jsbowden | Henry Louis Gosset Jr. Gate...

There's been a lot of press about the Harvard prof. who got arrested for effectively forgetting his keys. Now, I'm sure he was being a dick to the cop towards the end, but seriously, you would too if you had shown proof of residence and made it clear that you lived in the property in question and the officer hadn't told you to have a nice day and went on to do some real work.

Now, the question I have about this whole thing? Which one of his fucking neighbors called the cops on him in the first place? I may not know all my neighbors, but I see them enough to recognize them and wouldn't feel the need to call the cops if one had locked their self out of their house.

Yes, the police were stupid to arrest him, and yeah, he was stupid to get in a verbal confrontation with a police officer (you don't provoke them, even when you're right...especially when you're right, because they hate that...if they were normal and rational people, they wouldn't have become a cop), but I still can't fathom which of his neighbors felt the need to be so big a dick as to call the cops in the first place.

no subject

I was walking through a reasonably affluent neighborhood last week, a nice part of town, at 10:00 or so on a weekend morning.

After walking about ten blocks, the only other humans I saw were my daughter, and some gardeners.

I can totally believe people don't know their neighbors.

Date: 2009-07-29 03:12 pm (UTC)

From:

prince-corwin.livejournal.com

Enh. I have no strong feelings about this. Like everyone who has ever had to hold his tongue because some clown with a badge was being a dick, my naturaly sympathies lie with Gates. But the last time the Court of Public Opinion whipped itself into a lather, three lacrosse students almost went to jail under the auspices of a corrupt prosecutor.

This, however...

Now, the question I have about this whole thing? Which one of his fucking neighbors called the cops on him in the first place? I may not know all my neighbors, but I see them enough to recognize them and wouldn't feel the need to call the cops if one had locked their self out of their house.

...I have an opinion on. It could have been a new neighbor. It could have been someone driving by. It could have been a babysitter three houses down. It could have been someone who'd known him for three years and just didn't get a good enough look a him.

Moreover, what would the reaction have been if it had been a burglar? The reaction would have been, "Jesus Christ, why did no one call the cops?!" If someone were breaking into your house, presumeably you would just want someone to call, instead of balancing it, "Well, it could be Bowden. Or maybe not. He could lose all his fancy electronics if I don't call and it's burglar. Or he might be pissy if that's him, but I just can't tell...."

The urge to just assume everything is fine, or that someone else will do the right thing when something weird or dangerous is going on is powerful and harmful. Most of the time, no one does anything, which is actually the wrong thing to do.

That it fucked up in this case is sad, but doesn't change my general opinion.