Think About This

"The only people who doubt that racial profiling is alive and well in the U.S. are those whose skin color protects them from it. (Clearly Barack Obama, who said the police acted "stupidly,"- and arresting any celebrity for questionable reasons sure ain't smart - isn't among them.) Yet the story of the prof and the cop, like most stories involving human beings, is always more complex than finger pointers on either side cared to admit.

In fact, many innocent white men and women have been brusquely treated, threatened and abused by arrogant police. It's just as true that overbearing black officers sometimes mistreat citizens of color. Every human being who possesses great power at some point feels tempted to abuse it. What could be more frightening than the life-or-death authority possessed by police - a power complicated by the dangerous nature of police work and the reflexive hostility with which many regard cops?

Yet white people's unpleasant brushes with police of any shade are more likely to be aberrations than those of blacks and Latinos, whose everyday dealings with officers too often feel oppressive, hostile or downright dangerous. That's a fact.

It's also a fact that in the Gates-Crowley drama, few who are commenting have any idea what they're talking about. Most have looked at the events as described and seen only that which reinforces what they already believe. They know nothing."

-Donna Britt, of the New York Times.