They chose to not do a lot of things which would be otherwise not just standard but required in a situation like this.

Family, or maybe friends. Anyone else who made that many 911 calls would get an "out to the woodshed" conversation with a police representative over abusing the emergency system. They'd have to have some pretty substantial reason to put up with him.

A few years ago I was thinking about that, and whether or not the police were covering things up for him because he was an officer himself. I started wondering why they would even do that, and why police officers seem to cover for each other in general, and then I realized: they probably know all sorts of things about each other that could get them arrested, and are likely held in check by a vast web of potential trouble.

...say they felt threatened or some crap and was acting in self defense and that's it.

They have a good chance of going free

But this is seriously a WTF moment. This goes beyond simply lacking competence. This is a complete lack of anything resembling common sense.

impounded the car and given Zimmerman drug/alcohol tests. Such a travesty.

The Sanford PD screwed up bigtime on this

Very possible it was deliberate because it was "just another dead black kid" to them.

f'kers.

The Man said the darkie threatened him. So that and that alone makes it gospel truth and ends the matter.

it would have been fully investigated. He is a civilian and he just walks away.

The white guy is always justified in killing the black guy mentality. It has happened thousands of times. The difference now is
social media. It is Facebook and Twitter etc. Ten years ago there would have been a one paragraph blip on a back page somewhere and that would have been that. Not so today. No matter whether you like Facebook or Twitter or not, you have to admit that word gets out no matter how fast the broom sweeps things under rugs.

What angers me the most is that this guy would have walked away free with no questions asked if the public hadn't spread this story.

witnesses said the cop that interviewed him kept interrupting him and bombarding him with leading questions.

All you have to do is not have any witnesses and look scared (and white).

Zimmerman was injured and his weapon was taken. These are partial reports from the officers that night: http://www.sanfordfl.gov/investigation/docs/Twin%20Lakes%20Shooting%20Initial%20Report.pdf

There is a serious absence of data out there and much of what you see here and elsewhere is conjecture. That said, given the totality of the circumstances, it looks like a crime to me.

As I said, there has been very few facts released in this case, and the media abhors a vacuum, especially with a story as salacious as this one.

with regard to a homicide that I've ever seen-and as a juvenile officer and case worker-I've seen a few.

There are so many sickening things gone wrong here No questions asked is very disturbing. The officer didn't bother to ask Zimmerman what he was doing with the gun and why he was stalking this kid...and so many more...

Sounds like it started with Zimmerman shoving Martin. Martin probably shoved back, knocking Zimmerman down and that's when Zimmerman shot him.Good grief....what a horrible, horrible tragedy--at the hands of "cop-wanna-be".

It's just heartbreaking...

The city is releasing information in dribbles and drabs, and it is infuriating. Get the facts out, its not like they are going to be buried at this point.