Before this column goes any further, I would like to take a moment to ask for a prayer in memory of all who have been and will be injured or killed by senseless acts of violence in our country and the rest of the world.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Well, maybe not Denmark, but at least in the state of America.

Laying here in the shadow of the Ennis Cosby murder and the Kenny Pratt incident, I feel that something must be said about the way the police and the press handle themselves at times like these.

I know what you are thinking, “Hey, aren’t you a member of the press?”

Yes, I am, but that gives me even more insight and right to an opinion of how the press carries itself.

In fact as the police reporter for the Daily, I have some sort of an inside view on both groups.

This is not an attack on either group. I will not attack groups for which I have great respect.

However, I can and will ask questions of these groups.

Questions that need to be answered.

The whole Ennis Cosby murder has become a CNN circus. Its handling raises many questions that need answering. Both by the police and the news media.

If his last name wasn’t Cosby, would it be as pertinent a news issue?

If Bill Cosby wasn’t his father, would his murder be national news?

Is the L.A. Police Department putting as much effort into other murder investigations as they are into this one?

Why does Headline News keep calling him Dennis instead of Ennis?

What about the high school honor student who was killed on an L.A. bus the same night when she was caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout? Is her murder any less newsworthy? Or any less important?

Why does this look familiar?

I know what it is! This kind of looks like the Kenny Pratt stuff going on here. Doesn’t it? First, a few questions for the police:

Why of the six other alleged OWIs that night was Kenny Pratt’s the only one logged on the same day?

Why were the other alleged OWIs not logged until the next day?

How is it that information important to his case was released so quickly that it made the early edition of every paper in central Iowa?

Does his status as an Iowa State basketball player make him a target by the police?

Does his status as a BLACK Iowa State basketball player make him an even bigger target?

Oops! I’m in trouble! I went and did it now. I went and played the ever popular ‘race card,’ Johnnie Cochran style.

So before anyone calls me a radical, a racist, a militant (which wouldn’t be that bad of a title) or any term that nobody else understands, let me clarify myself.

In my own personal run-ins with the police, I have realized that race does play an integral part in the movements made by the boys in blue.

If there is a disturbance and there is a black person anywhere in the area, they are generally the first to be told to leave, or they are the first to be questioned (after all, we are natural trouble makers).

I can’t just walk down Lincoln Way or Welch after midnight on a summer night alone without the police circling the block, slowing down, stopping me or just watching me.

Think I’m just paranoid? Maybe I am. But I don’t think so.

The police are not the only ones who haven’t been exactly fair and scrupulous.

My fellow media members and I have been, let’s say a tad unfair when it comes to Mr. Pratt.

When Kenny Pratt was struggling to get his grades up to par, stay on track for graduation and rejoin his teammates, none of us reported on his efforts.

Nobody found out how he was doing or what he was doing to get his grades up.

Sure, we were quick to report that he was ineligible, and we were right there when he was arrested for disorderly conduct, alleged sexual assault and OWI.

We were very diligent to cover all his mishaps and shortcomings. We covered the negative well, but we kind of slipped, tripped and bust our lip when it came to the positive.

There are those that know Pratt personally and may or may not like him. I don’t know him, so I cannot judge him. But this is not about like, dislike or character. This is about being fair.

If Kenny Pratt is guilty, may he be found so. If Kenny Pratt is guilty, may he be punished fairly and justly. If Kenny Pratt is guilty, may he be judged fairly and justly.

Sometimes I wonder.

Is the only time a young black man can make the news when he scores a touchdown, hits a three- pointer, knocks someone out, steals a base, commits a crime or is brutally killed?

Is every black male considered a potential criminal to the police?

You may say I’m paranoid or that I’m out of reality. Hey, I’m just speaking of what I know.

You say that this is America. I say we know, we’ve got the scars to prove it.

But hey! That’s just my opinion.

Holla if ya hear me, Peace!

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Rhaason Mitchell is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Chicago.