I'll have the Race Card with a Side of Hypocrisy, Please

Originally posted on 08/08/06

I am so not going to make any friends with this one.

Last night a 14 year old boy was shot by police near the Cabrini-Green housing complex on the Near North Side of Chicago. The boy and a friend were identified as the perpetrators of an armed robbery. According to the police when they ordered the boy to but his hands in the air the boy pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at police. At which point the police opened fire critically injuring the boy. Some witnesses say that the boy was leaning over to lay the gun on the ground.

Now I'm not a big fan of the police in general. Of all the cops I have met in my life I think I have met maybe two that weren’t total putzes. Now maybe this is due to my bad luck, but there you are. Despite my distaste for cops, if I were to pull a gun on them, especially in a bad neighborhood, and they shot me, good on them! Pointing anything even remotely gun shaped at a cop is a dumb idea no matter who you are. If you do this, you are too stupid to live!

If the witnesses are correct and the cops are lying, what a shock that would be, the cops are still not at fault. If a cop stops you and you pull a gun out of your pocket, odds are better than average that you will get shot. If a cop stops you and you have a weapon in your pocket, you do not reach for it, you tell the cop that there is a weapon in your pocket and do what he or she tells you to do. A cop who sees a gun in the hand of a suspect has only a split second to asses the threat and act. If I were a cop and saw a weapon moving in my general direction, I am going to err on the side of you being dead and me being alive. Not that that is a good choice, but sometimes that is the only choice.

I am actually amazed that they even hit the kid. Cops are notoriously bad shots. It is like they all went to the Stormtrooper School of shooting. Like that cop who emptied his gun at a suburban mini-van at point blank range... and missed. Missed with all his shots! You've gotta feel really "special" after doing something like that.

Now the race card comes into play when a community member had this to say:

"Another black man has been shot down by the police," said Fred Hampton Jr. "Excessive force is putting it mildly. Our babies aren't even immune to this."

Wait! What?!?! This is a case of someone doing something stupid and getting shot as a result of it. This is not a case of "Hey, there's a black guy! Let's shoot him!" I'm not saying that this doesn't happen; I'm just saying that that doesn't seem to be the case here.

This guy seems to be an opportunist, nothing more and nothing less. Why else would he refer to the boy as a man (i.e.; someone who should be able to face the consequences of his actions) and in the same breath, refer to the boy as a baby (i.e.; someone who is defenseless and needs to be protected)? This is a case of crying wolf.

People like this make it harder on people who are victims of actual racism. Everyone is so used to it being thrown around that it has lost its impact. It has gotten to the point that when I hear someone crying racism, I am very skeptical at best.

I appear white, blindingly so. What do you think would happen if I pulled a gun on a cop? Would he or she laugh it off, pat me on the head and tell me to be a good little white boy? No, he or she would empty his gun into my dumb ass because he or she would have no way to know if I am going to shoot them or show them my nifty juggling routine. He or she would make the only real choice available.

Green is the only color that matters in this country anymore. It has been that way for a little while now and it will most likely continue to be so for a while longer.

Now here's where the hypocrisy comes in. If it was me who was shot, would this guy be crying over me? Most likely not, because I am not black. Now tell me again, how is that not racist? It is not only racism when a white person discriminates against a black person. It is still racism when a black person discriminates against a white person.

Now be for anyone says that I don't understand because I am white. I assure you that I have been discriminated against at times. I even got the crap kicked out of me and my nose broken by some black adults when I was a child, simply because I didn't have the right pigment in my skin.

Does this mean that I now think that all black folks are racist? No, of cause not, just the few nimrods who have acted against me. And not all white people are racist either. Saying that they are simply destroys one's credibility and hurts the actual victims of racism.

Here is the article that got me going:

http://www.nbc5.com/news/9644162/detail.html

Rant over... for now