An already divisive topic was intensified when President Obama answered a question on national television with his own 3 point opinion. News outlets and pundits from the media and the political arena are all weighing in with opinions ranging from the character and make up of the cop who did the arresting to whether or not there is racial bias amongst the police in Cambridge, MASS and the United States throughout. Now, we have Gates calling for an unapologetic James Crowley to apologize for arresting him and Crowley’s police force calling for Obama to apologize. As of today, nobody’s feeling like singing Kumbaya around the camp fire together.
Look, you can sit around at your fancy desk, or over beers at your local pub and discuss the nature of race relations in this country and whether or not they played a factor in this arrest. Its great philosophical discussion, if you’re into that kind of thing, but at the heart of this matter is something a little more simplistic and easy to understand. Emotion.
A neighbor, called the police because she believed that Gates and his friend were illegally entering the house. Why she didn’t recognize her own neighbor, or know that he had been out of town for a week, is another topic altogether, but regardless, those are the facts. Mr. Crowley showed up on the scene to see someone fitting the description in the house and asked him to step outside. What happened next depends on who you talk to.
It boils down to this though – Gates proved that he lived in the house and the Mr. Crowley was leaving the scene. Gates, who was upset at how he was treated followed the officer to his car. Gates said he did so because he wanted the officer’s name and badge number but was not getting a response, Crowley said he had given him his information and was at that point just being yelled at. Crowley gave warnings and then arrested him for “disorderly conduct”.
So, a man accused of breaking into his own home, gets upset by this, never lays a hand on the officer, yells at him, possibly calls him names, and then is arrested for disorderly conduct.
I want to be clear here. I hate cops. Don’t email me telling me I’d think differently if my house was broken into, or a loved one was held hostage and i needed the cops. I wouldn’t. I would use them if i had to, and i would hate every minute of it. I’ve had my own run ins with cops. I’ve had guns pulled on me for simple traffic violations, I’ve been yelled at and berated for questioning their actions, I’ve been arrested for both valid and invalid reasons. I’ve seen the vast majority of cops to be human beings. Humans are interesting because we are flawed and prone to illogical and irrational behavior. This makes humans fun, until they are in a position of ultimate authority. Anyone who’s had a cop on their ass knows what that’s like and its anything but fun.
That being said, i don’t think he acted out because of racism. I think he did what someone in a position of authority who is not held accountable for decisions based on emotion would do. He was embarrassed that he was getting berated, he was mad that he’d been called out for something that was ultimately wasted time, and, somewhere inside, he had his feelings hurt because he came out to do a job to potentially help someone. Instead he’s getting his ass chewed and called a racist.
Most of us don’t react well to those kinds of things, and we usually yell back and sometimes get into a physical altercation. But he’s a cop. A cop should not be baited into acting like that. All he did was prove exactly what Mr. Gates thinks is going on, whether it is or not.
I know. Cops are human, is it fair to hold them to a different standard? Yes it is. Its actually part of the point of being a cop, or a teacher, or even an umpire. They should be impartial and they should rise above the fray. The best way to defuse a situation like Mr. Crowley was in, is to simply do nothing. Give Mr. Gates the information he wants, and then stand there until he is done. I know it sounds painful, and maybe it sounds wrong to you, but it works. If he had stood there and let Mr. Gates berate him, in front of all those witnesses, he would have ultimately looked to be the rational one, while Mr. Gates would have a hard time selling anything to the media, or even to his friend, Mr. Obama. But he didn’t do that. He arrested the man for yelling. He called it disorderly conduct though, in reality, Mr. Gates was disturbing nothing but Mr. Crowley’s pride. Any of us who have ever been trained in crisis control know that you always use the least force possible to defuse a situation, upping the ante only makes it worse.
And that’s really the point of it all, not that Mr. Crowley acted as a racist. Maybe that was his motive, I don’t know the man, but I honestly don’t think that’s what is. Instead, I do believe, that Mr. Crowley made an emotional decision and abused his power to end a situation he was tired of dealing with. To me, thats an even bigger crime, and one that should not go unpunished.
Remember this guy? Yeah, no one else does either…
