<p>Ah. He wasn’t saying that Gates *is *a banana-eating junglemonkey. He was saying he was *acting *like one.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I missed the subtlety of that. Who could still possibly call that racist now? :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>No, of course those words were not used with racist intent—it’s a complete coincidence that he used the classic language of the KKK and Aryan Nation (no less than 3 times!) to speak of a black man in in a hate-filled rant. How can anyone think he’s a racist?</p>
<p>Yet another perfect example of the “Deny, Deny, Deny Strategy”. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, no matter how outrageous, always emphatically deny your racism. Always.</p>
<p>So Bob Dylan was stopped today by the police, even though he is very famous. They asked for his ID, even though he was simply walking around a neighborhood. Was this racism like the Henry Louis Gates case?</p>
<p>Why hasn’t Obama commented on this preposterous situation?</p>
<p>Well (and only because you brought it up), a comparison of the two incidents could support the argument of unequal treatment:</p>
<p>Gates: African American
In own home
Produced ID
Handcuffed</p>
<p>Dylan: White
Not in own home (seen peering in window of another house)
Could not produce ID at the scene (but got one later)
Never arrested or handcuffed</p>
<p>The account I read was on cnn.com. It said a neighbor called the police because they saw a man (Dylan) peering into a window. Also said he was wearing a hooded sweat shirt.</p>
<p><a href=“http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/14/bob.dylan/index.html[/url]”>http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/14/bob.dylan/index.html</a></p>
<p>From short article in our local paper it sounds as though both the police and Dylan behaved intelligently (aside from the generational issue of police not knowing who he was). Officer asked his name, Dylan gave it but had no ID, officer asked what he was dong, Dylan said he was on tour, and they took him to his hotel where other people vouched for him, and that was the end of it. Rather nice story. No fuss.</p>
<p>" It said a neighbor called the police because they saw a man (Dylan) peering into a window. Also said he was wearing a hooded sweat shirt."</p>
<p>Very different from being asked for ID when you’re in your own home. Very different, too, for being handcuffed and arrested after producing a Harvard ID in your own home.</p>
<p>This, once again, contributes to why African Americans don’t trust police and never know if they are being mistreated because of their race.</p>
<p>Let’s see what we have here:</p>
<p>Man A is standing in a strangers yard, approached by police but does not have ID. The police drive him to where he says his ID is, ID is obtained and he is free to go.</p>
<p>Man B is standing on his own front porch, approached by police but does not have ID. He enters his own home, produces ID to prove as much and is arrested.</p>
<p>And the moral of the story is that Man B could learn a lot from Man A. </p>
<p>Which makes no sense. Oh, wait, I see. Man A is white and Man B is black. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. </p>
<p>So the real moral of the story is that black man in his own home with ID is more dangerous than a white man in a strangers yard without ID.</p>
<p>Clearly, I cannot agree with this morality tale but it’s no surprise to me that others do. It’s disappointing and frustrating but not surprising.</p>
<p>It wasn’t quite a strangers yard IMO, it was a vacant house that was listed for sale.</p>
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<p>Seems a lot of posters have forgotten one important factor here. Man B, stopped by police, acts respectful and polite, makes small talk, and after his story is vouched for, is told to “have a nice day”. End of story. Man A, approached by police, starts being rude, loud, and accusatory of racism. Is asked to show ID, complies, but continus to be rude and obnoxious. Deserving arrest? Probably not. Deserving of a have a nice day? Certainly not.</p>
<p>Let’s just say I always told my kids that if approached by police, use Man B’s example. Would you accept your children to follow Man A’s example?</p>
<p>It was a yard not his own. In otherwords, a strangers yard of a vacant house that was listed for sale.</p>
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<p>According to the ABC article on the other thread about this, the home was occupied and the call was made by them (they even followed him down the block to see what he was up to). If some stranger was looking into YOUR window on a rainy night, wouldn’t YOU call the police to report it?</p>
<p>My child is white, he is free to be obnoxious to the police to a degree that a child who is black could never dream of. We have taught our son that. And how unfair and wrong it is. </p>
<p>In otherwords, we’ve taught him history and current events.</p>
<p>If a stranger were looking in my window, I’d call the police. Which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Professor Gates.</p>
<p>According to CNN [Bob</a> Dylan a complete unknown in New Jersey town - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/14/bob.dylan/]Bob”>Bob Dylan a complete unknown in New Jersey town - CNN.com)</p>
<p>I guess he didn’t fit into the Hispanic neighborhood and residents thought he was suspicous.
</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the below is what happened to one of my friends who happens to be black and an award-winning journalist, an NYU grad who has worked for The Washington Post. </p>
<p>Compare this to how Bob Dylan – a white man who, frankly, resembles a homeless person – was treated when police caught him peeking into someone’s house window. The same friend, while house hunting in Seattle – was stopped by the police there and asked if he was looking for drugs or (insert profanity for women’s genitals). As a result, he decided not to accept the job there on the paper’s editorial board.</p>
<p>"My fortune started shortly after four friends and I, from the Washington Post, Star and News, all of us black, started out at 3 a.m. Friday looking for an early morning eating place.</p>
<p>We’d just come from the Post building, at 15th and L Streets NW, to pick up a friend who worked until 3.</p>
<p>We turned a corner in front of 1022 Vermont Ave., when suddenly in the rear view mirror I spotted the flashing red lights of a police van. “Oh, no!” one of us said resignedly. “What are they stopping us for?” asked another.</p>
<p>The policeman came to the car door. “Yes, sir,” I responded, and he asked to see my driver’s license and registration. I told him, directly but a little chagrined, that I had left it at home and couldn’t produce it. He asked me if I knew why I had been stopped, and told me it was because I had gone through a flashing red light. But that was the last I heard of that charge until the end of the hour-and-a-half odyssey. The issue was now my driver’s license.</p>
<p>The officer asked me to step outside, and he and his partner began to search me. I was told to put my hands up beside the car. There were two officers, one white, Officer J.H. Franklin, and one black, Officer D.A. Hunter, and both were under 30.</p>
<p>Officer Franklin discovered something in my pocket. “What’s that?” he said to his partner. He pulled it out and discovered a blue pen inscribed in white letters with “The Washington Post.”</p>
<p>I told the officer I had just returned from the Post building, and that I and others in the car worked there and would be glad to confirm that I worked for a company heretofore not well-known for employing car thieves and joyriders. But no attempt was made to ask them or to call the Post.</p>
<p>There was some discussion as to whether I could go home to produce the license, or whether someone else could get the license for me, but this idea was also rejected by the officers. They said I would have to come to the Third District-First Substation to be booked. Someone else would have to drive the car there, following the van, Officer Franklin said.</p>
<p>I was then told to step into the back of the police van as my friends were to follow us. I had never been inside one of these, and certainly not alone or in custody.</p>
<p>[A</a> Late-Night Ride in a D.C. Police Van | The Maynard Institute](<a href=“http://www.mije.org/richardprince/late-night-ride-dc-police-van]A”>http://www.mije.org/richardprince/late-night-ride-dc-police-van)</p>
<p>I’m just going to put a wild one out there:
maybe a female police officer is less predjudiced than a white male officer or follows procedure better? Or doesn’t have a hidden agenda?
Maybe they just make better police officers.
Yeah, that is it, they make better officers.</p>
<p>The reality is that if you don’t scream at police officers in front of others and falsely accuse them of being racists, your odds of being arrested for disturbing the peace drop to zero. Dylan cooperated with police (unlike Gates), Dylan was “cool with whole incident” (unlike that a-hole Gates). The difference is behavior, not race.</p>
<p>maybe a female police officer is less predjudiced than a white male officer or follows procedure better? Or doesn’t have a hidden agenda?</p>
<p>That was also my thought
I was just talking about that last night because recently Harry Patch the last survivor of WW I trenches died @ 111.
He didn’t ever talk about the war until his last years, when he spoke about what a waste of life it was.
Would we even have such wars if women was are fully involved in political/business/military life as men?</p>
<p>Testosterone makes them crazy
;)</p>