What does anyone think might happen in Australia if there is a complaint of a possible break-in in progress and the police turn up to find someone with a pinch bar jimmying the door and causing actual damage? Then instead of immediate co-operation the suspected offender abuses the police?

Hands up all those who would expect to be staring down the barrel of a Glock until they had dropped whatever was in their hands and assumed the position. Hands up again if you think you would probably be arrested for being a right nuisance and bl**dy fool.

Police are scarce on the ground, they are frequently in risky situations and they have a right to be treated with respect. Fact is, abuse a cop and s/he is duty bound to arrest you.

The real story here is that a high powered senior academic dumped on a 'dumb' cop who was supposed to cower and touch his forelock. This is a common enough event for police and the offenders come from all walks of life and yes, women notables do it too. Yes, women police might arrest them just as smartly as a male officer. That such arrogant twits are sometimes not arrested has more to do with how busy police are and the amount of paperwork that is required. However, make it worth their time and bang, into the Peter you will go (and a good thing too).

Professor Gates was the bully and he was gutless playing the racist card. Police have every right to be treated decently, especially when responding to a possible crime where their lives are at risk.

This article is a beat-up.

SJF,

'Because, when power is distributed vertically, people settle into positions on the hierarchy according to various horizontal demarcation lines – the most common being gender, class and race. Because two men occupy the same gender status, they then defer to either class or race to establish superiority.'

But why is that interesting? To me the article is talking about what is not there. It's like a sports reporter going to the art gallery and talking about the football that isn't being played.

Hence my constitutional feminist post...

It's quite laughable really. For some reason I would think that since most feminists seem to be able to sniff out some chauvinism or sexist stereotypes at work from 15 miles away, they would be able to identify when men are being stereotyped.

Imagine if we changed the phrases around....

'Often, women nag. They don’t like to be ignored. There is no un-emotive logical reasoning to avert a hissy fit of sorts.'

I can imagine if the author read something like that, she'd be fuming about the dismissal of women as being unable to be logical and rational. Sexist stereotyping. And I would agree with her.

So you can say that's not the point of the article. True.

You can say the same posters are guaranteed to find something to take offence about whenever a feminist article comes up. Doubly true.

But that doesn't change the fact that those two quotes robert picked out are sexist.

>> Police have every right to be treated decently

yes

>> Fact is, abuse a cop and s/he is duty bound to arrest you

no

Zillah writes:

"It is not totally clear to me that if Gates were female, and/or if the officer was as well, that once it was clear that Gates belonged in the house, that there would have been an arrest. This is not to say that a black woman might not have been furious and angry at the unfolding events. There could have been screaming, and anger. But in the end, one or both of them would probably have found some middle ground."

I not so sure about women being more likely than men to find "some middle" ground. Women, generally, may be smaller physically than men, but when it comes to ego I see little difference between the sexes.

Therefore I disagree with the author's proposal that gender played a part in the events as they unfolded. In fact, I'd go so far to say that because there are still so few women in positions of power, there are some women who really let this feed their egos - to the detriment of all women. As we know (and is frequently demonstrated on OLO) the behaviour of one woman is an indictment on us all.

Police stand up for each other because they are cops - not necessarily due to "male bonding", particularly as more female police enter the ranks.

But race? Oh yes, a major factor. Caught breaking into one's own home while being black, by a white cop - if we saw this incident on a TV cop show we'd comment on how stereotypical the narrative. But it was not fiction, it happened and continues to happen to non-whites. Personally, I don't blame President Obama for his outburst; whites just don't realise how much privilege they take for granted. He was far more justified in his complaint than Kevin and his airline food tanty.

First point, this is an awfully written article and I couldn’t agree more with previous comments to this effect.

In addition to this the article is illogical and indicative of the patronising attitude of the left towards… well, anyone who isn’t in their rightful place (or a straight white male).

My favourite points are:

“this is not to say that a black woman might not have been furious and angry at the unfolding events. There could have been screaming, and anger. But in the end, one or both of them would probably have found some middle ground”- this has been discussed so I will let it go.

The second is “Given white privilege, the apology, the generosity of spirit, the willingness to avert a confrontation was Crowley’s responsibility”... excuse me, this is the condescension of the left epitomised. Sure you are the wealthier, more educated and pals with the president but your black so are therefore the perpetual victim and we will do our best to baby you, if you want to say “I’ll speak with your Mama outside” (he actually said this) and throw a tantrum because a white officer asked to see your ID following a report that someone was jimmying open the front door of the house that you are in (and who hasn’t been pulled over for reasons less than that!) then that’s fine… now would you like a cup of hot milk and a blanky.

The most hilarious thing about this is that in this town you have a white police officer who arrested a black Harvard Professor only to have the black Mayor, the black Governor and the black President all point to power inequity!!

The Irish, the Jews, the Welsh, the Italians, the Poles, the Chinese have all been discriminated and oppressed- thank God (as a man of Irish background) these people were oppressed at a time before there was a left culture telling them to blame the system instead of fighting as individuals to succeed.

Bringing gender into this is unnecessary.
Far more relevant is the attitudes that people take due to territoriality (At home you rank higher), and the clash of policeman's assumed power vs one's right to feel in control in ones home. Add in some startle factor, fight/flight invoked and things get messy.
Given the US history it is not unreasonable to assume racist intentions, but it is also not unreasonable for the policeman to not accept abuse whilst doing his job. Police should be wary about commanding people in their own homes unless a crime is definately in progress (drugs, weapons, etc). Home as castle is built into us and needs to be accounted for (unless a violent confrontation is the desired effect).
Gender is relevant *everywhere* to certain minds I guess.