Gates in Cambridge: First the Outrage of Arrest, Then The Outrage of Denial
Posted by Mike E on July 27, 2009
by Mike Ely
It is an outrage that a Black man can be arrested in his own house — first suspected of being a burglar, then manhandled merely for speaking up for himself, in his own living room.
It is an outrage that a cop demands that Gates “step outside,” while six cop cars pull in.
It is an outrage that Gates is accused of disorderly conduct (inside his own house? with speech? completely sober? without a crowd?) Isn’t the real crime here asserting ordinary rights, protesting the cop’s assumption of criminal behavior from a Black man, asking to see the cop’s ID? What is the deference demanded by the cops, and what is the living yassirboss significance of that for Black people?
It is an outrage that the policeman’s association insists that everything was done by the book. Doesn’t THAT confirm that such harassment is routine and occurs daily, hourly, minute-by-minute in this country?
It is outrageous that the whole rightwing of America rises up to mock any mention of racism and to argue (over and over in the most sneering and patronizing ways) that Black men (including one “so educated”) should just know show more respect and self-control when facing cops. Post-racial? Pu-leeez.
Gates forced to do the perp walk, photographed by a neighbor
It is an outrage that rightwing pundits dare invent some phony “class issue” and claim to recoil from some alleged celebrity elitism toward a “blue collar” cop.
It is an outrage that this cop claims he was just doing his job, and that whole sections of the media and political establishment agree. And what exactly is that job then?
It is an outrage that this public case of harassment and insult isn’t instantly and universally connected to racism and racial profiling – and that a hellfire of public condemnation doesn’t rain down to make sure this never happens again to any Black person.
And it is an outrage, that EVEN A BLACK PRESIDENT can’t publicly say that the cops were stupid (which they obviously were) — without being forced into cowardly retreat under fire.
It is an outrage that EVEN A BLACK PRESIDENT is forced to back down within 24 hours, and praise that cop, and offer him a beer, and say that he himself had gone too far — and say that the issue is reconciliation (not justice?!)
What does it mean that even a Black president can’t simply call out the situation for what it is?
Why can’t it be openly and clearly discussed that African American women are terrified to see their sons walking out of the house — because of what these police might do, at any time, without any warning or cause? Why is that wrapped in silence? Why aren’t their voices on every channel (instead of lying police whining about being typecast!)
What does it mean that a whole body politics denies, mocks and silences reality, while 66% of young African American men say they have personally been stopped for no reason other than their color?
What exactly was the pressure (built into this system and into that Oval Office) that Obama was buckling to when he took the never-seen step — a president who rushing to say that he (himself) had rashly become part of the problem? Where does this pressure and consensus arise from? Who does it serve? What keeps it alive? How was it enforced, so that even an Obama had to back down so shamefully and quickly?
There is much to learn from examining that larger dynamic played out on a national stage. We should zoom away (for a moment) from the infuriating Cambridge confrontation (which most of us here understand pretty well). We should look at the dynamic that defined how such things may be discussed — even by a president. We should explore how and why the police are systematically shielded from the public condemnation for their relentless, unrepentant racist arrogance wherever they go.
What does all this say about what the most powerful “deciders” actually value and encourage among their cops? A thin blue line? For what exactly?
jp said
nice piece on Gates and profiling by the always-makes-you-think Ishmael Reed:
http://counterpunch.org/reed07272009.html
Sensibility said
Haha, so a professor and his driver look like they’re trying to force his door (because it’s stuck) so a nosey local ho0usewife calls the police and the over-zealous cop keen to make sure takes the guy downtown. Then within hours every leftist on the net is crying racism, every right winger is laughing at them and us sane folk are left standing in the middle like “Dude, WTF?” over the whole stupid overblown affair. Wait until they shoot someone like Special branch did in that brazillian guy on the tube in london, THAT was a fuckup. This is merely stupid.
jp said
maybe this site needs moderation…
Mike E said
[moderator note: This site has moderation. We have already removed trollish remarks from this thread i.e. this is not a forum that allows rightwingers and racists to post.]
jp said
I was (sort of) kidding… just a little disappointing to see a comment like that of “Sensibility’ (!) displaying such ignorance (of “the sane folk”!).
As if getting arrested for nothing is “merely stupid,” especially given the well-established FACT of police racial profiling. Police love police states, and this kind of ‘common-sense’ acceptance of the abuse of power allows it to happen. Take your shoes off, please.
However, I appreciate the site’s willingness to give wide latitude to its readership – I’ll accept your judgment on this.
spiltteeth said
Well, if it hopes to clarify, I’m pretty much of the same opinion as Mike Ely and I got into a conversation with my close freind about this. He;s a cop. He said that Mr. Gates was cursing and making obscene remarks about the cops mothers etc. “Well, it shouldn’t be an arrestable offense to curse” I said. He said that after being abused all day long and stressed out he could perfectly understand the cops doing what they did, plus, he added, its one thing to get cursed out by some crack head but its impermissible for a ‘respectable’ person to do it.
Also, I’d like to point out that England recently made it illegal to video tape a cope. Without that constant citizen attention, my friends across the pond have told me, the cops are beginning to get ruder and use more bully tactics.
So, any injustice, I believe, ought to be [made into a big deal].
Radical Eyes said
The RCP’s recent article on the Gates outrage is also worth reading.
You can find it here: http://www.revcom.us/a/171/racist_outrage-en.html
Just briefly:
1) I found that almost everyone I spoke with about this news over the weekend had a very strong interest in it…and often very strong opinions, regarding its various elements…It is clearly an important event, one that demands attention and provides opportunies for engaging people on a range of topics…Like many important events its gathers its “importance” not simply from its harshness or severity–as “Sensibility” points out, there was no shooting here– but because of the various contradictions and issues that it concentrates…It would be good I think if we established some kind of process for collectively developing and widely circulating some sort of Kasama “statement” in response to issues like this is a timely manner…Maybe the newsletter covers this function…but maybe not.
2) I found a disturbing number of my white friends (these include self-identified, liberals, progressive-lefties, moderates, and conservatives) taken in by the psuedo-”class” argument that wants to couch the conflict between Crowley and Gates as more about their economic-professional position than about race and/or police profiling and abuse.
3) This framing black professionals and intellectuals as a particular kind of cultural “elite” is I think a disturbing development…It no doubt shapes perceptions about Obama too…Thus it is certainly significant that Obama has invited Crowley and Gates over to “have a BEER” and not, say, a glass of Merlot or Chardonnay!!!
Olga said
Oreo cookies taste better than phony black presidents. couldn’t he act more seriously and once and for all admit the police racist system needs top to bottom rectification?
Sensibility said
[trolling snipped]
josetheredfox said
“It is an outrage that t the policeman’s association insists that everything was done by the book. Doesn’t THAT claim confirm that such harassment is routine and occur daily, hourly, minute-by-minute in this country?”
Mike:
Great piece here. I tried to make similar points in a previous posting (7/22/09, No. 10):
“Since when are revolutionaries ok with pigs policing space? Since when are pigs de-historicized from past/present enforcement of the ‘natural order of things’? Under this system, who “investigates” a “robbery” and who decides?
To be a person of color in this country is to be racially profiled every fucking day in ways that many folk can’t/won’t understand.
Making a distinction of whether this is a case of “racial profiling” or “racism” doesn’t bare much difference when one is the subject of that colonial empire.”
“Sensibility”:
My band Baader Brains wrote a song for your kind of logic. Check us out on myspace (“Be Seeing You at Camp Delta”).
I’m sorry to inform you but you are aristocratically full of shit.
cheers, josetheredfox
lunita said
Sensibility, what’s with the snarky comments?? you are really running some shit that doesn’t belong here!
Moderator? Please!
[moderator went and nipped the trolling]
Nil said
“the psuedo-”class” argument that wants to couch the conflict between Crowley and Gates as more about their economic-professional position than about race and/or police profiling and abuse.”
I keep hearing people say “it’s more about class,” but I’m not even sure what they mean?
Here’s the obvious way it’s about class to me: The cop thought he could get away with treating Gates like all cops get away with treating poor people every single day, because ‘black’ is coded as ‘poor and powerless’. He made a mistake because it turns out Gates was sufficiently wealthy and powerful to cause a stir.
I don’t think that’s what people mean when they say it’s “about class” though. What the heck do they mean?
jp said
Based on his/her followup comment, “Sensibility’s” comment is no better than flame, and not productive toward any intelligent discussion, and should be junked.
future's ours said
Hi fellows.
I have been getting involved in some discussions here, and actually not being an American. As you know.
But there are some very clear facts that we should remember.
1. The US is an imperialist state where the black people have been abused and badly treated in all its history, and like it or not, this racism remains. Racial equality? I have read many remarks in your site and you are right, of course. Let me say that I share all your rage about how the blacks are treated. And of course we should not let go any incident, no matter how small they seem.
2. And I think we all agree that Obama as a black president, but he either agrees with this imperialist politics or tolerates it to the degree of even propagandizing it. Like his speeches made in Africa. Defending the imperialist policies there.
He might want to do some changes. But he wants the changes light. So light that even the conservatives may agree to. So it takes him to do things that really don’t stand for the poor.
Africa is a very good example.
3. So you have some people in your website ravaging against the black. Defending the conservatives. It is logical. They are stuffed up with the messages that the media delivers. All the tv, radio, newspapers, they are on the side of that cop. They are saying that he has the right to treat that professor the way he did. So these people dare to go around and punch you in the face.
But imagine, if they dare to treat a respectable professor that way, imagine what they will do to the common people, to the latinos, to the working class.
That is why we exist. There is a whole system we need to change.
Renegade Eye said
Good post.
When Obama gave his speech at the NAACP convention, he sounded like MLK minus progressive and revolutionary content. Obama knows all the slogans his base uses.
Adrienne said
A few on my thoughts on this event — just to call a shit-coated shovel a shit-coated shovel…
The reason Obama had to retract his statement is because the 9/11–”War on Terra”–Patriot Act(s) rendered the Fascist Police State something that can never be criticized or called into question. From the moment Obama opened his mouth about this incident I immediately thought that he was only calling out this blatant racism because Gates is a friend of his, not due to the fact that this kind of shit happens every single day all across this country. The complete demise of fourth amendment protections also isn’t something I think bothers Obama too much either — after all, his FISA vote and his continuation of Bush’s wiretapping policies are clear evidence of where he stands on issues regarding privacy and search and seizure without probable cause. Indeed, the Police State that rules in America, on behalf of the Wealthy Corporate State, and the Military Industrial Complex is something that Obama definitely seems to be pretty comfortable with overall — at least when it isn’t affecting his own friends.
Btw, I’ve noticed that Obama is very careful with his use of words, so it was interesting to note that he could have been more accurate about what happened by calling it an abuse of power, yet instead chose to use a vague word like “stupidity” — though obviously he now feels the need to retract even that.
Mike wrote:
Yet that can’t be true, because they very quickly dropped the disorderly conduct charges. That seems like a clear admission that they think Officer Jim Crow(ley) overreacted. Well, it’s either that or Gates’ Harvard credentials and the fact that he has friends in high places meant that such charges would have been dropped in any event.
But if Skip Gates was just your average working-class Joe Gates would those disorderly charges still stand? Seems kind of likely they would, no?
And if that were the case, it would never have become national news, and we probably wouldn’t be discussing it here since it’s pretty unlikely we’d have even heard about it.
Actually I think the elements of “class issue” within this incident move in perfect tandem with the issue of race.
This “blue collar cop” is a racist and an egomaniacal abuser of power who obviously doesn’t know how to do his job at all, since he made absolutely no attempt to try to diffuse the situation once he knew who Gates was. Indeed Officer Jim Crow(ley)’s own police report acknowledged that he believed Gates was exactly who he said he was, and that he lived in that house — which should have made that the end of any reason for him to be there at all. But it didn’t end there, because Gates was black, and a white racist cop can’t ever have a black man mouthing off without automatically slapping on a set of handcuffs. But where class came into the picture, right along with the institutional racism, really began the very moment the cops heard that two black men were trying to break into a home in that extremely wealthy neighborhood. Do cops rush out to confront “thieves” the moment they get calls about break-ins in working class neighborhoods? No, as most of us are aware, calls that come from not-so-swank neighborhoods tend to make cops take a little longer to respond. Additionally, class may also have played a role once Gates asked the cop if he knew who he (Gates) was and then produced his Harvard ID card — because maybe it yanked Officer Jim Crow(ley)’s chain that an ivory tower elitist was making him feel exactly like the dimbulb racist pig that he is.
Gates, on the other hand, has been demonstrating his own level of disconnect due to his economic class. When he was being arrested he asked: “Is this how you treat a black man in America?” And now he’s claiming that this event has really made him aware of just how poorly black folks get treated by the police. Now, I may be a white woman, but the only way I can respond is to think: Well No Shit Sherlock! You’re finally absorbing all this now???
Nil said
Adrienne, mostly, that seems spot on, but, eh, the cops arrest people and then charges aren’t pressed all the time. It’s a regular occurrence. If you ask the cops, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t ‘by the book’, it’s because the cops decide whether to arrest but the DA decides whether to prosecute, and there’s a higher standard of evidence to convict than that necessary to arrest. If you ask me, it’s because “the book” is written to facilitate cops being able to arrest someone whenever they want as a means of social control. “Disorderly conduct” is one of those charges that just means “the cops wanted to arrest you”, charges are frequently not brought. Happens all the time, it’s not usually newsworthy.
n3wday said
Moderators Note: Sensibility’s comment has been removed. You may view our moderating rules here – http://z11.invisionfree.com/Kasama_Threads/index.php?showtopic=427
marxistsocialist said
Hello, but i like Noam Chomsky’s Hegelian and Dialetical-Marxist analysis on USA as a whole. I suspect that Noam Chomsky would say that this fascist-racist arrest of Profesor Gates is not news really but normal in USA. This has been since the fascist US Empire was created in 1776. Just like all the false-flags and fake-terror that US Empire has been doing to wage wars of plunder and death against the people of this world.
.
Maz said
This whole thing is outrageous, and as the statement says, it’s entirely by the book, and happens every minute, every hour, every day. Part of what’s missing is that stuff like this is universal. Any implication that this only happens to black people is not true – though I have no doubt that it happens more often to black people, and with greater severity. If this story involved Noam Chomsky the exact same thing would have happened. He would have been handcuffed and arrested. The cops, wherever they operate, will use any ‘disrespect’ as an excuse to arrest you and even beat the shit out of you, regardless of colour. They do it because they can, and because they hate and find intolerable anything less than the most slavish yes-sirring.
Earthspeakorg said
Obama should invite Sgt. Crowley for a beer, and then fire him for insubordination! Other cops who “closed ranks” around Crowley should also be identified and weeded out! Obama brings the extremists out into the light, where they can be exposed and purged.