Gates Case: It's Racism, No Doubt, But Cops, In General, Treat People Like Crap
I cannot imagine what it's like to be a black man confronted by a white cop.
But I will say this. Assuming that the experience is considerably worse than most experiences I have had with cops -- white and black -- I assume it must be frightening, intimidating and ugly.
Cops are the most imperious human beings I have ever encountered. They detain you. You can ask no questions and, if you do, they threaten you.
Have you ever asked a cop why you were pulled over for driving at the same speed as the rest of the traffic? Have you ever asked a cop why he cannot talk to you like a fellow human?
Cops tend to be scary people, best avoided except in those situations where there are even more scary people around.
I hope the Gates situation leads to white cops becoming somewhat more sensitive about how they treat minorites. I also hope it leads cops of all races to stop abusing their authority. This isn't a police state and we shroud not have to kiss their badges.
MJ: Do you know any cops? Have you ever been in continuous danger of being killed for a 12-hour shift?
You have precious little human empathy for people whom your politics don't favor.
July 22, 2009 11:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Have you ever been in continuous danger of being killed for a 12-hour shift?"
Fisherman, electrical worker and taxi driver are all professions more dangerous than cop. And I doubt that Cambridge, MA is a gang heaven where the police are under constant and deadly attacks.
And what do politics have to do with it? Everyone wants efficient and polite cops.
July 22, 2009 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the head of the NRA who was in his home asked the police to give him a name and badge number and wound up getting arrested, you might make a different argument.
Once you have been ID'ed, a citizen venting frustration is not a reason for arrest. The DA dropped the charges.
July 23, 2009 12:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
ditto why oh why.
Being a cop is a very safe occupation compared to say: loggers, fisherman, cab drivers, construction workers, farm workers, tree pruners, fire figthers, 7/11 clerks or any number of other workers. In fact the leading cause of death for cops is being killed in routine auto accidents.
July 23, 2009 1:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
So what's the excuse of the suburban cops I run into in a suburb that hasn't had a murder in my memory and probaby has never had a cop killed. What explains their attitude?
July 23, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I cannot imagine what it's like to be a black man confronted by a white cop.
Because all white cops are racists who will just as soon beat a black man as do their job? Or what? We're not in 1950s Mississippi anymore, Toto.
Cops tend to be scary people, best avoided except in those situations where there are even more scary people around.
Aye, there's the rub. And who would those scarier people be? The ones cops are trying to catch?
I hope the Gates situation leads to white cops becoming somewhat more sensitive about how they treat minorites.
I hope the Gates situation leads to Professors of the history of racial discrimination becoming somewhat more sensitive about how they treat white cops or anyone just doing their jobs.
July 23, 2009 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
The cop who arrested Gates was not doing his job. He was proving to an uppity person that it doesn't pay to be disrespectful towards a cop. That isn't part of a cop's job. Cops have learned that they can get people to tell them anything or do anything just by threatening the take them to the station in handcuffs, letting them sit in the patrol car long enough for the nosy neighbors to get an eyeful.
I admit that I have met policemen and police women who were good people, who treated citizens like human beings, with respect. But, I have also met cops like the one Gates met. The latter group seems more and more to be the majority.
July 23, 2009 12:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems from what I've read that this cop acted calm and professional, Hoppy. I don't disagree that a kind of power trip is endemic to police and other authorities (I've seen it and experienced it too). Prof Gates may have a lack of experience being challenged by a lowly cop and this could be a power trip of his own at work.
No, I don't think police have a right to pounce on people who question their authority, but it happens all the time and this case doesn't seem different from any other where a citizen is being loud, abusive and uncooperative.
When you use a word like "uppity" you're implying racism. Gates assumed this officer was racist right off the bat, and it doesn't look that way to me. It seems more like Prof Gates was the one who was stereotyping here.
July 23, 2009 1:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
He was in HIS OWN HOUSE! He wasn't out in public creating a disturbance. The cop "invaded" his space. The cop should simply have left. End of problem.
July 23, 2009 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Crowley initially went into the house to see his ID because Gates refused to come out. He couldn't understand Gates hostile reaction after he determined that it was Gates house (which he says he assumed from the beginning but still had to check out). The police were leaving and Gates followed Crowley out continuing his tirade. Crowley was in the yard,; Gates on the porch. He was warned for the third or fourth time to calm down before he was arrested. I'm not saying it's right but police arrest people everyday for disorderly conduct in cases just like this. It isn't racist just because Professor Gates claims it is.
July 23, 2009 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quite apparently, Gates WAS loud, abusive, and uncooperative. That does not mean that the cop therefore acted in a "professional" manner. He evidently remained outwardly calm (as it is his job to be), but his professional duty was to investigate the possible burglary. The professional thing to have done, once it was obvious that the two black men seen breaking down the door were in fact the owner and his taxi driver, and that there was no burglary at all, would have been to apologize for disturbing the owner and move on to other tasks. NOT try to engineer a way to take the law into his own hands by arresting the non-burglar on a trivial technicality.
The fact the policemen around the country are apparently lining up to defend the unprofessionalism of the Cambridge officer is far more disturbing than the fact that some university professors are unnecessarily tempermental and rude when hassled in their own houses.
July 23, 2009 8:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
You could be completely right that he "engineered" Gates outburst and drew him outide so arrest him. All I'm saying is none of the evidence looks that way. If you listened to Officer Crowley this morning, you certainly wouldn't get that impression. If you look at his exemplary record and especially the fact that he was asked to teach (anti) racial profiling classes, it wouldn't seem so.
And the CPD says there are radio recordings of Gates yelling epithets and Crowley not responding to them (when most cops I know would have blown up). Then there are the witnesses (two I've seen reports about), not including his fellow police officers (one black, one Hispanic), that back up his story of calmly asking Gates to settle down on two occasions after they were outside.
He could still have cleverly baited Prof Gates, but he didn't even know who he was. It may be that police need to clairvoyantly decide which persons ranting in the streets are disorderly and which not. I do think in the scheme of things, police powers need to be rolled back. And instances of abuse of those powers are all too common. I just don't see this as one. It wasn't a wise move to take Gates in, in hindsight, but that's because of who he is.
July 23, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
PS I totally agree with your take on how badly the police can react. (And post 9/11, profiling seemed to be back in fashion). I think we've been regressing in that respect, but that's another blog.
July 23, 2009 1:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
All the exchanges on TPM about cops that have arisen in several posts about the Gates case show a general hostility toward the police.
One of the strangest experiences of my life was on first visiting Spain, when it was officially a fascist police state, it was weird that one felt freer there then in "the land of the free". I think I only met a "nice" policeman when I lived in England, but that was back in the 60s and the police there seem to have changed by all reports.
July 23, 2009 1:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have met many nice police officers and a few real A******S in uniform. Fortunately my expieriences with law enforcement are few and about everyday stuff.
Mark Kleiman at samefacts.com has the best piece on this incident I've read. He ponts out that the officer progressed from unprofessional to intimidating to manipulate the citizen into a confrontation that "justified" an arrest. The officer then wrote a report that at best was disingeuous and at worst contained outright lies.
While I empathise with police in that they face not only danger but maybe worse unreasonable jerks all day, society can not tolerate dishonest, antagonistic or even unprofessional cops. The job is too important.
July 23, 2009 3:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sancta simplicitas!
No doubt everybody wants Joe Friday to be nice to herself personally, but does she really want him to extend the same treatment to everybody? ("Be nice even to icky THEM? Say it ain't so!")
Politics has everything to do with it, of course, because whether Officer Friday strikes Ms. Everybody as ‘efficient’ or not must depend on what it is that she expects him to do.
Mr. Gates of H*rv*rd has, I presume, a rather dark theory of what it is that Ms. Everybody wants Joe to be doing for ‘us’. Whether or not Gates is right, he cannot just be swept out of sight under the rug as summarily as this poster evidently hopes.
On the other hand, he (Mr. Poster) is the only peanut in the peanut gallery who, very sensibly, thinks it might matter a little that it happened in Zip Code 02138 and not (say) at Crawford TX or Kennebunkport ME. [1]
Happy days.
___
[1] Look at how one of our local wingnutettes picks the story up.
Any account that leaves out hatred of H*rv*rd cannot, I think, be entirely sound.
July 23, 2009 4:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Any account that leaves out hatred of H*rv*rd cannot, I think, be entirely sound.
Isn't is obvious that Harvard matters in this story? Isn't it obvious that what the issue here is the education of a working class man, not the sharpest pencil in the box, who failed to understand that class takes precedence over race, failed to distinguish between these people who can be harassed because they are black but also poor and "criminal" and those who should be treated well despite being black?
And isn't the anger at Gates, the sense of exhilaration almost at his comeuppance, also the converse of this, the working class hero who works by the book, who treats the Harvard professor just as he would treat any other potential criminal (i.e. black) person? Wasn't that cop sticking a finger, at least post-ex-facto, at the whole "liberal elite," and its politically correct obsessions?
This is a serviceable war of misrepresentations. Yes, cops are working class, but they are first the violent arm of the capitalist corporate state. And yes, Harvard is very much invested in Black empowerment, of which Gates is a proof. But it is a very limited empowerment, one that, on top of its many other sins excludes the great majority of African Americans, Harvard being one of the chief incubator of the worst of the U.S. ruling class worst politics, including among many the economic program of financialization and war that is not without its own color line.
It seems to me the only good way to respond to what happened is to call on the Cambridge police to violently harass more white male professors.
I know, I know...If pigs could fly, they could also maul their masters. But they can't.
Sigh!
July 23, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Add Princeton...a friend of mine is a tenured prof of organic chemistry there. He's a Sonoran Yaqui Indian, and looks the part...long black hair braided and very brown. So he was driving around town and cops profiled him and pulled him over, and roughed him up quite a bit. They searched his car and found some chemistry papers, and charged him with stealing them from the University. Off to jail. Unfortunately, the University wouldn't go after the cops, so the matter just died.
July 23, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't a police state and we shroud not have to kiss their badges.
Thank God the financial collapse hasn't robbed at least the writer of this post of his indomitable sense of humor.
If Gates weren't a Harvard Professor, a) he would have acted submissively, "knowing his place," and be spared the arrest, or b) his arrest, followed by some violent beating at the station, would go unnoticed, an unreported "dog bites man" (or "police arrests black person").
July 23, 2009 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
If and when the United States evolves to the status Mexico now has, where for example recently twelve Mexican police agents were recently brutally murdered, then I will be able to take this situation a bit more seriously.
Believe me folks, even the most stereotype Southern sheriff is the blessed Virgin compared to the Mexican police. On the other hand, the drug cartels are demonstrating that a simple beheading is one way to deal with an overbearing cop.
And the Mexican drug war is coming our way.
July 23, 2009 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Duncan, we buy those Mexican goodies. We are the "Mexican Drug War."
July 23, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, MJ, for this spot on and to-the-point commentary
July 23, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Have you ever asked a cop why you were pulled over for driving at the same speed as the rest of the traffic? "
Gee, MJ, NO - I haven't.
You see, I learned when I was about 6 years old that it violates the laws of physics for a single patrol officer to 'pull over' all 20 speeders at the same time.
Perhaps you missed that class in fundamental physics and linear time progression.
Not one of your best moments here, MJ.
July 23, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the late 60s a research team in San Francisco did a study that showed drivers with "Fuck the Pigs" bumper stickers were more likely to be pulled over and cited that those who did not have this popular bumper sticker.
Around the same time SFPD was having trouble recruiting new cops, so they hired an Ad firm in Oakland. What followed was a billboard on the Oakland Bay Bridge approach that read "Are You Man Enough To Be A PIG?" I kid you not - I think Herb Caen and Art Hoppe even did an article on it.
I was robbed by two SFPD cops a couple of years. They worked out of Park Station next to Kezar Stadium - a station that had been bombed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Police_Department_Park_Station_bombing
So I was pissed, and went to the station to file a complaint. I got my hundred bucks back, but I was arrested and had to spend a weekend in jail, both at Park Station and the Hall of Injustice. At the main jail, a fellow prisoner asked me what I was in for, but I didn't know - but I said maybe "drunk and disorderly?" "No way - this is a felony bay." "Yeah, I killed a dude today". Well, we got the number off my booking slip and it translated "receiving stolen property." That baffled me: "Maybe it was that they stole my money, and I got it back? I therefore received stolen property." (it turned out that I had a check in my wallet from work -signed but blank- I was going to pay off an account Monday morning.) I finally bailed out Sunday - the bond cost 200 bucks. Plus I had to pay another 200 bucks in parking tickets to get my vehicle back (and of course the dudes at the garage stole all my tapes). But by golly I got my hundred bucks back!
There was something else. Wile in lockup at Park Station, the cops threw a kid into the jail who had been beat up pretty severly - cuts and bruses on his face and a swollen eye. He was in a state of shock and terror. His story was amazing. He and his fiance had moved to the bay area recently from Iowa, and after a month or so he finally landed a good job. So the decided to go to the city to celebrate. While parking he nicked a car - a small scratch - and when he went to put a note on the windshield identifying himself to the owner of the damaged car, he noticed there was a police station across the street, so he decided to report the nick instead of leaving a note. The cops immediately ran a background check on the couple, and discovered he was 19 and his fiance was a few weeks shy of her 18th birthday. Then the cops began to physically abuse the young woman, and her fiance objected, making the fatal error of trying to restrain one of the cops by grabbing his arm. That's when they worked him over. He was charged with assaulting a policer and violation of the Mann Act, and was facing prison time.
I decided to sue the SFPD over my arrest, and got some legal advice about the proper procedure. I had a pretty strong case for police misconduct, and the first step was to interview the police policy review commission. The officer there tried to pass it off that I was drunk, but the police report said the cops had required me to drive my own vehicle to Park Station while they had my friend handcuffed in their patrol car. "Does it make any sense that if they thought I was drunk they would have me drive my vehicle?" I asked the commissioner. I knew by his non-verbal response that I had the bastards nailed. About three weeks later I got a call around midnight from Park Station that I had to come over and be interviewed as the next step in the complaint. I said OK, I would go to Park Station the next day. "No, you have to show up after 11:30 p.m. because that's when our shift begins. If you fail to comply, your complaint will not be processed." I told him "Are you kidding me - the last time I was at your station at night it cost me 400 bucks and a weekend in jail!" So I called my attorney the next day to see what could be done. So he starts telling me about the danger of trying to sue the SFPD. He just rattled off a litany of incidents - having dope planted on you, loosening lug nuts so your wheel falls off on the freeway, to outright homicides where cops were the suspected murderers. "Did you read about that body that was found in Maiden Lane the other day? That guy was suing the PD."
Sheesh, I was dumbfounded. I thought what does it mean when you can't call the cops on the cops? So I decided to to get out of Dodge. SF is my home town, and I didn't want to live there anymore.
July 23, 2009 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. That's a wild story. Thanks for sharing, neo.
I haven't experienced anything nearly that severe, but I've had my own difficulties working the system and trying to stand up for my own rights. I've heard other stories of people being pushed around by police acting like bullies in different places all over the country.
The fact that this sort of story is not unusual makes it all the more shocking. Why are we willing to accept this? What can be done about it?
Just curious, neo -- did you move someplace where the police are better? Where would that be?
-- ARG
July 23, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I moved to a rural area, and I've got to say county sheriffs tend to be a whole lot better. But it's a small community thing, where people know each other. But I've got to tell you, The SFPD is infamously corrupt. Ask Dirty Harry Callahan (heh heh). Anyway, the SFPD were the killer goons of the Bloody Thursday strike in 1934.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/05/BAE018JFTP.DTL
I don't know if it was that one or another when my Mom got beaten up by a SF cop. In those days she was 5'1" and weighed in at about 90lbs. The cop who clubbed her was 6'4" at about 250 lbs. She sued, and the cop's defense was that he had to belt her in self-defense. The jury bought it.
July 23, 2009 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Duncan, we buy those Mexican goodies. We are the "Mexican Drug War."
Oh, I agree with you very much.
A question I've asked War on Drug advocates is what are they going to do when the drugs start fighting back.
And Mexico illustrates what that means.
July 23, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
In 1977 I was working as a Chicago cab driver. I'm white. Young guy in my twenties back then. I drove a black woman home and she told me something that no cab driver likes to hear: "I have to go upstairs to get the money." Oh well, nothing to do but wait and see if she comes out with it. The street was a fairly narrow one-way with parked cars on either side and between them barely enough for two cars to squeeze through. A fairly "urban" neighborhood but not hard-core ghetto. Worth waiting a few minutes and not too dangerous.
I waited to see if my fare would come down with the money. A car pulled up behind me and honked.
I pulled over a little closer to the parked cars. The car honked again. I pulled over a little closer. And again. The car behind me now certainly had room to squeeze through. He honked a fourth time. Then I got stupid.
I got out of my seat, opened my door and slammed it. What the hell was I thinking? What was I going to do? I just let my temper get the better of me for a second. Big mistake. Two big guys got out of the car behind me and grabbed me. Only then did I notice the searchlight on the car. They were undercover cops in an unmarked car.
They frisked me, threw me in the back seat, wouldn't let me explain a thing, kept me in the car for half an hour while they "ran my license for priors". Finally after half an hour, finding no priors, they asked what I was doing there. "Waiting for my fare to come back downstairs with my money." They said, "I think I see her in the window. Go and talk to her.".
She calls out "they bustin you???" I said, "I don't know WHAT they're doing." She certainly didn't want to get involved and she wouldn't come downstairs but she did throw down the $2.15 she owed me. The cops let me go.
Just another day in the big city. No harm, no foul. But there was no need for any of this. It served no police function. The cops were plainclothesmen riding in an unmarked car, evidently just harrassing a working citizen because they could.
I can't imagine either what it's like for a black man to be harrassed by white cops, but the incident certainly made it impossible for me to ever again assume that police are always acting professionally. I won't assume they're always unprofessional either, but power definitely corrupts, and I don't think the question of whether police acted correctly should ever be just assumed to have an affirmative (or negative) answer.
July 23, 2009 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink