What of course made the incident so potent was the claim of racism (the cops were white, Rodney King was black). I think it's safe to say there was an element of racism involved, but the main crime was the beating.
Fast forward a couple of decades or so and something similar happens in northern California. A man is viciously beaten with batons in San Francisco after having led police in a car chase from a neighboring county.
The man was a criminal (he had stolen the car, had rammed police cars and injured a deputy, and there were drugs and a semi-automatic handgun in the car). Clearly this person was not some aspiring doctor trying to turn his life around (gnome sayin’?).
This story did not make national headlines. There were no protests (odd considering the recent slough of cases concerning ‘police brutality’). The news stories I read did not mention the race of the person. Therefore, I can only assume that the man who was beaten was white. His name also suggests this (Stanislav Petrov).
If the man is white, then it’s no wonder this story did not make more headlines – it doesn’t fit with the media’s narrative that ONLY black people are abused by cops.
The silence is deafening.
_____________________________
Sources:
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-may-charge-Alameda-County-deputies-in-beating-6796225.php
No comments:
Post a Comment