I have been reflecting on my own interaction with a cop, several years ago, at a Ralphs Downtown. I was looking around, minding my own business, and a middle-aged white woman in business attire said "hello" to me. Normally people don't say hello to me, so I was immediately confused. She was not particularly attractive, and I had no desire to have intercourse with her. She was not mentally deficient, so I saw no reason to return the greeting. I looked down and noticed that she had a shield on her belt, and I deduced that she was a detective with the LAPD. Here was my moral quandary: Do I smile back?Ultimately I did not smile at her--I did not know her, and I had no desire to know her. Nor did I make any clever pig jokes, which would've been rude. (She was slightly overweight, and it would've worked on several levels.) I maintained my moral principals, and I walked away without comment. I was not under arrest.
The reason for this quandary was not that I hate cops or that I hate white people. My problem was that she had a problem with blacks. She surely did not say "hello" to all the blacks whom she'd encountered, so she immediately characterized me as one of the "good ones," and she should say "hello" to at least one this morning to improve community relations. So, she was racially profiling me by being civil towards me--that's right--and I find racial profiling offensive.
I am not one of the good ones. I am one of the complicated ones. Like 15 million other black men, I live my life in accordance to the way that I have been treated. In turn, I treat all white people as individuals. I do not subdivide whites (or people) in accordance to morality, but on their current behavior towards me, understanding that this behavior might change based on the situation that they are in. We are all driven by our same base needs: foods, pooping and sex (and sometimes we do two of the three things at once, with the adventurous trying all three). In my life, I have encountered white conservatives who have divorced their views from racism (conservatives frequently lack self-awareness, and they associate things as "right" or "wrong" without acknowledging moral relativism) and white liberals who preach tolerance while in reality are massive tools.
I do not listen to rap music. I do not follow sports. I do not call all women "bitches" and "hoes" because I have not met every woman in the world, thus I am not qualified to assess how big of a bitch or how big of a ho every woman might be. I do not use the word "nigger." "Nigger"/"nigga"/"niggah" is exclusively a word for non-blacks to use on blacks... So blacks know whom to punch. This is just an easier way to live life.
Well, the police were just doing their jobs, so many might say. According to Sgt. James Parker, the cop caught on tape calling Watts a liar, they weren't interested in recording this, which further complicates matters. They just wanted her ID. Of course, Watts didn't know this. If they did tell her, it would've sounded like a trick.
Someone, somewhere calls the cops about public sex, then the cops come--maybe days later--then start asking people who it was. The cops didn't see anything. They are just rounding up interracial couples looking for "lewd conduct." (It's like the LAPD does not have history books--they're going o start accusing interracial couples of "lewd conduct." The department might be legally correct but lacking in COMMON SENSE. The appropriate thing was to pretend that nothing happened. They couldn't find the suspects, and there was nothing the police could do about it.) From her perspective, she was just a black woman standing on a street corner, then some cops come by and ask her to identify herself and, oh, they wanted to quiz her about her sex life. From the little I know about women, they do not appreciate being quizzed about their sex lives.
No, Watts probably was not trying to take a principled stand against racial profiling. She was trying to walk away from a situation that risked her embarrassment. (Ninety percent sure that the decision to have car sex was the boyfriend's idea.) She thought "sex offender"--and her career would be over, so as an existential mater, she could not risk TMZ learning that she was busted for car sex. She is not Eddie Murphy. (I'm using Murphy because he was a big celebrity when he was busted giving a ride to a transsexual hooker, not because they're both black. His career survived. He is a man.)
Was this cop doing his job? Probably. He was, about to leave no stone unturned in his investigation of car sex in Los Angeles. You can smell weed coming from open car windows as people drive by you, but Colombo here was going to stop the car sex.
My problem is that the police were doing their jobs, I suppose. They were behaving in a legally correct manner but were not exercising COMMON SENSE. This sergeant was being a dick, accusing her of "playing the race card," which exacerbated her mental anguish. Ignoring racism is perpetuating racism; most white Americans would still like blacks to ignore racism, which is why they've invented "playing the race card." Everyone else seems proud of the way this sergeant handled himself, without commentating on how he made the situation worse. He had a possibly mentally unstable woman, and he was either calling her a nigger or a liar. (I'm guessing he was calling her a liar.) He should've arrested her silently or not arrest her. He chose the most dickish path, and both handcuffed her and didn't complete his duties. Parker was doing the bareass minimum. In doing so, he kicked a hornets nest and wondered where these hornets came from. Finally her boyfriend--yeah, a white guy--broke the standoff and handed the cops her ID. He recognized that it was just easier. Personally, I would've liked to see them actually arrest her. She should've made the cops earn their pay.
The outrage should be the DOUBLE STANDARD. Paris Hilton--who had committed a bunch of crimes--was originally only required to serve TWO DAYS of a 45 DAY JAIL SENTENCE. Why? The jailers though she was "sad," and Hilton was so sad, the compassionate thing to do was to let her out of prison having served less than 5% of her jail time. This was such a glaring example of systematic misconduct that it caused a public outcry and Hilton had to be sent back to jail, which was also an extraordinary move. If Watts had been a cop herself or cop's daughter, she never would've been cuffed. No, she wouldn't have freaked out, because there would be no record of it. The cops knew her, and they wouldn't want to embarrass her by inquiring her about her sex life. The event would've been handled quietly. This is a different kind of police corruption than the "shoot you in the head and steal your drug money" variety.
But, above all, the thesis of this post, is that these cops were dicks.
I can relate.
ReplyDelete