Uniform Strength

I was thinking about President Obama’s remark last night that the police in Cambridge, MA acted “stupidly” in arresting Professor Gates. For those who don’t know, Professor Gates returned from a trip to find that he couldn’t get the door to his house opened. He enlisted his driver’s help and they managed to get in the house through the back door. A neighbor noticed all this and thought someone was breaking into the professor’s house and called the police. This is where things get fuzzy.

The police arrived and spoke with Professor Gates in his house. From what I understand, he says that he showed his ID, proving that it was his house, and then escorted the police out to get their badge numbers. That he was rightly upset to be accused be breaking into a house and that it was racial profiling.

The police claim that he only showed them his Harvard ID (which, I’m sorry, it’s a Harvard ID, meaning he is a professor at Harvard…would he really be breaking into a stranger’s house?) and that it didn’t have his address on it. So they asked him to show his driver’s license and they say he was belligerent and they arrested him for disturbing the peace…in his own home.

My theory about situations like this, since no one except those involved really knows what happened, is that there is a little element of truth to each side of the story. Actually, one side probably has more truth than the other but both sides do have some truth. Using my imagination, I would think that the professor was probably upset he couldn’t get in his house, which put him in a bad mood. Then the police show up and accuse him of being a thief. Which, to him, was based entirely on the fact that he was African American. So he probably was upset about both things and just wanted to get the cops out of his house so he could have a stiff drink and forget the whole thing.

Having dealt with the police on a few occasions in my life such as traffic stops…of which I have had three my whole life; having a bat removed from my apartment…which is a story in and of itself; and then there was a pimply faced young cop who I met at my mechanics while he was having the oil changed in his cruiser. He and I had a pleasant conversation about how his shift was the night before then, when I got up to leave, I wished him a nice day and he lowered his voice and said, “be careful out there”. I’m sorry but he was all of about 22 years old. I was old enough to be his…. well, old enough. Don’t give me this Hill Street Blues attitude when you are a pimply-faced cop for a small town in Maine. Which leads to “Uniform Strength”.

Uniform Strength is my theory that when someone puts on a uniform, their attitude changes. Especially a cop’s uniform. Maybe it’s all the extra equipment they are forced to carry…the handcuffs, gun, baton, mace, etc. Maybe the weight of it all makes them feel more important. Maybe it’s the tight fitting uniform. Maybe it’s the shiny shoes, which don’t look all that comfortable. Maybe it’s the shiny badge, which is in their line of vision. I don’t know. I just know that every cop I have met has had a different attitude than people not in uniform. An attitude of  “I am right and don’t mess with me”. It can be intimidating. It can lead to a narrow view of life on their part. And it can lead them to think that an African American man in Cambridge must have broken into the house since the neighbors saw “something” and the only ID he has is from Harvard.

Did they act “stupidly”? Yes. Was President Obama right in what he said? Yes, if you listen to all he said since he set up that statement before saying it. Are all Cambridge cops “stupid” or all cops “stupid” in general? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I like cops. I like men in uniform. They make my heart beat faster and that makes me smile at them. But do I think the uniform gives them an attitude problem? Yes I do. It’s called Uniform Strength. Which is why I take their version of the story with a grain of salt. There is some element of truth but it’s not all truth. Should they apologize? Yes. They made a mistake. All people do. Cops are not an exception to this. They should apologize and recognize that the uniform can affect their attitudes about events. It’s a wonderful uniform but it doesn’t make them always right or into some kind of super hero. It is just a tool of the trade.