Thunder began mid-morning and now we have a steady rain up here in Broward. Nice day to stay indoors and check out SFDB's mid-afternoon Sift...
A- Me thinks something is going on in Ipanemic's life.
B- Miami Beach 411 offers us a sober reminder why you don't want to get arrested and sent to Dade County Jail, as if we need one.
Upon check-in to East Wing, you are supposedly given a blanket, although Bryant surmises no one have been cleaned since somewhere around 1968.C- Justice Building Blog weighs in on the Gates arrest with some well-balanced discussion. Check out the comments to get even more.
In the final analysis police officers do an extraordinarily tough job. They wake up every day and go to work to a job that may kill them. We understand that. We advise everyone to help make their jobs a little easier if possible. But all of that does not imbue them with some special status that places them above the constitution.D- Man or Maniac? does his best cranky guy imitation as he tries to navigate the Sun-Sentinel website this morning.
It's not against the law for a client to curse at his attorney (and we should know).
It is not against the law for a citizen to tell a police officer in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his house, leave him alone, while hurling a few well chosen adjectives about the officer's ancestors. It's not nice and not advisable, but it's not a crime.
E- Worst Pizza loves Steve's.
The pizza at Steve’s is New York style (although I try to refrain from using that term). It is stretched thin, with an incredible sweet sauce. Steve’s Pizza quite possibly could have some of the better tasting sauce in all of South Florida. The cheese is applied generously and has the perfect amount of cheese:sauce. If you go into Steve’s and watch your pizza being made, you will see that the guys behind the counter are seasoned in the art of making a pie. And considering the amount of pizzas that Steve’s goes through daily, they are probably one of the busiest pizza guys out there.F- The old Food Gang is now a kosher steakhouse, according to All Purpose Dark.
The menu covers the usual kosh-meat territory - chicken dishes, pastas, steaks, salads. Mains are priced in the $30's. Peeked in and noticed that they haven't touched the decor - same fruit photos on the wall, same furniture. Looks like they didn't even have time to have new signs made up. That's cool. Color photocopies are tres classy..
22 comments:
C: After we are done discussing how the cop was wrong -he was- maybe we can discuss how an accusation of racism that has the potential of destroying somebody's life should not be thrown around so casually.
E: That sweet sauce is why I hate Steve's pizza.
Hey Alex, did you see that babalu is now genuflecting before George W. Bush? It appears as though their memories don't retain information for more than 7 months...which explains a lot of things that are said over there...
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'Now"? The only time when they were not genuflecting was when their heads were buried in the sand.
It was such fun watching them live-blog the elections. They really thought it was going to be a slam-dunk for the GOP.
The babalusers have turned denial into a lifestyle.
Alex, there are lots of open racists who are doing just fine financially and professionally--the charge doesn't really do the kind of damage you seem to hinting that it does. When was the last time that a high-profile personality took a big hit for being racist? Even Mel Gibson has recovered, and he went all anti-Semitic, which usually has far greater repercussions.
What? Mel Gibson produces and finances his own movies. What were his movies after he was arrested in 2006? The guy has no career.
Regardless, this cop is not a celebrity, he is a public servant and a national-media charge of racism bestowed by somebody the stature of Gates is a very serious charge. Thankfully for him, the department is standing up for him, no doubt because of his record.
The cop acted wrong and should be punished, but I see no basis to label him a racist as well. Professionally is a career killer, personally if he is not a racist, it's very disturbing as well. I would be pissed. Yet Gates is still insisting in framing this incident as a racial problem. He looks like the proverbial man with the hammer.
Apocalypto came out later in the same year he made the anti-Semitic remarks, and did just fine at the box office and was even nominated for some Oscars, though he wasn't. And if you check out his IMDB page, he's staying pretty busy, it looks like.
As for the cop, did you see the way his fellow officers backed him up in the press conference? They did everything short of give Crowley a medal and a promotion. The accusation certainly isn't going to hurt his stature in the department.
Why should the officer be punished, Alex? For doing his job? Gates chose to berate the officer continually in public, causing a disturbance of the peace and putting the officer in a tough position. The officer did not want the situation to resort to an arrest but Gates gave him no choice in the matter because of his actions.
I also love how reverse-racist Al Sharpton is threatening to get a team of lawyers from New York to sue the Cambridge police department. Sharpton is right up there with Limbaugh in the "people who need to hurry up and die" category in my book.
Brian: we must be looking at two different IMBD pages. However, this is not a celebrity, it's a civil employee. Yes, the department is standing by him, I said that. But police departments have a lot of political pressure and political players from the mayor of Cambridge to the governor of the state seem to have fallen on the "racist cop" side. Again, if it wasn't for the guy's record, he would be history.
BM: I think he abused his power. Let's be real, a cop doesn't like to be yelled at, but that's not a crime. I think a white guy would have been arrested, which is why I don't buy the racism angle. But nobody disputes that Gates showed proof he lived there. At that point the cop should have just left. "Disorderly conduct" is a trumped-up charge cops use to teach mouthy people a lesson. I once was threatened with arrest -handcuffs out and everything- because a cop didn't like that I argued a traffic ticket and I wasn't even yelling. He said the same thing you said, I was causing a disturbance in public. Lesson learned.
I dont think the cop abused his power at all. He walked away from the situation and Gates followed and continued on his tirade. After being warned 3 times that he was becoming disorderly, he was arrested. If the cop walks away, it sets a bad precedent for onlookers, that they too can abuse officers in the same way. You cant antagonize and officer of the law. Gates got what was coming to him and he'd be an idiot to keep pushing this racism crap.
BM, the world is divided among people like you who think you can't "antagonize" or "abuse" cops and others like me who think of course you can, it's your first amendment right.
But the law is with us. It's not a crime to antagonize or abuse a cop and it's not disorderly behavior unless you are specifically inciting disobedience. A professional cop brushes the insults away and keeps his cool. An insecure cop or a vengeful cop acts like a bully and abuses his power. Ever heard 'you can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride"? That's exactly what this cop did and why the charges were dropped.
As far as precedent, a much worse precedent is set by any cop who acts like a bully in public, because most onlookers will go away with a bad opinion of the police. I respect much more a cop who can control a situation than one who relies on fear.
I disagree. I think if onlookers see the police being abused they will be more likely to act the same way. Officers of the law put themselves in danger to protect everyday citizens. They should be respected, especially when they arrive on the scene to do their job and investigate a potential B&E. What if the onlookers had gotten all fired up and started throwing rocks at the officer? Then it wouldve been ok to arrest Gates for disorderly? It shouldnt have to get to that point.
I dont see why you feel its ok to antagonize and abuse police officers? Do you feel its ok to antagonize and abuse dogs too? In both cases, I feel zero pity for those who get bit.
Blind Mind,
But obviously it's ok for police to antagonize and abuse civilians, which happens every single day.
If responding to a reported B&E as part of one's job as a police officer is antagonizing and abusing, then your comment makes sense. If not, it doesn't. I'm leaning towards the latter.
BM: I don't say is ok. I say it's not a crime. Maybe Gates wasn't right, but he wasn't breaking the law, which is what you arrest people for.
Are you saying cops are irrational animals like dogs?
As far as the crowd throwing rocks, then it would be a crime. But Gates wasn't inciting a riot. (BTW, abusive arrests have caused riots, would the cop be guilty then?). You can't supress speech willy nilly just based on a suppsition that it may lead to a crime.
But of course it isn't okay, Carlos, and police officers are called on it every day. Maybe not as often as you would like them to be, or maybe even deserve to be, but they are. So stop with the generalizations and mischaracterizations that seem to perpetuate your comments every where you write these days.
Police brutality is a problem. We get it, we really do. And most of us agree that anyone, cop or civilian, who commits a crime or acts outside the norms of society, should be held to account. But sometimes the system fails and people who should be found guilty aren't or are never prosecuted in the first place.
If there is a problem with the system that doles out punishment when a cop makes a mistake, let's fix the system. But let's not demonize a whole group of professionals because of the humanness of a few.
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No, I'm not saying cops ar irrational. The officer in this case was very rational. You can even see in the picture of Gates being arrested that he is still asking him to calm down. Like I said before, Gates had plenty of chances to return to his home and let it go. He chose not to and was warned he was becoming disorderly. I will agree that there is some gray area around what is and is not disorderly but I also think that it's also easy to see both the black and white that contribute to the gray (no pun intended). Whether a long trip or issues from his past caused Gates to flip out doesn't mean he wasn't wrong in doing so.
Again, I don't feel bad for Gates at all. He got what he deserved. If this is where we disagree then I guess we leave it at that.
Gates had plenty of chances to return to his home and let it go. He chose not to and was warned he was becoming disorderly.
He was home.
What do you want him to do? March straight to his bedroom and stand in the corner?
Yes, Captain Obvious, he was home. He shouldve stayed inside. There was no need to come out and berate the officer. Again, Gates got his just desserts.
Please, Carlos, save the verbal flourishes for NBCMiami. You know it isn't one or the other and that there are, in fact, many things each side could have done differently during the course of this encounter.
And you know that BM was referring to the interior of the house.
So why be the wise a*s?
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Speaking of NBC Miami, check out the new redesign.
http://www.nbcmiami.com/
Here is a piece by Radley Balko, a very respected journalist and blogger.
It is worth reading.
http://reason.com/news/show/135039.html
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