Henry Louis Gates Jr.
I, for one, doubt there was racism involved in this case. To start with, Cambridge is a liberal and open city. That of course does not mean individuals cannot harbor racism but it sets a background. More to the point, the individuals involved do not seem racist, from the woman who called the cops, to the police chief, to--and this is the important part--the cop.
I dont care about his name, he is just "a cop." And that is the problem. Cops are an expression of the government's power. They are, to a very large degree, above reproach. And they seek power and the ability to use it over others - that is who becomes a cop and stays a cop on the street, other than those seeking long-term non-performance based union employment. For that matter, it is who becomes security guards and bouncers as well.
Thus when they encounter others they use their power--the power of the state or institution--to intimidate, irritate, and generate confrontation. In the aftermath of the confrontation they use their status as the arbiters of the law and truth to twist reality into a situation where they were in the right. A man asking for a cop's badge number morphs into "disorderly conduct," questioning a cop's decisions becomes "resisting arrest" or "refusal to cooperate" and so on. The world twists so that the citizen becomes the agressor, the liar, the one we are told not to believe.
This is why Colby students were assaulted by Colby Security guards, it is why I was thrown out of a hotel in NJ by my throat (a local said I took his seat at the bar, which I had been at for 20 minutes. When he came back, his friend threw me off the chair, and the bouncers then kicked me out for starting a fight, throwing me down the steps of the hotel and kicking out my friends as well - you might be inclined to believe the bouncer's version, and that is exactly the problem), it is why a grandmother got tasered in Texas, and why a highly respected college professor was arrested in his own home after he had proved he lived there. Cops etc. look for fights, look for an excuse to abuse their power and put down those better than them, those more intelligent than them, those more successful than them, or just because.
Cops used to be loved. They were helpful, useful members of society. They kept you safe. They told you directions. But their attitude has shifted. Like disgruntled Dela and United Airline's eployees, they now hate the customers. Every citizen is simply one more perp, one more reckless driver, one more powerless ant who does not understand who he is talking to, and needs to be put in his place. You can't talk back, you can't question them, you can't tell them that they are wrong, you can't point out your rights, you can't point out they are dumber than the lasagna you had for lunch.
Luckily in this case it turns out the abused party was a nationally respected professor, an aquantaince of Obama's and someone who could create a media firestorm for the police. But the reason they did so was because he is black, and thus it became a question of racism. But that is not what is at play here, and unfortunately the media did not see what I think is the real story: the nationwide, thousands-of-times-a-day abuses of power perpetrated on individuals by cops and to a lesser degree security guards etc. We put up with it because we dont believe in it. We still somehow hold on to the fact that the cop is probably telling the truth, or at least partly so, and I think that is exactly wrong. We need to shift our thinking on the abuse of power.
I support Obama's calling the action of the cops "stupid:" it was. But it was stupid because it was an abuse of power, not because it was racist or could be percieved as being racist. And that is where the debate and public outrage should center.
I dont care about his name, he is just "a cop." And that is the problem. Cops are an expression of the government's power. They are, to a very large degree, above reproach. And they seek power and the ability to use it over others - that is who becomes a cop and stays a cop on the street, other than those seeking long-term non-performance based union employment. For that matter, it is who becomes security guards and bouncers as well.
Thus when they encounter others they use their power--the power of the state or institution--to intimidate, irritate, and generate confrontation. In the aftermath of the confrontation they use their status as the arbiters of the law and truth to twist reality into a situation where they were in the right. A man asking for a cop's badge number morphs into "disorderly conduct," questioning a cop's decisions becomes "resisting arrest" or "refusal to cooperate" and so on. The world twists so that the citizen becomes the agressor, the liar, the one we are told not to believe.
This is why Colby students were assaulted by Colby Security guards, it is why I was thrown out of a hotel in NJ by my throat (a local said I took his seat at the bar, which I had been at for 20 minutes. When he came back, his friend threw me off the chair, and the bouncers then kicked me out for starting a fight, throwing me down the steps of the hotel and kicking out my friends as well - you might be inclined to believe the bouncer's version, and that is exactly the problem), it is why a grandmother got tasered in Texas, and why a highly respected college professor was arrested in his own home after he had proved he lived there. Cops etc. look for fights, look for an excuse to abuse their power and put down those better than them, those more intelligent than them, those more successful than them, or just because.
Cops used to be loved. They were helpful, useful members of society. They kept you safe. They told you directions. But their attitude has shifted. Like disgruntled Dela and United Airline's eployees, they now hate the customers. Every citizen is simply one more perp, one more reckless driver, one more powerless ant who does not understand who he is talking to, and needs to be put in his place. You can't talk back, you can't question them, you can't tell them that they are wrong, you can't point out your rights, you can't point out they are dumber than the lasagna you had for lunch.
Luckily in this case it turns out the abused party was a nationally respected professor, an aquantaince of Obama's and someone who could create a media firestorm for the police. But the reason they did so was because he is black, and thus it became a question of racism. But that is not what is at play here, and unfortunately the media did not see what I think is the real story: the nationwide, thousands-of-times-a-day abuses of power perpetrated on individuals by cops and to a lesser degree security guards etc. We put up with it because we dont believe in it. We still somehow hold on to the fact that the cop is probably telling the truth, or at least partly so, and I think that is exactly wrong. We need to shift our thinking on the abuse of power.
I support Obama's calling the action of the cops "stupid:" it was. But it was stupid because it was an abuse of power, not because it was racist or could be percieved as being racist. And that is where the debate and public outrage should center.
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