Quote Originally Posted by cigarsarge
Two guys smoking pot in a vacant apartment with a gun present. They aren't the friendly type. WTF were they up to...Getting high before doing a robbery? Getting high before they rape your wife?
This is two misdemeaner offenses. From this you make the assumption that they are not only evil people for smoking marijuana and trespassing (neither of which is terribly harmful to anyone but themselves), but that they are obviously planning to commit a felony.

I choose to treat each person with respect and dignity, in spite of whatever prejudices I may have against them for where they live, their race, their creed, their social upbringing, etc. I realize this makes me sound like a naive, stupid kid. I realize that I could very easily say "these kids are a scourge on society and are obviously bad people" and be liked by everyone. However, to me, saying "these kids are obviously evil because they smoke marijuana" is no different than saying they're evil because they are black or white or hispanic or muslim or jewish. It's making a pre-judgement based on very little solid information.