A couple of years ago, I almost went to jail for jaywalking. But that's not really true, I nearly went to jail because I was a smart ass to a police officer. My friend and I were late to a concert, and we crossed a busy street by weaving through traffic. I was trying to wave a car ahead of me so we could cross, but the car didn't stop. So I looked at the driver and gave her a "wtf" look before jogging across the street. It was a ghost car. Before I knew it, I was up against the wall being frisked. The cop was furious, and I'm fairly sure the initial plan was to take us to jail. But then we got very apologetic and deferential, and the cops let us go with just a citation.
I'm a 31-year-old white lawyer. And talking smack with cops is a great way to go to jail. I fully acknowledge that there is a long history, including the present, where blacks receive additional inappropriate scrutiny solely because of race. But that's not why I'm writing this. The Gates story is so big for the same reason the Duke lacrosse story was so big. It's the perfect, juicy mix of wealth, affluence, and race where we can use it to talk in broad strokes about anything and everything. I get that. We want to make it a teaching moment. The President invited the two for a beer. And when the President invites you out for a beer, it's not like you can say no.
Gates is a public figure, but Crowley is not. But now he will be famous, whether he likes it or not. And I suspect that it kinda sucks being famous if you're not rich. While Obama and others may wish to make this a teaching moment, we're turning Crowley into a Steve Bartman-like caricature. It's going to be exceedingly difficult for him to go back to his life after this fades from the public view.
Obama's decision to invite the two for a beer might be the best move for his reputation, but it's decidedly unfair for the participants involved, particularly Crowley. I have no idea what happened in Gates's house and I don't particularly care. My only strong belief is that the in civil society, the punishment should have some degree of proportionality with the crime. If Gates would like to sue for a violation of his civil liberties, he is entitled to do that. If state or federal officials would like to look into alleged impropriety, they should. But forcing people to try their case, without facts, in a public debate, with the President serving as a mediator, strikes me as cruel. But now the damage is done, and in two weeks, though Gates's and Obama's lives will be very similar to what they were before, Crowley's will be irreversibly transformed. He's been shamed, publicly, by the President. And you can't take that back. He's going to find it difficult, bordering on impossible, to do his job. This will be the first thing they write about him in his obituary. And it will affect everything he does between now and then.
You don't get worthwhile lessons when you teach about subjects where you have no unique insight or knowledge. And since We don't know what happened in that house, I just don't see what purpose it can serve as a "teaching moment." Ultimately, there's only one person for whom this should be a teaching moment, and that's Mr. Obama.
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This incident boiled down to two facts:
ReplyDelete1. Skip Gates behaved like a pompous jackass
2. Sgt. Crowley behaved like a controlling dick
Rarely do two people both get what they deserve. Neither did these two, unless every poor behaving police officer and academic malcontent deserve to be invited to the White House for a private meeting with the President and Vice President.
Crowley did behave stupidly: Was an arrest really necessary or was it putting a pompous jackass in his place? The handcuffs were not necessary.
Gates was in his own home.
What Obama learns from this episode: rehearsed remarks are ignored (see healthcare); candid remarks are misinterpreted. So much for speaking from the cuff.
Mr. Obama is right that African Americans and Hispanics are subject to police incursion at a disproportionate levels. He doesn't have to apologize for saying that.
What he should apologize for is the same thing the right wing media is best at, ignoring context. Why are African Americans and Hispanics stopped disproportionately? Is it indeed because there is racial profiling? Are police intrinsically prejudiced against people of color? Why are there so many black men in prison? Why are blacks 13 times more likely to be sent to prison for a drug crime than whites even though whites do drugs at higher rates?
Bob Herbert asked these questions in the New York Times this weekend, but these questions still lack context.
It ignores these facts:
The fact, a fact that Bob Herbert is the most likely columnist in America to point out, that violent crime in the African American community continues to occur at astonishing levels.
That drug crimes are often the most concrete way to get a violent criminal off the street without having to go to trial.
That the urban education systems are not equipped to combat all the influences for every child that come through their doors and that too many children have no hope of getting a good education, not because it is not offered, not because there are bad teachers, not because all urban schools are bad schools, but because too many poor students do not have the support structure to make the mature decision to keep going to school.
That a child without an education is far more likely to commit a crime, which begins the prison cycle.
That too many blacks and Hispanics in this country live in areas with too many negative outside influences.
That white students from equally failing backgrounds are just as likely to fail as children of color.
That our political system destroys the will of politicians that attempt to reform our schools.
That our political system destroys the will of politicians that attempt to reform our prisons.
At what point do we as a nation take a collective deep breath, recognize that we have institutions that need fixing, and then fix them without partisan or racial bickering?
When do we grow up and come up with real solutions?