Adding to the uncertainty and flux was the sense among some residents that this secured community was no longer so secure. There had been burglaries; at least seven in 2011, according to police reports. Strangers had started showing up, said Frank Taaffe, 55, a marketing specialist, originally from the Bronx, who works out of his home in the Retreat. He made it clear that he was not talking about just any strangers."There were Trayvon-like dudes with their pants down," Mr. Taaffe said.
As the father of a black boy, this is chilling. Frank Taaffe has no real way of knowing how Trayvon Martin wore his pants. I doubt that he much cares.
What amazes is the casualness of the racism, a casualness which does not see black boys as boys at all--but an indistinguishable super-predators in waiting. "Trayvon-like dudes."
This is my last post on this subject, until I hear something definitive. Watching people drag somebody's dead child through the mud is too much for me.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/trayvon-like-dudes/255326/
