Why do you say this? Do you think he looked like a stereotypical "thug" which would drive fear into White America?
I would think the value of more accurate/recent information would be evident. We want the most accurate picture of this event possible, right?
Maybe the point isn't to drum up fear in "white America" maybe it's to get the truth out for it's own sake, and maybe just maybe help people understand that Zimmerman's initial suspicions were not completely unfathomable.
If people start to realize that his initial reaction to seeing this stranger walking around was more logical than they initially believed, and helps reduce his demonization, that can only be a good thing if we're actually hoping to get at the truth here, rather than just have a lynching.
I don't think anyone is claiming that dressing like a gangsta, getting gold grills in your teeth, being a petty thief and delinquent at school, vandalism, certain types of attire or ways of carrying yourself to look "hard" to your fellow teens who are all doing it too, that any of this justifies being shot.
No, obviously in this free country Trayvon had every right to dress that way, act that way, etc. I think his criminal choices are unfortunate, but I've had friends who did that sort of thing and they were still good people for the most part.
No, the choice he made which changes everything was the choice to brutally assault Zimmerman. If Zimmerman's account is accurate (and it certainly seems to fit the evidence and eyewitness testimony) then the crucial moment where Trayvon took the embracing of thug culture too far was when he decked Zimmerman and then straddled him and started slamming his head on the pavement.
In my ideal world even then he would not be shot, I don't like it when people die, period. I would've much, much preferred the cops show up, wrestle him off Z, and drag him off to jail that night. Following that, he has a real wake up call where his parents give him the "come to Jesus" speech and he ends up forsaking the criminal path he was on, and becoming a fantastic member of society from that point forward. That would've been great.
But I can't really fault Zimmerman for fearing for his life, maybe all he was going to get was a bad beating but, the law is pretty clear on his right to use that gun at that point. I'm not really much of a fan of guns, never owned one myself. I think it's extremely unlikely that Trayvon was going to keep at this until Zimmerman was dead, and so I largely wish the gun hadn't been there.
But I definitely don't think Zimmerman is a monster. This is a tragedy, but as with most tragedies there is no real villain.