By now, most of us know what really happened in Sanford, Fl. It is no secret, and we know the Sanford police has a long history of similar laissez–faire response to such cases.
If you don’t care a thing about Trayvon how about caring about this. If Zimmerman is set free and does not have a fair trial, and the officers involved are not reprimanded, this will set a new bar for police behavior across the nation. And that bar wil have been lowered….dramatically.
There are many excellent police departments in this nation and they are excellent because they are committed and even if some members have issues, racism, or other emotional character defects, they leave them at home. They work in a certain modicum of harmony with their (usually myriad of races, religions etc) fellow officers.
But even the good ones, if this case is dropped, now get to let go of a great deal of their training. Not as much will be expected of them, and if they are confronted with such a case, any lawyer can point at the Sanford trial that was closed, and that will be that. The old reliable police officer could easily become a thing of the past.
The victim of any crime in any city could be you, your daughter, sister, mother, or you name it. It may or may not be due to racial bias. The only pertinent fact is, there is a new comparable crime in which the perpetrator was basically given his gun back and a pat on the back. You can almost count on NOT getting the same old reliable professional police protection of the past. The new “Trayvon Case” will be “police business as usual”. If you think otherwise, you are naive. Yes, there will be some good, idealistic ones who want to do good in the world. But the older jaded ones who saw what the poilce got away with in Sanford will teach them how to show up, collect a check, and go home until pension time.
We all better hope and pray that this case is truly tried and justice is served. If not, American doesn’t only have sleeper cells to watch out for. We have police officer sleeping on the job (who at one time, may have taken great pride in their work and deservedly so). And I don’t know which would be more frightening.
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I am a vegan who lives in the mountains with my beloved wife nature photographer Lee Hiller London. I founded Londons Times Cartoons and Funny Gifts which have been Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon since 2005. I enjoy hiking, animals, nature, movies, and lots o’ stuff. My wife Lee founded nature photography blog Hike Our planet
Rick London Syndication 