Y'all should have saw this coming. What do y'all think about the Gates arrest? Well my position is that I'm black first and an officer second. Not having all the facts but listening/reading about both sides of the story, I believe the officer. I'm sorry if I ruffled a few feathers but being a police officer in New Orleans, (I must add) I deal with people from various walks of life. It ranges from your average street corner hustler to highly educated, professional people (do i have to say Af-Am, I'm biting B.). I'm sorry to say but I'd rather have to deal with the drug dealer than have an encounter with the highly educated person.
Most of my encounters with drug dealers may or may not end in me arrested them but the mutual respect is there. Most of the time I never have to raise my voice or repeat instructions. To sum it up, they never really give me a hard time most of the time.
On the other hand, the educated, professional Af-Am are very difficult to deal with most of the time. For example, every year for the essence festival I always have encounters with educated people that feel they are above the law or above following instructions from an officer.
Another example: I have a friend that was being arrested for disturbing the peace and trespassing because he refuse to leave a club because he thought the cover was too high for the time he was entering the club. Of course, because he wouldn't leave, the police were called out and was asked to leave several times by the officer and during this encounter, he shouted several statements at the officer implying that he can't be told what to do by the officer because he's a college graduated, a professional, he votes, pay taxes, etc. Now these statements were made in close proximity of the officer's personal space. The officer asked my friend to back up several times while asking him to leave the area. Well it continued and my friend was arrested. I was called out by a mutual friend who with was him and trying to get him to leave. Luckily, I knew the officer and my friend was released. Now, the only factor I didn't mention was the fact that he was drunk but in that state, he was acting like a self absorbed jerk. In his defense, it was an isolated incident and he normally does not act like that when he is sober. LOL. You know who you are?
In the Gates Case, the officer said that when he ask Mr. Gates for his I.D., he initially would not identify himself. Mr. Gates stated that he presented his Mass. I.D. The officer stated that Mr. Gates presented a Harvard I.D. first (I guess to let the officer know who he was and his status. self absorbed JERK). Later during the encounter, Mr. Gates implied that the officer was racial profiling by saying, "This is what happens to black men in America."
This would not be in the news and I would not be typing this if Mr. Gates would've followed the officer's instructions and showed the I.D. to verify that he lived there. The officer should have explained to Mr. Gates why he was answering a burglary call (I don't know if he did or not) and then Mr Gates should have allowed the officer to do his job by checking his home to be sure there wasn't a burglar. Finally, Mr. Gates could have then discretely got rid of the officer instead of making a scene. He could have then closed and locked his door and went to bed.
The End
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Firstly, I think this was a good and well-thought article. It detailed the perspective of the police officer who serves and protect us daily. However, I am a firm believer that their are always two sides to a story. Is their ever a time that the police officer can be working off of revenge and make the arrest because of the tone of voice that a person may take? If so, is that the right course of action for the officer to take? Additionally, from a person's perspective who has never been in trouble a day in their life and has always been a model citizen, I feel that the citizen has a right to voice his displeasure with a police officer's actions. Yes, I agree that getting rude is not the way to go but I found in many instances, a simple disagreement with an officer in a non-threatening tone can make them abuse their power. Both perspectives are interesting but you have to believe that both people were wrong. Obviously, their was no crime committed by Mr. Gates in this instance and this was a revenge arrest. On the other hand, Mr. Gates should have probably handled the situation with more control and class. Considering that it was his house, he is a good citizen, and the officer was white, I can undderstand Mr. Gates disdain for the situation.
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