On Monday, 17-year-old Draylen Mason was killed by a package explosion at his home on Oldfort Hill Road. It was the second in a string of three attacks in the past two weeks that the Austin Police Department says are related.
By all accounts, Draylen was a remarkable kid, and there have been hundreds of remembrances in the past couple days that testify to that.
One remembrance from former Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez cited an essay Draylen wrote as a 13-year-old in 2013 as proof that he was both “insightful and mature” for his age – even back then. The contest for eighth-graders, hosted by the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, asked a simple question: What’s the most important legal issue facing your community?
Draylen won the contest. He had written about racial profiling in policing – an issue the Austin Police Department has perennially struggled with. He was given the opportunity to read the essay to the bar association and met U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar afterward.
You can read his essay, entitled Racial Profiling, below:
