Cops on Campus

I am not sure if you have heard the latest hullabaloo to come out of Cambridge, MA. But if you haven’t here’s a link to the story.

The long and the short of it is that a Harvard Professor, who happens to be black, was arrested for trying to get into his own house.

Well, OK, he didn’t get arrested for trying to get into his own house, he got arrested for being a jerk to a police officer, who just so happened to be white.

I only bring it up as it was quite a hot button issue on the Sunday morning political pundit shows.

The pundits weren’t debating who was in the right, the cop or the professor, they were debating President Barack Obama’s reaction to the incident.

Obama said he thought that the policeman acted ‘Stupidly,’ which it sounds like he may have. But I, like Obama at the time he made the comment, don’t have all the facts.

But for these pundits to get upset that Obama is being bothered with such ‘trivial’ matters gets me pretty fired-up.

Here’s my point- Just because America finally elected a black man to the Presidency doesn’t mean America’s long-standing racial ills have been corrected.

Obama was asked about the situation because racism is still alive and well in America. I being a white guy, have been the beneficiary of racial profiling many times. I have many minority friends who have been victims of it. So I have seen first-hand that the problem still exists.

Granted, we have Russia making some worrisome moves and North Korea threatening to drop bombs like Hiroshima. And damn near everyone seems to either be unemployed, in foreclosure or worse.

So a guy getting arrested, without and charges being pressed, seems pretty trivial by comparison.

But it isn’t.

America took a big step forward in electing Barack Obama, but it was only a step. Addressing America’s deep-seeded racial issues/divide is going to take a Lewis and Clark-esque expedition, not just a couple steps.

Should the guy have been arrested? Is it ever OK to talk to a policeman with anything but respect? Did the cop over-step his bounds?

The one black person on the panel of ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ noted that from an early age, she was taught to talk to police officers with nothing but respect. She stated that as a black person in America, you had to be trained to do so, in order to avoid any problems with police…the insinuation being that cops were looking for any reason to bust a black person.

While that may be the case, I’ll just add that as a (white) kid I was raised to interact with police the exact same way the black woman described: With Respect.

While I’ll agree with the sentiment and have personally witnessed bias on the part of the police depending on race, I will also note, that I am never combative or aggressive towards police. Which is part of the reason why I think I have gotten out of a couple tough situations with police, not that I get a pass solely because I am white.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have seen cops who are simply power-abusing jerks. But cops are people…people who have a pretty tough job. But the cop in this case is a 16-year veteran who just so happened to be the first-responder on the day that former NBA Star Reggie Lewis died. The officer attempted CPR when he found Lewis collapsed on the floor. Hardly the actions of a bigoted power abuser.

Granted the Lewis incident was a long-time ago and people change. But there is nothing in the officer’s history that would indicate the officer is anything other than a good, decent, public servant. And if there was, you can be sure the stories would be all over the news.

I don’t know much about the professor ‘victim’ in this story, but I know that he specializes in racial profiling. While I think such work needs to be done, as it obviously still takes place daily here in America. I wonder if the gentleman allowed his passion for the focus of his life’s work to get the better of his judgment.

I think he over reacted. And while the cop is trained to deal with such situations, he is human. And if the professor got overzealous towards law enforcement, which is sounds like he did, he’s subject to the same rules as everyone else.

It’s sad that we are still having this conversation today-

Did the white cop treat the black man unfairly? But we are.

The only saving grace of this particular instance is that it looks like it was just a matter of the cops dealing with a jerk as opposed to the cops preying on a black man.

And that is a step forward. As pathetic as it is to say that.

I like trains...

As I sit here on my couch watching ‘doomsday central’ aka The History Channel lament the eminent downfall of humanity due to societies’ overreliance on fossil fuel, I was reminded of a ray of hope.

Link Light Rail is opening here in Seattle this weekend!

Being a long-time proponent but only recent user of mass transit, I am excited to see Seattle move in the right direction.

Do I think this initial 13.9 mile stretch of light rail is going to be the cure-all for the region’s traffic woes?

Nope.

But they say the first step is always the hardest one. And Seattle has finally taken the first-step towards a real mass transit solution.

As you can see in the hyperlink above, Light Rail’s tentacles are already beginning to sprout.

And I find the growth or should I say potential growth as exciting as the start of service this weekend.

This initial line is a backbone off of which many lines will grow. The fact that expansion has begun even before the first passenger has boarded a train only proves that theory.

Now that we have a fleet of trains and a base of operations, growing the service is much easier.

I was a fan of the monorail. I even voted for and paid taxes for it. Mostly because I liked the planned service routes. The monorail plan proposed an X-pattern, spreading from Ballard and the U-District on the Northside to West Seattle and Rainier Beach on the Southend, with all lines running through downtown.

I see the same idea coming together with Light Rail, the foundation has been laid with a downtown HUB and a (future) line from the U-District that extends to the Airport.

The prospect of being able to take a train from Ballard to Kent doesn’t seem at-all far-fetched when you see what is already under way.

And this is all West-of-the-lake-centric.

Just think of the possibilities when you add a Seattle-Redmond Line via Bellevue.

I already bus it to the Eastside and have loved the nearly traffic-free ninja-route that buses are allowed to take during the I-90 construction as the solo-commuting masses sweat-it-out.

But my bus, the 550, seems rather underutilized outside of peak traffic hours so rushing to get an east-west line doesn’t seem necessary, yet. Though it would be nice to see some proactive as opposed to reactive planning for once.

So needless to say, I plan on hopping-on the train this weekend like many other folks.

I just hope they plan on coming back, like me.

I'll be right back.

Funny how going-out for a gallon of milk can change your perceptions.

I have lived in the Central District neighborhood of Seattle for over two years now. And for most of the time that I have lived there I have felt perfectly safe.

That changed recently.

As I headed-out to Safeway to grab some groceries, I thought nothing of it. I rolled north on 23^rd Ave S, past landmarks like Garfield High School and Ezell’s Fried Chicken. After two years, I tend to pay such landmarks no mind.

It was on my way back home that I took note…

On my way back to my condo, I saw a cop roll-up behind me, lights-ablaze. Not an uncommon occurrence on 23^rd, so I paid it no mind. Though as I approached 23^rd & Cherry I saw a fire truck, ambulance and yellow police tape running the length of the thoroughfare. Now this…was an uncommon occurrence.

I ducked onto a back road and made my way home.

Little did I know, that what had just taken place at this intersection would profoundly change how I perceived the place I have called home for the past few years.

I hopped online to get the down-low on what had happened and found-out that two people were dead, victims of a drive-by shooting.

Normally such news would roll off my back. But the folks were alive as I rolled-by on my way to the store. And now, 30 minutes later, they weren’t.

That realization blew my mind.

I grew-up in South Seattle, a place with an undeservedly bad reputation. I was a fat, white, nerd who managed to get-by just fine. So when I hear that Seattle is ‘Ghetto,’ I beg to differ.

I’ve been to Chicago. I’ve been to LA. I’ve been to NY/Brooklyn…

Those are ghettos.

Seattle, by comparison, is a joke.

I live in the CD, grew-up in the South End and kick-it in South Park/White Center/Burien. All of which pale in comparison to the destitution of a real ghetto.

Which is why seeing such violence outrages me.

The CD, short for Central District for those not in-the-know, has seen quite an upswing in the past few years. Some call it gentrification, I call it not fearing being jacked as you walk to your car. (Which is not to say that jackings/break-ins don’t occur anymore.)

Some folks see gentrification as a horrible thing, but I venture to say that most decent folks (regardless of race) like to see a community that takes pride in itself.

Sadly, I have seen signs of a backslide in the CD lately. Drug dealers have been openly operating on busy street corners. I am also seeing more and more kids rocking red clothing…when I was a youngster, the CD was Crip territory. Oh, how times have changed.

Every time I see signs of the ‘Hood, I find myself asking the same question, Why?

Again, Seattle is not ghetto. And it really pisses me off that a couple knuckleheads, who have visions of 50-Cent dancing in their heads, can undo 10 years of redevelopment.

It’s not just white-folk who enjoy walking the streets without fear.

And now, with one action, one knucklehead, has undone all of that.

They say ‘One bad apple ruins the bushel.’ I say ‘A fuckin’ loser hoses a neighborhood.’

I was raised in a less-than-stellar area and have always minded my surroundings…being a cracka in the ‘hood, you learn to read the angles.

But I never felt I HAD to so in the CD, until now.

So while I normally don’t condone violence. I’d like to find the reject who lacked the testicular fortitude to face a foe straight-up and beat the living shit out of them.

Though knowing the ‘code of the street’ (as laid-out in various gangsta movies where I am sure this gutless shooter picked-up their code of ethics) I know retaliation would be necessary. So that is just a dumb road to venture down.

Instead, I’ll just say, remember the CD before Sunday afternoon. It’s still the same people. It’s still safe.

Don’t let the ball-less minority rule the good and decent majority.

Take control of your neighborhood.

We’ve done it before and we can sure as hell do it again.