(This will be the routine for now on: Health blogs Mondays and Wednesdays.
Free-ranging observations on pop culture, politics and news media on Fridays.
Actually, there is a health-related blurb at the end of this essay.
Read the Friday Special and have a great weekend.
Monday: The flu and autoimmune disease)
I applaud President Obama for taking to task the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates after a neighbor’s call about a man breaking into Gates’ home.
It turns out the man was Gates. Guess the neighbors don’t know each other very well.
The cop, Sgt. James Crowley, is white Gates is black (Note to news media: Gates is not just a prominent black professor as so many TV news reporters described him. He is one of the most prominent professors in America and is black. He is one of the best, period. Look him up.
Also, according to published reports, he was able to show ID proving that he was at his home. The prof was arrested for allegedly sassing the cop. The charge was eventually dropped.
According to a Boston Globe report, Obama said race “still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that’s why I think the more that we’re working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques . . . the safer everybody is going to be.’’
As a reporter, I covered police in Michigan and New York. As city editor and deputy metro editor, I coordinated police coverage in New Haven and Greater Lansing. I count a couple of police officers as friends and they told me, not for attribution, that cops engage in racial profile. They see it as a necessary evil to get bad guys off the street. Need proof of the racial disparity? See this example. There’s more out there, too.
Crowley’s supporters argue that the cop is not a racist. He taught racial classes on racial profiling at the academy. Cops who are black even vouch for him.
I applaud President Obama for taking to task the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates after a neighbor’s call about a man breaking into Gates’ home.
It turns out the man was Gates. Guess the neighbors don’t know each other very well.
The cop, Sgt. James Crowley, is white Gates is black (Note to news media: Gates is not just a prominent black professor as so many TV news reporters described him. He is one of the most prominent professors in America and is black. He is one of the best, period. Look him up.
Also, according to published reports, he was able to show ID proving that he was at his home. The prof was arrested for allegedly sassing the cop. The charge was eventually dropped.
According to a Boston Globe report, Obama said race “still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that’s why I think the more that we’re working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques . . . the safer everybody is going to be.’’
As a reporter, I covered police in Michigan and New York. As city editor and deputy metro editor, I coordinated police coverage in New Haven and Greater Lansing. I count a couple of police officers as friends and they told me, not for attribution, that cops engage in racial profile. They see it as a necessary evil to get bad guys off the street. Need proof of the racial disparity? See this example. There’s more out there, too.
Crowley’s supporters argue that the cop is not a racist. He taught racial classes on racial profiling at the academy. Cops who are black even vouch for him.
One thing I learned very young is cops are not black, white, red are yellow. They are blue, gray or whatever color uniform they wear. They stick together. They rarely say anything against their brethren even if their brethren are wrong.
Not all, but many hide behind a thin, blue wall of silence.
Obama, who lists Gates as a friend, did not characterize Crowley as racist. Neither would I. But I know that racist acts can be committed by people wearing smiles and speaking in whispers.
At the very least, arresting a man for “breaking” into his home is bad police work. Cops have wide latitude when making arrests. But why not also teach a cop to treat with respect a wrongly indentified “suspect.” Crowley says Gates yelled at him. The instructor did not try to slug the officer. I could understand the arrest if that had occurred.
Perhaps this incident will lead to a bigger and long overdue debate about American racism past and present. Yes, Obama’s election to the White House is a big step in so many ways in this country. But racism and discrimination still exists and they are not going anywhere until we as a nation finally do something about it. The nation has to stop treating it like the ugly family secret that might be forgotten if no one talks about it and openly deal with it.
I wonder: The neighbor who called police on Gates…Would he or she have dialed 9-1-1 if they saw a white man trying to find a way into the house? Or would they have helped him?
Karen Duffy’s rebound
Not all, but many hide behind a thin, blue wall of silence.
Obama, who lists Gates as a friend, did not characterize Crowley as racist. Neither would I. But I know that racist acts can be committed by people wearing smiles and speaking in whispers.
At the very least, arresting a man for “breaking” into his home is bad police work. Cops have wide latitude when making arrests. But why not also teach a cop to treat with respect a wrongly indentified “suspect.” Crowley says Gates yelled at him. The instructor did not try to slug the officer. I could understand the arrest if that had occurred.
Perhaps this incident will lead to a bigger and long overdue debate about American racism past and present. Yes, Obama’s election to the White House is a big step in so many ways in this country. But racism and discrimination still exists and they are not going anywhere until we as a nation finally do something about it. The nation has to stop treating it like the ugly family secret that might be forgotten if no one talks about it and openly deal with it.
I wonder: The neighbor who called police on Gates…Would he or she have dialed 9-1-1 if they saw a white man trying to find a way into the house? Or would they have helped him?
Karen Duffy’s rebound
This is a short and sweet salute to Karen Duffy (I had a crush on her back in the day), whose career is proof that people with sarcoidosis can overcome the disease and thrive.
Duffy, a former MTV VJ and Revlon model, was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in the mid-90s. Now she is back hosting a new TV show, Surprise Vacations, on the Fine Living Network at 8 p.m. ET Sundays. Duffy's show gives deserving people a surprise free vacation. She tells USA Weekend that she has been filming the show for the past six months while also studying to be a chaplain at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. “One of the things we learn is care-taking for the caregiver,” Duffy says, “people who are taking care of a loved one or sick child.”
Duffy, 48, has her own illness to deal with - sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease affecting her nervous system. It caused partial paralysis. She helps others who are less fortunate. “My parents have always really led by example, (showing) that the only thing worth doing is what you do for others,” Duffy says in a recent interview with USA Weekend.
“I think that has really helped me through my hard times. I mean, my life isn’t perfect and I’ve got to deal with this big lump in my head all the time and deal with chronic pain issues, but I’m so grateful for the days that I feel good,” Duffy says USA Weekend. This fall, Duffy has a small role in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which also stars former boyfriend George Clooney.
Here, she discusses her fight with sarcoidosis as written in her book, “Model Patient: My Life As An Incurable Wise-ass.”
No comments:
Post a Comment