Posted on 07/19/2013 7:06:35 AM PDT by dirtboy
Years ago, I lived and worked in a suburban township adjacent to Philadelphia. I had a black co-worker who was a systems professional. Ill call him Mike.
Around the corner from our office was a deli/pizza joint that sold slices and we would often go there for lunch or a snack. One day, Mike had gotten a slice and was just leaving the deli when it started to rain. Being a rational man, Mike broke into a run and got back to the office before he and his slice got soaked.
Right behind him were two cops who barged into the office and asked Whats up, Marcus? Why are you running away from us? This interrogation continued for a couple of minutes before the owner came out of his office and reamed the cops a new one for harassing one of his employees who wasn't even named Marcus.
This is an example of the kind of bad racial profiling that rightly raises the hackles of black middle-class Americans. Mike had a perfectly good reason to be running it was raining. The cops saw a black man running and did not factor in that his running was not grounds for suspicion under the circumstances.
Heck, the other day I got caught out in a thunderstorm a block away from my house and ran that last block (or what passes for running at my age). No one thought that suspicious.
And it was not an isolated incident, another black co-worker of mine was harassed by the same township's local cops when he was walking back to his car after playing basketball. The man had a completely professional appearance and nothing about him gave an impression of a potential criminal - other than, apparently, his skin color. I do agree that there are cases such as these where black Americans have legitimate grievances with profiling - but that does not mean all profiling is without merit.
Such as another, more recent profile, namely Zimmermans profile of Trayvon Martin.
From the 9-11 call transcript:
Zimmerman: Hey we've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy, uh, [near] Retreat View Circle, um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.
Rather than running or at least walking briskly and directly to get out of the rain, like my former co-worker had done, the person was just walking about and looking around.
It was only later that Zimmerman was able to determine the persons race.
So in other words, Martin first drew Zimmermans attention because of how he was acting under the circumstances, not because of his race.
In the case of my former co-worker, he was acting rationally in response to being caught out in the rain. In the case of Martin, he was not. That is what precipitated the eventual conflict. Not racism on the part of Zimmerman.
And there is ample evidence to bolster Zimmermans account. Trayvon had been suspended for possessing womens jewelry and a screwdriver in his backpack at school. He also was carrying two ingredients to make lean, a potent high that he had discussed on social media.
In other words, Zimmermans belief that Martin may have been casing homes to burglarize was in-line with Travyons recent actions.
Black Americans trying to claim Zimmerman hunted down and shot Trayvon because he was black need to realize that sometimes the profile fits, and they need to get all of the facts of this case, not just those spoon-fed to them by the left-wing media and race hustlers seeking face time on TV.
I hope you weren’t in Chester.
No, this was a well-off township.
I’ve argued with several liberals about the Z case that I understand their frustration, but the chose the wrong case to make their point.
It made them, at the end of the day, look stupid and irrational.
Z was profiling BEHAVIOR, a logical thing to do after a string of burglaries.
Good post.
But, you know, the supporters of Trayvon have studiously avoided ALL of the known facts. You can approach the Zimmerman matter in a great number of ways and all of those ways point to Zimmerman’s innocence, Taryvon’s bad decision-making, and a justifiable shoot. The facts are in, and the matter is extemely cut-and-dried.
But the Trayvon supporters don’t care and will not look at any of that. A black guy got shot. It’s must be racism. Punish the guy who isn’t black. That’s it.
Okay. Well, you make a decent point with your story. Although you know that the small percentage of Black males committing crimes is ridiculously high. Something like 3% of the population committing almost 50% of all violent crimes.
Isn't that what Zimmerman proceeded to do once he was off the phone? He got out of his car and followed on foot? So how hard was it raining really?
The Saint Skittles saga is an "under the radar" gun control propaganda operation being run out of the Department of Justus.
The minute the story hit the news Eric Holder sent a team of DOJ community agitators to Sanford to soften the place up.
Nobody cares about the truth here. This is an Alinsyite political operation from start to finish.
Bump that. Look at this despicable graphic that Stephanapoulos is still using(!) ...
I would argue this one is just as fair and balanced ... wouldn't you Georgy?
He had a reason to be doing that. He was following someone acting suspiciously.
They need to honestly answer one simple question: If Z was "hunting", why is it that his firearm was only drawn when he was in danger of being killed or crippled? I'd have had mine out as soon as the thug reappeared.
What difference does it make, Hillary?
Do you seriously believe that people who don’t run in the rain are acting suspicious or are you just trolling?
The only relevant fact for the trayvonettes is that st. tray was black and GZ was white. Nothing else matters to them. (Except the bounty on GZ by the nbpp. Uh, is that equivalent to trying to hire a hit man?)
....but no. It's all the Republicans' fault.
The numbers don't lie. In literally every election going back decades, Blacks vote for their liberal slavemasters upwards of 90% every time. Blacks blame all of their misfortunes on Republicans. Oh, and, one other thing:
American Blacks are among the most racist people on planet Earth. I say that with confidence and experience. I've been to many countries over the years.
Most people caught out in the rain without an umbrella are not lollygagging.
So, in a sense, Trayvon got killed because he didn’t have sense enough to get in out of the rain.
My daughter lives in Chester Springs. That’s a very nice area.
I’m betting that if the crime statistics were less disproportional
this “profiling” would cease, because it wouldn’t make sense.
As things are, “profiling” is just common sense.
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