Who are cops…the police? Mostly guys, mostly white. In the past few decades a few women, more and more “ethnic†persons: some African-American, in Minneapolis-St.
Paul they reflect the recent immigrations…somewhat…as far as I know. Not too many Hmong persons, a few Latinos from various countries…
Who are we…in thinking about the police – wondering how they think about us, and what they’re “up to?†How many of us would like to be cops? Do police “like†being cops, or filled to various levels of…fear, import, wondering about each next person, in each approaching moment?
How do they get to be cops? I mean what’s inside their heads, their thinking, that we might get to understand in their terms – more than in our reactive minds?
Also important – maybe very important is the fact that they dress in “uniforms.†Uniforms seem to take individual identity and help make them all into police – cops. (Where has their “individuality†gone?)
More signs: their cars, bright flashing lights, rear seats which can be made very separate from the front ones; painted black and white (in lots of places). Quite obvious. (Except that we might forget to notice them when we’re driving a bit too fast: over the speed limit. And they can make really loud siren noises which instill us with fear and the immediate reaction to stop, and pull over.)
All this to say that the police have quite a “presence†in the world: in many/most senses they are all “alike.†Uniform…has several meanings and even more connotations. (The differences between police and the military? – has gotten a bit complicated and confusing especially in these moments driven by war, terror, fear… (Observing the RNC meeting in St. Paul last fall: the police “looked†remarkably like military – faces obscured, wearing odd/different uniforms, carrying threatening looks and clubs. Whatever it takes to “keep the peace†said the mayors!)
Sargeant Crowley and that “Uppity Professor†(from Harvard no less), “Skip†Gates. What were the exact circumstances? Never totally clear: perhaps so “obvious†to many of us, that the moment-to-moment “facts†don’t seem very important to the situation.
A white cop (likely with some ethnic background which might still be “important†– was very important a couple of generations ago – Irish Catholic? Boston, a long history of Irish Catholics bathing in money and power. But we should remember the movie, “Gangs of New York†pitching the Irish immigrants against the (then) white Protestant majority to taste those senses of their history. Tough (mostly) guys? Ethnics, culture: what sorts of culture do the police have? “White ethnicity: gone entirely or some residuals?
And an African American, in many ways “the African-American Professor†in these times when being “Black†is taking on some “new†meanings, especially as Barack Obama is our President. And Harvard: In “spite†of being at Harvard, Gates is probably the most important historian/critic of what is African-American. Read the rest of this entry »
