As a follow-up to Tim's Post

Asphyxia, cocaine cited in death at Sea-Tac airport

This is a case that has had the local NAACP in an uproar. Cries of racism, police-brutality, and other various accusations have been flying thick. Then the autopsy comes in.

An autopsy revealed that Desseria B. Whitmore, 52, suffocated while trying to swallow a plastic bag of cocaine and ingested a lethal dose of the drug, a spokesman for the examiner's office said.

Now, by all accounts, this woman was a wonderful person. The paper lists this about her:

She had worked in banking for 27 years and had been honored for her volunteer work with the YMCA of Greater Seattle's Black Achievers program. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister and had no criminal record.

From the preliminary reports I saw, she occupied a very high position at the bank she worked for. Still, there is no excuse for using cocaine, and even less excuse for trying to bring it on a flight. The woman obviously had a drug addiction, and it indirectly (and directly, obviously) killed her in the end. And yet, the police who were doing their job were labeled everything but the kitchen sink when this occurred.

People in general need to take a long, hard look before they sling these kinds of accusations around. Because use of words like "Racist" start to lose their meaning if they are used without basis. It's the Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome. If some group labels all of their opponents racists, even though there's no factual evidence of any such thing, the next time they call someone racist, nobody will listen. I find myself to that point in my life already. Cop arrests a black kid? "The cop's a racist!" I guess the bag of crank, stolen handgun, and wad of $20 bills found on the kid doesn't mean anything? "The cop's a racist!" Sure buddy, whatever you say.

At some point last year, a Seattle cop was interviewed by the Seattle Times. The cop wouldn't give his name for obvious reasons, but I can paraphrase his quote.

"We have a choice. We can enforce the law and be brought up on charges, reviewed by I.A., the Feds, put through a board of Inquiry, and run up a flagpole, or we can sit under a tree and do the crossword puzzle in the paper. I'm doing the crossword puzzle." The sad part is, the cop was black. He'd had people spit on his cruiser as he drove past. He'd been labled an Uncle Tom more than he could count. Hell, one of my old SGTs from Korea was accused of racism. The charges lasted as long as it took for my SGT to whip out his wedding picture. His wife was black. But that didn't stop a black SFC from accusing him of racism, just because my SGT was doing his job.

Maybe people will see things like this and re-think their actions. But in Seattle, I really doubt it.