@mekkaokereke I want to thank you for giving me the insight and motivation to read US history a little deeper. It's only Wikipedia but still the information seems to be valid and it's right there to be read.

I was reading up on the Boston Massacre of 1770 in which cops escalated a verbal altercation to violence culminating in the cops shooting and killing three citizens.

I won't go through the whole story, but I wanted to share a couple interesting details. Possibly the name most associated with the Boston Massacre is Crispus Attucks, a black man of mixed African and Indigenous descent. He's arguably the first man killed in the US Revolutionary War.

I knew his name and significance from childhood but I always found it interesting he was named so formally. His sister called him "Cris" which seems more humanizing (I think her quote was that if they hadn't killed Cris, he would've killed them). He's been described as a sailor, whaler, or stevedore - basically, a buff and burly black man of the docks - so probably a serious match for British troops harassing the locals.

Cris didn't pick this fight. Some young apprentice yelled at the group of soldiers telling their officer to pay what he owed to the lad's master. So everything started out with "mouthy teen yells at cops". Cris arrived later after one of the soldiers hit the mouthy teen with his musket, attracting a crowd of angry locals.

So gunfire, dead locals, and a huge political situation nobody wants.

To diffuse the situation, the cops need to be put on trial and it has to be a fair one. Gunning down locals without cause is a hanging offense.

Enter John Adams, known mainly as second president of the soon-to-be United States but at this point, a prominent Boston attorney. Adams will act as the defense attorney for the cops.

Guess what Adams' defense strategy is?

You likely already know the answer. I didn't but it's predictable to anyone paying attention since *waves arms* I DON'T KNOW - FOREVER?

Yes, it's the timeless "OMG I WAS SCARED SHITLESS BY A SCARY BLACK MAN!!1!" defense. Older than America itself.

Charges were limited to 3 enlisted soldiers, murder charges were reduced to manslaughter, and they were convicted. Mercy was called for as the cops were all first offenders, so the punishment was reduced to branding on the thumb and being shipped back to England vs being hanged by the neck until dead. Charges were filed against members of the crowd but were dropped due to perjury by the alleged eyewitness.

So that's your American history in a nutshell. Mouthy teens, unhinged violent cops murdering black men, the OMG SCARY BLACK MAN defense, lying in court, cops walking on murder charges or getting a slap on the wrist, and lionizing their enablers by electing them to high office. Dyed into the fabric of the nation, older than America itself.

Anyway, thanks for explaining what a shitheel Francis Scott Key was.