sophiaserpentia (
sophiaserpentia) wrote2009-07-23 01:47 pm
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I assume by now most of you have probably heard about the arrest last week of a Harvard professor on his front doorstep for being "disorderly." This incident happened about a five minute walk away from where I work.
While the police were called ostensibly because "two Black men with backpacks" were seen trying to force their way into a house, the arrest happened well after it was established that Professor Gates was not a burglar but the actual resident of the house, and that the other person with him had been an assistant. The police report, filed later, described Gates as being confrontational, yelling at the police over and over that they were racist. The police officer then led him out of his house onto the front porch, where he claims Professor Gates's yelling was disturbing and shocking people so much he had no choice but to arrest him for being disorderly.
Never mind that what was causing the disturbance was the continued and at that point completely unnecessary presence of police on the scene. It wasn't that Professor Gates was being disorderly and *then* the police came along to defuse the situation; he was "disorderly" because he was having a bad day and the police, by not leaving when their job was done, were making it worse. Their continued presence was the sole antagonist. If the police had left after Gates's identity was established, there would have been no more yelling; the tension would have been de-escalated.
So what it boils down to is, Professor Gates was arrested plainly and simply for not being properly cowed and obedient, and for no other reason. The charges against him have been dropped, but, notably, the arresting officer is completely unrepentant.
While the police were called ostensibly because "two Black men with backpacks" were seen trying to force their way into a house, the arrest happened well after it was established that Professor Gates was not a burglar but the actual resident of the house, and that the other person with him had been an assistant. The police report, filed later, described Gates as being confrontational, yelling at the police over and over that they were racist. The police officer then led him out of his house onto the front porch, where he claims Professor Gates's yelling was disturbing and shocking people so much he had no choice but to arrest him for being disorderly.
Never mind that what was causing the disturbance was the continued and at that point completely unnecessary presence of police on the scene. It wasn't that Professor Gates was being disorderly and *then* the police came along to defuse the situation; he was "disorderly" because he was having a bad day and the police, by not leaving when their job was done, were making it worse. Their continued presence was the sole antagonist. If the police had left after Gates's identity was established, there would have been no more yelling; the tension would have been de-escalated.
So what it boils down to is, Professor Gates was arrested plainly and simply for not being properly cowed and obedient, and for no other reason. The charges against him have been dropped, but, notably, the arresting officer is completely unrepentant.
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Honestly, the neighbor has to bear some of the blame if she (it was a woman, according to one article) can't recognize her own neighbor, who's lived there for (I think) a number of years.
And then there is the completely unjustified behavior of the police.
Racism everywhere in this incident. It's very ugly.
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http://gawker.com/5321278/henry-louis-gates-is-no-railer--brawler-or-common-street-walker?skyline=true&s=x
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I don't know, but I suspect that if it had been a white professor, that's what they would have done.
I'm old enough to remember the coverage of the Boston busing protests, where white suburban women were literally chucking bricks at the heads of black schoolkids while the cops stood by and watched. Racism seems pretty well ingrained in certain strata of folks up there.
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That is, there's nothing in the police report to suggest anything other than that the police's wish was to leave as soon as they had verified there was no break-in. They were a little confused because when they showed up saying they were responding to a report of a break-in, Gates said 'that's impossible', indicating that the 911 call was either a fabrication or a hoax and that he knew that there had been no recent forced entry to the house, even though he was fully aware that he had just made a forced entry. If not strictly a lie, it's clearly deceitful. And it understandably puzzles the police when the front door is broken open and the guy in the house is telling you that there's certainly been nothing like that going on and he can't imagine why people were reporting that people were breaking through the front door (when in fact he knows perfectly well why people were reporting that people were breaking through the front door because he just did it himself).
Then he flew into a bizarre and puzzling incoherent uncontrolled rage, kept demanding the badge number after it had been supplied to him already, and pursued the police when they went 'ok, well, thank you...we're done here, we're going now'.
Or at least, that's the police version (except for the part about Gates' saying 'that's impossible' in regard to the report of people breaking through the front door, which is his own account).
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Im not even sure the context is that racist. Is it because the woman identified the two men forcing entry as black? Is it that weird to report two men forcing entry to a house? My only thought on that is she should have known that he neighbor is black and so it might be him. But wouldn't it be strangely racist to see some black men breaking into your black neighbor's house and just assume it must be them? How would you explain that to the neighbor it they did get robbed?
What was in the woman's heart might have been racist but I don't think her actions prove it. What was in the police officers heart might have been racist but I don't think his actions prove it. The professor has made a much better case for his own sense of privilege that something like this could happen to HIM. And as far as responding to authority respectfully I wonder how much of his own behavior he would have accepted from a student?
My take is that its a 50/50 who was in the wrong or maybe more likely both parties failed to behave like the perfect buddhas the peanut gallery always expects humans in any given situation to behave like.
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I admit that under those circumstances, I would very likely to lose my temper.
From the point of view of the police, I would not like to be cursed and yelled at. However, at no point was Gates actually breaking the law. Arresting him for yelling at them was an abuse of power and I can't help but think that there are racial factors operating.
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And nothing, absolutely nothing implies racism to me. Which of coarse is what Gates is making this about because it makes him a martyr. If you are white I suggest to start screaming at the police the next time they show up trying to help you. While they are still trying to get your ID call the police and start filing a complaint. Really try to shake things up and test the bounds of white privilege. It'll be cool.
It is my personal conviction that violence is violence. And gates started the violence rolling. Laws aren't written that way though, so from a legal stand point the police were in the wrong. From my perspective a privileged douche bag just got inconvenienced. The unfortunate part is that he is a famous black professor who writes about race and is pumping this incident for all its worth. Indeed, gates was right when he kept saying "You don't know who you're messing with". A blowhard apparently.
I think this really comes down to personal perspective. I think screaming is someone's face and threatening them with authoritative action is violence. Most people don't.
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The thing is that Professor Gates has all the social/economic characteristics of the type of person (male, not young, educated, socially conforming, well-to-do) of the type of people who do get away with acting like privileged douche bags to the police when they have broken no law but are inconvenienced - except for the fact that he is not white.
That is what makes it racist.
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Cops seem to use the same yardstick.
Many young people here in the French Quarter get arrested simply because they mouth-off at cops who tell them to move on. Once they learn to be polite and move when told to move, they do not get arrested.
Cops tend to ignore that they are *public servants* and want instead to be treated like autocrats.
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It is worth keeping in mind who the violent abuser in the scenario is: Prof. Gates.
The police officer did not show up at Gates' house on a power trip looking for someone to bully. He came in good faith to protect the property of the homeowner, that being Prof. Gates, in fact. Prof. Gates replied with violent abuse, and now people who usually defend victims of abusive violence have starting trotting out all the standard abuser-justifying cliches about how the abuser was just having a bad day and it was the victim's fault for provoking him, and so on.
It's worth noting the power relationships here. The average beat cop has zilch. The arrests they make are for the benefit of others. If they arrest someone who is abusing them, all they can do is fill out some papers, and then they have no control over the rest of the process at all, and if there is any vindication, it will be months in the future. The situation of your typical police officer does not include a high degree of control over one's fate. Further, the police are acting for the benefit of the public, and are indeed called 'public servants' (and 'to serve and protect' etc.) Prof. Gates' behavior disturbingly becomes a narrative of a furious aristocrat beating a servant trying to do his job because the servant has the temerity not to have the telepathic ability to know that Prof. Gates is not a criminal, because after all, you can tell someone's not a criminal by just eyeballing them. The officer had the temerity to not engage in profiling, actually trying to find out who they were dealing with rather than just eyeballing Prof. Gates and saying "oh, not a criminal", which is, after all, what all good police officers do when responding to a break-in: don't bother to question people at the scene because they just look all right to you.
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ETA: I'll clarify why I ask this. Officer Crowley arrested Gates because he felt threatened by him. Never mind that the professor walked with a cane and the police officer had a gun and handcuffs. Perhaps, I'll grant, he was being so utterly vicious in the way he was yelling that he *did* seem violent. But I'm inclined to suspect that the same shouting from a white man would not have seemed to him as threatening.
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Off Topic
Thank you!
Amanda :)