"Zimmerman, from what little has actually been written about him - and very little of that little bit has been based on impressions of people who know him well - might be a bit quirky, but quite possibly no more quirky than many of us,"

I disagree with this Janie. Personally I suspect this person was in fact more than "a little quirky" in the same way that I see any person acting in an extreme fashion (I believe unprovoked killing of a stranger - in a culture which does not explicitly condone such actions - to be an extreme action) to be more than "a little quirky".

Where I do agree is that while others were not necessarily acting in such extreme fashion, they were complicit to a degree. There was clearly sufficient discreet societal (and local to that area) accordance with his views, to superficially 'normalise' this extreme lone action as is evidenced in the absence of legal action against this killer.

I think that the passing of the law discussed below, has no doubt provided a strong societally encouraging precedent to many individuals with potentially extreme tendencies, and the failure to publicly condemn this act, could eventually lead to an implicit social condoning of such actions whereby people who are indeed merely "a little quirky" could become murderers in cold blood.