Black Barry, and Racialgate(s)

I knew it couldn't last, I knew that at some point the president of these divided states would have to let his guard down. It happened last night in front of a stunned white nation. Did you see that? Obama is taking sides with that black man. He is against the police. How could that be? He is the president of all the people. And to think, I voted for this guy. Don't worry white A-merry-ca, he will be back to being your president soon. It's just that he is a little pissed right now . He still can't believe that you would arrest one of his "talented tenth" buddies from Haaawvaaard.

Hey, at the end of the day, you can never run from yourself and your experiences. You can only put on an act and play pretend for so long. Maybe it's because his numbers are tanking and he figures that these folks are going to turn on him anyway. Maybe he figures that it's time to throw the people who will stay with him no matter what a bone. Whatever the reason, Barry Obama became black Barry last night.

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,"... "But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."

Whaaaat? Is that the post racial president waxing poetic about race? I guess old racism got away from the secret service and is chasing the president's ass now. Boy I tell you, my man racism is a trip. He just won't quit.

Still, white folks are digging in this time: There was no racism here, and how dare president Obama imply that there was. If there was racism in A-merry-ca could he be where he is occupying the people's house? Officer Crowley is leading the charge, and he will be dammed if he apologizes to that uppity Negro. Rush says that the white man is "under assault" for crying out loud!

"'There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Sgt. Crowley will not be apologizing,' Sgt. James Crowley told NewsCenter 5."

Nice. My man refers to himself in the third person now. But honestly, if I were Crowley, I wouldn't apologize, either. Hell if he admits that he made a bone headed arrest of an old black man, he might lose his gig teaching racial profiling to law enforcement recruits......wait, did I just write that? Crowley TEACHES CLASSES ON RACIAL PROFILING? Okay, I am going to have to wipe down my computer keys because of all the irony that's dripping on them. I mean come on now, isn't this guy teaching classes on racial profiling kind of like O.J. teaching classes on spousal abuse? I am just saying.

Oh well, at least for a moment there the black president was black again. Of course we knew it wouldn't last. This was a very unusual incident where racism went after a friend of the most powerful man on earth. I am sure my man will be more careful next time. It will be some old man in Louisiana, or any black person in the country of Texas.

Poor Bernard Monroe, if he had only gone to Harvard.

Sorry Negro, you look like just another drug dealer to me.

Hi, it's me,field, your friendly "racism chaser", and I have another story for you:

Terrence Jones is a retired Philadelphia police officer. He was on the force for 11 years until he got a job related injury and decided to settle down in a beautiful South Jersey McMansion with his family. Life was good for Terrence Jones until the night of February 4, 2007. That's the night he met Patrolman Michael Schaeffer. The Patrolman pulled Jones over and asked him why he was exiting an industrial park. He then proceeded to ask Mr. Jones if he had been drinking and if he would allow a vehicle search. Jones told the Patrolman that he never drinks and refused to allow the search of his Lincoln Navigator. (Come on field, he was asking to be stopped. Why don't you black people drive simple cars?) The Patrolman, undaunted, ordered Jones out of his vehicle, frisked him, and then leaned into the vehicle to look around. To top it off, he did a sobriety test after not smelling liquor on Jone's breath and justified it by telling someone on his police radio that Mr. Jones is "just shady".

Now if you think all of that was outrageous; wait, it gets better: Mr. Jones had the nerve to be outraged at the treatment he received at the hands of one of South Jersey's finest, so he did what any angry citizen would do: he wrote a letter to the Police Chief of the township where he was harassed for DWB. What do you think happened? Well, the police chief claimed that he never got the letter, and finally, after Mr. Jones called him, he decided that he he would pick up a copy of the letter from Mr. Jone's home. Of course he never questioned or disciplined the officer involved, and he passed the complaint on to a county investigator.

Fast forward to July of the same year, and to his horror, Mr. Jones found himself looking at 18 months in jail after a grand jury indicted him for filing a false police report. Yep, a false police report! Do you believe that shit? Of course you do, it's why you are reading this blog.

Anyway, fortunately for Mr. Jones, his story had a happy ending. Happy being a relative term, of course.

"Visibly angered, Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen Jackson had called the case 'chilling' when she found him not guilty. It was over; and Jones sobbed in relief."

"A lot of people came up to me afterward and said they,too, had been stopped for driving while black..they felt nothing would be done if they complained and they didn't want to become a target."

Well, they might as well complain, because they are targets. Not complaining and letting bullshit like this slide will only make a bad situation worse. DWB is bad enough as it is. If we don't call enough attention to these racist cowboys they will think that they can get away with the things they did to folks like Ryan Moats in Dallas (who, by the way, accepted the ignorant officer's apology, just like I told you he would) and Terrence Jones in South Jersey.

Terrence Jones and Ryan Moats were lucky, there were police cameras to video tape what happened to them as they drove while black. Quite a few folks have not been so lucky.

"Jones believed the tape saved him. 'It would have been my word against the police officers', he said. 'I might have been doing 18 months in jail."

Or worse Mr. Jones, you might have been dead.

Full story here: