Two excellent court verdicts today. Both of them are strong affirmations of law and equality of treatment (although some of the participants would probably disagree with me on that.)
In one California case, an appeals court reaffirmed that police were wrong to pullover and rough-up some teen-age boys just because they were black. The police maintain that it was "a good stop" but the judge saw right through it. It seems they pulled the three youths from their car for no good reason. The two black motorists were questioned as to what business they thought they had driving through a white suburb. Their white companion was questioned separately about what he was doing in the company of blacks. Gee, I can see why the cops felt "right." (NOT!)
The second case involves none other than the Rev. Jesse Jackson and six violent teenagers from Decatur, Illinois. Jesse has been organizing protests and filing protests that attempted to use the punks' skin color (black) to get them preferential treatment. That's a little confusing, so let me reiterate. Six students assaulted fans at a High School football game. As a consequence of their brutal attack, they were suspended from school for two years (initially, later it was reduced to just one) and ordered to attend "alternative school" which is better prepared to deal with extremely violent students. Jackson wants these teens to get a free ride and not be held responsible for their actions. The courts, thankfully, disagreed. It had nothing to do with the color of their skin. They broke the law and school code of conduct and were removed.
In an interesting twist of fate, the six school-punks were videotaped running amok. As the video tape set Rodney King free, so did this tape damn the marauders. Honestly, after watching that tape, is there ANYBODY out there (white, black, brown, green, violet, etc.) who would want those punks in class with their son or daughter? Why should good students be forced to attend classes with this sort of thug?