No, I readily admit mine are assumptions.There is not a shred of evidence that supports your use of "vigilante" as a pejorative, but your choice to use it as such does serve to expose your ignorant, prejudiced mindset. "Innocent until proven guilty" is the maxim, Old-T -- not vice versa as you would have it.
I find it part humorous and part disturbing that most the others on here--on both sides of the issue--refuse to acknowledge that their "firmly held beliefs" are really just assumptions. It's all about the state of mind of the two people, and that is inherently speculative. I'll just point to the Zimmerman injury photos: those who say, "Look! he was beaten within an inch of his life, no wonder he was fearful." are speculating. Those who say "There's nothing more than a scratch there." are speculating. The same with whether Martin thought Zimmerman had a gun, and certainly your assumption that Martin would have fled if he thought there was a gun. In one moment you want Martin to be a dumb testosterone filled punk, but a few seconds later you want him to be a cold, calculating, cowardly bully. Tell me, what do you make of all the contradictions in Z's words? Scared, frightened man? Why not dumb but lying vigilante? As I said, you see the evidence only from how it supports your predetermined verdict. So does almost everyone else. Originally Posted by Old-T