I asked Mr. Morales in a telephone conversation to tell me what criminal activity had taken place.

"I can't talk about that," he said.

I asked if all the people interrogated were black.

"Well, mainly it was a black neighborhood we were looking at - yes,'' he said.

He also said, "Most of them were elderly."

When I asked why, he said, "That's just the people we selected out of a random sample to interview."

Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voters leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.

Not surprisingly, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city's black vote.

Scary Bob Herbert editorial about yet more voter shenanigans in Florida. I'm wondering if going after Fl's black population is less about making sure the vote goes their way (I mean, c'mon, what are the odds that it won't, what with rigged felons' lists & easily hacked voting machines), but more about getting blacks the hell outta Floreeda once and for all. Maybe I'm taking the myopic, Northeastern "Florida-can-break-off-and-float-down-to-the-equator-for-all-I-give-a-fuck" viewpoint, but it seems to me that ever since slavery was abolished & the minimum wage installed, the ruling elite of Fla has had less & less of a desire for its black populace. Maybe all this shit is just the concentrated push to convince 'em all to move to Georgia or something.

Hmm.