Possibly the Only Sensible Take on Gates
… is that of the inimitable Steve Teles.
For what it’s worth, however, my take is that this little micro-dispute in Cambridge was fundamentally a conflict about “honor.” This whole thing would have been a big nothing if either man were willing to swallow his pride. The cop could have defused it by letting Gates call him a racist and have it roll off his back. He couldn’t because, I think, he has a self-conception as precisely not a racist cop (given that he does racial profiling seminars). To back down would have been to accept what Gates was accusing him of—to be dishonored. Gates couldn’t back down and say “yes, officer, whatever you ask, officer” because he believed he was being treated in a way that was inappropriate to his status as a Harvard professor and because he thought he was being hassled because he was black. To back down would have been untrue to his idea of himself—as a race man and a part of America’s elite. Again, he would have accepted being dishonored. So they both stood their ground, and the guy with the gun won.
And so Gates retaliates in the media, and with the president—where HE was, in effect, holding the gun. Now the Cambridge cops think that they are being dishonored, because they believe that they run a comparatively professional police force that tries to treat black and white citizens fairly (“we’re not like LA!”), especially compared to what was the case in the past. To accept what Gates and the president said would have been to swallow being dishonored—to accept that what they believed about themselves was not the case. So they opened up on the president and Gates in this press conference.
The question is, is there any way for everyone involved here to retain their honor?
In Teles’s view, Obama “messed up” by not, in classic Obama fashion, attempting to explain both sides to each other.
There is another sensible take, actually — from an NYPD officer and philosophy grad student Brandon del Pozo.
“In Teles’s view, Obama “messed up” by not, in classic Obama fashion, attempting to explain both sides to each other.”
However, he seems to have done that now, with the recent “let’s all get beer” comment. I seems likely that it could put an end to this controversy.
— Marko · Jul 24, 10:35 PM · #
Boy, it takes someone who has never felt afraid of the police to think that “having a gun” in the form of the bully pulpit is in any meaningful way the same as actually having a gun, the physical ability to kill, and the legal and practical protection that being a police officer provides if you do.
— Freddie · Jul 24, 10:55 PM · #
it takes someone who has never felt afraid of the police to think that “having a gun” in the form of the bully pulpit is in any meaningful way the same as actually having a gun, the physical ability to kill
Not alleged, I think, but rather a turn of phrase.
You know what would be awesome? If people would stop trying to “out-streetwise” each other on this. “Dude, you believe police reports? Etc., etc.”
— Ben A · Jul 24, 11:30 PM · #
My favorite contrarian take on the Skip Gates affair is from one of the great “Galley Slaves”:
http://galleyslaves.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-skip-gates.html
— Jeff Singer · Jul 25, 12:45 AM · #
So they are in this guys house and all agree it is his house, then they arest him for disorderly conduct. I thought right away that Gates got nasty. I’ve known lots of whites that got charged with something for doing less. I think the big mistake was dropping the charges.
— Dave Groh · Jul 25, 02:19 AM · #
Spoken like a true liberal who has never “been afraid of the police,” certainly not in the same way you imply Gates was. You are such a walking stereotype. Incredible.
— jd · Jul 25, 01:04 PM · #
“The cop could have defused it by letting Gates call him a racist and have it roll off his back.”
Accusations of racism are very serious things these days to civil servants’ careers. Gates immediately began defaming the cop as a racist with not grounds other than his own racial prejudices. And, even more shamefully, Gates has continued to defame Crowley as a money-making means to promote his next PBS documentary.
The difference between Crowley and people like James D. Watson and Larry Summers is that he followed a simple rule: If you are telling the truth, don’t apologize — it just encourages the hatemongers. Simply by standing his ground, Crowley made the President of the United States blink first.
— Steve Sailer · Jul 25, 02:07 PM · #
“Dude, you believe police reports? Etc., etc.” _
Police reports are one side’s version of controversial events. No adult should take them at face value for that reason alone, anymore than they should take the victim/criminal’s version of events at face value. Do you trust the police to completely accurately report events that could potentially damage them or their reputations? If you do, you’re beyond naive.
_Spoken like a true liberal who has never “been afraid of the police,” certainly not in the same way you imply Gates was. _
Actually, I have; I have had the misfortune of having nothing and nowhere to go at a time when I wasn’t even a legal adult. I believe I share this distinction with precisely no one else who posts in this space. But that’s irrelevant. The point remains— any suggestion that the ability to grouse to the media after the fact is at all analogous to being confronted by a literal gun is absurd, and I don’t care how metaphorical this guy thought he was being.
_And, even more shamefully, Gates has continued to defame Crowley as a money-making means to promote his next PBS documentary. _
Actually, Gates has denied to the media from the beginning that the cop is a racist, only alleging that the incident was a matter of racial profiling (which is impossible to know) and that the way the cop handled it was out of line. He is shared in that opinion by many, many reasonable people, including some white police officers.
_If you are telling the truth, don’t apologize _
What truth was he telling, exactly? When he says that he is not arrested, he is not contradicting anything Obama said, at all. Obama has never alleged that he is a racist.
Here’s the question, if you’re Steve Sailer. Could anyone in the world who knew of Sailer’s work not have predicted that in a conflict between a black professor and a white cop, Sailer would have sided with the cop? Can Sailer point us to a single matter of racial controversy where he has ever supported the side of black grievance or black dignity? Ever? In hundreds and hundreds of blog posts and published articles?
— Freddie · Jul 25, 02:24 PM · #
“the incident was a matter of racial profiling (which is impossible to know)”
Actually, we know it wasn’t an incident of racial profiling. The report the cop had was of two black men breaking into a house, and he found two black men in the house. There are lots of other things we might have questions about, but it is hard to see where racial profiling could have gotten into the picture here.
— John · Jul 25, 03:30 PM · #
While this whole incident and ensuing blogosphere clusterf**k has been exceedingly depressing, I have been intrigued by the lack of conflicted emotions on the right about the conflict between the principles of “law and order” and “my home is my castle”. In AZ if I feel my home is threatened, even if the threat hasn’t entered my home, I have the right to use deadly force. (Now I’m not a “gun person” so I use alarms and cell phones as weapons.)
I have to say that of all I’ve read Brandon de Pozo’s review has been the best.
final question: do folks on the left and right salivate over the opportunity to spout their pre-conceived notions after the stereotypical incident?
— C3 · Jul 25, 04:02 PM · #
There are three distinct decisions to be judged. Crowley’s decision to arrest, Gate’s decision to provoke, and Obama’s decision to characterize the incident for a national audience.
Only the last issue is relevant to me. And I’m not impressed.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jul 25, 04:21 PM · #
That’s because most people on the right know the difference between a burglary and a police inquiry.
— Blar · Jul 25, 04:42 PM · #
That’s because most people on the right know the difference between a burglary and a police inquiry.
I’m not on the right, but ‘yup’. I guarantee if a policeman shows up at my house to inquire about a burglary, I can get him to leave satisfied, with me unarrested, 10 out of 10 times.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jul 25, 04:45 PM · #
“that the ability to grouse to the media after the fact is at all analogous to being confronted by a literal gun is absurd”
Given that no “literal gun” (as opposed to the metaphoric gun that the policeman represents as the embodiment of the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence … in which case, sure; that’s always and everywhere present in everything any cop will ever do) was ever involved in this incident, the analogy-overbidding began at your end.
And “grouse to the media after the fact” just as seriously understates the stakes on the other side (I wonder why). A charge of “racist,” once made to stick, is a career-killer in many professions,policeman being one, in the actual US of today.
“Gates has denied to the media from the beginning that the cop is a racist, only alleging that the incident was a matter of racial profiling.”
A distinction that in the actual world of actual public discourse is of no consequence whatsoever.
Even intellectually, it only makes sense with the unstated minor premises “racial profiling is not racist” and/or “the word ‘racist’ can never be meaningfully used to characterize a person.” Waiting with bated breath (nyet) to hear Mr. DeBoer either defend those premises or (more relevantly) argue and live according to them.
— Victor Morton · Jul 25, 05:03 PM · #
I just read Gates’s account at The Root. And I have to say, it doesn’t make him look good. Did he deserve to be arrested? I don’t know. But he was very uncooperative and bull headed during the investigation of a serious crime. Why wouldn’t he step out of his house? Why did he shut the door behind him when he went to get his id? Why didn’t he answer the “other question”? (What was this other question? I found the story in the Root so odd it seems like anyone seeing clearly would have advised him to edit it to make him look more favorable.) By his own account, I can’t see that Crowley did anything wrong prior to Gates flipping out and asking for his name and badge number and making racist accusations. And Gates admits he was making a scene in front of a sea of officers (as well as citizens I presume).
— John · Jul 26, 04:48 PM · #
Freddie asks rhetorically:
“Here’s the question, if you’re Steve Sailer. Could anyone in the world who knew of Sailer’s work not have predicted that in a conflict between a black professor and a white cop, Sailer would have sided with the cop?”
Read my blog. I’ve written quite a few hundred words over the last week in defense of Gates.
As I see it, there are two issues: Gates’ false defamation of Crowley as a racist both initially and, more shamefully, later as part of a calculated media campaign to make money and promote himself; and Crowley’s arrest of Gates, which I’ve expressed serious doubts about.
— Steve Sailer · Jul 26, 06:13 PM · #
For example, I blogged;
There are two distinguishable issues in this mess:
- The false accusation of racism by Professor Gates against Officer Crowley (which, in Obama’s usual lawyerly way was more or less endorsed, in so many words, on national television by President Obama). Gates’s prolonged attempt over the last week while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard to make money off his defamation of Officer Crowley by promoting his future television program about it, should, at minimum, lead to Gates’s public shaming.
- The question of whether Crowley over-reacted to Gates’ unhinged temper tantrum and false accusations of racism. As I’ve said, I sympathize with Gates’ frustrations. While traveling a couple of years ago, I was forced to stay up all night through airline incompetence (after four hours standing at an airport ticket counter, I finally figured out that two airlines had merged and the desk agents, who were all from the acquired airline, didn’t know how to operate the computer system of the acquiring airline). Therefore, I came close to throwing a hissy fit of Gatesian proportions when I tried to go through the security checkpoint only to find out that the airline had now flagged my ticket for public interrogation in a glass box. I did manage, barely, to not step over any lines. If I ever do, I hope, for my own personal sake, that the cop I insult is more of a wishy-washy type than Officer Crowley.
Should “contempt of cop” be an arrestable offense? This appears to be a gray area in the law, and perhaps necessarily so. In theory, it would be nice if you could relentlessly scream insults at a cop in public under the First Amendment, but the Second Amendment gets in the way. There are a couple of hundred million guns in America, which means that cops feel they always have to stay in control of the situation psychologically, because, otherwise, the confrontation might escalate to the point where somebody winds up with a hole in him. (Usually, it’s not the cop but the enraged suspect who ends up in the morgue.) Moreover, letting one probably harmless maniac like Gates get away with abusing cops sets a dangerous precedents for the less harmless maniacs.
An interesting psychological point is that the same stubborn professionalism that helped make Officer Crowley a hard-ass toward Professor Gates has made him a heroic public citizen in his refusal to be browbeat by President Obama. He’s shown more spine than James Watson or Larry Summers.
— Steve Sailer · Jul 26, 06:16 PM · #
Or, in answer to Freddie, earlier I blogged:
Obviously, Crowley is sensitive to racial issues. My guess would be that Gates’s playing of the race card, which can be a career-killer in Cambridge, got the cop’s dander up.
Let’s keep in mind, however, that just about all cops became cops because they like being dominant over other people. If they just wanted to help people, they would have become firemen instead. As Joseph Wambaugh, the cop-novelist repeatedly says, everybody loves a fireman. In contrast, Wambaugh’s cops have issues, lots and lots of issues: divorce, drinking, and mental health (these days, about twice as many cops die by their own hands as on the job).
So, cops aren’t always nice people. They tend to be domineering and paranoid, two traits that tend to make them effective at their difficult jobs. They have power, they are trained to keep power in interpersonal situations, and they like power. So, you don’t make serious unfounded accusations at a cop if you don’t want something bad to happen to you. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is.
Now, I have a lot of sympathy for Gates because he’d been traveling for a couple of days from China. When I finally got home from 36 hours straight of traveling back from Turkey in June, I climbed straight into bed with a Robert Heinlein novel I first read when I was eleven. If my door had been jammed and then, just when I had finally got into my (dilapidated) home sweet home, somebody had knocked on my door and asked me to step outside, I might well have thrown a hissy fit like Gates did.
Gates, however, is trying to milk his racial profiling crucifixion for all it’s worth, so, rather than apologize and explain why he was tired and not his usual genial self, he’s issuing dubious statements about his “glorious” trip to China, and how relaxing his trip home was in order to close off this line of retreat for himself.
— Steve Sailer · Jul 26, 06:28 PM · #
Why should he have done any of those things? Simply because a cop asked?
— Chet · Jul 27, 07:29 PM · #