I also fleetingly wondered if the cashier really did, in fact, choose not to give her change to her. It almost sounded like one of those things someone comes up with off the top of their head to try and excuse their behavior- as in, “Tell him to give me my change back and I’ll calm down!”. I think it would have been difficult at that moment, assuming she paid cash, for the cashier to prove or disprove whether the lady had been given her change or not. They would have had to shut down the register and immediately count the drawer to determine that fact.

I just figured had the cashier given the lady her money back, the lady would have simply left the store. Personally, having her leave wouldn’t have bothered me at all, but if the store was looking to file a police report or whatever, that might have been a good way to get her to stick around.

I don’t think you’re out of line at all, I just think we assess the situation a little differently. I think lots of people contributed to an out of control situation in Kennet, MO.

In my mind, however, it really all began when Heather broke her place in line, butted in front of other customers and then dumped someone else’s stuff off the counter to prove a point. She ruined her own credibility at that point.

Now, had she waited in line like everyone else, paid for her merchandise and THEN the cashier refused to give her change back, I think I would have seen this differently.

Kennet has an ugly history (unfortunately, because I live in Missouri, I’d heard some scary stories about the palce way before this Wal-Mart incident). That being said, once anyone- black or white- behaves in such a completely inappropriate way (not just butting in line, messing with another person’s merchandise, but also the assault of two police officers), any valid point they may have had prior to breaking the law becomes moot.

I was actually surprised to learn the ACLU (Eastern Missouri chapter) got quite as involved in this as they did.

It’s an unfortunate situation all the way around, but I am really having a tough time seeing the woman in this story as a victim in any way.

Thanks for weighin’ in!

I just want to give you fair warning- sometimes when you post a ton of links in your comments, my spam filter marks them as spam.

I don’t get around to going through my spam filter often, so it might take a while, if one of your comments got thrown in there, for me to find it and approve it.

You may want to keep the links to a minimum, or e-mail them to me directly at crazyme772000@yahoo.com. Otherwise you’re running the risk of having your posts fall through the cracks and not get recognized as legitimate.

What you say is sad but true.

I was wondering when I was writing this post if this woman thinks it was worth it. She got herself into a lot of trouble over her unwillingness to wait in line for a few extra minutes. She was initially looking at 15 years in prison, all because of a few minutes’ worth of impatience.

I think some black people feel that it is ok to have an attitude with white people- be it black workers at a fast food joint or black patrons at the neighborhood Wal-Mart- because of the racism they have had to endure for so long. Personally, I think it has to stop- I think treating people badly is wrong, no matter the color of anyone’s skin. It’s just wrong.

It sounds elementary, but to me it really is quite simple. Minorities know what it is like to be treated badly- many of us have experienced it first hand. In my mind, that fact alone should be reason enough for us to strive to treat others with dignity and respect, because we KNOW what it’s like to be treated like crap. We, as decent human beings, should not want to be the cause of someone else’s negative experience, having been subjected to so much of it ourselves.

Now that doesn’t excuse the real racism that still exists, and Kennet, MO certainly has its share of it. I was saddened to hear about the KKK showing up at the ACLU’s protest. Sad that they’re still powerful enough in some places to even make their presence known.

It is such a shame that racist people have been handed yet another excuse to not only keep their bigoted views in tact, but to avoid having to be held accountable for them.

The ACLU needs to seek out those people who are legitimate law abiding citizens that are ongoing targets of racism. Trust me, there are plenty of them out there. When will they learn to stay away from cases like this one?

I have a friend- a black male friend- who was pulled over one night while driving on a dark stretch of highway. He wasn’t breaking any laws, and was thoroughly confused when he saw the cop’s lights in his rear-view mirror. My friend was asked to step out of the vehicle. He had his car searched, his plates ran, and even had a gun held to his head. He was asked a number of questions- “why are you in this neighborhood?” “Where are you headed to?” Finally, as the policie were preparing to let him go (with no charges or tickets, obviously), they explained why they had pulled him over.

The reason?

They had received a report of a black male at a neighboring gas station that was suspected of stealing a package of Ho-Ho’s.

The theft of a snack warranted a gun to the head? Of course not. My friend wasn’t armed in any way, nor was he a threat whatsoever. This was racial profiling at its worst, and it is inexcusable.

Why isn’t the ACLU taking up those causes? I believe humans- regardless of color- would be very unhappy to learn that these sorts of things still happen today, and that such incidents are not infrequent. Many people- whites included- would find themselves disgusted if they were made aware of those situations.

This woman at Wal-Mart? It’s ridiculous. I’m a firm believer that if one decides to act a damn fool in the presence of police officers- especially if one chooses to target those police officers- they deserve anything and everything they get for doing so. This lady at Wal-Mart is lucky she didn’t get her ass tasered when she kicked that cop in the shin, or worse when she busted the other officer in the lip.

Honestly, I would have knocked her head upside the side of the police car too, had it been me. And not because she’s black, but because she was being a bitch and I’m sure my lip would be hurtin’ right where she cracked me in it.

The attitude is something I have heard white people complain about a lot these days. Here is an example of the typical complaint; why is it that whenever I go to a fast-food joint that’s run by a bunch of black folks, my order is messed up and the workers are rude? White folks get the third degree all the time when going out to eat. Just the other night, I was sitting at the drive through window waiting forever for the employees to finish their conversation. After which the guy just sticks his hand out and expects me to put my card in his hand. He doesn’t even say sh!t to me about making me wait for so dam long while he stood there and told a story to everyone. So I got mad and did a burn out of the drive through leaving a trail of smoke behind me. I was so mad I wanted to break his nose. It wasn’t so much that he made me wait; it was the absolute disrespect he showed. People don’t like being treated like that. It’s not racist to get pissed over being treated wrong. Most people are calm enough to walk away but this kind attitude is going to boil over with people eventually. This is a common complaint I hear all the time. There are 3 Wendy’s in my town. Only one of them has good service. The reason is obvious in a lot of people’s minds; they’re just not going to say it.

If you are in a small town and someone says hi or waves and you ignore them, they might just grab your arm ask what your deal is. The LA, NY, and big city rude attitude will get you in a lot of trouble in the Mid-West. There are social norms that should be followed. Any person in their right mind would simply ask if it’s ok to cut in line. People will let you do it. If they don’t let you, they are wrong and then you have a story. An example is N.Y., the people aren’t going to let you cut there because they generally don’t care about your emergency. But if you don’t ask in small town America, you’re messing up big time. They can make this into something its not and all that is going to happen is the same that happen to the police officer. Nothing.

Why is it that many black Americans always rally around someone because of their skin color? You gotta stop doing this. Either a person is right or wrong. The longer you keep doing this the worse everythings going to get. Besides, why where they standing in two different lines to begin with if they where together? Probably because they planned on moving to which line was moving faster. I’ve done this before with a friend but only to hand him a small item like a drink or something. I would never push someone’s stuff back like that. If they protested over a small item I added to my friends stuff, I would just say fine and go wait in line. No reason to start an altercation because I’m impatient. I have a feeling that she was much ruder about it. If a guy pushed my stuff back like that, he wouldn’t make it to his car without a fight. If a women did that, I would leave all my crap on the conveyor and tell the store I’m not buying sh!t unless you kick her out. Everyone would follow suit and the store would have no choice. I wouldn’t do that for the guy because he deserves a better lesson than that.

This whole thing will get blown up and go nowhere.