It used to be that having the government come to your house and order you around was the kind of thing that conservatives feared. All the worse if the Man arrests you for voicing your displeasure. That’s black helicopter talk. I mean, Skip Gates is lucky they didn’t confiscate his assault weapons.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I was hoping someone would bring this up. Aren’t the 2nd Amendment fetishists concerned about jack-booted thugs and government officials forcibly entering their homes and arresting them for speaking out against said government? Or am I missing something, and all of this concern about rights only applies to anti-abortion extremists and other right-wing kooks?
Simple, really.
Government arrests American citizen for breaking into his own home in broad daylight, necessary, right, and just.
Government provides health insurance coverage for people who cannot afford it, it’s proof of unending tyranny that must be resisted by any means necessary.
I do wish that someone would get into the conversation that he WAS NOT breaking into his own home – he entered his home through the back door (key-to-lock method) and then tried to unjam the front door.
Apologizing for Gates’ behaviour is ridiculous. The guy is a smart and successful. If he couldn’t figure out that the cop had a job to do then I don’t really know what to say.
Cops have a very difficult and dangerous job. Whether you choose to believe it, America’s rule of law and its current enforcement of the law ranks as more humane than most other large and diverse countries. Ask any Georgian, Uighur or Tibetan.
Gates obviously thinks that there should be a separate set of rules that apply to him. Obama agrees. What does that say about either of them?
I can’t wait to hear the audio tapes of the release. Especially the clip where Gates whips a “your mama” out on the officer (which he apparently did).
Gates was correct based on my experience. Unfortunately, a black man in Cambridge stands out. A white female bystander assumed he was a homeboy from Roxbury across the Charles River and called the police. This would not have happened if he was white.
Gates was understandably upset. He ran the department of African American Studies so he knows more about racial profiling than almost any of his critics. Was Gate’s behavior perfect? No. He should have realized that the cops were doing their job answered their questions and reserved his ire for someone else.
Nevertheless, even if you take the police report as the absolute gospel truth they it is clear that the police made an error. They should have just walked away as soon as they found out there was no robbery in progress.
The U.S. does not have humane law enforcement. We imprison a higher percentage of our people than any other country in the world, more than China, more than Iran, more than Russia, more than North Korea. A much higher percentage of the people who are in prison are black and Latino than is warranted by their percentage of the general population. Racial profiling goes on. I’ve seen it myself and I’m white and I wasn’t looking for it.
If you are black or Latino you are guilty until proved innocent.
“A much higher percentage of the people who are in prison are black and Latino than is warranted by their percentage of the general population.”
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That’s a meaningless comparison. The percentage of any one group in the population at large is no evidence in favor of, or against, what the percentage of the group is represented in the prison population. A better comparison might be the percentages of each demographic group that are arrested for a crime, and then convicted. If a significantly higher percentage of Hispanics are convicted than, say, of Whites, then you can point to potential racism.
Otherwise, the comparison you site may simply be due to the fact that minorities tend to be economically disadvantaged, and that a higher number of economically disadvantaged members of any group may end up in prison.
Spend some time researching just conviction rates as you suggest. Or studies that estimate percentages of crimes committed by race compared with incarceration rates. You might be surprised.
Here are some interesting links:
http://www.peace.ca/truthaboutblackcrime.htm
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/513/justice_policy_institute_report_vortex_racially_disparate_se
ntencing_counties
I subscribe to a few drug-war blogs and reports of this sort are very common. I’ve never even seen one that supports the opposite perspective, that blacks and Latinos are somehow underrepresented in the prison system.
oops. that’s a typo up there. Meant to say, “defending gate’s behaviour…”
I was wanting to post this on this diary, instead posted it in Stevens diary about this one….sorry Steven….but left it there anyhow. You know how it is getting old…:o(
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Since this diary is about racial profiling as/and such, I think we see this through the real clear glasses of logical thinking.
A) this incident has been discussed to death on the tube,,,,tv that is; has out run it course. It has been addressed and is done,as far as I am concerned. Everyone has had their say and it is done and over with. Why keep this shit going on. It just creates more hostility.
B) The press is guilty of all the hot topics that is bothering us all today. They need to get a life and start to get done an d over with this issue.
C) if all in concerned take a moment and say “hey folks, I am sorry that it got to this point. we need to just stop this nonsense and get on with living”, and then drop it!
D) no one is perfect and thankfully no one was hurt, except for feelings on both sides of the argument.
I truly think this police officer, who was supposed to know better on how to defuse these kinds of things, didn’t do his job. What is he teaching the other officers, is what I want to know, for heavens sake!!
I am truly involved with this because my son is a police officer of 10 years on the force. He knows better and he works in Memphis, and he has taken courses on how to defuse such a thing. I think at the briefing of the police that took place, one said he didn’t vote for Obama and that there told me the story that this was a set up for all the shit that was going down. no matter what union was involved.
When one is involved in working with the public, one has to take into consideration all factors of a situation. Why were there other officers in the yard when the 1st one (crowley took mr gates out to the front porch) There are a lot of questions I would want answered first before I made up my mind on this matter.
We had to know where was Crowley before he made this call? What was he coming from and to what was he told about this call.
You see there is a lot that is not out in the press that one needs to take in to consideration.
Just you wait and see, something will happen soon to take this off the front page. Just like AG would say, bet on it…;o)
My way of handling the thing would have been,,,,after assuring myself that this is mr gates home, I would have asked him if he was ok and is there anything I could to do help him. I would state that there is always a reason to assume that some one could be in harms way and try to get help to the citizen. I would then shake mr gates hand ans say good night. Ask him to call the police if there was anything they could to to help him in any matter.
This would have helped the matter tremendously, I would think. Then leave…instead, someone called out the troops…why!!??? I want to know more about the situation….a little old black man is not to do harm to me if I was a big bustling police officer…he had not gun or was not threatening him with his cane…so what was going on that made this escalate to this that is is today???
you should probably read up on what actually happened and then post.
“B) The press is guilty of all the hot topics that is bothering us all today. They need to get a life and start to get done an d over with this issue.”
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Yes, but does anyone think that the media will get over this issue?
Of all the hundreds of issues the media could be discussing/researching right now, they have chosen to focus on this one. The media will continue to focus on minutiae, and will continue to claim that Obama is suffering setback after setback (the latest being that the health care plan won’t be voted on before the August break). This does little else than establish a failure meme for Obama, and by extension, progressives.
Which makes me wonder why so many liberals/progressives are criticizing Obama for not addressing their pet issues RIGHT NOW.
The rightwing cannot win a debate on issues with liberals and Obama, and so all they are left with is the strategy of trying to cripple any sensible agenda by creating a haze of “failure.” I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to contribute one whit of criticism to a guy who has been a fine President thus far, and who has begun to take the country in the direction I feel it should go.
Which kind of strayed from your post, I realize, but heck, it’s Friday.