Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackadar
Good, then you can stop trying to project me demonizing everyone because it's tiresome (at best). Of course I'm going to expect the worst. Because it happens all too often. Especially if you're poor and especially if you're a minority. That's why you raise kids not to trust cops - because the worst case scenario isn't all that rare. It may still be the exception and not the rule, but it only takes one time for it to ruin your life (or deprive you of it). And if you're poor and/or a minority, the chance is high enough that it's not worth taking. Dealing with the police is like Russian Roulette. The odds work for you, but the consequences aren't really pleasant. Except as a minority, there are more bullets in the gun *and* you're going to end up taking more turns pulling the trigger.
This isn't the discussion for Mehserle. But it's sad if you think justice was really done in that case. It doesn't get more cut-and-dried than that. It was an execution on tape. Anyone else goes to jail for Murder, no doubt. But giving Mehserle time before having to make any statement, moving the trial, the jury selection, throwing out the firearm charge, double credit for time served...if you think that was all part of justice being blind, well...I'm sorry for you. Go ask Oscar Grant's parents if they feel justice was done.
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I didn't say justice was done in that case. I relate most to the prosecutors there, the ones that charged him with murder. I did see that as a very difficult charge to prove in those circumstances, but still a very appropriate charge to pursue. I was disputing your use of that as an example of something being swept under the rug, and you've amended that now.
I can understand your perspective and distrust. And I do recognize that my experiences are going to give me an entirely different perspective that others aren't necessarily going to share. I think you're a smart guy and I do respect your perspective on this. That's part of why I really wanted you to at least meet me halfway. But I haven't gone about that the right way and I've been too defensive. So I think it's a good time for me to duck out of this because I think I'm having the opposite effect I really want to have. It's the whole deal where I'm trying to be understood when it's always more productive to try better to understand. My personal annoyance with what I feel are unfair assumptions, and how they relate to me, is ultimately petty and distracting from everything. Posters like Toddzilla with his breakdown two posts above are saying exactly what I want to say in a much more productive way. We're ultimately dealing with probabilities but assumptions about groups are what bring people into believing category 4 is fact (or 2, or 1.)
I stick by most everything I've said though. When negative things are assumed about people, or a process, just because of the group they're in or what the process is, improvement is really, really difficult. It's something you just can't break through without some concession on both sides. But there are lots of people that try their best anyway.