Race matters: What if Tamir Rice had been white? What if the "affluenza" teen had been black?

Tamir Rice was a 12 year old black boy, playing in the park with a toy gun.  He did not kill anybody, but the police shot him dead on the spot.

Ethan Couch was a 16 year old white boy, drunk as a skunk while driving his car.   He crashed into a group of people and killed four of them.   He got probation -- which he and his mother then violated by fleeing to Mexico.

Part of Ethan's defense included a psychologist testifying that he suffered from "affluenza," a made-up 'diagnosis' to support the claim that he had grown up too affluent and too spoiled to have developed a sense of responsibility for his actions.

In other words, the police shot the innocent black boy;  the guilty white boy got 'excused.'

Can any sane person honestly believe that race had nothing to do with this starkly different outcome of these two boys' lives?

There's more.   In the first place, someone observing Tamir playing in the park called the police, no doubt because he was black.   If he had been a white 12 year old playing in the park, would anyone have:  (1) Been scared of him?   (2) Assumed he was older and more dangerous than he was?   (3) Been as careless in transmitting info to the police officers?   (4) Been so ready to shoot on arrival?

And in the courtroom:   Can any sane person honestly imagine that a black boy from a poor family, who lived in a neighborhood where violence was common, where expectations were high that he would spend some of his life in jail, simply because he was black -- can anyone imagine that some smart, pricey lawyer would invent an absurd diagnostic term to excuse his irresponsible behavior, like the "affluenza" that was applied to Ethan Counch?   In short, can you imagine an argument for "depriva-fluenza?"

If he had been white, would the police have driven the squad  car right up to the figure in the park and been so ready to shoot him even before the car came to a stop?

No, I'm not saying this is only about race.    The way the prosecutor handled the case was clearly prejudicial toward a non-indictment.   But was that because Tamir was black and the two officers involved were white?    Or was is because it was police officers who did the shooting, and they almost never get charged with a crime?

There are two major problems in this:   (1) race and (2) police accountability for excessive use of force.   Both are major problems that must be faced.   The explosion of cell phone videos is increasingly forcing the latter problem to be addressed.   It's shocking to realize the low bar set by the Supreme Court that lets officers go free.   All they have to claim is that it was reasonable to fear for their lives.   But that has fostered a shoot first mentality rather than training for skills in defusing a situation or talking down a distraught person with a gun. 

Ralph