Tuesday, July 09, 2019

When They Hate Us

A play on the title of the previous post in regards to a not funny situation. One of the things about trying to be fair and neutral about incidents that are claimed to be "racist" is that sometimes you have to find for the alleged racist. Whether I like a security guard approaching a black guy who ducks in "his" hotel to make a call or not, the security guard is there for a reason and is doing his job.

Whether I like having my large bills scanned six ways to Sunday by a store clerk or not, she's doing her job and if I had been passed a fake bill and passed that fake bill onto her and she failed to check it, she's fired. She's doing her job.

But then there are events that there are no "neutral" explanations. Running up on someone who is minding his business and killing him is one of them.

Police say a man accused of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old in the throat at an Arizona convenience store told them he felt threatened because the teen had been listening to rap music.
It wasn't the rap music. The largest consumers of rap music are white people. This was about race. Period.
Witnesses told police that the man, who's been identified as Michael Paul Adams, 27, walked up behind the teen, grabbed him and stabbed him in the neck, according to a probable cause statement obtained by CNN affiliate KPHO/KTVK.
So unlike the guy who shot at the kid who knocked on his door asking for directions or the one who shot other black people playing loud music at a gas station, he can't even claim some sort of self-defense. Because walking up behind your victim and stabbing him in the neck is in no way "self-defense".
He said Al-Amin didn't do anything threatening but that the youth had been listening to rap music in his car in the parking lot, according to the statement.

"Adams stated rap music makes him feel unsafe, because in the past he has been attacked by people (Blacks, Hispanics, and Native American) who listen to rap music. Adams further stated, people who listen to rap music are a threat to him and the community," the report said.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this person is not all that stable. Still, it stands as a warning to always be aware of your surroundings.

Now as a link to the previous "When They See Us" post; isn't it a shame when people who are minding their own business, running, biking, walking, going to to store, get assaulted and/or killed by random people? Isn't it a SHAME? It is. That's why you can't be all "Central Park Five!" on the one hand and "this racist piece of sh*t" on the other. Random violence against people is wrong. Period.