Black man forces entry into own home, is arrested

[ailbhe]

This is about Obama's reaction to it.

The president also considered for a moment what would happen if he, like Gates, were unable to enter his home — the White House — and decided to force the door open. He concluded: “I’d get shot.” The audience of news reporters burst into laughter.

The audience of news reporters burst into laughter.

Comments

[webhill.livejournal.com]

What confused me most about the story was that the NEIGHBOR didn't recognize her NEIGHBOR. I mean, it does seem from the surface that she must have thought "some random black guy entering house = danger" or something. I still think, though, that when in doubt, it's best to have law enforcement check out a situation that you have a reasonable suspicion might be criminal. I'm actually now remembering the Berkeley City Police once coming over to me as I stood next to my parked car trying to jimmy open the door and asking me what was going on, and they stayed with me and checked the registration after the car was open so I could prove that it was in fact my car and not someone else's that I was breaking into. I imagine that if I had started yelling about how I should be left alone with my own damn car they might have gotten upset and arrested me.

Don't get me wrong - I still think that from the publicly available information, this particular case of the professor and the police comes down WAY in favor of the professor. I just ALSO think that a some of the things that went down were appropriate, but then they got out of control.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

I think there is no substantive or moral disagreement between us; it just twists my knickers to think though, that in the sort of neighbourhood where a daylight car boost is in fact a realistic prospect, it's highly unlikely that there will be cops around to politely wait until you jimmy your car open and then tip their hats and leave you alone.

There seems to be this extreme divide between policing of the absent/brutal variety (typically in areas where their active engagement with the community would come with the most lives saved) or policing that is a servant of middle and upper class prejudice (which this case, with all its subtelties, is nevertheless emblematic of).

It's not that different in the UK, although potentially less polarised along racial lines (then again, I'm definitely not in a position to give informed opinion about race relations in Britain). On the one hand you've got cops harassing teenagers for wearing hooded sweatshirts and killing protesters and bistanders during legal demonstrations, on the other you've got the complete inability and unwillingness of the police to investigate and respond to actual crimes like rape, where we have one of the lowest rates in the west of complaints that result in prosecution.