Flash forward to one day later, about three hours outside St. Louis in Alton, Missouri. A black person was charged with killing an 87-year-old white guy named Eldon Williams, who on the day he died was still working as a real estate agent.
A white person called the police – before knowing about the death of Eldon Williams a short distance away – after finding the black person in his house. By the time the police showed up, Eldon Williams was found dead, and Donald Nelson was charged for the crime. Good call? Or rampant white racism?
The local chief of police had no problem answering that question, reminding local residents that if they see something suspicious, they should call police right away. It's not as if you are going to get fired from your job or anything like that, right?
This "call or no call" is now a national movement, with black activists and lawmakers and their white allies calling for criminal penalties for white people who call the police on black people for no reason whatsoever. Like the condo lady.
In the St. Louis region, so far, it is a tie: one for calling, one for not.
Let's go to New York City to break the logjam. There, even a cursory Google search finds more than a dozen examples of black people following women into their apartment buildings or condos by rushing in before the door locks behind them.
Even the reporter at the ABC affiliate in New York was able to figure that one out. In a recent story with the headline "Man charged after woman is assaulted in East Village elevator," on video we see events play out: a woman enters the lobby of her building, and a black man rushes in and sexually assaults her.
"Of course it is alarming," said the reporter as he interviewed the neighbors for their best ideas for staying safe. "You gotta watch out who you let in," said the first neighbor. "You never know who is behind you."
The building has a lot of security, said the reporter, but that did not stop several similar incidents from happening in the last year or so. "Of course residents are reminded that you should never hold the door open for someone you don't know."
Game. Set. Match.
You can check out that story here, on my minds.com/colinflaherty page.
So I guess that settles that.
...unless of course, they are black.
Obama’s legacy
The woman should get a stone, and prop the door open just a tad. Do it a few times, and let the issue go. Someone will get the message. Don’t rise to their bait.
“There are those who will lambaste me as law-abiding but rest assured I am absolutely a criminal...”:
THAT is the message I get every time I bother to listen to the lyrics in hip-hop “music”.
Is it any wonder some people treat them as criminals..?
Yes, call.
Doormen always seemed like an outdated concept (outside of rich places) until those attacks in NYC; makes all the sense in the world now.
In the battle of protected classes this theme emerges every time. Black males as a class trump white females as a class. If a white male had attempted to tailgate, then recorded and pushed past her she’d be fine. The man in the St. Louis story played the race card and in a rush to judgment he damaged a life. Severely. Shame on him.
That attitude is ancient history. The race card has expired. They have moved on to the unsubstantiated sexual misconduct card now. Nobody is buying the color=victim crap anymore. Sure, there are pockets of resistance(fear), but even that is fading.