Silliness...

[mdehners]

I'm reaally tired over the BS around "The Cambridge Incident", esp. from the media. It must be nice to be Richers like them. In my entire life I've NEVER been ANYWHERE where I couldn't get in Deep Doo-Doo for Mouthing off at a Cop. I've however lived in places like DC and San Francisco where if you weren't White you could. And yes, I've had Cops come over when I've lost my keys and have attempted to break into my own home. Even being Polite you knew that they could(and if they had a Cross on their lapel, might...)give you grief so you made your Mom Proud and were POLITE.
And to those who say that he should be given an "out" because of his Past Experiences...we ALL have them. Like most Gay men the most violent Homophobic attacks on us have been by Black Men. 'Course, there's a difference. We're not really People.....
Truth,
Pat

Comments

[weofodthignen]

But every incident like this forces awareness of how thuggish the cops are. And that's good. Like at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 - people tend to think that if they are enlightened, they will in return be treated in an enlightened way. That's not how it works, the cops need to be called on their shit, and publicity is good. It's a shame we only get wind of it when it's a black guy who gets treated this way. I'm recalling 2 incidents in NYC: Abner Louima, who claimed (or was said to have claimed) that he was sodomized with a toilet plunger while being booked into jail, and Amadou Diallo, who wasn't even breaking into his own home, just letting himself in with his keys, and was shot dead by the cops. It's sad for blacks that such things are more likely to happen to them just because they are black, but as you say, the cops brutalize other people too. Any light shone under this rock helps.

I'd actually been seeing this story as a bit of karmic revenge, because I recognized Henry Louis Gates' name as that of a head of the Cornell Africana Studies Center, and the guy I remember in that job was an utter racist bastard. (I got a fast education in black racism at Cornell, where that center was started in capitulation to the demands of black students who took control of the student union at gunpoint on Parents' Day. Previously I'd just thought people were people regardless of color.) However, checking his bio in Wikipedia I see that he was director after my time there and that he has consistently advocated against black separatism. He may in fact have been the author of opinion articles railing against the notion that for blacks to try hard in school is for them to be traitors to their race that I read approvingly for many years. I hope the other guy I had him confused with has had his karmic smack in the face.

The neighbor was trying to be a good neighbor. The cop was an asshole. The prof undoubtedly forgot that cops tend to be assholes. Maybe some good will come of all the hoo-ha.

M