They have zero authority. Their entire role is to observe and report. The fact that this guy even had a gun at all is bad enough... but the fact that he called police and acted after he basically didn't approve of their answer of "wait for officers to arrive" should set off red flags for everyone reading this.
They have no power. At all. They are volunteers who choose to watch the area they live in and generally only report to the actual police anything they believe to be out of the ordinary.
Edit:Beat.
Holy shit.
So let me get this straight: this guy has no legal authority whatsoever to order anyone--the furthest extent that the law allows this guy do is to observe and report. And despite this:
1. He nonchalantly ignore the "suggestion" from the officers of the law, the party that actually have legal power to order, inquire, and arrest, and decide to engage Mr. Martin anyway? Even if he assume Mr. Martin is doing a suspicious activity (although I have no idea how just walking on your own neighborhood can constitute as "suspicious"), he basically
has no legal right to do what he did, correct?
2. The fact has been cleared that Mr. Zimmermen engaged Mr. Martin
first even though he has no business doing so from a legal standpoint, correct? And this while carrying a gun?
This when combined with the "
they always get away" strongly, strongly suggest that Mr. Zimmermen approached Mr. Martin with a hostile intent. Not necessarily hostile in a "I'm gonna shoot you" kind of way, but hostile in a "Hey you criminal scum" even though Mr. Martin did not do anything that might suggest him as a criminal other than... taking a walk in his own neighborhood.......???
So many red flags, so many WTF, and even after this event ended with a dead young man, Mr. Zimmermen is still allowed to enjoy full freedom?
That's really, really, really fucked up.