Trayvon Martin
So... the cops in Rednecksville, Florida have now leaked the info that Trayvon Martin (the skinny little teenager who was so scary in his hoodie that a Neighborhood Watch vigilante probably twice his size, with a record of racial profiling, and who used racist language on the 9-1-1 tapes, was "in fear for his life" and thus shot him dead) had been suspended from school for having in his possession a baggie with "traces" of pot.
Gimme a break... If THAT was cause for profiling a kid as "dangerous", then my brother and half his high-school classmates, not to mention the guy I dated in high school and half HIS peer group, would've been considered likely criminals and thus deserving of being shot dead had they ever scared a big, brawny, armed Neighborhood Watch patroller.
I'm disgusted that my state (Oregon) apparently has a law similar to the Florida "Stand your ground" law that permits killing someone rather than backing off from a bad situation (or, as Stephen Colbert put it tonight, instead of "he said/she said" it's "He said/HE's dead"). I'm disgusted that parents of black kids have to teach them how to be un-threatening when they're accosted by authority figures, because just BEING black is apparently all some people need to see THREAT in a kid walking home from the corner store after buying candy and a soft drink. I'm disgusted that it takes a MONTH for someone to start a REAL civil-rights investigation, when the local police department has a history of covering up white-on-black crimes (including some by sons of cops). I'm ashamed of our country FAILing so badly at giving a fair chance to its youth.
Gimme a break... If THAT was cause for profiling a kid as "dangerous", then my brother and half his high-school classmates, not to mention the guy I dated in high school and half HIS peer group, would've been considered likely criminals and thus deserving of being shot dead had they ever scared a big, brawny, armed Neighborhood Watch patroller.
I'm disgusted that my state (Oregon) apparently has a law similar to the Florida "Stand your ground" law that permits killing someone rather than backing off from a bad situation (or, as Stephen Colbert put it tonight, instead of "he said/she said" it's "He said/HE's dead"). I'm disgusted that parents of black kids have to teach them how to be un-threatening when they're accosted by authority figures, because just BEING black is apparently all some people need to see THREAT in a kid walking home from the corner store after buying candy and a soft drink. I'm disgusted that it takes a MONTH for someone to start a REAL civil-rights investigation, when the local police department has a history of covering up white-on-black crimes (including some by sons of cops). I'm ashamed of our country FAILing so badly at giving a fair chance to its youth.