Teachable?
Okay, The President has said that the arrest of Henry Gates is a “Teachable Moment”. So what should be taught, or more accurately, LEARNED, from this mess?
1. Don’t mouth off to the Police. * The were called, they were doing their job, the more you cooperate the faster they will go away. (Note: This only applies if you are innocent. (If you are guilty, sit down, shut up and say NOTHING until you have a lawyer present.) If Gates had just been polite the cops would have gone away in 15 to 20 minutes and it would all be over.
2. The Police acted stupidly. Yes that is what I said and I’ll stick by. But not for the reasons the President implied. Frankly, the Police are to damned thinned skinned about every thing. They shouldn’t arrest a man, ANY man, for getting upset if they show up and start hassling the innocent. But they do. If you mouth off to a cop, (see learnable moment above) they will find a reason to arrest you. They will invade you personal space, they will accuse you of a variety of crimes, they will do any number of things until you do something to give them an excuse to ruin your day and arrest you. They need to lighten the hell up.
Those are my things to be learned. Nothing about race, just a little bit of common sense on both sides. Good luck in getting anyone to learn that.
* Why an asterisk on rule one? Well because sometimes you mouth off for a very specific reason. Such as to get arrested. Now I am not going to say that Mr. Gates deliberately got himself arrested. But, you and I both know that because of this the next book he writes will sell a million more copies than it would have sold otherwise. He will get invited to speak at more conventions, and get paid for them. He just became a household name all across the country at no cost to himself at all because he KNEW he would be released in no time flat.
Maybe I am a bit too cynical, but I can see it happening.
On a final note, I love the picture of Mr. Gates standing on his porch, bawling out “Look what happens to a black man in America!” And standing right in front of him, not at all concerned, is a very large black Police officer.
1. Don’t mouth off to the Police. * The were called, they were doing their job, the more you cooperate the faster they will go away. (Note: This only applies if you are innocent. (If you are guilty, sit down, shut up and say NOTHING until you have a lawyer present.) If Gates had just been polite the cops would have gone away in 15 to 20 minutes and it would all be over.
2. The Police acted stupidly. Yes that is what I said and I’ll stick by. But not for the reasons the President implied. Frankly, the Police are to damned thinned skinned about every thing. They shouldn’t arrest a man, ANY man, for getting upset if they show up and start hassling the innocent. But they do. If you mouth off to a cop, (see learnable moment above) they will find a reason to arrest you. They will invade you personal space, they will accuse you of a variety of crimes, they will do any number of things until you do something to give them an excuse to ruin your day and arrest you. They need to lighten the hell up.
Those are my things to be learned. Nothing about race, just a little bit of common sense on both sides. Good luck in getting anyone to learn that.
* Why an asterisk on rule one? Well because sometimes you mouth off for a very specific reason. Such as to get arrested. Now I am not going to say that Mr. Gates deliberately got himself arrested. But, you and I both know that because of this the next book he writes will sell a million more copies than it would have sold otherwise. He will get invited to speak at more conventions, and get paid for them. He just became a household name all across the country at no cost to himself at all because he KNEW he would be released in no time flat.
Maybe I am a bit too cynical, but I can see it happening.
On a final note, I love the picture of Mr. Gates standing on his porch, bawling out “Look what happens to a black man in America!” And standing right in front of him, not at all concerned, is a very large black Police officer.
posted by exMI | 07:54
1 Comments:
Heads up on torture thread at Booman Tribune.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/8/6/103243/1857#6
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