Oh, puhleeeeease......

"Jena 6 situation", my ass.

From a letter that our local NAACP leader, Don Jackson, is distributing.

In case you haven’t heard, we have a Jena 6 situation right here in River City. We call it the Manual 22, representing 22 Manual students who were recently ticketed by the Peoria Police department for walking along a street with no sidewalks, and or crossing the street at a location other than a crosswalk. Rita Ali will fill you in on the details because she personally witness the events. Since this new ticketing “profiling” was directed only at students attending Manual and Woodruff (students issued $100 tickets) we believe this is disparate treatment based on race. As a community we must send a strong message that we are “sick and tired” of the PPD messing with our children.

On Saturday, Oct. 13th, the Covenant Committee, King Celebration Committee and the NAACP will join together in a demonstration at the Peoria Police Department at 11:00am. We invite any other organizations who are “sick and tired” of police harassment in the A/A community to join with us.

If you have any questions contact me or Rita Ali for more information.

Don Jackson

Information found

here

.

As one who spends much of her working day driving the streets of Peoria, much of it right around both Woodruff and Manual High Schools, I can attest to the fact...no, it's not racism...it's a fact...that groups of African American kids walk IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, regardless of whether or not there's a sidewalk. They not only walk in the street, they hang in the middle of the street. They either downright refuse to move if you're trying to drive down that particular street, or they slooooowly saunter off to one side or another. If they feel like it.

I've observed this countless times. In fact, I've turned around because they wouldn't move and I didn't feel like takin on a whole gang of kids, no matter what color they were. I might be dumb, but I ain't stupid.

I've never seen a group of white kids do this. And like I said, I drive in a lotta neighborhoods around town. Granted, most of 'em are not exactly your suburban, white-collar type neighborhoods. Oh, fer shit's sake. Let's be honest. Most of the neighborhoods that I frequent are in the South end or the North Bluff. A lot of 'em aren't "nice" neighborhoods, ok?

There's no "profiling" goin on with this. There's no racism, other than what Mr. Jackson is tryin to drum up. It's a FACT. It is what it is. Period.

And that...the fact that he's tryin to garner some attention...just pisses me off to no end. There's real racism goin on out there, ok? If he can't find it, I can take him by the hand and show it to him. But to compare this situation to the Jena 6...it's just...well, it's beyond pandering. It's inciting.

And it's wrong.

Mr. Jackson, to paraphrase you, I am "sick and tired" of people like you...like Al Sharpton...slavering for media attention in the name of "racism". I'm sick and tired of people like you using the word racism as an excuse for every black person who does something wrong.

"Oh, the poor, black boy can't help it that he murdered three people...but remember...HE'S a victim, too...of racism.

Instead of trying to hang all of society's problems on the word racism, why don't you do something really meaningful...like tryin to teach things like personal responsibility or common sense or respect. If you don't understand those concepts, maybe you could stick to the simple things...like the difference between right and wrong, regardless of the color of your skin?