Why is the "knee jerk" reaction to a lot of things "fire them!"?

[mjr]

Plus, her perception didn't occur in a vacuum. This is Texas after all.

Sure...because we all know every non-minority in Texas is racist, right??

That is the implication, isn't it?

[Gravekeeper]

Sure...because we all know every non-minority in Texas is racist, right??

That is the implication, isn't it?

No, the implication is that Texas legal system from start to finish has a deep rooted racism problem which this woman has likely witnessed or been on the end of in her life. So you can stop with the eyerolling.

[mjr]

No, the implication is that Texas legal system from start to finish has a deep rooted racism problem which this woman has likely witnessed or been on the end of in her life. So you can stop with the eyerolling.

What? I'm not allowed to make assumptions?

Not justifying whatever "deep rooted racism problem" that may or may not exist here in Texas, but I'm quite sure that "deep rooted racism problem" that may or may not exist is in other more "liberal" states as well. Wasn't the Eric Garner thing in New York? Not exactly a bastion of Conservative thought.

Hey, at least be fair. But I already know the retort, so go ahead and say it.

But I do have to ask: Ever been to Texas? Or known anyone who has lived here for any real length of time? Just curious.

[Gravekeeper]

Not justifying whatever "deep rooted racism problem" that may or may not exist here in Texas, but I'm quite sure that "deep rooted racism problem" that may or may not exist is in other more "liberal" states as well. Wasn't the Eric Garner thing in New York? Not exactly a bastion of Conservative thought.

Saying that the Texas justice system has a racism problem doesn't mean the rest of the country is a progressive utopia of love and acceptance. I also never brought politics into this. You can make all the assumptions you want but going out of your way to keep putting words in my mouth to argue with is a bit childish.

As for New York, yes, the NYPD is awful. One of the worst police forces in the country frankly.

But I do have to ask: Ever been to Texas? Or known anyone who has lived here for any real length of time? Just curious.

Yes. I have. But even if I hadn't its not exactly a mystery that's never been researched or analyzed.

[s_stabeler]

I think I should make a couple of points here:
1. editorials considered the same as articles: that's not a good idea. Why? because it defeats the entire point of having editorials- which are opinion pieces- be clearly identifiable. Editorials, by their very nature, are someone's opinion. While there are standards that should apply, those standards are "is this a reasonable opinion in the circumstances?" not the far greater standard- "Is this objectively true?" that applies to articles.
2. Racism in Texas- this is actually largely irrelevant. The actual issue is that, is she reasonable in believing that being asked to provide ID was due to racial profiling. Basically, the question hinges on if the cops were reasonable in performing a forma stop on her, while involved running (presumably) a warrants check. In my opinion, the officers were not reasonable in making it an actual formal stop- if she was in the way of traffic, then a quick "excuse me, but we've had it reported that you were walking in the way of traffic. Could you be a bit more careful?" would suffice- no need to run warrants, and so no need for ID. hence, if the stop was unnecessary, it's not an unreasonable assumption that she was stopped for racial profiling purposes. As such, she should not be fired, nor should she be forced to apologise.