I’m probably the only driver who was taught how to merge at gunpoint.
Forty years ago I was driving my VW Bug in the right lane of the Southfield Freeway in Detroit. A car coming down an entrance ramp attempted to merge in front of me, but — in a fit of rudeness and stupidity — I sped up so that he had to slow down.
The Oldsmobile entered the freeway behind me, then came along side in the middle lane and honked. I gave a friendly gesture (it wasn’t the peace sign). The other driver honked again. This time when I looked over he was waving a revolver pointed at me (holding it in front of his passenger). He gestured to pull over.
This didn’t seem like a good idea, but the Bug couldn’t out run his Olds. I attempted to lose him in rush hour congestion at the next exit, but he caught up to me when I got to a stop light.
The driver came up to my car, identified himself as an off-duty Detroit police officer (he was partially in uniform), and — at gun point — and despite the fact that he himself was profane — made me apologize to his woman passenger for my obscene gesture. He seemed as rattled from anger as I was from fear — his badge was upside-down when he showed it to me — but he did have his service revolver pointed in the right direction. I did what he said.
In the process he lectured me about the difference between “merge” (give and take) and “yield” (right-of-way).
The point of telling this story again today is to offer commentary on the controversy in Cambridge, Mass. Police officers earn and deserve our respect. They are under-paid, too frequently under-trained, and routinely under-supported in their community. That said, some police have anger management problems — just like the rest of us. And police officers, unlike most of the rest of us, have at hand the ability to really mess you up.
It appears to me that in Cambridge, while race was no doubt underlying the incident, the real issue was the officer felt disrespected and largely over reacted.
It happens.
It shouldn’t.
“Police officers earn and deserve our respect.”
There is no excuse for a cop pulling a gun on you for what you did. It comes across as a bit of “Stockholm Syndrome”. I personally have been harrassed and intimidated by police in my life, and I’ll bet most people have too.
They ought to save their angst for real criminals instead of unleashing it on the general public.
Yep: I cringed when the President weighed in on this.
I think Gates went off on the officer (understandably), and I think the officer took control (understandably).
Josh Marshall has posted a lot of interesting commentary on this. I particularly like this piece.
I think that black people ARE treated differently in this country, even Obama. So what if he expressed an opinion on it. If a white professor was in the same situation, the cops probably would have shown the utmost respect. How was Gates treated, I’d like to know. For example; A nosey neighbor sees a white man jogging down their street. They think he’s only exercising, if they see a black man doing the same thing; “He’s getting away!”
Question; Are you subject to arrest (legally) to get mad and yell at a cop for mistreating you? Or is it simply further harrassment at the discretion of the officer?
Interesting commentary at TPM.
The latest from the President is that “both sides probably overreacted.”
‘Nuff said.
God, it’s good to have an intelligent and mature President.
On more than one occasion, it has occurred to me that the powers that teach in the police academies are reminding the recruits that it is us against them. Lately it seems the patrolmen are looking for a reason to express their authority.
Now that this has blown up to a national issue, where Obama is actually apologizing to the cop who arrested Gates, I have to cry foul. Neither Bush or Cheney would dream of folding like this. This is where I depart from the democrats. Imagine, the leader of the free world apologizing to some AH redneck cop? Cheney told Leahy to “go f**k himself”. Forget it, as long as democrats lack a spine, I’m not going to vote for them.