When Racism is not Racism

…but simply something to fall back when normal rational thought simply cannot explain the events in question. I’m taking a mild risk putting both of my feet into this story, but I believe this is one of those situations where the “R” word just simply does not apply.

First, the story. Here’s the link to YahooNews. The opener is interesting enough to get even my attention.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Three young black men break into a white man’s home in rural Northern California. The homeowner shoots two of them to death — but it’s the surviving black man who is charged with murder.

First thing is if we removed the “black” and “white” from this story I firmly believe this wouldn’t even be an issue. But because we here in the United States of America refuse to see the world in a colorblind manner, we have stories like this. Seriously.

In a case that has brought cries of racism from civil rights groups, Renato Hughes Jr., 22, was charged by prosecutors in this overwhelmingly white county under a rarely invoked legal doctrine that could make him responsible for the bloodshed.

So what type of bloodshed are we talking about?  Was it a case of mistaken identity?  Did this white man see shadows and shoot them?  Well, you be the judge on this one.

Prosecutors said homeowner Shannon Edmonds opened fire Dec. 7 after three young men rampaged through the Clearlake house demanding marijuana and brutally beat his stepson.

Wait.  You mean they went into the house demanding drugs and beat his stepson?  I mean, how bad could the be beat?  I mean, he could have just walked away and been just fine.  Sadly, this was not the case.

Edmonds’ stepson, Dale Lafferty, suffered brain damage from the baseball bat beating he took during the melee. The 19-year-old lives in a rehabilitation center and can no longer feed himself.

I’m no physics professor, but I figure if you take the kind of pounding that gives you brain damage so disastrous you can’t feed yourself anymore that any kind of Racism Card throwing would be, well thrown out the window.  How wrong could I be?  This wrong.

Hughes’ mother, San Francisco schoolteacher Judy Hughes, said she believes the group didn’t intend to rob the family, just buy marijuana. She called the case against her son a “legal lynching.”

“Just buy marijuana…”?  I’d buy that for a dollar if it wasn’t for the whole “beating until he couldn’t feed himself anymore” part of the story which in my judgment makes me think there was no intent of “buying” marijuana.  I’m just thinking this out on my own here.  Mind you, the victim (yes, I called the actual victim a victim) had permits up the wazoo for the drugs so it wasn’t illegal in the eyes of good ole’ California for the guy to have what he had.

Apparently these three boys wanted what he had and for some reason couldn’t find it anywhere else in the city or state of California this necessitating a baseball bat inspired home invasion with a beat down special.  This part is what I’m using to conclude my points.

The district attorney said that race played no part in the charges against Hughes and that the homeowner was spared prosecution because of evidence he was defending himself and his family, who were asleep when the assailants barged in at 4 a.m.

This wasn’t an afternoon visit for a cup of flour.  This was early morning break in.  Yet it’s racism!  The law they’re using is a little interesting but I think it’s a fair law in this case.  Three young men enter a house with a baseball bat intending to steal, take and otherwise do something illegal.  Beat down begins.  Son goes down.  Dad comes back with a gun.  Shoots two of them down to protect his son.  The story says they were shot in the back.  Maybe they were running.  Maybe they were beating down the boy when the father ran back in and let fly with lead.  I don’t know and it appears within the story nobody really knows either.

All that it clear is that this man (be him white or black) had his house invaded.  Three boys (white or black) attacked his son with a baseball bat.  What would you do in this situation?  I can tell you if someone broke into my house and my children (be them any age) were being hurt violently I would not hesitate to shoot their attacker down.

The NAACP complained that prosecutors came down too hard on Hughes, who also faces robbery, burglary and assault charges. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

The Rev. Amos Brown, head of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP and pastor at Hughes’ church, said the case demonstrates the legal system is racist in remote Lake County, aspiring wine country 100 miles north of San Francisco. The sparsely populated county of 13,000 people is 91 percent white and 2 percent black.

Too hard?  Pardon me.  Beating someone in the head takes one of two things.  A severe lack of care for others or a lack of understanding what is right or wrong.  I’m not here to say what should happen to this young man but I do not believe the men of the law in this case have overreacted.  I hope this young man understands what his and his friends actions have caused.  I hope his mother comes to realize that this is not a legal lynching.

For the record, if this same string of events occurred and it was a black family being attacked by a group of three white boys, my reaction would be the exact same.