Being Ivy in America
I’ve got a piece up at The Daily Beast arguing that the Skip Gates kerfuffle is an awful choice of cases if President Obama wants to talk about race and the criminal justice system.
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I don’t think he really does. I think he wanted to say, “Fuck you for arresting my friend, you dumbass cop.” Only he’s president, so he has to have a high-fallutin’ reason for putting his foot in it. Though his cover is abetted awfully well by the release of the 911 tapes…
— Erik Vanderhoff · Jul 28, 05:38 PM · #
What’s with the back-and-to-the-left photo pose? You trying out for a Zapruder film?
And I question your thesis re: the wrong case. Since Obama spoke up about the arrest of his Ivy buddy, I’ve seen an eruption of articles concerning the much graver plight of the less well-connected. In fact, one Conor Friedersdorf wrote such an article here.
Awareness has been raised because it was a media event. It was a media event because Gates is privileged black friend of the President. This singular fact pattern was a necessary cause of everything which came after, including the existence and thrust of your article.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jul 28, 06:05 PM · #
Kristoffer,
President Obama is perfectly capable of making national news on any subject — imagine the discussion that would take place if he found an appropriate case and issued a pardon!
— Conor Friedersdorf · Jul 28, 06:52 PM · #
On that we can agree.
In the immediate case, though, I suspect that personal pique was the determining factor in Obama’s reaction — i.e., it overcame the inertia of political calculation, and got the ball rolling on the broader issue in a way that abstract or intellectual pique wouldn’t have (and in fact didn’t up to now).
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jul 28, 07:02 PM · #
Actually Conor, as an exemplar the case is data-rich….a microcosm of american society.
Truly multi-dimensional.
many axes: taxpayer vs public servant, blackprofessor vs whitecop, high SES vs medium SES, size, age, education…an embarrassment of riches.
And yes……. stupid was the correct word. For a public servant to arrest a citizen tax-payer who had provided ID was STUPID. This means getting pissy with a cop will land you in the slammer.
And the Cambridge police at least should have been adults at the point that Crowley slapped the cuffs on, dontcha think?
— matoko_chan · Jul 29, 01:43 AM · #