Alan Shilepsky wrote: >I wonder if the cops involved in our incident individually felt they had >to uphold their honor--"I won't back down"--in the eyes of the civilians >present and--maybe more importantly--in the eyes of their fellow cops. > I think the cops were scared. Nothing about being a cop will keep you from being scared and two things about this situation were scare producers. First, he was mentally ill and people are afraid of the mentally ill, partially because of how they are often depicted in books, films, etc. Two, he was black and speaking another language. We are, in this country, raised to be scared of black people and we are zenophobic enough to worry when another language is being spoken. Add the crow bar and the machete and we're off and running. Also, while machetes are a common tool in places where they grow sugar cane (Texas, Louisiana, Florida), they're not common in MN where they are seldom used as a tool. All this contributes to creating scarey situations. WizardMarks, Central
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