RobinGoodfellow
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Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions
Okay, so let me get this straight:
1) Police receive a report that two black men are forcing their way into a home.
2) They arrive, and the one men there refuses to identify himself, citing that he's only being treated as such because of his skin color.
3) The black man eventually showed ID, and was provide to a reason for why the door was broken down.
4) However, he kept yelling at the police officers,
Bearing in mind that the woman who called it in may not have been able to recognize the scholar (he had been away on business to China after all), and I do think that the police may have acted a bit rashly in arresting someone who may have been threatening them with a can, it does obviously raise an interesting question:
Is this a valid case of racial profiling?
If I shifted the colors, and you saw two white men try to force their way into a house, one of them go around back, and then let in the other white male, would you have then called the police on the two white men?
If you were the cop on the scene, and you asked for identification, and the white male refused claiming that he didn't have to because he didn't have to identify for whatever reason, how would you have handled the situation? That is, would you back down trusting the guy, or would you be just a bit suspicious? And when he showed proper ID, and you backed off, but the guy kept following, waving his cane, not backing down, would you not figure out a reason to detain the man (after all, he's not exactly demonstrating complete mental competence).
I'm also finding it interesting that the skin color of the two cops wasn't mentioned....
[And, yes, I'm discounting Counter's encounter as he wasn't actually arrested. Even then: If a robbery has occurred and you're walking around without ID, if the police are doing their job they're going to find you and be suspicious. It's interesting that it's not noted whether or not anyone else was held under suspicion...]
In essence, did Gates bring at least some of it upon himself, or does being a pre-eminent scholar allow you some stupidity? Is this a legitimate case of profiling?
RG
Okay, so let me get this straight:
1) Police receive a report that two black men are forcing their way into a home.
2) They arrive, and the one men there refuses to identify himself, citing that he's only being treated as such because of his skin color.
3) The black man eventually showed ID, and was provide to a reason for why the door was broken down.
4) However, he kept yelling at the police officers,
Bearing in mind that the woman who called it in may not have been able to recognize the scholar (he had been away on business to China after all), and I do think that the police may have acted a bit rashly in arresting someone who may have been threatening them with a can, it does obviously raise an interesting question:
Is this a valid case of racial profiling?
If I shifted the colors, and you saw two white men try to force their way into a house, one of them go around back, and then let in the other white male, would you have then called the police on the two white men?
If you were the cop on the scene, and you asked for identification, and the white male refused claiming that he didn't have to because he didn't have to identify for whatever reason, how would you have handled the situation? That is, would you back down trusting the guy, or would you be just a bit suspicious? And when he showed proper ID, and you backed off, but the guy kept following, waving his cane, not backing down, would you not figure out a reason to detain the man (after all, he's not exactly demonstrating complete mental competence).
I'm also finding it interesting that the skin color of the two cops wasn't mentioned....
[And, yes, I'm discounting Counter's encounter as he wasn't actually arrested. Even then: If a robbery has occurred and you're walking around without ID, if the police are doing their job they're going to find you and be suspicious. It's interesting that it's not noted whether or not anyone else was held under suspicion...]
In essence, did Gates bring at least some of it upon himself, or does being a pre-eminent scholar allow you some stupidity? Is this a legitimate case of profiling?
RG
