“Rather, Zimmerman followed Martin, even after being told not to do so”
That is a false statement.
Here is what the dispatcher said:
Dispatcher: Are you following him?
Zimmerman: Yeah
Dispatcher: Ok, we don’t need you to do that.
That is a *long* way from the dispatcher telling him not to do it. Zimmerman had as much right to be in that public space as Martin did.
Listen to the tape - it’s pretty clear that the 911 operator did not want Zimmerman following Martin. “We don’t need you to do that” is a pretty weak way of saying it, but 911 operators are trained to *not* be confrontational. It’s basically customer-service speak for “don’t do that”