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Racial profiling or not?
Is this racial profiling? If you side with the police, should the homeowner be excused to a certain degree due to his knowledge of a historical context of profiling?
Comments
Second of all, from what I've gathered from the article, he was arrested for being "difficult" and whatnot, not for actually being African American and breaking in to his own house. Now I wasn't there (obviously) but it seems that the home owner gave the cops trouble because he automatically assumed racial profiling. If I were in his situation, I would have produced the correct IDs and stuff right away, proven them wrong, and then complained.
However, unless he physically hurt them or threatened them or something, I don't think he should have been arrested for complaining about it, no matter how annoying.
On another note, I go to Georgia Tech, and our campus has been having a lot of armed robberies lately. A couple of students have even gotten shot. All suspects were described as tall African American males. I'm sorry if I offend anyone by saying this, but if I'm walking alone at night/early morning (which is hypothetical because I would never really do this), and I see someone fitting that description following me, I'm going to freak out and run or call the cops or something.
I'd be upset if the police did NOT respond to such a call if it involved my house. I'd also expect them to establish the identity of whomever was in the house, even if it was me.
Breaking down a door is suspicious no matter what race you are. The reason we have police is to investigate those very types of complaints.
IMHO, this guy has been stuck in the academic world for too long.
Fuck these cops.
I'm sure Gates mentioned that he was a Harvard professor when asked why he was in the house. Gee... the police wanted to establish the truthfulness of the claim. What jerks.
As for this situation, I think Gates could have handled himself better by just showing the officers his various IDs and tell them to leave his residence. However, Gates is a child of the Civil Rights Movement so he probably has certain prejudices against the police, so he probably provoked the cops to be angry.
The cops should have just left after they properly identified Gates.
The charges have been dropped, which I think is fine. The guy lost his cool and was a jerk, but I can see exercising prosecutorial discretion on this one.
Full disclosure: I fucking hate cops. I know better than that, but I can't help it. I've been mistreated by cops far too much to even-keeled about this stuff. My pulse is going crazy just reading this thread.
When I was a kid, I was a punk rocker -- mohawk, piercings, studs, leather, dyed hair, etc. For this, I got harassed constantly. I got rolled up on for walking home from a movie at 4 in the afternoon, and slammed down on the hood of a cop car, my arms cranked up behind my back, and accused of stealing bikes. I've had cops just pull up beside me and get out with their guns pointed at me. I've been "detained" twice within 4 minutes by two separate cops in my own apartment complex. I've had cops point guns at me 3 separate times, I've been handcuffed 3 times, and I've been put in the back of a car twice, and I've never been arrested. Because I was never doing anything wrong, and I had the sense to act like a scared little bitch, because I know these motherfuckers can kill me and get away with it.
Despite all that, I really feel these cops are clearly in the wrong. I'm with Speckospock: Anyway. Here's a funny story: About 7 or 8 years ago, I was renting a room in a house with a few other guys. I work nights, so I was asleep in my room at about 11am on a weekday. I woke up as I gradually became aware that someone was talking to me. There was a female cop in my room, pointing her gun at me, and saying something. I took out my earplugs (gotta wear earplugs when you live in a busy house and sleep days), and she was saying "What's the address here?" I had think a moment -- I was half-asleep, and I'd only lived there a month or two. You'd probably expect to be snapped to attention pretty quickly by a gun in your face, but for a few moments, I wasn't even sure it wasn't a dream.
"Do you have any weapons in the room?"
"No."
"How many people live here?"
"Five, I think."
"Get that blanket off".
"No, I'm naked".
Now, if I were fully awake, I'd have known better than this, but what can you do. So she pulls the blanket off, and I'm laying there, face down with my ass out, for what feels like 10 seconds, but was probably only 2 or 3. Then she says "Wrap that blanket around yourself and go out front with your partner." My partner? So I do so, and one of my roommates is sitting on the front porch, another cop standing over him. I'm just thinking "man, what the fuck did you do?" The cop says something about someone called 911. No idea what he was talking about. There was also this chubby teenage girl standing there, inside our front gate. I asked her "So who are YOU?", but she didn't say anything, and to this day, I have no idea what her deal was. The other cop comes back, and asks us where our house keys are. We tell her, she goes and gets them, tries them in the lock, and then they both just leave without another word. Fucking apology would've been nice.
So my roommate's story is that he was trying to call his girlfriend, whose number started with "9-1", and he accidentally dialed 911, then just hung up. When they sent a car out, like they do, he was in the bathroom, and didn't get out and get the door quickly enough for the cops' liking. This may or may not be the whole story -- we later learned this guy was literally a crackhead.
Which reminds me of another story -- that same guy went missing for the better part of a week, and showed up absolutely beat to shit, having been assaulted and arrested and put in jail for a few days for what he claims was a false narcotics charge. But like I said, crackhead. Still, he was brutally, brutally beaten. He was suing, and I took a bunch of pictures of his injuries to use in the trial. I probably still have them somewhere.
Neither of those stories have much to do with the topic at hand, except that maybe a fucking apology would be nice after waking me up with a gun in my face when I'm fucking SLEEPING IN MY OWN BEDROOM, but I think they're interesting stories.
Whoever told you it was your enemy?
Sounds like a really fucked up place to live in from the above posts.
I was even thinking of moving to the US recently, my friend moved to Boston and the only reason he's staying is to finish of a post graduate degree - he's triple assured me to stay in Australia and only come over for holidays.
Just for the record, LAPD is notorious for shit like that. None of that stuff surprises me in the slightest, Funfetus.
My grandfather and grandmother were both police officers and my grandfather was later elected as the Judge in our town. All the police officers I have encountered (friends of my grandparents, troopers for speeding, etc.) have always been reasonable if not outright friendly. Not all police officers are great guys and the "boys club" mentality combined with the position of authority can produce some terrible situations; it has been my personal experience that the majority of police officers do their job because they care about their communities.
However they're mighty quick to hand out an inflated speeding ticket.
Having said that, if you write NO tickets, you aren't likely to be promoted. But that's just because you're obviously lazy.
If everybody in your jurisdiction follows the traffic signals appropriately that means you would never be promoted.
This may be a contributing factor to lowering the speed limit for the sake of lowering the speed limit - the city law enforcers dropped the speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h for the whole day, every day, while roadworks were being carried out on the freeway I commute on. However, everybody kept on travelling at 100km/h so the police sitting there with their radar guns couldn't do anything as 4 lanes of traffic were all speeding according to the signs.
I got pulled over 2 weeks ago for running a red light around 3am. I had no license on me (forgot it at home) and was clearly in the wrong (the light turned red when I just entered the intersection, was going 10 over the speed limit. ThatÂ’s 10 in KM not Miles I live in Canada). I talked to the police calmly, explained I wasnÂ’t drunk. Was driving my friend home, we were talking, made a bad judgment call about stopping or going through a yellow. They typed up my name in the system and let me go with a warning. I am black and my friend is white, we immediately referenced this skit as soon as the police let us off the hook.
I was feeling all good about my luck until a week later I got a parking ticket for reasons that are still a mystery to me. (I was parked on the side of a road beside a curb, in a legal parking area, behind the car of a person that lives in the area.) As best I can tell I may have been parked an inch or two further out then I should have been from the curb. But I drive a small Honda, I wouldnÂ’t even be sticking out into the road further then the Vans and SUVs lining the road. I didnÂ’t notice the yellow slip on my windshield until I got on the highway and it got dislodged from under the windshield wiper. I went online to find out what the ticket was for, but apparently since the city workers are on strike (I live in Toronto) the one method they have for figuring out what ticket you got if you lost the ticket is now not available. Also, it is clearly stated drivers are still expected to pay their tickets even though workers are on strike. My only option left is to go to one of the two remaining offices that are open, and likely very busy, too see if I can get a worker to figure out what my ticket was.
It's unfair to characterize all cops by the actions of a few. As with soldiers, the bad occurrences get a LOT of news coverage, and the things that go smoothly get none. This makes them all look like assholes when the reality is that only some of them are.
That said, if you have personally had a bad history with the police, a dislike of them is totally reasonable. I don't live in LA, and probably never will, so I don't know what their local law enforcement is like. However, not liking the police and being a total dumbass are two different things. Getting in the way of a police officer doing their duty is a good way to get a police officer angry at you, which means they are less likely to treat you charitably.
I've been arrested once, moved into a wanted guy's former apt, had several car accidents, and been pulled over a few times. Each of these things involved police encounters, and yet the police were always professional. Some of them were more curt or responsive than others, but they all did their jobs. I also haven't ever been convicted of a crime or gotten a ticket, probably because I was honest and polite. In my experience, a lot of people that have trouble with the police also have a sense of entitlement and trouble being honest and polite. Not ALL, but most.