We have all had a chance to weigh in on the Gates v Crowley issue now. Is it racism? Is it abuse of power? Is it grandstanding by a pompous version of Al Sharpton? My particular point of view is well-documented at this site. My experience with the police has been that they are professional, polite, and dispassionate. For me the bottom line is that that is the way they should always be, whether it is with me or with a drug-dealing pimp.
Why? Because it is their job, and one needs to take pride in one's own professionalism AND especially in a job where one has the responsibility to protect and serve by carrying weapons.
Turns out, many police are also proud of their own professionalism, and would have dealt with Gates differently.
NPR: Examining Protocol in Disorderly Conduct Cases.
This morning, NPR ran an interview by Robert Siegel with the Exective Director of The National Black Police Association, Mr. Ronald Hampton and the Chief of Police for Chapel Hill, Mr. Brian CURRAN.
Some exerpts:
SIEGEL: And I want to hear from each of you. Someone tells you there's a burglary at my house, you go there, you find me, you see my ID. I am irritable. I am tired from a long plane flight. I'm rude and I tell you, get out of my house. Chief Curran, are you thinking, at that point, about arresting me and is there some line which, if I cross it, is going to get me arrested?
Mr. CURRAN: Well, I think in that particular case, and at least under North Carolina law, it's a kind of situation where you're probably wondering, you know, where is this guy coming from? But the break-in investigation appears to be over at that point. And generally speaking, you know, our officers here would probably withdraw from the house and just go onto the next call.
Siegel asks: What if I call you an anti-semite?
Curran replies:
'you can pretty much do and say a number of things in your own home that you might not be able to get away with on the street" And "well-trained officers, are used to getting some abuse from the public and sometimes in unexpected quarters or at inappropriate times and are trained to not rise to the bait. "
Hampton agrees and adds :
I see a police officer's job primarily as deescalating escalating situations. If you allow them to pull your strings, then you're defeated and then now they're in charge. And that leaves - that's how we get in trouble - by permitting those kinds of things to happen
SIEGEL: ....[What if] a scene starts to develop. And it's a scene in which the police officer is being berated by a citizen. Do you as a police officer, Ronald Hampton, in that situation, do you have to sort of show the flag for the police force and show that you're in charge?
Hampton says, basically, that they way an officer handles a case determines whether there will be an escalation and an eventual arrest.
Curran agrees: "our primary goal when we go to these scenes is to try to deescalate whatever is going on."
Curran coontinues: "in general, I think you can withdraw from the situation like that without doing harm to yourself, to your reputation and - or your department and just kind of carry on with business. I think as long as you're behaved professionally, I think most of the onlookers are going to recognize that."
This is what I HOPED and EXPECTED the police to say, and it reflects the professionalism we should all be able to expect, no matter who we are.