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What police work can look like
Jul. 23rd, 2009 10:11 pmI've been following the Gates story with interest since it broke. There are a lot of things about the commentary I've found depressing -- first, the number of white people in utter denial that Gates' race could have made any significant difference in the interaction, but also, the number of people who have the attitude, "hey, if you yell at a police officer, of COURSE you're going to get arrested." When did we decide that this was a reasonable expectation, as a society? When did we decide that we were going to expect police officers -- people we hand guns to, and pay out of the public purse! -- to be a bunch of power-tripping, violent loose cannons that can't be trusted to act with even the most marginal common sense?
I'm not saying that this is not a realistic assessment, unfortunately, but why do so many people seem to consider it OK?
I had the cops walk in on me investigating a possible-burglary-in-progress call, years ago. I was fifteen, and babysitting for the son of one of my father's colleagues. Graham and Gina were going out of town the next day; they'd told the neighbors, and one of them had the dates slightly wrong. She saw the back door open and a light on, and called the police, who entered without knocking, scaring the crap out of me when they suddenly appeared in the doorway of the family room, where I was sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Oh," the officer said. "You must be Gina."
"Nooooo," I said, wondering if something awful had happened to the parents. "I'm the babysitter."
There were two police officers; they were extremely polite, with a general attitude of, "we're so glad everything turned out to be okay!" They did ask for my ID, I think, but did so in a deferential way; they took a quick look at my high school ID and left immediately. I didn't get mad at them, but they did nothing to make me mad; moreover, I was a scruffy teenager in a house that really was NOT hers. The kid was in bed. Most burglars do not kick back and watch TV mid-burglary, but some do.
When Graham and Gina came home and heard the story, their immediate concern was whether the police had mistreated me. I reassured them that it had been no big deal, and I think they resolved to be clearer about dates with their neighbors in the future.
I'm white, in case you didn't know. Also female. Oh, and this was in Madison, Wisconsin.
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I'm not saying that this is not a realistic assessment, unfortunately, but why do so many people seem to consider it OK?
I had the cops walk in on me investigating a possible-burglary-in-progress call, years ago. I was fifteen, and babysitting for the son of one of my father's colleagues. Graham and Gina were going out of town the next day; they'd told the neighbors, and one of them had the dates slightly wrong. She saw the back door open and a light on, and called the police, who entered without knocking, scaring the crap out of me when they suddenly appeared in the doorway of the family room, where I was sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Oh," the officer said. "You must be Gina."
"Nooooo," I said, wondering if something awful had happened to the parents. "I'm the babysitter."
There were two police officers; they were extremely polite, with a general attitude of, "we're so glad everything turned out to be okay!" They did ask for my ID, I think, but did so in a deferential way; they took a quick look at my high school ID and left immediately. I didn't get mad at them, but they did nothing to make me mad; moreover, I was a scruffy teenager in a house that really was NOT hers. The kid was in bed. Most burglars do not kick back and watch TV mid-burglary, but some do.
When Graham and Gina came home and heard the story, their immediate concern was whether the police had mistreated me. I reassured them that it had been no big deal, and I think they resolved to be clearer about dates with their neighbors in the future.
I'm white, in case you didn't know. Also female. Oh, and this was in Madison, Wisconsin.
( Read more... )
