It’s funny how perception shapes how you will see and believe something. In the paper this morning and on TV last night was the news: “Jury Acquits Farrall of DUI Manslaughter”.  I automatically assumed two things.

The first was that the former FBI agent in question was indeed guilty of killing innocent people by virtue of driving while drunk.  A question of whether he was driving the wrong way on the highway was moot but this was an aggravating factor not included in the jury’s decision to find him guilty.

The second is that he, despite his guilt, was not perceived as ordinary people would be because he was a former FBI agent and he is most definitely WHITE.  The people he killed were black. I somehow automatically assume that his acquittal was not because he was innocent but because of his former status and his color.

My perceptions are based on a Liberalism that favors people of color and distaste for the arrogance of power that is a mantle protecting agencies that often are reported acting ABOVE the law. I somehow automatically assume that police powers do give extraordinary powers to ordinary people who wear badges and uniforms. I somehow KNOW that you or I who would be innocently in the way of an officer of the law pursuing a malefactor he would feel no compunction to mowing us down.  We were simply in the way and that is just too bad. 

Increasingly we find that the gulf between ordinary people and even FORMER FBI agents growing wider. Now, this particular issue of a jury finding a defendant guilty but not guilty of a greater crime shows the power of that influence in our society. It is funny how perception is everything.

Have you seen stage or movie productions that show someone who has just killed is addled by the experience?  It is supposed to be a terrible thing to take the life of someone else.  But we see, witness and hear about killing every single day not only here in America but all over the world.

Here is a conclusion.  The death of some is more important than the death of others.  This is seen in the obituary columns which leave out the deaths of ordinary people. The lengthy columns and half to whole pages reporting the death of IMPORTANT people show they have made a mark in our civilization.  The death of people who have had a lot of money or wealth shows they are more important even in death than ordinary people.  Perception is everything.