Harvard Prof Gates and Officer Crowley share Irish Bloodlines

[Omaha]

As a Social Darwinist, I hate the idea that with power comes the responsibility to use it justly, fairly and even handedly. I think that greed is good, and I am all about the rich and well born pursuing short-term profit maximization. Using power any other way than to grow your power and authority and to serve your own internal avarice seems foolish.

To expect a police officer not to let whatever remaining societally reinforced biases influence his use of discretionary power, is to be unrealistic. You can't hold the police to a higher standard than those who are chosen to lead the great engines of our society. Hence, the sage advice, "don't mouth off to those who have the power to detain and arrest you."

But racial profiling by those with discretionary power to arrest is a known reality...although I hope it is becoming much rarer. I am also hoping that a teachable moment comes out of the conversation over beers at the White House tonight.

And it sounds like my adage about choosing your parents well has many variations. Although as a Colbert Conservative, I can't see race, maybe there still exists a thing called by some "white skin privilege."

[rajdet]

I am a black male. From the mid 80’s until 2004 I wore my hair in dreadlocks. In 1988 they were not as pedestrian as they are now. I know more than most about profiling and peoples assumptions. I have had strangers ask where they could buy weed, I knew on the tarmac on any return flight into the country that I would be searched, I knew driving my shiny new truck at night through Livonia that I’d be better off driving 53 mph. That being said there are times after a long frustrating day, you do not have the energy for peoples stupid ass assumptions. One would think that a police officer who is trained to handle volatile situations with calm would have handled that situation a little better.

[ejames01]

WTF? How should a black male with dreadlocks be treated?

I am a black male. From the mid 80’s until 2004 I wore my hair in dreadlocks. In 1988 they were not as pedestrian as they are now. I know more than most about profiling and peoples assumptions. I have had strangers ask where they could buy weed, I knew on the tarmac on any return flight into the country that I would be searched, I knew driving my shiny new truck at night through Livonia that I’d be better off driving 53 mph. That being said there are times after a long frustrating day, you do not have the energy for peoples stupid ass assumptions. One would think that a police officer who is trained to handle volatile situations with calm would have handled that situation a little better.