Shock-jock Don Imus must have been hatched under a rock. A year ago, his crass attempt at humor in saying that the Rutgers University women's basketball team looked like a bunch of "nappy-headed hos," gave Al Sharpton something else to scream about and got Imus fired from MSNBC and CBS Radio. Now, his hoof-n-mouth disease has flared up again.
Last Monday, during his new show on WABC-AM, Imus and sportscaster Warner Wolf were discussing former Tennessee Titans and current Dallas Cowboys football player Adam "Pacman" Jones' season-long suspension and legal problems. When Wolf noted Pacman's six arrests, Imus suddenly asked Wolf, "What color is he?" (As if he didn't know.) Wolf replied, "He's African-American." Imus then said, "Well, there you go. Now we know."
Sharpton and others immediately jumped on Imus for injecting race into Pacman's arrests. Imus then defended his remarks by claiming that he had been misunderstood because he was only trying to "make a sarcastic point" about the mistreatment of blacks by a racist criminal justice system. Imus explained, "What people should be outraged about is that they arrest blacks for no reason. I mean, there's no reason to arrest this kid (Pacman) six times. Maybe he did something once, but everyone does something once."
Imus, a sub-species of Ignoramus, is trying to insult our intelligence with that lame-brained explanation. Let's look at how Wikipedia describes that poor kid's legal problems:
On July 13, 2005 Jones was arrested on charges of assault and felony vandalism stemming from a nightclub altercation. On September 5, 2005 Jones was a guest at the annual Nashville Sports Council Kickoff Luncheon. After a loud verbal tantrum when he was told to wait in line for his vehicle later that evening, Jones was counseled by the police. He also refused to pay for any valet services used that evening, because he didn't have money at the time. On October 2005, in a petition filed by the State of West Virginia, it was alleged that Jones had not made regular and sufficient contact with his probation officer and that he did not report his July arrest in Nashville in a timely fashion. The court ordered the probation extended for a period of 90 days, although the state requested it to be extended one year.
Jones also is set to appear in a Fayetteville, Georgia court in 2007 for his February 2006 incident on subpoenas for felony and misdemeanor obstruction of justice charges for an incident outside a home. The charges of marijuana possession in the same state were dismissed.
On August 25, 2006, Jones was arrested in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for disorderly conduct and public intoxication after claiming that a woman stole his wallet. She claimed that she did not steal anything and Jones spat on her. Police officers said they ordered Jones to leave several times, but he refused, continuing to shout profanities at the woman. A judge granted him six months probation on the conditions that he stays out of further trouble and away from the nightclub.
On October 26, 2006. Jones was cited for misdemeanor assault for allegedly spitting in the face of a female student from Tennessee State University during a private party at Club Mystic, a Nashville nightclub. He was suspended by the Titans for one game and was scheduled to be booked on the charge on November 17, 2006.
On the morning of February 19, 2007 during the 2007 NBA All-Star Game weekend in Las Vegas, Jones is alleged to have been involved in an altercation with an exotic dancer at Minxx, a local strip club. Jones and American rap artist Nelly patronized the club on the evening in question. Nelly, along with someone known only as Richard Rich, began to shower the stage with hundreds of one-dollar bills; an act known as "making it rain." Jones then joined Nelly by throwing his own money for "visual effect". Club promoter Chris Mitchell then directed his dancers to collect the money. According to the club's co-owner, Jones became enraged when one of the dancers began taking the money without his permission. He allegedly grabbed her by her hair and slammed her head on the stage. A security guard intervened and scuffled with members of Jones' entourage of half a dozen people. Jones then allegedly threatened the guard's life. During this time Mitchell and a male associate left the club with a garbage bag filled with $81,020 of Jones' money and two Breitling watches, which police later recovered. After club patrons exited following the original confrontation, the club owner says a person in Jones' entourage returned with a gun and fired into a crowd, hitting three people, including the security guard involved in the earlier skirmish. The guard was shot twice, and one of the people hit--former professional wrestler Tommy Urbanski--was paralyzed from the waist down. Jones maintains that he did not know the shooter, although the club's owner insists that Jones did. On March 26, 2007 the Las Vegas Police recommended to the city's district attorney that Jones be charged with one count of felony coercion as well as one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of threat to life.
On May 7, 2007, Jones was stopped at 12:45 a.m. on Interstate 65 heading into downtown after an officer clocked him on radar at 79 mph in a 55 mph zone. Jones was driving his red 2004 Cadillac Escalade XLT he bought at police auction last fall. Police seized the Cadillac last spring in a drug bust. The car was not registered to Jones then, but he told a local TV reporter he had loaned the Cadillac to someone for a music video. Police called the man who had the car the main target of their investigation.
On June 18, 2007 Jones was sought by police for questioning after a shooting at an Atlanta strip club allegedly involved members of his entourage. According to police at the scene, Jones was not present during the shooting, and is not being charged.
On June 20, 2007, the Las Vegas Police and Clark County District Attorney's office announced that Jones would face two felony charges stemming from the strip club melee. But on November 13, 2007, Jones accepted a plea deal; on Dec. 6, Jones pleaded no contest to one charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct, a misdemeanour. He was given a suspended prison sentence of a one-year, probation, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
There's no reason to arrest this kid six times? Maybe he did something once? Does Imus really believe that we are all so stupid as to buy into his malarkey? Imus has besmirched all police officers with his crap about cops arresting "blacks for no reason." Maybe Pacman was in the wrong place at the wrong time during some of the Wikipedia described incidents, but that does not alter the fact that the police had sufficient legal grounds each time they threw his ass into the slammer.
I have no idea where Imus was headed, but I guarantee you it was not his intention to point out that blacks are arrested for no reason when he asked Wolf, "What color is he?" Is Imus a racist? I really don't think so. He's just an ignoramus. While Pacman is obviously a jerk, Imus is an even far bigger jerk. The hoof-n-mouth disease Imus suffers from causes him to put his mouth in motion before he puts his brain (if he has one) in gear. For those who continue to tune in on the Imus show, it would seem that they do not posses an itelligence which can be insulted.
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