To the editor:

Your July 19 editorial page cartoon (over the body of a white, the gun-wielding black person says, “He didn’t seem to belong in the neighborhood … and I felt threatened.”) evokes neither amusement nor rational conversation. It is race baiting. Is that the kind of conversation that our fine community should be subjected to?

Since the portrayal is obviously in reference to the George Zimmerman self-defense case, you should be informed that our legal system does typically pursue race-neutral consistency. For instance, the 2009 New York Roderick Scott case was remarkably similar to Zimmerman’s, but where the black shot twice, and was found not guilty of murder for a 17-year-old white kid who hadn’t yet laid a finger on him. However, the OJ trial was an exception.

BRUCE MARTIN

Bainbridge Island