Race Enters Randy Starks Arrest

O.k., there are some things I don’t like writing about religion is one of them and politics is another.  Race is a third and no I’m not talking about NASCAR and I’m not trying to stir up the masses or belittle something that I know exists.  Let’s face it, as long as there are different nationalities, different skin tones, and different ethnic backgrounds, race will be an issue.  How do I know?  Simple, it’s on just about every single application you fill out.  So should it come as a surprise that the attorney representing Randy Starks over his weekend arrest is now claiming it was racial profiling?  In my opinion, that is freaking absurd and YES, I am surprised…by how stupid that comment really is.

I don’t walk in the shoes of a different ethnicity.  I’m white and while I am not oblivious or stupid enough to believe that racial discrimination exists, I also believe that every time someone gets kicked in the gut, it’s not because of the color of their skin.  When a multi-million dollar athlete gets pulled over for driving the speed limit in a tricked out BMW on a Saturday night…o.k. good possibility he got pulled over because he is black and driving a sports car.  That same athlete getting pulled over with 9 to 13 fellow friends crammed into one vehicle…sorry bud, I don’t buy your excuse.

The attorney that is representing the Miami Dolphins DE had this to say in a statement to the Miami Herald earlier this afternoon:

"”What’s alleged in the arrest report didn’t happen,” Starks’ attorney, Ed O’Donnell, said. “It’s ludicrous. This is a decent guy who was arrested for one reason — he’s in a big car, and it’s a bunch of black guys in the car.”O’Donnell also had this to say about the incident:“He did not veer to the left. No one was sitting on his lap — the lady was on the console. They had a right to tell him to pull over with nine people in a five-passenger car. But why handcuff him and go in his pockets when he committed no crime? Randy’s dumbfounded.”"

What is “ludicrous” is the fact that anyone would be stupid enough to claim this.  Some of the facts may be skewed in this case, and those facts will likely determine where the DA goes with the charges.  For example, O’Donnell claims that there were only 9 people in the car and that 4 of the others that were reported were simply pedestrians who stopped when the hub-bub started.  That could very well make sense…although it hardly makes the situation any different.  9, 13, what’s four more to the party?  It’s not like there is a Miami law that states anything over 9 is illegal.

O’Donnell stated that Starks didn’t hit the officer…while the officer did in fact have that in his report should that be true and Starks never swerved to the left pinning the officer to another car then it is very possible that the officer could have been profiling his arrest.  However, O’Donnell is working off the story of Starks who for all intent and purpose never realized there was a police officer until after he allegedly hit the officer…at which time he pulled over…to the right.

Starks didn’t keep driving in the bumper to bumper traffic because he was evading the officer, he simply didn’t hear him.  He didn’t hear him the second time.  He heard the 2nd officer the 3rd time but by then the first officer was hit in the chest.  Starks gets out of the vehicle and is arrested for aggravated assault of a police officer.  A charge that will likely be dropped or reduced by the DA’s office.  A charge that was made out of anger by the police officer but holds zero malicious intent on the part of Starks.

Where in that entire picture was Starks profiled by the police as a black male driving a fancy “Freightliner”?  Where?  Where was the race involved other than the officer being white…I assume…and Starks being black?  Ask yourself if the same situation occurred with a white driver and the same scenario played out, would that driver simply have been let go?  No.  He wouldn’t have.  Not if it turns out that he did indeed hit the officer in question.

This is not nor should it be a racial injustice at least not this early in the process.  There are far more injustices in this world that what took place in Southbeach over the weekend.  Starks should be ashamed that his lawyer made this comment public.  Starks should take this like a man, stand up and apologize to the officer and take his punishment.  It really won’t be that much or that big of a deal when all is said and done.

Now, all that being said, should the officer start to claim mental distress and blah blah blah, then maybe his attorney would have something to go on.  Should it be reveled that the Starks didn’t clip the officer then maybe.  Somewhere down the line of all this, the issue of Starks’ arrest being race related may factually come out or at the very least with a little more related substance.

What is known is that on two occasions the officer tried to get Starks to stop and on two occasions he did not.  By law, that is disobeying an officer, in other words try that if your speeding and you will see what happens when you say “sorry officer, I didn’t know you were trying to get me to pull over.

Until the facts in this case come out, if they ever come out, Starks’ attorney needs to sit down with the DA negotiate a simplified plea to a misdemeanor, get the felony dropped and tell his client to use a little more discretion the next time he cruises Southbeach…and for what it’s worth, Starks is currently participating in the teams OTA’s.