There’s an old joke that goes like this:
Bob goes over to his neighbor, Larry’s, house and asks him if he can borrow his hammer.
Larry replies, “I would, Bob, but the Norse god, Thor, made me swear a blood oath to never loan this hammer to anyone.”
Bob replies, “Larry, that’s the stupidest thing that I’ve ever heard. Why are you telling me this story?”
To which Larry replied, “Well, Bob, if a guy doesn’t want to lend his hammer, any story will do.”
Sometimes I wonder if (alleged) criminals use the same type of thinking. Instead of taking responsibility for their (alleged) actions, they blame the crime on any number of things such as their parents, growing up in certain circumstances, or an ever popular choice, the excuse used in today’s story. Candace Hathaway gives us the details leading up to the reason given:
A Somali refugee who was sworn in as a Maine city council member earlier this week announced his resignation less than 72 hours later amid pending gun-theft charges and other troubling allegations.
Now, to be completely fair, I don’t know or have any way of knowing if this guy is actually guilty of the gun charges or of falsifying his address of residency in order to run for this city council seat (which is another thing that he is accused of). He does say that he is innocent of all charges.
Instead of just sticking with that, though, the reason that he gives for resigning from office so quickly is racism.
Hathaway also gives us the flip side of those accusations:
Steve Robinson, the editor in chief of the Maine Wire, addressed city council members during the public comments section of Thursday’s meeting. He alleged that the Wire reporter, Jon Fetherston, had received threats and experienced intimidation due to his coverage of city council matters. Fetherston has been attending city council meetings and reporting on the claims against Osman.
Look, if the council member was actually targeted for racist reasons, that’s absolutely despicable.
If, on the other hand, he is doing what seems to so often happen and is using accusations of racism as a cover for his own poor choices, that’s absolutely despicable, too, and it doesn’t begin to justify gun charges or any other criminal activity that may have occurred.
