The recent shootings in
Baton Rouge, Minnesota
and Dallas © 2016



An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth.

Problem is, that philosophy,
leaves us blind and toothless.



The police officers, who killed the young black men in Baton Rouge and in Minnesota, have yet to be brought to justice. That day is coming, however. That’s the way things are done in a democracy. What’s also done in a democracy, people who vote are called to serve on juries. Those serving on juries can decide how rogue police officers are dealt with. So if you don’t vote, don’t complain too much about the verdicts.

Meanwhile, in Dallas, police officers, who had absolutely nothing to do with the police shootings in Baton Rouge or Minnesota, were singled out solely because they were police officers and because they were white. Their shootings were equally wrong.

Both shootings amounted to injustices, and those who committed both injustices deserve the highest form of punishment. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said it best, “Injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere,” and we saw some of that in Dallas.

If you don’t want to live in a society where people on both sides can break the law at will and try to justify it, both shootings should sadden you and give you pause about stereotyping groups of people, be they young black males or police officers.

Whether the person committing a deadly injustice wears blue or is a street crook, both deserve equal punishment. It is only when people can see equal punishment, in effect, for equal crimes, that their respect for the legal system will be restored.