Cambridge, Massachusetts was in the news this week. A city cop busted a black professor on his own property following some verbal hassles. The professor was understandably freaked out by the cop’s behavior. The cop interpreted that as disrespect for the law or disorderly conduct or something. Basically, the effect of the arrest was to underscore the bust ‘em if they’re black and sort them out later practices of too many police departments across the US. It underscored too, the powerless rage that a lot of people have when confronted or challenged by police authority.
My first thought was that this is just another case of Driving While Black, only this time it’s about forgetting your keys so you gotta go down to the station to get it sorted out. It was probably more nuanced than that.
That it happened in Cambridge is an eye opener. The cop lives in Natick, a town that’s more than 90 percent white and less than two percent African American, and a place where housing is more affordable than Cambridge. That old Unitarian pederast and Harvard graduate, Horatio Alger, was perhaps Natick’s most notable resident. He retired from his Cape Cod pulpit to Natick, disgraced by his “imprudent behavior” with some teenage boys in Brewster. His reputation did not follow him when he left Natick, moved to New York, and befriended young bootblacks who provided inspiration for his tales of young men who found success through constant striving.
Doug Flutie, who exemplified Alger’s “Strive to Succeed” philosophy, went to Natick High School. The Hostess Twinkie factory (think Dan White, famous San Francisco policeman) in Natick is closed but I suppose that the Cambridge cop could still get them retail at the Quik Trip Market. I know. That’s not fair.
So here we have a white working class cop from Natick, and an upper middle class black professor with the reasonable expectation that the shit could hit the fan simply because of the racial dynamic within the Cambridge university community–I’m surprised no one got tazed.
But I wasn’t there…
3 Comments
None of this is fair. Your words are those of a jerk. You have missed, among many other things, the officer’s black partner who responded with him, the course the officer teaches in how NOT to racially profile, the fact that they were responding to a call on a possible housebreak, and the fact that there were 9 housebreaks in that neighborhood in the first hlf of this year. The alleged racism has been introduced to discussion of this incident entirely by Professor Gates, President Obama, and the community of alleged journalists.
Well, sure. But did you like the Horatio Alger tangent? Seriously, there is a lot of discussion about the incident, as there should be. Arrests for “Driving While Black” have little to do with “racial profiling” and a lot to do with misuse of police power by individuals whose mamas should have raised them better. Until police officers can master their fear and approach everyone with a degree of detachment tempered by empathy we will continue to live in a society where abuse of police power is common. That’s asking a lot. It’s natural and right to be scared shitless when your job requires you to put your life on the line every day. The challenge remains, how does the officer master that fear and bring kind and courteous public service to those who are as afraid of her as she is of them?
Here are some links that I think provide honest reflection and a decent context for this whole event. I wasn’t there. Were you?
dcalfine, that’s a very troubling comment! The arresting officer has apologized for the frivolous “contempt of cop” arrest — to popular acclaim, I might add. And he has urged his supporters to seek the same kind of enlightenment he experienced after his disgrace. What looked like enduring humiliation for him has sparked a thoughtful national dialogue. It seems likely that he’ll receive a commendation. Rightly so, in my opinion. It takes integrity and courage to examine your flaws and admit to shameful conduct.