Smooth Criminal

Last week, I went to see a few movies. Both times, I went to McDonalds to pick up dinner. I decided to “sneak” the food into the theater, and so I tucked it in my bag. The second time I did my hiding act, I realized I wasn’t fooling anybody. The smell of French fries was clearly emanating from my bag. I got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

It got me thinking about the law. When certain crimes happen, people are so quick to use the word criminal. What I realized is that most of us are criminals. Please, stay with me.

It’s like sin. People have this habit of placing sin in these stratospheres of big sin and little sin. Sin is sin is sin. No big sin; no little sin, just sin.

When it comes to crime, you are either breaking the law or not breaking the law. People making u-turns are criminals. People talking on their cell phone or texting while driving are breaking the law and therefore criminals. There is no stratosphere of crime, however, we have dictated punishment based on what we as a society feel is suitable to the crime.

This gets my blood boiling and on a new tangent of how different people are perceived a different way for the same crime and action. As a black woman, this is something I think about all the time. If you don’t believe me, watch the news and read the newspaper. Watch the placement of pictures with crimes. If there is no picture, it is normally a white person who has committed the crime. If the person who committed the crime is of color, believe there will be a picture. I know; I have paid attention to it!

Now, back to the fact that crime is crime. I came to this conclusion because I am so tired of people saying what they would NEVER do with judgment against the person who committed the crime or sin. I have concluded that I know what I am prone to do. None of that worries me. What worries me is the things I am prone to do but have no idea I am capable of doing it.

I call it accidents waiting to habit. The right time the right temptation could equate to an accident. Speaking of accidents, a hit and run is my case-in-point situation. Now, I would like to think if I accidently hit a pedestrian or a bicyclist, I would stay and not flee.

Who knows what is going on through some one’s mind that hit and run? Fear. Flight. Panic? I have no idea. But it a good example for what I am trying to say. We can’t say what we would or would not do unless we are faced with that test.