Ethics

Cops Are Just Such Sensitive Creatures

By Ed Brayton

Henry Louis Gates is one of the most famous public intellectuals in the country. He's the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard and is a very big name in academia. So what happens when the door of his house becomes jammed and he has to pry it open? Let's find out.

Well, the first thing that happens is that a passerby calls the police and reports a burglary. Okay, fair enough. If you don't know who it is and you see someone trying to jimmy the door of a house, you call the police. I don't fault that person.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).