Quote: (03-24-2012 07:31 AM)joehoya Wrote:
Quote: (03-24-2012 07:02 AM)Pilgrim37 Wrote:
No doubt a tragic case,and the guy should be arrested but what about the right for two guys to walk home after a drink without getting shot...where were the rallies and protests at those innocents?
Non existent!
We all have prejudice it seems,doesn't matter what colour...acting before knowing the full facts seems to be a habit too!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...orida.html
The distinction between the case you linked to and this one is important. In fact, it highlights why people are so angry about this crime. In the case you mentioned the assailant WAS ARRESTED AND IS CURRENTLY ON TRIAL FOR MURDER. The police made AGGRESSIVE efforts to find and arrest the person guilty of that crime.
Now, what if in the story you linked to, the assailant was questioned, told the police that he was just defending himself when he shot those two tourists because he thought they were going to rob him, and the police ACCEPTED HIS CLAIMS AND DID NOT ARREST HIM? That sounds absurd, doesn't it?
THIS IS THE ISSUE. It is not just the fact that some trigger happy fool shoots a 17 year old kid. That shit happens. It is that the police accepted his claim of self defense at face value and made no attempts to do a more thorough investigation.
Underlying the whole investigation is the direct implication that it is reasonable for a 240lb man to stalk an unarmed 140lb black teenager in a hoodie confront him, then SHOOT HIM, because he was "in fear for his life".
The fact that the police so readily accepted his claims is the most appalling part of this story. I am absolutely certain that if the family had not pressed the issue and alerted the media the police would have just written this off as another accidental, yet JUSTIFIABLE shooting.
This is a protest about the SYSTEM. There are always going to be hotheads (whether they are racists or not) who are going to act irrationally and shoot innocent people. However, when the system PROTECTS those hotheads it validates those behaviors.
Well argued.
But,I didn't want to draw a parallel with this particular case.
The case obviously needs to be investigated and it's ridiculous they've taken this guy at his word.
I just meant that it seems strange to me that the "black community" aren't screamin' and hollerin' and calling for changes when so many of their young guys are involved in perpetrating these crimes, not just when they're innocent victims of them.
If that happened ,maybe there would be a lot less black street crime and maybe the reputation for being involved in it would go down, and not every idiot wannabe cop/soldier with a gun and an inferiority complex would immediately conclude a young black kid walking round a nice neighborhood is up to no good.
These kind of incidents will continue as long as young black guys are saddled with the "street" label...but a lot of them are their own worst enemy when it comes to what they get up to....they help reinforce the wider stereotype about them.
And that's just sad,considering how difficult life can be in the first place!
Oh,and don't get me started on Florida's ,and the USA's gun laws in general!Want to stop so many shootings...get rid of so many guns!
I'm digging a hole for myself here so I'll stop!