Regardless of Trayvon's shortcomings, failures and mishaps, whether they are true or not is beside the point. He should not have been shot, particularly when the police were alerted of his 'shifty behaviour' and had specifically told Zimmerman "We don't need you to follow him." If Zimmerman had listened to what the police told him, the situation would not have ended in this tragic way. The sad thing is, this happened in February and was obviously being tried to be pushed under the carpet. If it wasn't for the media, or senior figures standing up against it, it wouldn't get as much international attention. This has helped bring issues to light. This could have been a racist attack, but it equally might not have been. I don't know Zimmerman's thoughts and I don't know him personally, and for this reason, I cannot judge him. One thing is that Trayvon's life should not have been taken. The racism claims are becoming a distraction and the main thing the police need to figure out is what happened, but parts of Zimmerman's story are not quite adding up, and he's looking increasingly in the wrong, so there is no question in my mind that Zimmerman is guilty in this situation. The truth of the matter is, if a black person had killed a white person, it is unlikely that he would be walking as free as Zimmerman is, and that is the issue here. It's the same harm done, a life has been lost and the treatment of the individuals involved should be equal. That's my issue, not whether Zimmerman is racist or not. That's the small picture. RIP Trayvon, regardless of what you did, you did not deserve to die in this way.
In response to the interesting conversation on Page 3, yes, there is a problem with black people playing the race card, but sometimes, it is applicable. It's just become so overused that people have stopped listening and taking it seriously. It is indeed racist when a black person picks on a white person because of their race, or any other race picks on another one purely because they are of a different race, and that needs to be punished equally too. There's a case of some Somalian women who were drunk and beat up a white woman because she was white and they got let off because they "Weren't used to alcohol" because of their religion. I think that is absolutely ludicrous and things like that make people not take the race card so seriously. Either way, it shouldn't be abused so much because when it's such a serious thing, so that needs to be tackled too.