“‘Come here,’ Rags told John. John refused, earning himself a time out in handcuffs. And a ticket for littering…. There are bigger fish in the sea of criminality. But sometimes, the little fish make themselves hard to toss back into the water.” That gem of a line is from Pepper Spray Me.
Tag: discretion
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Fly on the Wall
Mike O’Neil has a good article in the Huffington Post. What he hopes three well intentioned men will say in the White House.
I would write more. And respond to comments. But I’m in Chiapas, Mexico, on the Pacific Coast with what must be the world’s worst internet connection. On the plus side, all is peaceful here. And the food is delicious. And in Comitan, you can even drink the water!
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Last word (yeah, right) on the Gates’ case
The 911 call is here:
Part of the 911 tape is here:
Here is my take on the matter. Only the first three points are new.
1) The 911 call was excellent. A woman saw something suspicious and reported it. Race was not mentioned. In fact, the caller specifically said she could not determine race and raised the possibility that the people lived there. But better safe than sorry.
2) The call was dispatched as typical, with the officer knowing very little about the actual 911 call. But the 911 operate seems to have done a pretty job at getting the relevant info to the dispatcher.
3) Once a wagon is called for, it means somebody is going to be put in it. It’s not clear about the time frame or officer’s location at this point. I don’t know if the clip above is complete or edited or what.
4) The officer had every legal right to be in the house and needed to investigate a possible burglary.
5) The arrest of Gates was dumb. That does not mean the arrest was wrong. The arrest was dumb because it Henry Louis Gates Jr. and you don’t want discretionary arrests for disorderly conduct to become national news. I thought so on day one and I still think so.
And thank you for all your comments. It’s been a great discussion. Too bad I’ve been in Mexico, missing all the fun.
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In the New York Times
I wrote a short piece about the racial profiling for the New York Times. Some other good opinions there, too.
And thanks to 10-8 for pointing out the article by Syracuse Professor Boyce Watkins in The Grio.
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Question for Readers:
Should being an a-hole to police get you locked up?
Seriously.
Remember, being an a-hole isn’t technically a crime. But many people have talked their way into handcuffs. Police can always get you for something.
I ask this because my wife seemed vaguely bothered by this concept. But it doesn’t bother me.
John Van Maanen wrote the classic academic piece appropriately titled “The Asshole.” Some of it is a bit dated now (it’s from 1978), but the core concept holds true. Police label people as suspicious persons, know-nothings, or assholes. Assholes are likely to get locked up (in Van Maanen’s time, beaten).
More recently Southpark’s Cartman said, “This will teach you to question my authoritay!” And Chris Rock’s “How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked By the Police” always deserves another viewing.
Now Rock, like Van Maanen, talks about getting your ass kicked. But the same applies to getting arrested for some B.S. charge. I honestly don’t know how police could do their job if they didn’t have a “catch all” offense to lock you up (but of course you need smart police officers to use and not abuse this discretion).
Seems like you should treat everybody with respect–strangers, waiters, employees in stores–but of all people you should treat with respect, a police officer with a gun, handcuffs, and the legal authority to put your ass in jail should be pretty high on the list.
In the old days, if you were a jerk to the police, they might beat you. That doesn’t happen much anymore. Ultimately cops have handcuffs. Handcuffs–and not, as Bittner once said, the use of force–handcuffs define the function of police.
But what are you supposed to do as a cop if somebody will not respect your authority? Look, if I tell a drug dealer to leave a corner and he says, “f*ck you.” He’s got to go. What is a cop supposed to do when verbally confronted? You can’t through down and play the dozens.
Every police/public confrontation ends up in one of three ways: the suspect must 1) defer to police authority, 2) leave the scene, or 3) get locked up. Right or wrong, there really is no other choice. Not that I can think of.
Generally, I had a pretty high-tolerance (at least by Baltimore cop standards) for taking sh*t. I’m a pretty mellow guy. Sometimes I would just laugh. I did not have a chip on my shoulder and I didn’t want to lower myself to ghetto standards. Other cops would be quicker to take things personal.
But if you questioned my authority? Well, ain’t nobody gonna punk me. Not when I was working. Cops can’t lose face. Period. To do so is dangerous if you ever have to walk those streets again.
I didn’t see it as my job to teach people respect. It was usually too late for that, anyway. But if you wouldn’t respect me, you would at least obey me. If I had to get in your face, so be it. Better to feared than loved, cops will tell you. I don’t buy that. Better to be obeyed than feared, I say. When people are afraid, they strike back when cornered.
But sometimes you have to make people think you’re crazy. Make them think you hate them. Make them afraid. I reserved that act for special occasions.
[Why do you think so many cops shave their heads? I did, too. Looking like a skinhead might not be good for community policing, but it can make a criminal think twice before wanting to fight you.]
As a cop, I didn’t want to be loved. I didn’t mind being feared. I did want to be respected. But all that really mattered to me was to be obeyed.
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You want to step outside, Mr Gates?
Leave it to me to have to read another blog to find out about stuff that I’ve already written.
See, there’s this book I wrote, Cop in the Hood. I hear it’s pretty good. It’s also, uh, for sale. Anyway, on pp. 117-118 I describe how officers can invite a person outside in order to arrest him for disorderly. I never used this trick, but it certainly was something I could have used. I gave the example of a domestic situation:
Though the officer believes this argument will continue and perhaps turn violent, there is no cause for arrest. Police may not order a person from his or her home. But an officer can request to talk to the man outside his house. At this point the officer might say, “If you don’t take a walk, I’m going to lock you up.” The man, though within his rights to quietly reenter his house and say goodnight to the police, is more likely to obey the officer’s request or engage the police in a loud and drunken late-night debate. The man may protest loudly that the officer has no reason to lock him up. If a crowd gathers or lights in neighboring buildings turn on, he may be arrested for disorderly conduct.
Crooked Timber writes: “Moskos is in general in favor of police having a fair amount of discretion (he seems to believe that much basic policing work would be impossible without it).” True, indeed.
From the arrest report:
I told Gates that I was leaving his residence and that if he had any other questions regarding the matter, I would speak with him outside his residence. As I began walking through the foyer toward the front door, I could hear Gates again demanding my name. I again told Gates that I would speak with him outside. My reason for wanting to leave the residence was that Gates was yelling very loud and the acoustics of the kitchen and foyer were making it difficult for me to transmit pertinent information to ECC or other responding units.
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Gates ignored my warning and continued to yell, which drew the attention both of the police officers and citizens, who appeared surprised and alarmed by Gates’ outburst.Crooken Timber says:
Now, I should emphasize that I have no personal reason whatsoever to doubt that Crowley’s account of the arrest is accurate – it may very well be that the acoustics were such that communication was difficult indoors. I am not acquainted with the physical specifics of the building where Gates lives. It is, however, notable that Moskos’ Baltimore police officer both (a) uses a verbal invitation to induce the targeted individual to leave the building, and (b) then uses the attention of bystanders to generate a charge of disorderly conduct. Whether these resemblances are purely accidental or not (in the absence of more facts, you could generate arguments either way), I leave to the imagination of the reader.
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested
Apparently for pissing off a Cambridge cop who responded to a burglary call. Gates had sort of broken into his own house because the key didn’t work. A witness called police. Words are exchanged and Gates gets cuffed for dis con.
It’s hard to overstate just how esteemed of an intellectual Harvard Professor Gates is.
If you’re a police officer and run into the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research–even if he is rude to you–best to let it slide. Really.
But this arrest has as much to do with class conflict as it does with race. There’s a big blue-collar/egghead divide back in what used to be my home town. I can imagine the unfortunate glee the cop felt as he locked up this big-shot intellectual. That glee is probably tempered significantly by national news coverage.
The AP story by Melissa Trujillo.
[Update: The police report is here. All charges have been dropped. And Al Sharpton chimes in. Read Gates’ reply in gawker.]