On some level, yeah, I expected this verdict because the system is broken. Because the technicality of this dumb fucking law allows you to stalk and kill somebody so long as there are no witnesses. I can imagine someone who is a strict letter-of-the-law adherent, with no room for finesse or spirit of the law. I disagree vehemently with it, but I can imagine how someone could arrive to that conclusion. I can imagine a fearful, narrow-minded jury defaulting to innocence because it's one guys word versus literal dead silence.
What I cannot understand, under any fucking circumstance, is how this is somehow a verdict worth cheering for. Like, I don't understand you, I hope I never understand you, I hope your lack of empathy and basic humanity is your downfall some day. Even if you think the verdict should be not guilty, I don't know how you can see this as a victory. At best, it would be just a grim reality of the world we live in. Something to exhale over and move on. Not put on a smile and pump your first. Nah. Fuck you.
The only way that mentality can exist is if you see yourself on a "team" -- basically team Anti-black-teens. If you feel like your right to judge, hate, fear and despise young black men is under attack, then that's the only way you could feel a sense of victory. Hooray! You can continue being disgusting!
The lesson here is that in Florida, you can get away with murder so long as there are no witnesses, because then you control the narrative and can say whatever you want. Even when you created the situation. Even when you were wrong. Even when you admit to it.
These specific assholes like to say, "Well Trayvon shouldn't have swung back," or "Well here's a picture of Trayvon flipping off a camera." As if he's the one that's on trial, as if most 17 year olds aren't angry and flipping people off. They hold him -- the victim -- to a different standard than Zimmerman, the admitted murderer. They say Trayvon shouldn't have fought back, but they never say Zimmerman shouldn't have stalked him. They're willing to forgive Zimmerman's shortsighted decision, but they'll say Trayvon's led to his own death.
I can understand a person who disagrees. I can imagine that being an opinion. I don't imagine how you can pretend anyone "won" here. George Zimmerman is a free man, he gets his gun back, he gets as many guns as he wants and he's out on the street as a one-man vigilante. And our legal system says it's okay to be just like him.