Cobra, you are correct that cases of true police brutality need to be brought to the light and prosecuted so that our defenders do not get a bad name and civil rights are upheld. However, there are those that seek to make criminal rights paramount to innocent citizen’s rights. They use isolated cases to further their cause. These individuals are a security risk and can not be indulged or tolerated. When the costs of frivolous lawsuits are put back on the money grubbing, attention seeking plaintiffs, then I will know we are moving in the right direction. Then, we will all be a lot more safe and the wheat can be separated from the chafe.

From the Jewish World Review–

>>>”In the Diallo case, it is hard to think of a single thing that the cops should have done differently — or that I would have done differently in their shoes. There are some things that Amadou Diallo should have done differently, such as not run away from the police and then turn around and pull something out of his jacket to point toward them in a dimly lit hallway. What he held out toward them was his wallet. But they discovered that only after the shooting was over and he was dead.”

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell022500.asp

As we know from case, after case, including the innocent Brazillian slaughtered by plain clothes British police a few weeks ago, the official police report first given, is not always the TRUTH, yet Mr. Sowell never so much as questions police activities on that night. Everything was PERFECT. The onus of behavior is placed upon the innocent, unarmed victim, and not those who were responsible for shooting at him 41 times.

I see the responsibility shift in many threads here. I feel it’s important to be respectful of police, and to follow their LAWFUL instructions when given, but a badge is not a halo, nor does it wield the power of a judge’s gavel. A badge does not grant the wearer powers above Constitutional rights. A badge is not an innoculation against abusive or criminal behavior.
It’s important to understand the tough job that many police officers face, but to echo the anti-Casey Sheehan crowd, “they volunteered for the job,” and there is no “cop draft” that I know of.

It’s a complex situation, and not one easily dismissed by cliches and black-bashing.

http://www.thecobraslair.com/National%20Issues9.html

–Cobra

SCSIwuzzy;
Glad you didn’t get your soul sucked out and sell your future to Fannie Mae. That would have been a loss.

Jan made an excellent reply but I would also like to answer as I was also one of Raymond’s cheerleaders. If that was the only comment I had ever read from Raymond, I probably would have been a bit taken aback. It would have been out of context for me. However, as I have been reading his body of work for a while, I knew instinctivly what he was talking about. He wasn’t saying every person with an African/caribbian heritage fit his “black” definition. He was saying that a particular negative culture has been adopted by a portion of people of his heritage. I interpreted his use of the word black as an adjective rather than a noun. For some people (of all races – think Eminem) the word “black” is a discriptive for a particular lifestyle. I think Raymond just chooses to reject the negative connotations of “black” when it is used as an adjective. He chooses to be a noun and the only adjective I’ve ever heard him really care about when describing himself is “American.”

To everyone who has been putting up with me,

Aprapo of nothing, I started my first contract day teaching in a Christian, private school. After nine years I have finally left the government indoctorination, babysitting, tax dollar wasting system that is public education. I took an $8,000 pay cut and have to drive 45 minutes to work, but man don’t I feel liberated!

You made my day..and, you made me laugh, cuz I wasn’t expecting a woman…See what preconceived notions do to people????

You’re welcome Jan. I think your posts here and at Dell Gines have been very well thought out and expressed also.

It’s not so bad now. My squad car was hit by a car thief and I ended up with chronic back problems, so I can’t work the streets anymore, which is good and bad. Good because I am a divorced mother with a dependent child, so I really didn’t need to have a job risking my life on a daily basis. Bad because of the pain and the fact that I do miss doing real police work.

Thank you for a very thoughtful reply. Your job must make extraordinary demands on you in many ways. I am in awe of what you do.

Shade;
Thank you also for your thoughtful response.I interpret Raymond to have said that he didn’t want to be associated with ‘blackness as it was currently being defined’, which is different to me than just disassociating oneself from one’s color entirely. And, trust me, white liberals have really low expectations for black people very often. They just know how to couch it in more acceptable terms, such as appealing to victimology rhetoric. Also, as far as dialogue goes, I’d be a lot more comfortable with dissecting the substance of what someone says than dissecting my interpretation of their psychology. You know, sometimes, when I read the responses on these blogs, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for really diverse opinions, especially among black people. As I said, Sowell, Watts, Carter, and other conservatives have spoken about this. It seems like if someone says something that really diverges, they get slammed really hard. Is this my imagination?

And, if I thought whites were being caricatured, or represented by leaders and cultural phenomenon that I rejected, I would disassociate myself from the culture AS IT WAS BEING DEFINED. For example, in Saudi Arabia, because of the media representation, most Saudis who had not been to the US, thought all white American women were a bunch of decadent sluts. I absolutely rejected their impression of white women in America. If that was the widely accepted notion of ‘whiteness’, I would reject that definition. So, I’m drawing a distinction here, and I just don’t find it necessary to analyze motives quite so much as I see it done.

LOL! Funny, but for the most part accurate.