Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. comes off as a self-important blowhard who’s cobbled together a comfortable living predicated almost entirely on the history of racial prejudice, fear, and guilt in America. Sergeant James Crowley appears to be another officious, thin-skinned Only One* of the sort so common in today’s “Law-Enforcement” machine. Finally, President Obama, completely unhindered by situational ignorance, trumped both the aforementioned by sticking his “judgment” where it clearly didn’t belong. But I’m not here simply to insult these Yo-Yos over a moment in time, nor have I come to re-hash the sodden ground of this overblown ego implosion. Clearly all three men acted “stupidly” But I’d like to suggest the issue at hand is not America’s latent racism, nor is it the professor’s infantile tirade, or even our President’s colossal stupidity in commenting on that about which he knew next to nothing.
No.
The issues in play are power and freedom. Power, of the sort we delegate to various costumed officials who, in turn, circumscribe our lives; and Freedom the ever-shrinking foundation of our Republic. A more thoughtful man than Gates might have used this incident to launch a discussion on Freedom in contemporary America, on the right to be secure from an often capricious and always fallible State, no matter your color, creed, and composition. But Gates appears to have a predominate lens through which he views the world and that is race. Naturally his interpretation of the situation is constricted accordingly.
Crowley, on the other hand, was clearly looking for a level of verbal respect denied by Gates. As a professional, entrusted with the freedom of the public and revered by his supervisors, I would have expected a significant attempt to defuse the situation. That never happened.
We can go as deep or stay as shallow as we wish in the subsequent analysis, but it’s clear that whether or not Gates actually said anything about Crowley’s mother, he arrested simply for mouthing off to a cop.
Are we ok with that?
Are we, as a people, so spineless, so distracted and so conditioned to this sort of treatment (from our employees, no less) that we are ok with the idea that one can be arrested on one's property (no less) for being rude to an appendage of state power?
The answer is generally “yes” if you’re just joining us.
EX. Jack Dunphy, an anonymous, thus supposed, LA cop penned this response to the recent Gates imbroglio. His position: ”As long as you show the proper subservience to an officer, recognize their elevated status, and accept their right to shoot you, even by mistake, you should have no problems with Law Enforcement. The insidious part of this paradigm is the underlying assertion that those who tangle with Law Enforcement in such a manner “deserve it.” I’m here to tell you this is crap. Our forefathers would be aghast at the notion.
An acquaintance of mine was fond of saying, “What you tolerate, you validate. What you accept, you deserve” or something close to that.
The bottom line is that this too will fade and in fact, I may be the last to chime in on it. But frankly it took me a few days to realize what a lost opportunity for discussion this event truly was. Oh, I know, it was beaten to death in the MSM but the larger discussion about freedom in a proto-fascist America could use to be had.
-N
* The “Only Ones.” I’ve borrowed this concept from writer David Codrea who applies it to the Law Enforcement Community in an effort to showcase the inane double standards around public safety that exist in today’s society. To wit:
“The purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it's also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they're involved in gun-related incidents.”
-David Codrea
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