And the race is on............

Anyone following the Heather Ellis vs Walmart case? No? Well I can't say I blame you, but you really should be , it's turning into quite the spectacle. This is the little case that could, or wishes it could, go national. The drama is set in a little town in the Missouri Boot Heel. it's a living breathing John Grisham novel. Here is the official MM condensed version, just to get you cave dwellers up to snuff.

Heather Ellis is a young ,black, school teacher, who is married to a Highway Patrolman. Make a note of that, I'll be coming back to it. Heather was in a Kennett Missouri Walmart with her cousin. They were in different check out lines. Heathers line isn't moving fast enough, so when her cousin gets to the register, Heather leaves her line, cuts in front of other customers, tosses her stuff on the conveyor with her cousins, and pissing off everyone else in line. These are the only facts of this hot mess that everyone agrees upon. At that particular moment in time, Heather is doing what people tend to do every now and again, she is being rude and inconsiderate, no class, but not a crime either. Chances are all of us have committed a faux pas or three in our lives. I was a thief, and not for nothing, but stealing money that doesn't belong to you is pretty rude. So I'm not going to get drawers in a wad over a little line cutting.

Let me just state for the record, I haven't spent much time in Kennett, in fact I've never laid a single foot in the Missouri Boot Heel. But just as I don't need to go to France to know that they wear beret hats and horizontally striped shirts, just like that mime fella, I also know that folks in the boot heel tend to be rustic, country as a chicken coop. I believe the county seat for Kennett is Nabisco or Keebler, not sure which, but I'm certain it's cracker country. I don't base this on some lil Abner hillbilly stereotype that I heard perpetuated on the local news. Instead I base my opinion on the dozen or so guys I've done time with who were from the Boot Heel. You could do a sociological study of the inmates in any joint, and you would get a better feel of the people from each area than you will from the US Census. Take the criminal convictions from the equation, and discount the occasional parent killer or cannibal, and convicts are pretty much like all of you L 7's. So the guys I knew from that region of Missouri were mostly ill educated, meth users, farm equipment thiefs, and racist to their core. I'm making this long drawn out point to say that there are some racial elements in the Heather Ellis case, but not quite like Ms. Ellis and her supporters are claiming.

Back to the Walmart debacle. Ellis claims the workers at Walmart, the customers in line, the management, and the police all used racial slurs towards her. For cutting in line. She also claims that the cops just up and jumped her out of the blue when they got outside. The cops say Ms. Ellis grew agitated, refused to leave the property. Upon being told she was under arrest, she allegedly snapped, crackled and popped like a rice crisp, busting one cop in the eye, and splitting anothers lip. Here's the rub, Walmart has more security cameras than Midtown convenience store. Ive got to believe that the whole thing is going to turn up in court. I also tend to think that no matter how country the law may be in Kennett, they have looked at those security tapes. I believe Ellis will be convicted of the charges based partly on those tapes.

There have been a couple of marches in Kennett, some NAACP members, no leaders, just a few card holders, and some activist out of New Jersey. No Sharpton, no Jesse Jackson. That says a lot about this case. If anyone in their right mind thinks that big Al and rev. Jesse wouldn't be all over this thing like white on a Klansman's hood if there was some substance to Ellis charges of racism, well you've got another thing coming. The Klan or some group of hillbillies with rebel flags have shown up at the march, calling cards allegedly from the Klan have been found on the ground. Ms. Ellis claims a cop threatened her by showing her a Klan card. This is the kind of shit that Al and Jesse live for, so where are they?

The media and Ms. Ellis camp have done their best to blow this thing up. The headlines read, School Teacher faces 15 years for cutting in line at Walmart. The truth is, she isn't on trial for cutting in line, she is on trial for battery on the police. 15 years !!!! While she is charged with crimes that carry up to 15 years, that's a highly unlikely sentence, rarely in this type of case would a first time offender draw the maximum. Remember when I said she was a teacher, married to a highway patrolman? At the time of her arrest she wasn't married, she was a student, but the implication of a teacher married to a cop being put on trial, has a better impact than say a three year old case against a college student.

There really doesn't seem to be any evidence of racial discrimination, or racism in the case, that is until the Ellis camp introduces it. Then the crackers jump out of the cabinet. You can bet your NAACP button that there is no short supply of racists in the Missouri Boot Heel, they are as thick as fleas on a stray dogs back. If a group of blacks march, you can count on the racist crowd showing up, and you better believe Ms. Ellis and her supporters were counting on it. Even the appearance of a couple of dozen rebel flag wavers didn't bring out any heavy hitters, no Sharpton, no Jackson, nada. Another seldom reported fact in this case, Ms. Ellis could have taken a plea for a misdemeanor, basically a ticket, she refused the offer. Her father, a minister, asks "Why would she plead guilty, she is innocent". The Ellis camp came itching for a fight. A young woman, a seemingly decent person albeit one carrying a huge chip on her shoulder, blew a minor incident in to a major felony. Now the wheels have been set in motion, and I'm willing to bet she wishes she had kept her cool, not played that card so quick.

It's easy for me, a middle aged white guy to sit back in my chair and dismiss Ms Ellis claims. It's easy for a handful of folks to claim racism, especially in a part of the country that is rife with it. Maybe the problem isn't race, maybe it just comes down to perception, a hyper sensitivity brought on by ones life experience. In a country divided by race, especially in a place like the Boot Heel, racism is alive and kickin. But in this case, that dog just won't hunt. I figure Ms. Ellis will be convicted, but won't see a minute in jail. I don't believe she should either. I think she has just painted herself into a corner, maybe she was having a bad day, shit escalated to the point she couldn't turn it back. The irony in this case is that it most likely didn't begin as a racially motivated incident, but when the accusation was made, it brought the people and groups out of the woodwork, and race became the issue. Like the river card in Texas Hold Em , that one card, in this case, the race card, changes the entire hand.
So the trial is under way, and in the words of an obscure R&B group from back in the day, "Let the sideshow begin".