This recent incident with the Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., speaks volumes for the conduct of police in the United States of America. Apparently if you are a black man you should never lose your door key or for that matter make sure all your neighbors know exactly who you are. Then again if that neighbor was so nosey she should have bloody well known that the nice professor lived there.
The hysterical part of the whole thing is that Professor Gates was not arrested for breaking into his own house. No, he was arrested for being pissed off that the police showed up at his home, treated him like a criminal, and made him prove that he lived there. A man on his own property was mad and giving the cops what for. I would probably do the very same thing in that situation. And frankly the arresting police officer would too. Yet, the police officer instead got embarrassed about his personal dressing down and arrested the home owner for disorderly conduct (or some such nonsense) on his own property (What is the world coming to when we cannot “exhibit[ed] loud and tumultuous behavior”* at our own home?!).
The excuse was made both in the police report and at a “we support the arresting officer” news conference that Professor Gates was drawing a crowd and making a scene by becoming belligerent. It is too bad that the cops cannot arrest themselves for making a scene. Although I was personally not there, I am quite sure the police cars surrounding the house brought the curious crowd of onlookers.
There was no crowd that day a couple of years ago when a woman, Betty Perry, was arrested at her home in Orem, Utah. Essentially the police officer had nothing better to do than cruise the small city streets in order to find the driest lawns (in July) and hand out tickets. Apparently there is a little known zoning ordinance that makes every homeowner responsible for wasting money and water on lawns in order to make the city look pretty (You can get arrested in California or maybe just fined hundreds of dollars for what they do with sprinklers and hoses in Utah – what a waste of water.).
The officer was so confident in himself that he was all ready to write out the ticket instead of discussing the situation with the homeowner. He could have politely found out as to why the grass was dead and asked if the homeowner needed any assistance from himself, the community or the city. Instead he approached the house seeking a name (there are police computers for this) for his ticket.
Mrs. Perry, who answered the door, not elderly, was what most people would consider a senior citizen. Confused about why a police officer was at her door trying to issue a ticket for a dead lawn (that she could not afford to water) and demands for her name Mrs. Perry said that she wanted to call her son and attempted to go back into her house. The officer then proceeded to arrest her for not providing a name and trying to avoid the ticket (which he could have easily taped to the door or mailed).
While attempting to stop her and putting handcuffs on her (is that really necessary) Mrs. Perry lost her balance and ended up with a scraped arm and a banged up nose for her troubles (violent criminal that she was). Mrs. Perry received the same treatment as Professor Gates with a free ride to jail including all the amenities of fingerprinting and the like. When superiors found out that a grandma was being held in the jail and the circumstances behind the whole incident Mrs. Perry was immediately released, escorted home and all “charges” were dropped (or not even filed). They thought that would be the end of the incident, but they were wrong. Just like the recent Professor Gates debacle Mrs. Perry made the news worldwide.
It is not truly a matter of race (Mrs. Perry was very white indeed) in our nation. It is a matter of respect. There is a growing matter of disrespect for those who are our elders in this country and with that portion of the population growing each and every day police officers need to go through sensitivity training to be aware of how to treat this particular group of people.
An understanding must be made that at a certain age (between 50 and 55) people are just simply tired of being treated like crap and are going to stand up for themselves. Officers should know that a man would be belligerent that he was being harassed for breaking into his own home and that a woman may want to call her son for advice. These two should never have been arrested. Unfortunately for all they were. And both police officers did act “stupidly.”***
***Although this description is accurate it should not have come as a statement from the President of the United States of America. Remember Obama when in doubt “No Comment.”
1 Comment
July 24, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I think that, while a certain belligerence on Gates’ part was to be expected and grudgingly tolerated, he continued it far past the point where it was so tolerable.
At that point the police hauled him off to jail, as they would have likely done to anyone who behaved that way – irrespective of race, gender, or age. Though they likely, out of concern for their own safety, have been rougher on fit, young person than they were on Gates.
A bit authoritarian? Yes. Stupid? No.