Everyone and their mother is talking about the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and interpretations of the incident have message boards buzzing.

It is a tragedy that someone was shot and killed, we can all agree on that. But what else about this should be making people fly off the handle?

I’m right there with everyone in thinking this is not just a self-defense situation. Here are the facts as we know them:

George Zimmerman called the police to report a suspicious person. Zimmerman has made at least 46 emergency calls during the past six years, according to an article about Zimmerman in the Christian Science Monitor. The log from Zimmerman’s call on the evening in question said, “These [expletive] always get away,” which does seem to imply Zimmerman did not want to leave this up to the police.

The police informed Zimmerman not to follow the suspect, but Zimmerman did anyway. Zimmerman contends that he was on his way to his SUV after following Martin, when Martin attacked him. When police arrived, Zimmerman did have a bloody nose — Zimmerman’s lawyer claims the nose was broken — and blood on the back of his head.

It could be Zimmerman did not like the idea of a hooded kid walking through his neighborhood. It could be Zimmerman was racially motivated. It could be Zimmerman had what his mind saw as legitimate fear due to a series of recent crimes in his neighborhood and a want to keep his “community” safe.

Regardless of what his motivations were, Zimmerman is an imbecile for ignoring the police in order to play out some protector fantasy wherein he stalks the neighborhood with false authority under the guise of “neighborhood watch.”

Neighborhood watch over-vigilance is what should be ruffling your tailfeathers alongside the shooting incident resulting from fear of Skittles, a can of iced tea and a hoodie.

Why is it that some folks on neighborhood watch cannot be content with calling the police and letting fellow residents know of a threat, and instead have to take action into their own hands?

Be Zimmerman innocent of a racially motivated crime or not, Zimmerman is certainly an example of why folks that think being a protector of the peace need to restrict their safety measures to calling the authorities; monitoring their own home grounds; and alerting others through email, texts, tweets, phone or any other quick technological means. Following a “suspect” in your neighborhood is idiotic unless you intend to attack that person.

Think of it this way:

You see a shady interaction between a couple of hooded fellows near your home that you suppose are dangerous, otherwise you wouldn’t be worried. They head off down the road into the evening shadows.

Should you a.) alert the police and remain watchful from your home, or b.) aert the police and follow them into the shadows?

Hmm, let me think. Which route leads to greater safety? Oh wait, I forgot, some people think police don’t do their jobs — sometimes they don’t, and it is a pity, but still — and police not “doing their jobs” logically means regular citizens need to take action into their own hands.

Taking action into your own hands is already the activity of alerting the police and being a vigilant neighbor. Being a part of citizen-assisted safety does not mean “taking it to the streets” to cleanse the filth from the sanctity of your homefront. Folks that take the law into their own hands are vigilantes, and vigilantes’ actions rarely result in a situation better than when it was before they partake of criminal activity.

But taking the law into your own hands when you are free-wheeling enough to shoot some kid walking home will never be on an “OK list.” If Martin had been wandering through Zimmerman’s backyard or attempting to enter a neighbor’s house through an open window, validation to go outside to confront might be reasonable, but that still isn’t a good idea.

Zimmerman appears to have seen one too many movies and thought he should play secret agent and stalk some kid, despite already being so frustrated with anyone coming into his neighborhood that he would express so in his emergency call — a call he did not remotely heed.

If you know someone in your neighborhood that has a hankering to go above the law to keep your homes safe, talk to them. If they are a reasonable person, they will listen to reason and hopefully incidents like those involving Martin will be avoided. And if you have an uncompromising bastard with an urge to play Punisher, well, consider reporting them to the police as a person who is probably just as dangerous as any criminal element that might enter your home.

There is no happy ending to this story, as a person was killed. But maybe there will be a silver lining and, as a result of this tragedy, some folks carrying a piece will think twice before acting the cowboy.