Fiction by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
This story opens with Justin, a fourteen-year-old black kid, walking home from the convenience store, listening to his iPod. But then a pair of white police officers come rushing around the corner, yelling at him to freeze, and Justin instinctively reaches for his pocket to turn off the music. By the time the police realize that what the kid had reached for wasn't a gun, Justin has been shot twice, and it's obvious that he's not the suspect they were looking for.
Another innocent black man shot by white police officers! A tragedy. For the media and most of the general population, this is a prime example of racial profiling gone wrong, and as poor Justin lies in a coma, he is treated more as a Cause than a person.
For Riley Wilson, a young black woman, this story could be her big break in TV journalism. But she also feels the human side of things, seeing her own brother Shaun when she looks at Justin. But as for Jen Murphy, a white woman who has been best friend with Riley since childhood, all she can see is that her husband was the police officer involved in the shooting.
This was a good story that gave you a lot to think about, really showing both women's perspectives.
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