OPINION:
It’s been more than a week since Australian citizen Christopher Lane fatally shot in Oklahoma, and I have to ask, where’s the outrage (“Obama’s Oklahoma hypocrisy,” Commentary, Aug. 26)? Where is a statement from the White House? Where is Attorney General Eric Holder?
I cannot think of a better example than this of a double standard when it comes to racial issues. Here, we have a situation where two black teenagers fatally shot a white man. They shot him because “they were bored” and “thought it would be fun.” Just one week prior one of the teens posted this on his Twitter account, “90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM” and “Ayeee, I knocced out 5 [white people] since Zimmerman court!” Why isn’t that a hate crime?
Imagine if this had been three white teenagers who had fatally shot a black man because they “thought it would be fun.” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would have flown to Oklahoma, set up headquarters, demanded it be investigated as a hate crime, and Mr. Holder would have been right there. Every news outlet would have swooped in like a pack of hyenas.
The only reaction from Mr. Jackson was via his Twitter account, on which he called the killing “senseless violence [that] is frowned upon.” Frowned upon? Is that it?
Martin Luther King Jr. once said he had a dream that one day his four children would live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character. I guess Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton have forgotten these words and prefer to judge people by the color of their skin.
JEFF CARL
Stewartstown, Pa.
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