought he could get away with it.

[crashhelmet]

How does carrying a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles make him seem like he's "up to no good"?

It's 2 of the ingredients to the street drug/cocktail "Purple Drank" aka "Lean." They're basically getting high/drunk off of cough syrup, but they use the Arizona iced tea and candy, like skittles, to sweeten the taste.

Just because he had it though, doesn't mean he was going to make it. A drink and candy are a way too common purchase combination at mini-markets.

[Greenday]

From what I heard, he also owned a gun and smoked weed regularly. Problem is, Martin didn't have the gun on him and smoking weed isn't a good enough reason to kill someone.