I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I read about Henry Louis Gates being arrested and jailed for "disorderly conduct" (how does that happen when your alone and in your own house?).  I don't have any firsthand knowledge about what happened, but from what was reported it would seem that Sgt. James Crowley exercised extremely bad judgment in making that particular arrest, bad enough where he should probably go on vacation for a while, preferably without pay.

 While most commentators, including Professor Gates,  are focusing on the clear racial dimension of this incident, I have to wonder if part of it wasn't Sgt. Crowley becoming angry at being challenged and deciding he was going to show this SOB who's in charge.

In the past few months, I've seen on TV a 72 year old woman being tased during a traffic stop. I saw video of police in South Carolina apprehending suspects who were on foot by knocking them down with their squad cars. I read about police breaking into the wrong house and shooting household pets in Maryland. There was the recent gay bar bust in Fort Worth and the Democratic fundraiser in San Diego. These are just a few recent cases where police officers have been way out of line.

The fact that that unskilled police officers abuse the public is nothing new. Perhaps incidents come to light more these days because of dashboard video cameras and cable TV. If that's the case, maybe my perspective is skewed by the fact that there has been an increase in reporting rather than an increase in actual incidents.  It sure looks bad to me though.

I don't know how to fix this. Better training maybe? Better psychological screening of police candidates? Better operating procedures for police departments?  I do believe, however, that if the incident regarding Professor Gates ends up being defined only in terms of race, a larger point and a more general problem is being missed.