A few weeks ago I told a group of young men playing hoops in the alley behind my house that they are welcome to hang out, but they needed to mind their language. I reminded them that being guests in someone’s neighborhood meant not yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs. I’m an easygoing person. It turned out well as they more or less toned it down. That incident came to mind when I read this story: “According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the kitchen sink”. . .
What (Owens’ sister Ashley) Parker says happened next could make the fallout from the brutal beating even worse. As the attackers walked away, leaving Owen bleeding on the ground, Parker says one of them said “Now thats justice for Trayvon.” Trayvon Martin is the unarmed teenager police say was shot and killed February 26 by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Samford, Florida (sic).
Many of our fellow citizens have lost sight of the fact that one of the great attributes of America is the rule of law. From the liberal elite to neighborhood assholes, too many people are willing to try a man not in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion.
We are responsible only for our own crimes. The idea that beating a man in Alabama could bring justice for Trayvon is utterly alien to me. Who raised these idiots? Who taught them how civic life in America works?
I am not willing to let my neighborhood be overrun by ill-tempered, ill-behaved people. Knowing what I know from this unfortunate guy in Mobile, I still would have told those kids to tone it down, but maybe next time I should switch from the 6+1 DB9 to the 10+1 M&P right afterwards. Just in case.