After Professor Gates, Why Pretend?
The current national conversation about race and the police reminded me about an incident that occurred when I was in Uzbekistan. As I walked into an apartment complex for an appointment I noticed the decomposing body of a man lying on the side of the road.
“How long as he been there?” I asked my host.
“Three, maybe four days,” he said.
“What happened to him?”
“Shot, maybe,” he shrugged. “Or maybe hit by a car. Something.”
I didn’t bother to ask why no one had called the police. I knew. Calling the Uzbek militsia amounts to a request to be beaten, robbed or worse. So desperate to avoid interaction with the police was another man I met that, when his mother died of old age at their home in Tashkent, he drove her body to the outskirts of town and deposited her in a field.
With the exception of New Orleans after Katrina, it’s not that bad here in the United States. Consider Professor Henry Louis Gates: he shouldn’t have been arrested by that Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer, but he came out of the experience physically unscathed.
Nevertheless, the Gates incident has illuminated some basic, strange assumptions about our society. Cops think they have a constitutional right to be treated deferentially. And black people think cops are nice to white people.
Yeah, well, take it from a white guy: we don’t like cops either.
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. references “the African immigrant killed while reaching for his wallet, the Maryland man beaten senseless as he lay in bed, the Miami man beaten to death for speeding, the dozens of men jailed on manufactured evidence in Los Angeles and manufactured police testimony in Tulia, Texas, the man sodomized with a broomstick in New York. Are we supposed to believe it coincidence that the men this happens to always happen to be black?”
Of course not. Blacks are 30 to 50 percent more likely to be arrested than whites for the same crime. Their prison sentences are longer. In the notorious “driving while black” New Jersey trooper case, African-Americans made up 70 percent of those randomly pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike—but fewer than 17 percent of motorists. Blacks are more likely to be stopped, frisked, arrested, beaten and murdered by the police than members of all other ethnic groups. American racism against blacks remains systematic, pervasive, and murderous. When there’s a policeman in the picture, it’s best to be white.
Still, whites and blacks have more in common than they think when it comes to their feelings about the fuzz. When those flashing lights appear in the rearview mirror, even the biggest right-winger’s day is ruined.
No one should be less scared of cops than me. I’m white, clean-cut, middle-aged, invariably polite: “Hello, sir. Is there a problem, officer?” Yet I can’t point to a single positive experience I’ve ever had with a cop. Neutral ones, sure—basic, cold, bureaucratic interactions. But no great ones.
And lots and lots of negative ones.
Where to begin?
I’ll never forget the New York traffic cop who stepped off the curb in front of my car on Madison Avenue and ordered me to turn right. He wrote me up for illegal right turn. “But you told me to,” I protested. “Wrong place, wrong time,” he smirked. $165 plus three points on my license. I appealed. The cop lied under oath. The court believed him.
Or the Nevada highway patrolman who pulled me over. I was doing 80 in a 70. He wrote me up at 100 mph. My brother-in-law, never the suck-up, confirmed I was going 80. I was so furious—the fine would have been $400—that I spent double that to fly back and challenge the ticket in court. I won.
When my 20-year-old self forgot to turn on my headlights as we pulled out of a parking lot while on a road trip with my druggie roommate, a Massachusetts cop pulled us over. I couldn’t begrudge him probable cause; pot smoke billowed out the window, “Cheech and Chong”-style, when I opened it. Still, what came next was unforgivable: he handcuffed my arms so tight that the metal cut to the wrist bone. (The scar lasted ten years.) When we got out of the town lock-up the next morning, $400 was missing from my wallet. (A judge, examining my wrist a few months later, dropped the charges. My $400, of course, was gone forever.)
An LAPD cop—it bears mentioning that he was black—arrested me for jaywalking on Melrose Avenue. I wasn’t. I didn’t resist, but he roughed me up. Upon releasing me, he chucked my wallet into the sewer, laughed and zoomed off on his motorcycle. I filed a complaint, which the LAPD ignored.
And so on.
I admit it: I don’t like cops. I like the idea of cops. The specific people who actually are cops are the problem. My theory is that cops should be drafted, not recruited. After all, the kind of person who would want to become a police officer is precisely the kind of person who should not be allowed to work as one. But I didn’t start out harboring this prejudice. It resulted from dozens of unpleasant interactions with law enforcement.
Race has long been a classic predictor of attitudes toward the police. But high-profile cases of police brutality, coupled with over-the-top security measures taken since 9/11 that targeted whites as well as blacks, have helped bring the races together in their contempt for the police. In 1969, the Harris poll found that only 19 percent of whites thought cops discriminated against African-Americans. Now 54 percent of whites think so.
Don’t worry, Professor Gates. We don’t care what you said about the cop’s mama. A lot of white guys see this thing your way.
COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL
30 Comments.
What are they gonna do, dismantle the entire cop hierarchy?? I got stopped by 2 19 year old rookies for running through Port Authority to catch a bus back in 1998. When I realised that they were being serious, I put up my hands in surrender. This was not too soon after the Louima incident. After they accused me of being on PCP I produced one of those PBA cards that my sister's cop boyfriend gave me and they let me go. If I hadn't given them the card they probably would have dragged my white ass downtown. Iwas pretty scared. And I hate cops. PS. Don't give them any reason to intrude on your life, ever.
I'm a white American woman, and I don't trust the police. They scared me so much when I was a victim that I wished I hadn't reported the crime!
A few years ago as I was walking, two men came up behind me, covered my face, picked me up off the ground, and dragged me into a clump of bushes, growling, "Don't scream or we'll kill you." Of course I screamed and fought– I figured they could kill me whether or not I cooperated, so what was the point of going along with them? When they realized it would be a challenge to subdue me, they ran away and left me basically unharmed– Just a bruise and a couple of scratches.
When I reported the incident to the police, they accused me of lying (since I didn't have any serious injuries) and warned me about the penalties for filing a false police report. For a while, I was afraid they'd haul me to jail for reporting that I'd been attacked! Luckily, there was some other evidence that supported my story and they let me go. Nothing ever came of the case, though, and in the end I don't know whether I was more afraid of the police or the men who attacked me. If it happened to me again, I definitely wouldn't report it even though I'd feel badly knowing that the men might attack some other woman less able to fight them off.
I'll never forget the officer who investigated the burglary of my apartment in 1998. I asked casually about his job, "So how is it being a cop?" kind of thing. I shouldn't have asked. He kept yammering on about the sting he was running on some local drug dealers and how he was going to put that 'peice of shit' behind bars. I couldn't help thinking, "Ummm, maybe that time could be better spent finding the guy(s) who stole my stuff…?"
"Don't worry, Professor Gates. We don't care what you said about the cop's mama."
Assuming the cop didn't lie about that as well.
lucky you're not on a bike…
Me: that guy in (described) pick-up truck with license plate XXX-XXX threw a soda at me.
Cop: and?
Me: i want you to arrest him for assault.
Cop: well i didn't see it, so i can't arrest anybody.
Well done Protectors of Society!
urgh,
money(g)
Every white boy that ever grew up in small-town America is familiar with the crime of "Walking While Being 18."
When my black friends tell me stories about being harassed by the police, it's eerie how familiar it all sounds.
Ted, this piece is so on target that it boggles the mind.
After having driven a truck in the city all night, I deliberately drove at 25 mph down a bridge near my house, because I KNEW the cops always sat there waiting for speeders and I was tired and just wanted to get home to bed.
Me: Why did you stop me?
Officer: We clocked you at 40 in a 30 mph zone.
Me: I was doing 25 (I explained WHY I was doing 25, that I KNEW they were always sitting there).
Officer: We clocked you doing 40.
Me: I was doing 25 mph.
Officer: We clocked you doing 40.
Me: Maybe you clocked the car on the other side of the road. He seemed to be going pretty fast.
Officer: We don't make mistakes.
Me: A radar gun recently clocked a tree doing 85 mph. The story was in the newspaper. Radar guns aren't perfect.
Officer: Our radar gun is routinely calibrated. We clocked you doing 40.
Me: I was doing 25. I had my VW in second gear. My engine would have been SCREAMING if I had been doing 40 in second gear.
Officer: What kind of work do you do?
Me: I drive trucks for (my company's name).
Officer: Oh, do you know (some employee's name)?
Me: No, afraid I don't. We have a lot of employees on three shifts.
Officer: Well, ok. we'll let you go this time. But try to keep under the speed limit.
Y'see? The ASSHOLE couldn't admit he was trying to shake me down. Many cops are like that. Tom's right that they should be drafted. Maybe most recruits don't realize the true reasons they want to be cops, which for many is, they need to have the authority and gun in order to thump on anyone they deem a convenient victim. I've met some decent cops. But the assholes (many who are on duty stinking drunk!) make up for all the decent cops. The scum spoil the entire barrel.
The cops I particularly dislike are from the southern states. They have a habit of calling other men, even older men, "Son." What arrogant, ignorant sons-of-bitches! Tom's right again when he says cops expect you to be deferential to them. They don't deserve it. Like George W. Bush will NEVER deserve to be called President.
The real problem in America isn't race, it's class. Just like the old titans of industry hired workers of different ethnicity to make it more difficult to unionize, so the filthy rich bastards that own American media want you to believe that people of a different color are your enemies, not the rich pricks making the other 90%'s so difficult. Once all races and ethnicities realize they have more to gain by teaming up against Rich Dudes than against each other, maybe there will be some social and economic progress in this country.
I cannot urge readers here enough to read The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad. It's the most compelling argument I've read yet that class causes far more problems than race in this country. And, like Ted's work, it's uproariously funny.
It seems as though posters at this blog have their cop stories, so I'll add my two cops stories along with the others:
One was during election time last year, and there was extra police presence in the subway. I was in the same subway station as a lady who was being interrogated by an officer. The lady did not have her ID on her, and the officer told her that she could be arrested for this, indicating that he was being "merciful" by not arresting her. So according to this particular cop, anyone can now be arrested for not having valid ID on their person. Since when??? I didn't get the memo, and neither did the lady.
Which brings this story back to me. Two years ago, I was walking from the bus stop to my home in my own neighborhood, like I do everyday after work. A group of what appeared to be plainclothes officers pulled up to me in a car and demanded that I show them my ID. Since they weren't wearing uniforms, I couldn't really tell if they were legitimate police officers or just people pulling a prank. I asked them "what for". They said they were looking for a woman who fit my description. I did show them my ID, but I always wonder what would've happened to me if I hadn't had my identification on me at time? Most likely taken in for questioning, and god knows what else. Would they have formally charged me for not having my ID on my person? Is it the law of the land now?
It sounds like the former Soviet Union or the East Bloc, or Nazi Germany, where any person in a uniform could go up to anyone and demand, "papers please". And god help you if your papers are out of order.
Before I landed my job with the Federal government, I was dirt poor. I'm talking really, really poor. I could afford a vehicle, but it was a really crappy one. Obviously crappy. Driving it, I might as well have had a huge billboard on it that said: POOR MOTHERFUCKER DRIVING A PIECE OF SHIT CAR.
In those days, I thought that I was a cop magnet. In just about every way, I was. All I had to do to get pulled over was drive down the street obeying every damned law of which I was aware. It didn't matter how safely I drove, I'd get pulled over.
The only thing was that I didn't have to worry about getting killt for being black, since I'm white. But other than that, I think I was pulled about as often as any black man.
But I was never scared shitless that the cop was going to pump a few rounds in me for fun.
There's no doubt cops abuse their power. There's no doubt that the police somehow ends up with jerks in their employ. But I think the other issue here is we have too many ridiculous laws that allow the cops to abuse their power. The way Disorderly Conduct reads, a cop can legitimately arrest you for virtually anything.
Fixing the laws won't solve everything, but it's a start. If you can't predictably know you're doing something illegal, it isn't a crime and shouldn't be classified as one.
Everybody's got abusive cop stories. Did you catch the one I posted in another thread (Once a cop was being a jerk to me; I asked for his badge number–he put his hand on his gun and asked me if I still needed to know it…)?
I've experienced many more. I remember once was in a park late at night swinging with a friend. A couple of cops came and were sure we must be dealing drugs, because why would 20 somethings be in a park at night?
My car was near by and one pig asked me if he could search it. I told him, sure–I was certain he wouldn't find any drugs. He tore my car apart and became increasing frustrated when he couldn't find any contraband. The other cop started making fun of him. Finally, he noticed that there was some tint on my window, and he went back to his car to get a little machine that could measure how much light the tint blocked. Then the asshole wrote me a ticket for having too dark windows.
But the worst one that I know of happened to a close friend.
When he was a teenager, he was drinking beer with his brother on the hood of his car in an empty parking lot. Cops came in a couple of different vehicles, and his brother smarted off to them as they approached.
Bad move.
The cops beat up the stupid brother and a couple of them swiftly whisked him off to jail.
My friend was now alone and surrounded by a group of cops. He was humiliated and repeated punched in the stomach. It went like this:
"Step forward…"
Punch!
"Step forward…"
Punch!
"Step forward…"
"No, you'll punch me again!"
Punch!
After they got tired of beating on him, they knocked all the windows out of his car and left him writhing on the ground.
I've heard – and I don't know if what I've heard applies only to my state, Ill. – that one of the requirements to become a cop is an IQ of 120 or under. Which makes sense when you consider that smarter people tend to question their authorities, while toning down abusing their own. Of course that second part is of little to no concern to the authorities hiring the cops, and the populace at large suffers accordingly.
In New Orleas in '96 or so a friend was robbed at gunpoint. He lived, and when he got back to the hotel asked where the copshop was, so that he could wander down next day, make a report and then claim on his travel insurance. The hotel insisted on calling the police then and there.
In our room three hours later we've all fallen alseep waiting when there's a knock on the door, and two rather portly officers enter. "What seems to be the problem boys?"
We explain.
"Oh," says Cop #1 "We were under the impression that it was an emergency."
The pigs are filth. They've let violent offenders in my experience go free because they were afraid to deal with someone who just maybe might fight back with less than a SWAT team backing them up. On the other hand, they cripple the city with roadblocks just to check people to see if they can find anyone with no insurance, old license, etc. And they time these to be most likely to catch people who still have jobs and go to work daily, the least likely demographic to pull out a gun and blow their heads off…currently.
I think people should start going on jury duty and deliberately freeing all but the worst criminals in protest. I mean, jail the murderer but let the guy who just beat another thug to death in a mutual fight go. Jail the kidnapper/rapist but let go the "Technicality" one or the fool who browsed the wrong websites with no IP masking… No more drug convictions, period. Even if they re-try it, there's that much time/money wasted. Bog the system down in protest, they'll stop "Justice by Points" because it'll cost instead of profit.
And, btw, it's illegal and quite sue-able to fire someone for being on jury duty. Now, all of us could be fired any time for any reason or no reason, so even better to go on jury duty. If you get laid off, it's because the boss is retaliating against you. As long as the company is barely open and they didn't have photos of you doing a "Mr. Coffee" act, it's "RETALIATION because I went on Jury Duty!" Get a lawyer who'll say to them "Pay now, or we'll cost more and more and more as the years go by." The system needs to parasite money from people, they'll let it go through to the bitter end. Even the judge who nearly had a stroke when you let Chester M. off because you didn't buy the "Statutory" whine of the prosecutor -F*ck the F*cking parasite law- for his love affair with "Jailbait Jenny" will still let you sue your ex employer and he'll also probably look for any excuse to slap a fine on him for extra money for the state and his "Points".
Cops are like lawyers…nobody likes them until they need one.
As one whose dad was a cop, whose younger brother is a cop, whose first girlfriend was a forensics expert (!), I have to say: bravo, Ted! Of course, blacks in the US get it rougher from the cops, but it is no picnic out there for other folks, based on all the incidents I read of people being tasered and assaulted for no good reason other than the cop having a bad case of short man syndrome. Gates had it easy, actually. William Grigg's blog is rife with stories like that, and it's a great read on police brutality against all races in modern day America.
Unlike you, I don't like the very idea of cops. And I especially don't think
My theory is that cops should be drafted, not recruited.
is such a good idea. No one should be drafted, for any purpose, not the least to inflict violence upon other human beings, be it abroad or at home.
On the other hand, your follow-up comment:
After all, the kind of person who would want to become a police officer is precisely the kind of person who should not be allowed to work as one.
mirrors exactly my thoughts about what kind of people should be allowed into politics. Perhaps politicians should be drafted, and work under strict scrutiny and within very constrained limits.
Anon pondered:
"Ummm, maybe that time could be better spent finding the guy(s) who stole my stuff…?"
That is precisely why the whole of drug prohibition law along with the state machinery used to unsuccessfully enforce should be chucked out the window at once.
I'll chime in with MY cop story.
One time I got pulled over going 65 in a 65 zone. The cop had his hand on his gun as he approached my car. I said "what's the problem officer? I was driving the exact speed limit." He proceeded to pull me right through the driver's side window, head first. He then pistol whipped me. At this point, I was a little dazed but I protested: "What the fuck?". That's seemed to only enrage him further. At this point he kneed me in the balls which caused me to fall down. He began stomping on my head with his boots. I could feel the blood oozing out my ears, which really scared me. When he let up, he screamed "You're the motherfucker that wrote Fuck The Police aren't you?". I said "no, I don't even like rap!". It didn't matter. The cop picked me up and gave me a back body drop, followed by a suplex – a la Rowdy Roddy Piper. I though he would be impressed if I showed him MY wrestling moves, so I tried to put him into a sleeper hold. But he just flipped me right over, flat on my back. At this point, he started using the baton ….
What a bunch of limp-wrist babies. All you people do is whine and moan about how much of a victim you all are. Whaaa whaaa whaaaaa. Maybe you lefties are too stupid to function in society, that's why you need to blame everyone for you shortcomings and look to big daddy government to help you out. Grow a set for God's sake.
I think people should start going on jury duty and deliberately freeing all but the worst criminals in protest. I mean, jail the murderer but let the guy who just beat another thug to death in a mutual fight go. Jail the kidnapper/rapist but let go the "Technicality" one or the fool who browsed the wrong websites with no IP masking… No more drug convictions, period. Even if they re-try it, there's that much time/money wasted. Bog the system down in protest, they'll stop "Justice by Points" because it'll cost instead of profit.
Anonymous, it's called jury nullification and it's not only ethical, it's legal. The Framers ANTICIPATED thug authorities and wanted juries in order to stop their excesses. Prominent legal scholars have advocated nullifcation specifically for drug crimes.
Personally, I strongly suggest that no one find nonviolent, victimless defenders guilty (all other things being equal). Further, if the defendant did no significant social harm — or the crime was, again, victimless — there is no way that it's ethical to find him guilty if there was even a whiff of police misconduct.
Cops are like lawyers…nobody likes them until they need one.
Read the examples above, Jay. People here need cops — that's one of the many, many reasons we don't like them.
People here need cops — that's one of the many, many reasons we don't like them.
Yes. Arguably, we might need honest, professional police officers.
What we don't need is violent, corrupt thugs who are backed up by bureaucracies and judges who'll "believe" their lying testimony every time.
I'm surprised no one here has yet linked police brutality to the atrocities committed by US soldiers and contractors. We live in a thoroughly militarized society that has a obscenely high tolerance for violence committed by "authority" in the name of "security."
Did Abu Ghraib really surprise anyone? After all, we live in a police state that functions to feed the for-profit prison system…
@Grouchy
The elephant in the room with respect to Abu Gharib just fluttered through the news cycle and was forgotten the next day:
The worst abuses were ascribed to prison professionals from the civilian world. They got put to work managing prisoners in a war zone, and were shocked to discover that POW's are entitled to a higher standard of treatment than potheads, petty thieves and the just-plain-framed receive in our nightmarish prison system.
M Guy
for Anonymous @ 12:27AM 7/31/09:
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/09/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-connecticut-judge-rules-that-police-can-bar-high-iq-scores.html
Anonymous 11:43,
Either read the article, and the responding comments again, or get out.
What a bunch of limp-wrist babies. All you people do is whine and moan about how much of a victim you all are. Whaaa whaaa whaaaaa. Maybe you lefties are too stupid to function in society, that's why you need to blame everyone for you shortcomings and look to big daddy government to help you out. Grow a set for God's sake.
This was posted by "Anonymous."
One of the moderators made us read this on purpose.
Thanks a fuck, guys.
I've been waiting to see if anyone else would say this first, but… I've got to disagree. I've had my share of interactions with the police and they have almost always been courteous and respectful.
I'm not a logical apologist for the police. I've been a daily pot smoker for most of the past thirty years, so I have good reason to start from a position of anxiety and distrust.
My experience with police has been almost entirely limited to traffic stops. Being a habitual speeder, I've generally known exactly why I've been stopped. When asked, I 'fess up; I'm always polite and courteous myself; I usually get let off with a warning. The only time I ever lie to cops is when they ask whether I use drugs.
I'm sure there are some real assholes out there, but I haven't met them yet.
I do think the cop that addressed Prof. Gates was in the wrong. You should be able to be as mouthy to cops as you like, and once Crowley knew Gates was the home owner he should have left immediately.
But being mouthy to cops just to assert your right to do so is both rude and stupid. There are really only two possibilities.
1) The guy's a conscientious cop. He does a difficult, dangerous, and necessary job. He isn't paid all that well and most of the people he meets aren't happy to see him. Why would you want to give this guy a hard time?
2) He's a power tripper. He might deserve all the shit you can give him, but he's going to give it back triple.
I'm not sure what to do about bad cops, but I really do think they are a minority. Most cops really do deserve our respect, or at least our courtesy.
If you think bad cops are a minority, your ignorance is hilarious. Welcome to the collapse of the empire.
I used to think that cops were predominantly decent. In many cases, I still do: I've met a lot of actual detectives and they seem almost invariably smart (or brilliant) with a real interest in their work and the concept of justice.
Beat officers and highway patrolmen are a whole other matter. I've had to file police reports three times. In every case, the officer (this was all in San Francisco, so take that for what it's worth) did everything they could to avoid taking a report. I was directed once to a website that did not work, then asked to go to the station. At the station, they told me I shouldn't bother.
I also used to be indifferent to highway patrolmen. That is, until I was talking with a friend of mine who happens to be white. He was amazed that I've been pulled over as often as I have. (Never less than 2 times a year). I've been cited for speeding without a radar gun used or being paced. (The charge was thrown out in court.) I've been made to do a sobriety test twice when I hadn't had alcohol in days.
In a way, the highway patrol problem is understandable. This is not our cream of the crop – unlike cops, they are rarely in it for public service or some greater good stuff. It's people who couldn't make it and want a pension. They get power trippy.