@hawkeye10,
Quote:police chiefs dont have the power to prevent citizens from exercising their rights, the most they can do is discourage it.
They can prevent them from doing things and then claiming they were doing it as a member of the neighborhood watch, or claiming they were justified in doing certain actions as a member of a neighborhood watch.
Zimmerman didn't say he was acting as a private citizen when he stalked Martin--part of his defense was that he was "helping" the police, as part of his neighborhood watch duties--he was being "a good citizen".
It was Zimmerman's claim of being a member of the neighborhood watch that gave any legitimacy, at all, to his pursuing Martin, or even his call to the police about him. Had there been no connection to neighborhood watch, his designating someone, who had not committed any crimes, as "a suspect", and then pursuing "his suspect" through his darkened private community, would not have been viewed as benevolently.
What he did was not a duty of a neighborhood watch volunteer, it was against the rules at the time he did it, and what he did that night, by stalking Martin, were the actions of a vigilante. The "good citizen" claim is nonsense, he was being a vigilante, and if the issue of his being on a neighborhood watch never came up, he clearly would have been seen as a self-appointed vigilante by everyone.
The Police Chief clearly is going to make sure that vigilantes don't have the "neighborhood watch excuse" to hide behind again.
A Police Chief can't stop people from committing crimes, like murder, either, the most they can do is discourage it, or arrest them after the fact.
Obviously, the Police Chief doesn't think it's a good idea for any private citizen to take it upon themselves to label someone, who they have not witnessed committing any crime, "a suspect", and then go on to play wannabe cop and trail/stalk their "suspect" in the dark--that's their job.
