The Cambridge Incident

I have a friend who is a police officer. He told me that when they get a call that there is an attempted break-in at a home, or even when an alarm goes off, they have to follow up on the call. They can’t dismiss it because they think they know what’s going on. In one case I have heard of multiple times where the same person has set off the alarm at the family home and the cops would always ask the same person for an ID as that is what they have to do “by the book.” Asking for some identification, however, usually is the end of such incidents. That should have been the end of this incident.

I also know that I have been very irritable after a long flight. Heck, I’ve been pretty cranky after a short flight. If I got home and found that my front door was stuck, I would be in a very foul mood. Having cops show up questioning me after a long period away and a long flight home would send me over the edge.

I know only as much as the news articles I have read, and don’t know either of these gentlemen, but it seems to me that this incident itself was less about race than it was about two people who met at a time when both were at less than their best behavior. Either one could have prevented this escalation by taking a deep breath and walking away. A police officer has his job to do and he was responding to a call. And the professor should expect that some identification ends this event. Both failed to act as responsibly, in my opinion, as they could have in order to prevent this outcome. If one apologizes to the other, then it should be reciprocal and the other should also apologize. They should either meet privately and talk this out or just let it go and move on.

However, the larger story here is that this has become such a huge news story. That indicates that there is still a large gap between the treatment of black and white in this country and an even larger gap as to how we feel about such incidents. We have a long way to go. Perhaps this is the lesson to take away from this. Forget the actions of both men on the front porch of Professor Gates’ house and concentrate on why this touched off such widespread discussion, opinion, and press. If something good comes out of this it is a better understanding of racial attitudes and why they are such as they are. Only through a discussion of these and not the rehashing of the incident itself comes enlightenment and attitudinal changes.