The Stupidity of the Gates Arrest
2009-07-26 | Filed Under SteveG's Posts |
I was starting to feel like the real odd man out when I kept insisting that we do not know enough facts to judge who is right and who is wrong in this Louis Gates affair.
I kept asking why people assumed that the policeman’s story was closer to the truth than Gates’ story. I only asked this because almost everyone was assuming that Gates was the one making things up. If everyone had assumed the opposite, I would have questioned that too. Nobody seems to be satisfied with admitting that we just don’t know yet.
For the purpose of my own sanity, I am going to keep a record of links to other stories that indicate that there might be another point of view.
- Racial Profiling: “That’s Just a Fact.” This article describes some of what the ACLU has been doing and saying on this issue of late. There are a number of links in this article
- An Update on Racial Profiling, Diane Rehm Show, Guest host: Steve Roberts. This show was one of the links in the above ACLU article although it took a modicum of searching to find the actual show.
- Colin Powell weighs in on racial profiling on the Larry King Live show..
- Two versions of the ruckus in Cambridge by Dianne Williamson. With a little satire, she points out why neither side’s story is totally believable. The more the teller of the story lards it on about what a perfect person he was in this incident and the fault is completely with the other guy, the less believable the story is to me. If either side had admitted even the slightest culpability in causing the incident, then that side of the story would have been more believable. I am not saying more true, but only more believable. The more extremely one sided the story, the less believable. Again, only less believable, not necessarily less true.
- Tim Wise on CNN. Tim Wise posted this link on my Facebook wall. I once attended a lecture that Tim Wise gave in Worcester at The College of The Holy Cross. I have since read one of his books. He has a lot to teach us about fighting racism in this country.
I subsequently found the first part of the above panel discussion at this link - Bite Your Tongue by Maureen Dowd. Recommended to me by Marden Seavey. It is highly unusual for me to recommend anything by Maureen Dowd, but this time I think she has written an excellent piece, some of it based on her own original interviews.
- Officer, prof confrontation is a guy thing by Dianne Williamson. This column is partial redemption for the Worcester T & G. It’s one of the best analyses yet.
- Viewpoint: The Stupidity of the Gates Arrest By Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr
- Accomplished, but not insulated: Some successful blacks find Gates’s case all too familiar
- Gates Says What A Lot of Us Are Thinking: You Prove It! by John Ridley
I first started publicly commenting when I saw an outrageous Editorial cartoon by David Hitch in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
My original comment on T & G website was:
As usual, the T & G and especially David Hitch don’t have a clue. Hitch and the editors need to take lessons on how to read a newspaper before they take lessons on how to write one.
You, and many of your readers, have jumped to conclusions that are not based on any facts that have been published so far.
At the moment, we have two conflicting stories of what happened. Since none of us were there, we really can’t have anyway of knowing who is telling the truth.
One can assume that Gates was being arrogant and refused to show the policeman his ID.
One could also assume that Gates did show his ID as he stated. One can only imagine the remark that the police officer made to Gates after seeing his ID. What could the officer have said that would trigger a tirade if indeed a tirade was triggered?
Did the officer really feel threatened by this frail old man?
You can see other comments about this story on the T & G website. Follow the link above to the cartoon.
For the sake of completeness, here is the link to the written report by the Cambridge police officers. RichardH supplied this link.
Here is a link to a recording of the original 9-1-1 call and other police audio.
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