White Cop vs Black Scholar

[tstew]

There are many levels to this story

a. President Obama: In my opinion, President Obama is going to have to get better at recognizing that he no longer has the latitude to simply speak as a normal person or a friend. His every word carries a significance that is staggeringly complex.

b. Race: I think it is very possible (obviously not provable) that race did play a role in the initial call when the professor was trying to get into his own front door. It also possibly played into the way the police initially approached the professor and in how they responded to him being obviously upset and disrespectful to them.

c. The Professor: I don't have any doubt that he became upset. He probably behaved innappropriately, he probably was not respectful to the officers. The officer said he arrested him because he bacame loud and tumultuous.

d. The Arrest: I just don't think that even being loud and tumultuous in your own house (assuming its true) is reason enough in this case to handcuff and arrest. That is scary to me. I think that cooler heads should have recognized that the officers were mistaken, and had accosted a frustrated, innocent man who in addition to just returning home was trying to arrange for the repair of his door (I would be aggravated whether the police showed up or not). At that point they should have even been willing to endure a tongue-lashing, apologize and leave.

The things that I have read indicate that he showed both his license and his Harvard ID. At that point the cops should have known that they were mistaken and were harrassing an innocent man. I've seen good cops endure tongue-lashings from people who were not even as innocent. I've also seen some who over-estimate their position.

They knew that their call was not from someone who was intimately acquainted with what was happening. If someone had called and said "there's somebody on my porch trying to break into my house" it would be different.