AGAIN ON RACE RELATIONS IN THE US: Re: Former Marine Identified as Shooter of 3 Baton Rouge Officers

WHAT IF RAMBO WAS BLACK?

Now, another ex-marine Gavin Long, probably a drifter in the mould of Rambo, has done the same thing, taking on the law enforcement establishment. This is clearly bad news.

Why was the movie Rambo such a big hit with the public which, without equivocation, rallied in support of the mythical Rambo against the no-nonsense Chief of Police. For all the abuses to which he was subjected, was Rambo right at any stage of the saga to take the law into his own hands? The answer is a resounding no. Why then did the movie going public cut him so much slack? What I want to point out here is the clear ambivalence that exists in relating to the response of aggrieved US citizens to perceived or real injustices at the hands of the police.

Would the movie Rambo have resonated with the US movie going public if the iconoclastic one man wrecking machine of a character, Rambo, was portrayed as a black ex-marine? This line of inquiry just came to me as an inspiration as I was deleting some old news headlines.

The question now is, could Gavin Long have been just another Rambo, though black, deserving of our understanding based on whatever it was that pissed him off and pushed him beyond his personal tipping point? Far be it for me to root for him. However because we are in a society where everyone including a proven mass murderer like Dylan Roof is entitled to due process, I was just wondering if it is possible to temper the demonization of this obviously angry black man especially since no one has yet tried to walk a mile in his moccasins. I imagine that this would be very difficult in this season of Trump. The lynch posse is out.

This is just food for thought.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/17/reports-baton-rouge-police-officers-shot/87218884/