Janie is right about mob mentality, though fortunately it hasn't reached that level in this case.

Like many newsworthy events, this one is being turned into melodrama before we know all the facts. Zimmerman is assumed to be a racist out to shoot a young black man for the hell of it. Then the racist white cops cover it up.

From what I've read, evidence for that interpretation exists, but it's shaky.

Just as a possibility (neither likely nor unlikely), what about this?

Z. wants to be a hero. He knows there have been a number of burglaries in the *gated* community. "Gated" is important because it means that there's only one way in and out and that any strange "youth" seen walking there at night will attract attention. (Did Martin go through a wide open gate thinking he was taking a shortcut home? We'll never know.)

Z. sees Martin, calls the cops. He follows Martin, gets out of his car, and challenges him. Martin, a 17-year-old football player, stands up for himself: Z. is obviously not a cop, maybe he's a mugger. Z. gets in M.'s face, M. shoves him, maybe hard. Z. gets scared, still wants to be a crime-busting hero, pulls his gun. Maybe M. tries to take it away. Z. shoots M.

When the cops arrive, Z. tells him he thought M. was a burglar. He says M. attacked him and he shot in self-defense.

For whatever reason, the cops decide that the "stand-your-ground" law protects Z. Maybe they're racists, maybe they're stupid, maybe they're lazy, maybe all of the above. Who knows? But they make that decision.

The only thing I'm convinced of is that Z. should have been arrested (Charges could have been dropped later if that's what the facts warranted.) And obviously there should have been a fuller investigation. Did the police interview the women who claimed on CNN that they saw Z. pinning M. to the ground? (BTW, any defense lawyer would ask how they could be certain who was pinning who? It was dark. It was far away. If they were so sure at the time, why did they wait three weeks to tell their story? Etc., etc.)

The police bungled a serious local incident. They should have expected the outcry. Maybe Z. should go to jail for a long time. Maybe not. Maybe under Florida law he really is "blameless." Let's see what the U.S. Department of Justice investigation has to say.