Men with Guns
So Obama does a news conference to promote the administration’s health care initiative and, at the very end, he gets waylaid by a question about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home in Cambridge. He responds with a depth of understanding that can only come from someone with first-hand knowledge: that the police acted inappropriately when they handcuffed Henry and hauled him from his home to the station. The media run with a story about racial profiling in an America with a black president. A few days later, Obama is backing off by offering to have the cops for a cold beer at the White House: Why can’t we all just get along?
WAIT A MINUTE! This is not a story about race, it is a story about men with guns!
The story about racial profiling is a red herring drummed up by the racist media who profit from a good fight between blacks and whites. Consider what the real story is all about.
You find yourself locked out of your house. You are in a really bad mood. You mess with the lock, trying to get in. The cops get wind of your shenanigans but the time they arrive, you have managed to get in to your house. The cops, who are doing the right thing, ask you what’s going on and request that you show your ID. Being really ticked, first by the lock and second by the cops, you say,
“This is my house and my F#@king lock jammed and I had a hard time getting in”.
The cop says, “Alright buddy, so show me your ID!”
You mutter under your breath, “fascist pig!”, and pull out your wallet and hand him some ID.
“What did you just say?”, the cop asks.
“I said fascist pig, and that goes for your mother too!”
The cop feels his blood rise. Even though he now knows you have just broken into your own home, he is really pissed off by your bad attitude. Things have gotten personal.
STOP THE MOVIE!
The cop — the professional — now has to chose between two courses of action.
Option 1: “Sorry buddy. Cool down. We got a call and we’re just doing our job. This ID doesn’t have your address. Is there some way we can confirm your address? Maybe we’ll just ask your neighbor. Have nice day!”
Option 2: “You SOB. How dare you talk about my mother! Spread ‘em”, the handcuffs go on — click, click, “I’m taking you downtown”.
Option 1 is the only legal option. Words spoken, especially in one’s own home, are not a breach of law. Option 2, on the other hand, is available only to jackbooted thugs with a gun and a badge.
Cops take a lot of abuse. I know because I worked as a training consultant for a large urban police department. It is one of the toughest and most thankless jobs on the planet. But the bottom line is that the job of cops is to serve the citizens of their community even when those citizens fail to appreciate the efforts and risks that go with the job. The cop Obama is inviting for beer abused his authority. Gates committed no crime. The cop who arrested Gates used the power vested in him by gun and badge because he didn’t like what Gates had to say. We may sympathize with his feelings but his actions were WRONG!
Obama can’t say what needs to be said because America can’t handle the truth. It’s not about race, it’s about the abuse of power. When you give a man a gun and a badge, you invest him with a sacred trust. If he can’t handle the job he should find less demanding work.
Now, let’s get back to healthcare.
