THIS sounds eerily familiar...

Read this article and you'll see what I mean.

I seem to have heard of this before, in the good ole' U.S. of A. It's more commonly known as "racial profiling."

And it's wrong!!!!

I can just see what's going to happen, as clearly as if it were happening in front of my eyes right now.

The police are going to start pulling black kids off the street, searching them, all because they "looked dodgy" (to use a British-ism). More and more black people - young and old, men and women - are going to see the injustice in it, and they're going to get upset. They're going to start to think that every person they see - that isn't black - is out to "get them." It's going to lead to more and more racial tensions, and instead of making the problem better, it's going to make it worse.

Haven't these people ever heard of Rodney King???? (Yes, I know, he wasn't exactly an "innocent" man, but let's be honest - the only reason he was pulled over in the first place was because he was black. It had absolutely nothing to do with his past or what kind of things he'd done. It was purely based on the color of his skin. If he'd been a white alcoholic, drug addicted wife beater, he would have been on his merry way without anyone even batting an eyelash.)

Now I know that I'm a rarity - a white woman who doesn't judge people on their outside. Yes, there are other women like me, but they seem to be few and far between. I make judgements based on who a person is, not what a person is. Every time I've heard a person of minority (predominantly black people, but not exclusively so) complain about the unfair treatment they're getting, I hate to say it, but I have to agree with them. Not because I know what it's like from their point of view - I can't. I cannot honestly say that I completely understand what it's like to be a persecuted minority - because I'm not one. But I do understand, as much as a person who is outside of the situation looking in, can.

I've seen black people being treated unfairly. I've seen moslems whispered about in fear simply because of their religion. And some part of me wants to scream "What are you people doing?! Don't you realize they're HUMAN, too!!!???"

But I don't say anything - a fact of which I'm certainly NOT proud.

But I have to honestly think that if I were in a position of power, like Mr. Jarrett, that I wouldn't make such a stupid, sweeping generalization, of a decision.

It boggles my brain even further to know that Mr. Jarrett himself is a black man. How would he feel if someone were to stop him and insist on searching him - just because he's BLACK?!

I fear this man is going to have a lot to answer for.