Well, St. Louis: What is going to be?  Is "see something, say something" still a thing?  Or are we just going to get rid of that, especially when the "something" involves black people?

Just a few days ago, St. Louis and the entire nation seemed ready to throw "see something, say something" under the bus.  A white woman was walking her dog, returning to her downtown condo, when a black man came up behind her and tried to enter the condo common area without using or displaying his condo-issued key fob.

"When I noticed an individual whom I did not know, my only intention was to follow the direction that I had been given by our condo association repeatedly," the hapless woman told the St. Louis Fox affiliate. "And that is to never allow access to any individual to anyone you do not know."

Residents have to use their key.  So that is what she asked him to do.  He refused, pushing her out of the way and walking past her to his condo.

To the black man, and to dozens and dozens of major media outlets that would soon swarm over the video he made, this story was proof positive of relentless white racism on display in St. Louis and everywhere, all the time, which explains everything.

From the New York Times to NPR, from coast to coast and St. Louis smack-dab in the middle, this was a teaching moment: white people have to stop calling the police on black people, even if they appear to be breaking the law.

Or else meet the same fate as this St. Louis condo-protector: she got fired for racial profiling, and the condo management company could not issue a groveling apology quickly enough.

Flash forward to one day later, about three hours outside St. Louis in Alton, Missouri.  A black person was charged with killing an 87-year-old white guy named Eldon Williams, who on the day he died was still working as a real estate agent.

A white person called the police – before knowing about the death of Eldon Williams a short distance away – after finding the black person in his house.  By the time the police showed up, Eldon Williams was found dead, and Donald Nelson was charged for the crime.

Good call?  Or rampant white racism?

The local chief of police had no problem answering that question, reminding local residents that if they see something suspicious, they should call police right away.  It's not as if you are going to get fired from your job or anything like that, right?

This "call or no call" is now a national movement, with black activists and lawmakers and their white allies calling for criminal penalties for white people who call the police on black people for no reason whatsoever.  Like the condo lady.

In the St. Louis region, so far, it is a tie: one for calling, one for not.

Let's go to New York City to break the logjam.  There, even a cursory Google search finds more than a dozen examples of black people following women into their apartment buildings or condos by rushing in before the door locks behind them.

Even the reporter at the ABC affiliate in New York was able to figure that one out.  In a recent story with the headline "Man charged after woman is assaulted in East Village elevator," on video we see events play out: a woman enters the lobby of her building, and a black man rushes in and sexually assaults her.

"Of course it is alarming," said the reporter as he interviewed the neighbors for their best ideas for staying safe.  "You gotta watch out who you let in," said the first neighbor.  "You never know who is behind you."

The building has a lot of security, said the reporter, but that did not stop several similar incidents from happening in the last year or so.  "Of course residents are reminded that you should never hold the door open for someone you don't know."

Game.  Set.  Match.

You can check out that story here, on my minds.com/colinflaherty page.

So I guess that settles that.

...unless of course, they are black. 

Colin Flaherty is the author of the groundbreaking Amazon #1 bestseller Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry.  If this is the first time you’ve heard that, that makes you a bad person.