Disturbing Op-Ed (thats racist related)
keithvanhorn
3,855 Posts
I try to stay away from the Philly Daily News. This op-ed is really disturbing.-----------------------Christine M. Flowers | DRAWING BLACK BORDERSPhiladelphia Daily NewsEACH OF us sees the world through a personal prism, distorting facts - or rearranging them - so they match our expectations and needs.Ask a survivor of the Bataan Death March if water-boarding is torture, and he'll probably have a different answer than an acolyte of Amnesty International. Quiz Paris Hilton on her idea of tragedy (a broken fingernail, perhaps?) and she won't be on the same page as Mother Teresa.We are creatures of experience. So I'm not surprised when people who don't share my personal history also don't share my opinions.But there are some facts that can't be laundered to fit our prejudices. Like the cold-blooded murder of a police officer. There are no shades of gray in that situation, no ifs, buts or maybes.There is only sorrow, and then rage.I thought that everyone in this City of Brotherly Love would agree that the killer of Officer Chuck Cassidy deserved a swiftly delivered but painful death.I'm not a fan of vigilante justice, and I'm willing to let the legal system sort this out, but execution is the only fitting punishment for an executioner.So, if John Lewis is convicted, I thought, he must die. (Preferably with a bullet to the brain, but lethal injection would do in a pinch - if the Supreme Court doesn't find it "cruel and unusual" later this term.)And, I thought, everyone with a soul would agree.How na??ve. Standing in line at a newspaper stand, I overheard two women engaged in a passionate conversation behind me. The first one said, "That poor man, what a shame." The second one replied, "It ain't gonna be easy on the family."Yes, I said to myself, what a tragedy for Officer Cassidy's survivors.Then the first woman said, "He better kill himself before they get him." And before I could make sense of that comment, the second woman chimed in, "Yeah, they're gonna murder his a--. They always kill four of ours when one of theirs gets shot."And then a horrible wave of nausea overcame me, and I left without buying my copy of the Daily News. Because I realized that the women I'd been eavesdropping on were commiserating with a cop-killer. Excuse me, an "accused" cop killer.And the hateful reality was that I knew John Lewis had earned their sympathy - at least in part - because of his skin color. Which they shared.Which then made me think about the brouhaha over our future mayor's "stop-and-frisk" plan. People criticize a proven crime-fighting method because of the dangers it poses for "profiling." In other words, racial sensitivity trumps safety.What the women at that newsstand and the critics of stop and frisk fail to realize is that there's only one division that matters in this city, and it isn't based on color. It's drawn between the decent and the lawless.There are whites and blacks on both sides of it, including blacks who are being preyed on in their own neighborhoods by the John Lewises of the world.And yet we still have people who, because of their past experiences, refuse to see the horror in the killing of a police officer. Who make excuses for the "alleged" killer. Who weep for his grandmother and his mother and his sisters (where the hell are the men?) and have the unmitigated gall to say that "four of ours" fall when "one of theirs" is shot? As if there is any comparison between the value of those five lives.The implication, of course, is that the police will ravage a minority neighborhood when a fellow officer has been killed, but they won't do the same to a so-called white neighborhood.It's the same false claim that's made about profiling, that only young black men will be targeted. The 'hood will be under siege, so to speak.Well, my friends, it already is. And crying about racial disparities when good men are dying every day seems a little bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.Officer Cassidy was a soldier in a long-running war. He chose to patrol a minority neighborhood because he knew that's where he was most needed. He was a white man wearing blue who protected blacks. His red blood was shed in the service of those black people. He served alongside of black officers, who wept at his funeral.AND THEIR TEARS were colorless.So let's stop all this mindless chatter about discrimination.Let's stop giving a platform to the race-baiters who would use the tomb of a fallen officer to make irrelevant points about social injustice. Let's stop making excuses for killers, and the people who enable them.A white policeman is dead. all of us should be wearing black. *Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.E-mail [email]cflowers1961@yahoo.com.[/email]
Comments
I dont know anything about the case either, but i do know shit is pretty raw in philly right now
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I'm betting they'd have about the same answer, unless you subscribe to the spurious "it's not torture if WE do it" argument, a la Giuliani...
Not only did the dude confess, he was caught on tape committing the crime.
Fuck John Lewis....end of story.
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Suspected Philadelphia Cop Killer Confesses
(CBS) PHILADELPHIA A suspect in the deadly shooting of a Philadelphia Police officer confessed to the killing and apologized to the officer's family Tuesday evening.
After nearly a week of searching, the suspect, John 'Jordan' Lewis, was taken into custody by Miami Police early Tuesday morning.
Following nearly five hours of questioning Tuesday evening, Lewis was led out of a Miami police station and confessed to reporters to the deadly shooting of Officer Chuck Cassidy.
When asked if he had confessed to the killing, Lewis said, "Yes."
"I apologize to his family, I never meant for nothing to happen like this, you know, but I can't change, I can't change it," Lewis said.
When asked if he had any remorse, Lewis simply said, "Yes."
Police said Lewis, 21, was arrested just after 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
U.S. Marshals said a tip caller at the Miami Rescue Mission notified authorities after recognizing Lewis from a wanted poster. Miami Police responded and Lewis was arrested without incident.
Sources said Lewis was in a chapel at the time of the arrest and he apologized as he was taken into custody.
Philadelphia Detectives traveled to Miami Tuesday and interviewed Lewis for several hours.
The family of Officer Cassidy issued a statement on the arrest, saying:
"We are extremely appreciative of the hard work of the Philadelphia Police Department during the past week and are grateful as well for the efforts of the police officers in Miami. We thank both Police Departments for their continued support."
Officer Cassidy suffered a gunshot wound to the head during a robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts in the West Oak Lane section of the city on October 31. He passed away a day later at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
Surveillance cameras inside the store were rolling as the suspect waved a gun at customers before turning on the officer, who stumbled across the robbery scene. The suspect could be seen taking Officer Cassidy's firearm before fleeing the scene.[/b]
Philadelphia Police discovered surveillance footage of Lewis boarding a Greyhound bus in Center City headed towards Miami, Florida.
Security at a Miami Bus Station said Lewis was spotted trying to get a refund for a ticket that was not in his own name.
Police believe they have recovered Officer Cassidy's gun along with a weapon suspected to have been used during the deadly hold-up.
Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said both guns were found during a search of a home belonging to Lewis' cousin in the 3800 block of N. Franklin Street in the Hunting Park section of the city Monday
"In the course of serving a search warrant, they recovered two guns. One being the officer's gun, the other being a gun that is a 9 mm, that we believe may be the murder weapon. We are not positive about this at this point," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson during a Monday afternoon news conference.
Police said Lewis' cousin, 24-year-old Hakim Glover, a convicted drug dealer, was charged with hindering the apprehension of a fugitive and obstruction of justice after allegedly harboring the shooting suspect and driving him to a Philadelphia bus station.
Sources tell CBS station KYW-TV in Philadelphia 3 Lewis made a court appearance Friday, November 2, just two days after the deadly shooting. Sources said Lewis was in court for a status hearing on a previous charge.
Lewis was put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and a $153,000 reward was being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Law enforcement officials in South Florida said that they are also searching for Lewis' ex-girlfriend, who is believed to be residing in the Miami area.
Lewis is scheduled for a bond hearing 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in Miami and an extradition hearing is expected to be held in the next week.
Officer Cassidy, with the 35th Police District, was a 25-year veteran of the force. He was the third Philadelphia Police Officer shot within a span of four days and the 259th officer to die in the line of duty in the city.
oh, and wtf is she talking about when she says the life of a cop is not comparable to the shooter or the hypothetical example of 4 blacks being killed as a result of a cop's death??? scary.
of course she is. i love how she doesn't even mention the accused's skin color, but implies it through saying he shares it with the women arguing in line getting the paper. so if we can assume that they are all black, so much so, that she doesn't even need to state it, then there's really a layer of racial politics she is completely unaware that she's proliferating.
And his defender's prose is purple.
Jesus - this looks like some high-school freshman's submission for the "I Am America" essay contest.
The murder was tragic, but this malarkey is completely unnecessary.
GTFOHWTB