Academic

Who Acted Stupidly?

By Calvin Massey

            A pedestrian out for a walk notices two men wearing backpacks jimmying open the front door of a house.  She calls 911 to report what appears to be a burglary in progress.  A cop responds to the broadcast of an apparent burglary.  He finds two men inside the front door of the house.  The cop asks for their identification.  One of the men refuses and hurls abuse at the cop.  The cop persists in his request.  Finally the man produces ID from his university employer.  The man continues the abuse and, after delivering various threats to the officer, demands the officer's name and badge number.  The cop gives it to him.  The cop, apparently satisfied that the man does in fact live in the house, exits the house to the front porch.  The man pursues him to the front porch, heaping more abuse upon the cop and repeatedly demanding the cop's name and badge.  The cop tells him he has already provided that information.  A small crowd gathers.  The man remains in high dudgeon.  The cop then tells him to cool down and warns him that he is engaging in public disorderly conduct.  The man continues his tirade.  The cop arrests him.  The man has a friend, who happens to be President of the United States, who then says that while he "doesn't know all the facts," the cops "acted stupidly."  Oh, the man is black; the cop is white.  The man says this is a case of racial profiling.  Racial profiling?  The man was arrested for his abusive behavior towards a cop performing a service for the man in question.  After all, the man was jimmying his front door because, by his own admission, his house had been the subject of a recent burglary attempt. 

Stupid Verdicts:  

    1) It's stupid to abuse a cop who has responded to an apparently legitimate report of a burglary in progress in your home, especially when your home has been the target of a recent burglary attempt.

    2) It's stupid to call the cops stupid when you don't know the facts.  

    3) It's not stupid to arrest a man for disorderly conduct  consisting of public verbal abuse of a policeman performing his duty, but it would have been wiser to have just left the man raging on his front porch.  

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 24, 2009 (boomark / email).