re: #26 Ming

The discussion about self-defense laws is interesting in itself, but it’s also a distraction from this tragic case.

The real problem is what Targetpractice says above. Until I heard about this case, the police would have been the last people in the world I would have expected to look the other way, when confronted with murder. The police didn’t even bother to run a background check on George Zimmerman before they let him go.

Until this week, if I heard the phrase “to protect and serve white people”, I would have considered it insane left-wing hyperbole. Now, as the tragedy of Trayvon pulls at my heartstrings, there’s also the nagging incredulity that for some police departments, apparently “to protect and serve white people” is not far from the truth.

I’m not African American. But neither am I a blue-eyed white Christian. This may be the first time in my entire life that I can relate, if only a little, to the feeling that there are many places in America that it’s not safe for me to visit.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that there are people who still think “Driving While Black” is a myth, made up by people trying to play the victim. I’m whitey white-bread, but I live in a highly mixed area, and I can attest that profiling is alive and well in this 21st century.