There has been a dicussion in the comments for my last post about race relations on this country. Now we have this Gates situation. A couple quick thoughts...
1) A black man the age of Gates more than likely experienced inequitable treament in his lifetime due to his skin color. AND --> I don't think he can compare himself to an inner city youth. Mr. Gates will not be able to convince me that he feared for his life. There was no reason why he couldn't simply cooperate to clear up a misunderstanding.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Gates had to drag race into this, and more unfortunate that Mr. Obama seemed to exacerbate it. The President may have been right that there are still problems with racism, but he jumped the gun in this instance. I don't understand why he thinks it's enough to acknowledge that he could have worded things differently. He called someone stupid when he shouldn't have. My mom taught me to apologize -- I'm guessing his did, too.
2) Apparently there are some audio tapes that may support the officer's account of the incident. And this leads to the bigger point I want to make:
It seems to me that it's about time that each and every encounter with law enforcement -- at the scene, on the street, by the roadside, in the interrogation room, wherever -- should be recorded in order for any sense of justice to be approached in this country.
There may still be lenghty trials that exonerate officers and enrage communities, as the Rodney King case did. But more often than not, the proof will be there as to what actually happened. There will still be disputes about whether force was "necessary," depending on the p.o.v. of the observer. But at least we can see what really occurred and not have conflicting accounts from the participants and witnesses, creating a situation just like Rashomon.
Now will this place a monetary burden on law enforcement budgets that are already strained? I imagine it will -- although with the cost of recording devices shrinking daily, it might be less than one would think. But I believe it's a cost that will pay for itself in the end -- not just monetarily, but in the way our society benefits in the name of true justice.
Sad that it's what we have to resort to, but there are too many with less than honorable motivations --on both sides of the law.
Every time Obama opens his mouth he sticks his foot in it. It absolutely amazes me that 49% of Americans still support this unfortunate soul! As a country of scarecrows, at least now it appears we are finally beginning to grow a brain...forget about having a Tin Man's heart for the unborn and the Courage of a Lion to admit we screwed up when we elected this man as President!
Posted by: Chris | July 24, 2009 at 09:48 PM
They do have an audio recording of the incident, since Officer Crowley had his mike open (they also have the original 911 call as well). Unfortunately, the media has not shown any interest in either of these bits of not-very-sensational evidence about what really happened. As it happens, the Latina woman who made the call thought that one of the men might be...Hispanic.
Professor Gates was tired, upset, and...he chairs African American Studies. He did what he needed to do to assuage his momentary feelings of frustration and to reestablish his credentials as a "black man". Why this involved deliberately antagonizing police officers with charges of racism is too complicated to explain, or perhaps just difficult to understand.
But, overall, I think that outfitting police with "black box" audio recorders is not the worst idea in the world. As long as citizens understand that they are being recorded (which Gates did not realize), there are no legitimate Constitutional objections. It wouldn't be all that expensive handled properly.
Quick question, though. Do you happen to know the name of Sgt. Crowley's partner, the man in the foreground of the photo? The one that stands 100% behind Crowley's assertion that Gates' behavior was unusual and cause for concern?
A more profound question would be, why don't you know his name?
Posted by: ChunLing | July 29, 2009 at 01:58 AM