When are the American people going to stop the nonsense of trying and convicting people based upon news media reports? I know, this has been going on for years and that it has become second nature. But that doesn’t come close to making it right. We have got to get back to what justice in America is all about.

The outstanding men and women in law enforcement across the nation have been castigated and made into something to be feared, rather than to be rightfully respected. It has gotten so bad that even the Mayor of New York City has thrown his own police force under the bus. And the only thing they are guilty of is doing their job. In every case that I am familiar with, where there have been charges of police brutality and wrongdoing, there has been a common denominator. The suspect involved has, in one way or another, resisted arrest. It’s that simple. When a law enforcement officer tells you to do something, he or she is doing it for a legitimate reason based upon his or her law enforcement training, and there will never be a problem if you will simply obey his or her command. These cops aren’t trying and convicting you on the spot. They are simply doing their jobs and they are doing it in a manner conducive to the environment they are operating within at any particular moment. Just comply with the order and let the justice system handle the rest. If it turns out, based upon the evidence submitted in a court of law, that your civil rights were violated or that you were otherwise wrongly treated, there are legal steps that can be taken to remedy that. But out on the street, the cops are in charge. It simply has to be that way.

Police are also being attacked by the public, through the news media, because of the equipment they use to enforce the law. People think the police departments have become far too militarized. In a sense, I am in agreement with that; however, I also believe they are doing what is in their own best interest to do. It is an evolutionary type of thing. We have become a society that often deserves a militarized police response. It is our own stupid behavior that leads to the need for these extreme forms of police equipment. Society has made it a necessity for the police to use such equipment for them to protect themselves.

Looking beyond the problems we face in the community as a whole, the irresponsible news media has also become a conduit for other forms of injustice. The matter that comes to mind first and foremost is that relative to the charges being levied against Bill Cosby. One female made an allegation against Bill Cosby and the news media jumped on it and ran. As a result of that exposure, a whole bevy of other similar charges have been made. Bill Cosby has been tried and convicted of rape and sexual assault in the court of public opinion, based entirely upon news media reports. These are serious criminal charges that have to be handled by the justice system.

It never ceases to amaze me that all of these charges against Bill Cosby appear to be coming from incidents that allegedly occurred 20 – 30 or more years ago. If these women were so traumatized by his actions, why didn’t they bring charges at the time of the incidents in question? Rape and sexual assault are crimes that must be resolved by physical, forensic evidence. There is none, nor will there ever be, any such evidence of that in any of these cases. Now, it may well be that Mr. Cosby is guilty of one or more of the charges made against him, but that is for the courts to decide, not the news media. What I see is a bunch of women who are only seeing dollar signs. I suspect that most, if not all of them, had a willing sexual liaison with Bill Cosby and now they want to get paid for it. Bring a wealthy and very popular man down to his knees in front of the public and make him squirm.

I say, shame upon the American public for finding Bill Cosby guilty of crimes without due process in a court of law. And again I say shame on certain sponsoring corporations for taking adverse actions against him without a shred of legitimate evidence to support such actions. I further suspect that Mr. Cosby’s resignation from the Board at Temple University was also somewhat less than voluntary. We, as a nation, have taken on a mob mentality and it is wrong.

Speaking of a mob mentality, when are we going to demand that people like Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan be taken off the streets and away from wherever else they are given a bully pulpit to spread their racial hate and riot inciting language that leads to all the racial chaos in this country. Personally, I think the majority of African-Americans in this nation pay little or no attention to these idiots, but it is unfortunate that the few who do listen to them are the same ones who will take to the streets and burn businesses down on a moment’s notice. I am not buying the argument that these people, such as the step-father of Michael Brown, are acting out of personal emotion. These are not rationally thinking people. They are individual bits and pieces of a mob that are just looking for an excuse to wreak havoc on an otherwise sensible and rationally thinking community.