Digby on the Gates arrest, as always, nails it:
Having said that, to me, this situation actually has far broader implications about all citizens' relationship to the police and the way we are expected to respond to authority, regardless of race. I've watched too many taser videos over the past few years featuring people of all races and both genders being put to the ground screaming in pain, not because they were dangerous or threatening and not because they were so out of control there was no other way to deal with them, but because they were arguing with police and the officer perceived a lack of respect for the badge.
While some folks are painting the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr as simply an Obama-inspired political distraction away from health care reform (oddly enough during the president's push to bring attention to health care reform), digby reminds us that Gates' arrest matters.
When I wrote about this yesterday, I called it a "minor" abuse of power mainly because it happens all the time, and Gates suffered no real or lasting damage from the incident. He wasn't charged or fined, and sent home shortly after his arrest. But that I've grown accustomed to the regular abuse of power in this way doesn't mean that it's right. In fact, you could argue that this blase attitude most of us have about the reality that it's dangerous to complain or argue with police makes it all the worse.
And, as digby points out, it's the police use of tasers that really makes the issue hum. Because tasers are considered "non-lethal" by police (although that's not necessarily true), and they leave less visible marks than, say, billy clubs, they're used more carelessly than guns or clubs. So now, not only could you be arrested for talking back to a police officer, you could be tortured with an electric shock for it, too.
Of course not all police -- perhaps not even the majority -- would taser those who complain or argue with them. And there's no doubt that tasers are more than just useful in police work, they make subduing and arresting suspects who are violently resisting arrest safer for both the police and the suspects. That said, invariably all police close ranks around an incident like this.
As for the righties who still work this story, still trying to dredge up blue-collar fury at Gates and those who decry police abuse of power, digby, too, has the perfect response:
And by the way, if anyone wants to see some real incoherence on this subject, consult the right wingers who are defending the policeman today, but who also believe that anyone has the right to shoot first and ask questions later if they "feel" threatened in their own home. By their lights, Gates should have been arrested for behaving "tumultuously" but would have been within his rights to shoot Sgt Crowley. This is why conservatives have no standing to discuss anything more complicated than Sarah Palin's wardrobe.
It's true. It's disgusting watching the righties take a pervasive and very real problem that everyday Americans face and warp it into a club for electoral politics. Of course, you could make the same argument about health care reform, eh? |
