JUST UNBELIEVABLE!

So a lady who happens to be African American is pulled over on an open highway because she didn’t signal a lane change in Texas.  It is against the law to do so.  Well, I think it was a cheap shot, but did the officer just write her a citation and go on his way?  No, he demanded that she put out a cigarette (Is smoking in a car against the law?) and yelled at her a number of times to get out of the car.  She eventually did this when the officer threatened to “Light you up.” with his taser.  She ends up being jailed for three days (!) when she dies from asphyxiation.  The claim is that she hung herself with a plastic bag in the jail cell (Why they should have left such a thing in a jail cell, I have no idea).  Or maybe they hung her up or something.  No matter, the problem is SHE WAS STOPPED FOR AN ILLEGAL LANE CHANGE (NO SIGNAL) ON AN OPEN HIGHWAY, SERVED THREE DAYS IN JAIL, AND ENDS UP DEAD.  Dead over an illegal lane change? Unbelievable!  May the saints preserve us.

These sorts of things are happening to African Americans all over the U.S. it seems.  I'm just counting police here and states involved are Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Texas.  Have I missed something?  Remember the guy who choked to death from police activity for selling single cigarettes?  The boy with the pellet gun who was frantically killed by police?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

What can you say about a nation that opposes unions for teachers, firemen, and police, but supports the professional National Football League referee's union?  Are our priorities straight?

FLASHPOINT

My favorite television series by far is the Canadian drama series Flashpoint about a police unit called the Strategic Response Unit in, I presume, Toronto because of a space needle. Here in the Sandhills area of North Carolina, the program is on Ion Television (channel 9 on Time-Warner cable) for two hours (10:00 PM to midnight in two unrelated segments) and is just concluding its 4th season. The Unit follows some criminal scene such as an abduction, threat to kill someone with a knife or gun, drug dealers, etc. The best part comes in the last 5 or 10 min. in which a Unit member (usually the leader, a sergeant) tries to talk the miscreant(s) out of the kidnapping or murder, etc., , i.e. get the miscreant(s) to reach their "flashpoint," sometimes with success and sometimes not

By and large the series is well written though it may have some inconsistencies. One that I remember had a kidnapper driving and followed closely by three police cars. After the break for a commercial, the kidnapper somehow had shaken off the police cars, and they didn't know where he went. How this could happen is a mystery. There are two older members of the Unit, perhaps in their 40s that have a special tie to each other, and four other main characters that are quite a bit younger, perhaps a couple even in their 20s. The 5th season is scheduled to be the last. You can buy the series on DVD (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Flashpoint+episodes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=Flashpoint+episodes&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=OoGuT46uHMm5tgex9IDwCA&ved=0CIUBEK0E&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=fbcc669694f377a0&biw=975&bih=647)

) or watch some episodes free online (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/flashpoint/).

I record the show in case I should fall asleep before the end.

Note about Sunday, May 13: Ion Television had a Flashpoint marathon Sunday night. I'm not sure when it started, but I watched four shows from 8:00 PM to midnight (was still recording another) when I went to bed. I hadn't seen the first three before, but I had seen the fourth. I presume they were all reruns.

Note on Monday, May 14: The shows went on until 3:00 AM on Monday and we watched them later in the day.