Kennett, Missouri, is best known these days as the hometown of
pop rock diva Sheryl Crow. Sheryl Crow and now Heather Ellis. The
latter is no rock star, but she is a bona fide celebrity (or one
famous for being famous). Ellis, 24, the celebrated
Wal-Mart line-cutter, earned her 15-minutes of
celebrity when she accused a Wal-Mart shopper, cashier, assistant
store manager, security guard, and Kennett police officers of
racism. By the second day of the trial -- which ended last Friday
in a plea bargain -- it was clear from mainstream media coverage
that pretty much the whole town of Kennett was racist.
The facts were these: Ellis, then a college student, was in line
at the local Wal-Mart, when she decided her lane was moving too
slowly. She then joined her cousin in a faster moving lane,
cutting in front of a line of waiting customers. The customer she
cut directly in front of, Teresa Kinder, objected, especially
when Ellis repeatedly shoved Kinder's merchandise back down the
conveyer belt. The assistant store manager and a security guard
arrived and asked Ellis to leave. When she refused, police were
called. Ellis was later placed under arrest, and charged with
disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting arrest, and felony
assault of police officers.
Not surprisingly, there are two very different versions of what
happened. Ellis and her aunt say she was pushed by Ms. Kinder and
called racial slurs. They say police roughed her up, tore her
jacket, and told her to "go back to the ghetto." Police, store
management and witnesses, meanwhile, say that Ellis was
belligerent, and that she kicked officer Albert Fisher in the
shin and hit Sgt. Joe Stewart in the mouth, splitting his lip.
Whatever the truth, it is obvious that a minor instance of rude
behavior and bad manners escalated into a felony assault on a
peace officer.
The mainstream media was quick to indict Kennett as a racist
community. An ABC News headline read: "Heather Ellis Could Face
Prison Time After Cutting the Line at Walmart." Not for
assaulting police officers, mind you, but for "cutting the line."
CNN's Randi Kaye went after the entire town of Kennett, accusing
it of being "a community known for racial
tension." CNN showed more bias when it suggestively referred to
Kennett's "predominantly white police department." (In fact,
Kennett has two minority cops, which accurately reflects the
percentage of minorities in the town.) Groups like the American
Civil Liberties Union and Southern Christian Leadership
Conference noted that the town's police have been accused of
racial profiling minority drivers, a charge that has been
leveled, one time or another, at just about every American city
and town with minorities.
Needless to say, racial tensions exploded after
Ellis made her accusations. White supremacist groups began
slithering into town to spread their hateful propaganda, while
big name minority activists flew in from New York and Washington
DC, to further heighten tensions. Ms. Ellis's father, a local
Baptist preacher, called the trial a "big, racial discrimination
cover-up," which seems an odd comment since trials are supposed
to promote justice, not cover up the truth. (Perhaps the state
judicial system is racist too?) Ellis and her various coalitions
and supporters quickly hired the top criminal lawyers in St.
Louis: Scott Rosenblum and T.J. Hunsaker. When asked by reporters
to comment on the charge of racism, Rosenblum would say only:
"I'm not going to go there."
The fact that Rosenblum and Hunsaker had to settle for a plea
bargain suggests Ellis didn't have a prayer in beating the
assault charge, regardless of the extenuating circumstances. In
the end, Ellis was convicted of the lesser charges of resisting
arrest and disturbing the peace. The plea bargain stipulates she
must attend two hours of anger management class.
"MANNERS ARE OF MORE importance than laws," wrote Edmund Burke.
"Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend." But good
manners are today considered passé, a quaint and spurious remnant
of our dark past. So many of today's young people simply do not
care how their rude or anti-social behavior affects others. It is
almost like no one else exists but himself or herself. I
experience this form of anti-social behavior on a daily basis,
whether it is the young hoodlums in the street outside my window
playing loud and obscene music at 3 a.m. or young people talking
loudly and obscenely on their cell phones during a movie. And you
can see where they get it. I have attended theater productions
where adults bring their toddlers and allow them to chat
endlessly throughout the performance, no doubt finding this
behavior "cute."
If our young are not taught good manners, they are well-schooled
in resentment studies, during which they learn the various
benefits of victimhood and the importance of political
correctness. Good manners will never get anyone 15 minutes of
fame, but bad manners and crying racism is almost guaranteed to
buy you fifteen minutes and then some.
The tragedy is that by rushing to Ellis's defense, by excusing
her actions, and by concocting blanket racism charges against an
entire community, the "various coalitions" and civil rights
groups have done great damage to the laudable goal of combating
racial prejudice.
Perhaps now that the rock star has returned home to Louisiana,
the Ellis-and-mainstream-media-created racial tensions will cool
and Kennett, Missouri, can get back to being what it was: a
normal southern town trying to deal with serious economic
problems.
topics:
Racism, Aggrieved Minorities, Edmund Burke
