Creative justice

Man's racist slurs prompt time in black churches

A judge gave Brett Haines a choice Friday: Go to jail or go to church.

The Anderson Township man, convicted of disorderly conduct, immediately chose six weeks of Sunday worship over 30 days in the Hamilton County Justice Center.

But there’s a catch.

Haines, who was accused of using racial slurs and threatening a black cab driver, must attend services at any one of Cincinnati’s predominantly African-American churches.

Cincinnati is still stuck in the 50s when it comes to race relations.

I had my own encounter with a racist yesterday. I was driving down 14th Street through Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights. Rather, I was sitting, as cars were not moving. Dumbasses crossed the street wherever they wanted, cab drivers drove like DC cab drivers, and generally the lowest demoninator types decided to get in their cars that day. I was fed up with it and turned down a side street, which was narrow with cars parked on both sides. Suddenly, an SUV started backing down the one way street. I had to lay on my horn to get him to stop within inches of hitting me, and then he just sat there. He had a parking space to the left of him that he could pull into and let me go around if he wanted to continue his idiotic backwards driving, but he just sat there expecting me to drive backwards down the street. He even got out of his car and told me to back up. I said no, you pull over. He got back in and just sat there, so I laid on the horn. Finally, it occurred to him to pull over. At this point, I was pissed off, so I flipped him off as I drove past. Of course, he follows me, driving forward down the street instead of backwards, and I get stuck at a red light at the end of the street. So he pulls up next to me and starts calling me a racist white bitch over and over again, telling me he was going to get his daughter to kick my ass and blah, blah, blah. I guess because he was black, my hatred of his stupidity made me racist. I told him he was the racist and that stupidity transcends race. I don't think he understood the word "transcends." Some people should never be allowed behind the wheel of a car.

What possesses people to bring race into something that has nothing to do with race? There are stupid people all over the planet- white, black, red, green... Like I told the guy, stupidity transcends race. If you are going to drive backwards down a one way street, you belong to a whole other class of people: idiot. And yes, I have no tolerance for idiots.