On the Gates arrest 26 Jul 200918 Sep 2017 I’m a long way away from this event which is taking up so much of the media’s attention in the States. So of course that means I have to say something about it. Australia has its own history of racism, which persists today in various ways. We were effectively British in our racism, so we were of course derogatory about the “nig nogs” (anyone with dark skin), against the Asians yellow peril int he 50s onwards, and of course against anyone of eastern European and later middle eastern descent. We have, to some extent, managed to avoid some of the noisier forms of racism of the United States; an attempt to form a KKK in the Northern Territory a few years back was unsuccessful, but still we are basically a xenophobic society which objects to anyone not being just like us. I say this so that nobody thinks I am being smarmy and self satisfied here. We are also, like the US, a multicultural society, and one sees all colours and hears all languages on the streets, and there are few riots (and when they happen, they are usually about gang territory which happens to include ethnic gangs). So I was quite prepared to see the Gates affair as racial profiling. I do not think, from what I have seen, that it is, or not entirely. I think the problem is that police power is undemocratic. This is a comment I left at Leiter’s blog. From this distance it looks like what Leiter says; that this is a matter of police abuse of power in the face of a rant of someone who may or may not be right about racial profiling. The fact is, in every country in the world the police abuse their powers when they feel like it, because they police themselves, and the culture of police Omerta is ubiquitous even among police officers of good will and honest intent. The only solution, in a democratic country is, I think, to have a police misconduct commission that is appointed by and responsible only to the democratically elected representative body, the US Congress and our Parliament, at arm’s length. Police as an institution arose before fully democratic principles were in play, but we know that democracy relies upon a balance of powers to avoid corruption and the imposition of power injudiciously. Police need to have this as well. In Australia, some attempts to set up a Crime and Misconduct Commission, or an Independent Corruption Commission (and other titles) have been made. Political interference has made these less effective than they ought to be, but a surprising number of cases against police abuse of power have nevertheless been brought successfully. To add to the comment, I would also say that this is not an indictment on there being police. According to my 95:95 Rule, most police will be decent and honest most of the time, since most people are. But this entails that 5% of the time, they will not be decent or honest, and that 5% will be dishonest and behave indecently. This is because the police are human, and this is what humans are like. So external control is needed to support the decency of police behaviour and to ensure that as a lobby group they do not force obvious judgements, like “the police behaved stupidly” to be retracted because one doesn’t question the police. Of course one questions the police. You damned well better if you don’t want them to become an organised criminal body. Anyone who says we should not question the police behaviour is, I think, contributing to corruption. It may not have been about race (in fact I think Gates probably made it about race when it wasn’t, to that point), but it sure as hell is about the ability of the police to arrest without consequences. There must be consequences if the police take any action that limits freedoms or injures people, no matter how righteous it seems to the superiors of the officers involved. This is about living in a society in which rights and freedoms are rapidly dissolving because of untrammelled exercise of power. From Cheney’s assault on liberty down, people had better question those in power and hold them accountable, or it’s all over and we might as well have let one of the absolutists who attack us over the years to win. Freedom Politics Race and politics Sermon Social evolution
Epistemology Was Jesus a philosopher? 9 May 2010 A local philosophy mailing list has announced a talk being given by a philosophically inclined plumber on Jesus’ philosophy. This rather begs the question* that he was indeed a philosopher. Jesus certainly held ethical principles and taught doctrines, but that is insufficient to make someone a philosopher. Many people have… Read More
Social evolution Truisms 5 18 Jan 200918 Sep 2017 Truism 5: One is only required (by our language games) to justify moral claims one or two levels Scholium*: Justifying moral claims is a language game in Wittgenstein’s sense, but only in a philosophical language game do we justify the justifications. That is why many people prefer to make God… Read More
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Moral Knowledge 6 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 Like any middle eastern deity, YHWHW Elohim is a fairly petty individual. He doesn’t want competition from his creations, so he blocks access to the “Tree of Life”, which is a magical tree whose fruit can make you live forever. We have two magical trees, a corporeal deity of limited knowledge and good will, a snake that talks and has intentions like any trickster god to thwart the designs of the deity, and a justification for wearing clothes, which is not a matter just of shame, but of intended purpose. Read More
I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t even read the entire post. But I’ll try to do so tomorrow. I did, however, want to leave a quick note complimenting you on your terrific banner. Love the incorporation of the Darwin sketch! Very nice.
Seems to me that after he offered them his ID, they should have left him alone. Also seems to me to be pretty funny that his next door neighbor didn’t recognize him or his driver. I have a hard time believing either would have happened if he were white.
I agree on the ID. He was on his own property and they had no right to pursue it. But the “neighbour” was in fact from a neighbouring suburb.
IMO, the police need some kind of external independent entity with the power to question and investigate what they do. Of course, they would fight any such legislation to the death, because the way it is now, they can do almost anything they want and get away with it. I have to disagree on the 95:95 rule, though. I’ve personally witnessed too many instances of policemen on a power trip. Maybe the profession naturally attracts those who enjoy having authority over others.
Rhetorical question Why does the president of a country speak out about an incident like this? “My hope is, is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what’s called a ‘teachable moment,’ . . .” http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/24/obama-calls-officer-speaks-out-on-gates-arrest?icid=sphere_wpcom_inline Yuck!
Here’s one of the more interesting comments from a non-white woman who had her own encounter with the same Cambridge police officer. http://feministx.blogspot.com/
When did it become illegal to get pissed off at the cops, particularly in your own home when you are not doing anything illegal? And FeministX is a moron. Blacks are comparative Americans? Compared to her? Me? And that’s one of the nicer things she writes.
It has always been illegal to get pissed off at the cops. Everywhere. True story: got pulled over on my bike doing 110kmh in a 60kmh zone. Motorcycle cop. He walked over and I said, “You got me.” He asked why I did it, and I said, “New bike, first day of sunshine after six months of rain, and nobody on the roads.” [It was a public holiday and everyone had left Melbourne for the long weekend.] He said, “I must have got a bad reading because I was packing up, because nobody is stupid enough to do 110 in a 60 zone”, and sent me on my way. Now, if I’d tried to argue, I’d have lost my license and possibly my bike. If I’d gotten angry I’d have been in jail for a few days. But in one’s own home, one should be entitled to get as angry as one likes, so long as nobody is injured, legally or physically.
Australia must have cooler cops. You wouldn’t get away with that in the states, no matter how polite you were. I did something similar once, and my license was suspended for a year in the state where I did it (fortunately, it wasn’t my state of residence). I was exceedingly polite, but it didn’t matter.
“Of course one questions the police… Anyone who says we should question the police behaviour is, I think, contributing to corruption.” Can I just check, was this supposed to be ‘Anyone who says we should not question the police…’? It doesn’t seems entirely contradictory to your previous sentences otherwise.
Oh, the irony, I appear to have made the same sort of mistake myself. I meant: “It seems entirely contradictory to your previous sentences otherwise.”
If you can arrest people for “disorderly conduct” (or speaking to the authorities in a aggressive manner) in your own home, you can understand why the Iranian authorities jailed street protesters who were shouting treats like “Death to Ahmadinejad” in public. Chinese authorities used force to quelled public protests in Tienamen Square when protestors refused to disperse in a public place. Disorderly conduct has been used as an excuse by all totalitarian police states to quell public protests. Apparently many Americans seem to agree
It is the sacred duty of every American to be irate and uncooperative when cops are harassing them in their own home. I have been practicing for the day when I get to try it.
partial transcript of dispatch audio has been released, you might read it, or listen. here i think…. http://www.breitbart.tv/cambridge-officerdispatch-audio-he-is-not-cooperative/
Y’all have covered most of the bases. Reading the police narrative, Gates seemed to have drunk a few extra glasses of wine with his dinner. And the police officer was trying to be polite. But one still suspects that, had the races of the police officer and the homeowner been reversed, even if the homeowner was making uncalled for racial references, no arrest would have taken place.