I think that it's a mistake to get too caught up in the racial aspects of this incident, whatever they may be. The real injustice here is that a police officer was abusing his authority by arresting a private citizen for mouthing off. Gates may have been acting like a jerk, but that's not a crime. Once it was established that Gates was on his own property the officer should have immediately gotten the hell out of there and left him alone.
I agree entirely. I'd be far less upset if the cop had given Professor Gates a Blazing Saddles style "Up yours, nigger!" and left rather than jimmying up some phony reason to arrest someone who pissed him off. It's not the racism so much as the abuse of authority that bothers me.
2 Comments:
At 12:18 PM, shem said…
I think that it's a mistake to get too caught up in the racial aspects of this incident, whatever they may be. The real injustice here is that a police officer was abusing his authority by arresting a private citizen for mouthing off. Gates may have been acting like a jerk, but that's not a crime. Once it was established that Gates was on his own property the officer should have immediately gotten the hell out of there and left him alone.
At 1:13 PM, Realist said…
I agree entirely. I'd be far less upset if the cop had given Professor Gates a Blazing Saddles style "Up yours, nigger!" and left rather than jimmying up some phony reason to arrest someone who pissed him off. It's not the racism so much as the abuse of authority that bothers me.
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