More from: Cafe au Lait

This following responses followed the arrest of two young people of color after they had, unprovoked, attacked an elderly white lady.

"San Francisco can't arrest its way out of this," said Joe Marshall, president of the San Francisco Police Commission.

"You have kids that are hurt, who don't have adult guidance. said Marshall, who is African-American, and directs Omega Boys Club, an organization that steers teenagers away from street violence. "They take that out on everybody. If you lock them up, they get out, do the same thing."

"From the African-American community's perspective, they feel like they're being invaded by outsiders, and they want to defend their own turf," said Edward Chang, a University of California, Irvine, professor who has studied race relations. "It invites a sense of resentment."

Just wondering: Would Edward and John have offered the same comments if the attackers were poor white skinheads attacking a black old lady in West Virginia?

And: Should they have, in either case. Is softening a response to a crime really a matter of mercy in sentencing and not a matter of adjudicating guilt or innocence. "Mercy must not steal from justice," someone once said.