Anger Has Its Place

[tj2001]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1

August 1, 2009
Anger Has Its Place
By BOB HERBERT

No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and the awful clamping of handcuffs on the wrists of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be led off to jail by 12:51. The charge: angry while black.

The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill. I have nothing but contempt for that message...

The very first lesson that should be drawn from the encounter between Mr. Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, is that Professor Gates did absolutely nothing wrong. He did not swear at the officer or threaten him. He was never a danger to anyone. At worst, if you believe the police report, he yelled at Sergeant Crowley. He demanded to know if he was being treated the way he was being treated because he was black.

You can yell at a cop in America. This is not Iran. And if some people don’t like what you’re saying, too bad. You can even be wrong in what you are saying. There is no law against that. It is not an offense for which you are supposed to be arrested...

[ejpoeta]

1. i didn't realize there was that short of a period of time between the call and the arrest!!

that basically gave the cop enough time to get there and arrest the guy. i thought it was a longer time... time enough for the cop to determine that the guy there lived there and then somehting happened... but i totally agree with bob herbert. gates had every right to be angry if it was that short a period of time. it is sick that we seem to have police officers who think that they can wield their badge as if they are some how above everyone else and expect people to kiss their ass.

[MADem]

2. ANGRY WHILE BLACK. Thank you BOB!!! Six minutes between the call and the cuffs.

How much yelling can a guy on a cane with bronchitis do in that time? And Crowley was so intimidated by this frail man that he felt the need to keep those 'cars' comin'?? Wuss.

I love this essay, because I said the same basic thing. Yelling at a cop is NOT against the law.