Negative Press for Police Not Altering General Racist Attitudes ...

One would think police departments and officers would have renewed vigilance in working to alter the perception that they are racists that assault and kill black male youth and adults merely because they are BLACK MALE youth and adults. But reading the paper every day, it is clear that that is not the case. The latest story is a heartwarming one of a family that foster an 18-year-old African American boy named DeShawn Currie, in addition to the three children of their own. Ricky and Stacy Tyler knew they wouldn’t be home one day, so left the side door open for DeShawn. An upstanding neighbor noticing a black boy entering a house immediately called 911 and three police officers were on hand almost immediately.

When they officers arrived, they ordered the teen to put his hands on the door. He responded “For what? This is my house!” The cops then pointed to a photo of his foster parents with three white children and claimed he obviously didn’t belong there. DeShawn then objected to being treated like a criminal in his own house and was summarily pepper sprayed (Daily Kos).

One can understand the misunderstanding, I guess, but couldn’t the officers have called the parents to confirm the youth’s story, rather than immediately treating him like a criminal and then pepper spraying him? It seems discourses on a “post racist” America are just as absurd today as when theorists first suggested them.

Here, by the way, is a wonderful example of our “liberal media” at work, in a political cartoon in the Colubmia Tribune: