When a Badge Goes to Your Head

Ordinarily US Person would not deem an arrest for disorderly conduct in Cambridge, MA worthy of comment at Persona Non Grata, but everybody in the corporate media is talking about it instead of health care reform so it must be important, right? Well, it is, but not because race or inflated egos were involved. The arrest of Professor Gates is symptomatic of the bigger nationwide problem--police gone wild with the power of arrest. It is getting to the point where looking cross-eyed at a police officer will get you arrested. That kind of hair trigger retaliation for non-violent behavior a cop does not appreciate should not occur in America where citizens have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the right to be free from unlawful restraint. But it does happen, and everyday. I can testify to the problem from first hand experience.

While jogging across town some years ago, I passed a few of children playing at the curb. It was the end of a long run, and I was only a half a block from my apartment. I remember making a joking comment to the children about playing in the street as I passed. Minutes after getting inside a police officer knocked on my door and asked me to step outside and come over to where the children were, now accompanied by a woman who looked irate. Being a law abiding citizen, I complied with the officer's request. The woman was identified as the mother of one of the juveniles. To my utter amazement the officer--a muscular, sunburned white man with a buzz cut--began asking me if I had made "an obscene gesture" to the boy whose mother was standing nearby. My first reaction to the absurd accusation was to say nothing and call another attorney once inside my apartment. My second thought was to try and find out what had prompted such an outlandish fabrication by a young boy about a total stranger. Trying to defuse what was obviously an emotional confrontation, I offered to discuss the allegation with the officer calmly at my apartment across the street. He did not respond immediately. I turned and began walking towards my home. Within a second or two I felt a hard football tackle from behind, driving me face down into the yard. The police officer's enormous weight on my back kept me pinned to the earth like a squashed bug while he handcuffed me and told me I was under arrest for "disorderly conduct". Downtown I went.

The charge was eventually dismissed, but the memory of the incident has stayed with me. The arrest cost me some money, as well as the embarrassment of a day in jail arranging bail. Once out, I hired a private detective to interview the children separately, and of course the boy's story was not corroborated by his playmates. The detective (a former state trooper) also found out that the mother had a problem with alcohol and had made numerous past complaints to the police about abuse of one sort or another. The point of the story is, that citizens should not have to be put to the expense and embarrassment of proving their innocence, as Henry Gates was put to the test in his own kitchen. Gates had cause to be upset and even angry, having shown his ID--prima facie evidence that he was not a burglar. An arrest was not justified under those circumstances, thus the President calling it "stupid". The proper word is systemic. Police often use the power of arrest for inappropriate purposes such as detaining someone thought suspicious, as a pretext to search, or most perniciously, retaliation. 44 ought to discuss these systemic issues with Sgt. Crowley over their beers. In the end the arrest says more about the abuse of authority by public servants in uniform and Gate's neighbors*, than Gate's lack of control and reverse stereotyping. He was in his own home and not wearing a uniform. The "take 'em downtown" mentality belongs only in the movies.

*recording of the emergency dispatcher shows that Lucia Whalen, apparently a passerby, said the two men trying to get in may have been neighbors when pressed to describe them. She also said the men had luggage with them on the porch. Said Whalen, "I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with a key." Sgt. Crowley can be heard saying "Keep the cars coming".