There are some people, I suppose, who take a certain private pleasure in viewing with alarm or looking askance or crying doom, but I am not one of them. Generally speaking, I prefer it when the world seems to be going more or less in the right direction. That being so, the last 80 or so years of my life have been something of a downer. Right now, I feel oppressed by so many evils, stupidities, alarming prospects, and general bad stuff that I have taken to huddling under the covers in the morning until almost 6 AM before getting up to take my morning walk. I do not think there is much likelihood that things are going to get better in the next few years, and the next few years being in all likelihood among my last, that is a depressing thought. I draw no larger meaning from these facts, I simply report them.
Now let me tell you a cautionary tale. Two days ago I took
Susie out to a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. I have in the car a
handicap placard which Susie got many years ago because of her multiple
sclerosis. The placard has in fact lapsed and I have negligently failed to
renew it but it sits on the dashboard of my car. It used to be that I was
punctilious about never using it save when Susie was in the car, but now that I
have Parkinson’s disease I use it even when I am driving alone.
When we arrived at the restaurant we found a handicap space
right at the front door, in which I parked. As we were leaving a young
policeman came into the restaurant and when we stepped outside I saw that his
car was blocking ours. He came out of the restaurant and it turned out he was
looking for us! Very politely, even deferentially, he noted that the handicap
placard had expired. He assured me that nothing was going to happen as a result
of this but said that I really must get it renewed. I apologized, thanked him,
and yesterday in two trips to the Department of Motor Vehicles, I obtained an
updated placard that is good for the next five years. As an anarchist, I am
always of course especially apprehensive about run-ins with the law so I felt a
frisson of concern about the event, but it all ended happily.
I assume what happened is this: someone drove up to the
restaurant looking for a handicap place and saw my car occupying it. Irritated,
he (I would be willing to bet it was a man) looked more closely and saw the
handicap placard but then noticed that it had expired, so in a fit of pique he
called the cops and the young officer showed up.
The young police officer was black and I am white. Suppose
he had been white and I had been black. How might the encounter have ended? I
gave that a good deal of thought as we drove away.
26 comments:
Probably would of gone the same way if an 87 year old black retired professor with an expired handicap placard had to deal with a young white police officer about it.
How were the snails?
delicious, but they did not have the oysters gratinee, which nwas a disappointment.
I agree with Jerry that it probably would have gone the same way if the races of the the two of you were reversed, but it's telling that I can say only "probably." There's no question in my mind as to what it would have been 50 years ago had the racial roles been reversed. It would have been very different. You'd have been lucky just to get a ticket and not an arrest and a beating.
This is off topic. I feel bad about teasing the Professor about the snails occasionally and want to offer an explanation.
I grew up in the 1970's a few hundred yards from a beach on Long Island Sound. At the mouth of the Housatonic River There was snails and clams and mussels galore on the sandbars when the tide went out. There was also big signs posted not to eat the shellfish because they were toxic from all the pollution coming down that river. Back then it was still a heavily industrialized area all up that river.
It was still a wonderful place to be a child. We could go swimming whenever it was warm enough. Fish for snapper blues and eat them or toss them back. Just not the shellfish. Mollusks actually. And when you are a kid and you spend a lot of time at a beach and are finding a lot of dead and really stinky mollusks it can have an effect on your desire to eat them in general.
But I'm glad you like them. And more glad that we have done something about the pollution.
Here is a thought experiment to consider:
"Imagine if every single parking space in our society was a handicapped accessible space."
If society were designed to be accessible to all, which is actually not that difficult to accomplish, consider for a moment what that world might be like.
Significantly fewer spaces for parking or significantly more space devoted to parking, and significantly higher likelihood that those with mobility issues will have to park further from their destinations.
I recently had a run-in with two police officers which I am confident, had I been Black, would have resulted either in my being badly beaten or killed, and the officers would have testified that I had been shot resisting arrest.
It occurred in February, 2020. I was returning to my home from having visited with a client in Ann Arbor in order to finalize the wording of an affidavit. I was taking a two-way rural road which was the most direct route home and it began snowing. I came to an intersection and across the intersection there was a police vehicle parked horizontally across the Eastbound lane on which I was driving, with its emergency lights flashing. I pulled up to the vehicle, lowered my passenger side window to inquire what I was supposed to do. There were no officers in the vicinity to advise me. There were no police cones, flares, or other barriers blocking the Westbound lane, so I drove around the police vehicle and proceeded on the Westbound lane. There were no other vehicles in sight. As I did so, a police officer came running towards me, waving his arms. I immediately stopped. As he approached my car, I lowered the driver’s side window. He approached the window and said, “Didn’t you see my police car with its emergency lights flashing.” I told him I did and that I had stopped to ask for directions, but there was no one nearby, and since there was nothing blocking the Westbound lane, I thought it was OK for me to drive around it in the Westbound lane. He said, “Well, you’re getting a ticket.” I responded, “For what?” He said, “For driving around my vehicle, with its emergency lights flashing. There has been a fatal accident up ahead and you have entered a crime scene.” I responded, angrily, “How could I know that there was fatal accident up ahead, and the fact that someone died doesn’t make it a crime scene. Why don’t you just give me a warning, and I will turn around and leave.” “No, you’re getting a ticket.”
At this point I did lose my temper and yelled at him. (I had had a long day, interviewing witnesses for a pending lawsuit; I had not had lunch, and I was tired and hungry.) I accused him of having been negligent for not having blocked both of the lanes with his vehicle; or placed a barrier down across the Westbound lane, or placed flares down. He rejected what I said, as his partner approached my car and asked for my driver’s license and registration, which I gave him (along with my Bar card, which he angrily handed back to me.) Both officers were white. As the partner left to check whether I had any outstanding warrants and to write the ticket, I began arguing again with the first officer, at which point he said “Do you want to get arrested for disorderly conduct?” (a bogus threat, since disorderly conduct requires that there be other civilians around whom you are inciting, and there were none – it was just me and two police officers.) I said, “No, I do not want to get arrested.” “Then shut up.” At no point did I use profanity or physically threaten the police officer. I asked if I could get out of my vehicle to take pictures, and he said OK, which I did. When I got back to my car, I aimed my camera down the road to take pictures of the accident, which was barely visible in the dark, with the snow falling. His partner approached and told me to stop, that I was not allowed to take pictures of a “crime scene.” I stopped, not wanting to get arrested. As he handed me the ticket, I asked him what statute I had violated. “It’s on the ticket. Now leave.” Which I did. As I drove home, I thought that if I had I been Black, I undoubtedly would have been dragged out of the car and severely beaten, possibly killed.
(Continued.)
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The ticket was a $400 civil infraction charging me with “Failing To Yield.” I pled not guilty and mailed the ticket back to the court. The hearing was scheduled, then rescheduled several times because of Covid. A final hearing date was scheduled for August, 2020. I sent an email to the City attorney, quoting the language from the statute and pointed out that I had not violated the statute, because there were no other vehicles in the vicinity to yield to. I also cited several Supreme Court decisions which has held that citizens have the right under the First Amendment to argue with police officers, even curse at them, and may not be charged with violating the law, as long as they do not physically threaten the officer. I received an email back from the City attorney stating that I had made some valid points and he was going to dismiss the ticket. I emailed him back, thanking him for his ethical conduct. Three days after the scheduled hearing, however, I received a certified mail envelope. Inside was a new ticket, now charging me with a criminal offense of “Disobeying A Police Officer While Directing Traffic.” I emailed the attorney again stating I could not be re-charged for the same offense. He said it was not the same offense; it was a different offense and his hands were tied because his client, the police, were demanding that I be charged. I emailed him back, stating the police were not his client, that the people of Michigan were his client.
Prior to the new hearing date, I acquired the body cam video of the officer who issued the ticket which showed the entire interaction and the location of my car and the police vehicle blocking only one lane of the road. I filed a motion to dismiss the ticket on the grounds that I had not failed to disobey a police officer directing traffic because there had been no police officer in the vicinity directing traffic, except when I was ordered to stop driving, which I had immediately done. I also provided the court with a copy of the body cam video. The City attorney, who is Black, now acting as prosecutor answered my motion with the argument that the police officer was directing traffic “through his police vehicle, with its emergency lights on.” I filed a reply brief, arguing that the prosecutor’s argument was nonsense – the statute clearly requires that a human being be directing traffic, not an inanimate object. At the hearing, the judge sided with the prosecutor and agreed that the police officer was directing traffic “through” his police vehicle. The judge also castigated me for having argued with the police officer. Motion denied.
Some may think, “Why spend all this time on a lost cause. Just pay the ticket and be done with it.” But this was a clear abuse of power by the police. I had done nothing wrong, and I knew I was right. Besides, I did not have to hire an attorney at $400/hr. to represent me.
I filed an appeal with the appellate court. In the meantime, I also filed a lawsuit in federal court against the police officer (a sheriff’s deputy), the sheriff’s department and the County, accusing them of violating my right to due process for charging me with a crime without probable cause. (I could not name the prosecutor as a defendant, because prosecutors have absolute immunity.) The federal lawsuit was held in abeyance pending the outcome of my appeal.
(Continued.)
With their Answer to my federal Complaint, the defendants attached the emails between myself and the prosecutor. They also attached an email exchange between the prosecutor and the deputy sheriff, in one of which the prosecutor suggested to the deputy that he would dismiss the first ticket, which would make me think that I was a “bad ass,” and then he would issue a new ticket charging me with a criminal offense. Walla! So his assertion that his hands were tied was a lie. (Why they attached this email exchange, I have no idea – but I would not have gotten it had I not filed the federal lawsuit.)
I filed my appellate brief on July 2, 2021. I argued that I had not violated the statute to begin with, plus the judge violated my First Amendment rights by taking into consideration my argument with the deputy sheriff. I also attached the email exchange between the prosecutor and the deputy sheriff. The prosecutor failed to file any brief in opposition. On August 20, 2021, that appellate court issued its two-page decision granting my appeal and dismissing the ticket. I am now going to revive the federal lawsuit. Exhibit No. 1 is going to be the prosecutor’s email to the deputy sheriff.
P.S.
To AnonyMouse,
I have not submitted this comment to brag about how “great” an attorney I am. I have submitted it to underscore that Caucasians get treated differently than Black people by the police. And second, to demonstrate how the police abuse their power, and how crooked some prosecutors are.
Dear Another Anonymous,
if you were female they may have let you off the hook, too
Your case was one where you had status (probably driving a nice car) while they have power
Think of them not as cops, but as regular people in cop's clothing
I think you're smart enough that if this happened to you more often, you'd figure how to game it
There are ways of handling such situations, but it is dicey and they are in charge
Howie,
I have emailed copies of the deputy sheriff’s body cam video to many friends (all of whom were Caucasian), thinking it is obvious that my rights were being violated.
To my astonishment, not a single person thought that I was being wronged and the victim of police abuse. Most have commented that they are surprised that I did not get arrested for yelling at a police officer. Most people do not know their constitutional rights and are intimidated by, and fearful of, the police.
Another,
You did not show how a white like yourself is treated differently than a black person.
You'd have to place a black person in your exact situation, a black person of your age, of your social class and educational level, who behaved exactly like you did to point out the differences.
You seem pretty depressed, Prof. Wolff. I'm saddened to see that, and I wish I had something to offer beyond just expressing my sympathy. I've found life to be a bit of a "downer" since around junior high myself, heh. :)
If you happen to feel inclined: I was wondering if you (or the readers here) have any preliminary comments, personal insights, or recommendations to someone who has just been dipping their toes here and there into the basics of psychology literature, for both educational and personal-growth (even mental-health) purposes. I'd be very interested to know how psychology has added to your life and helped shape your outlook.
I couldn't help but become interested in the classics of psychology as a result of both their overlap with philosophy and their relevance to therapy. I tend not to get very far in my readings, though, as I'll too often bump into a passage that reminds me of some issue in my private life, and diverts me onto an emotionally draining line of thought.
I have your Freud lectures marked for viewing this weekend.
s. wallerstein,
I am quite confident that if a Black male, regardless of social status, education, or make of car, had behaved as I did, he would have been beaten to within an inch of his life. You know that it is infeasible to re-run this incident and duplicate exactly what I experienced. But, you do not live in the U.S., so you are not aware of the repeated reports of white police officers using violent force on innocent Black people, regardless of social status. About a month ago, there was a report of a Black Second Lieutenant who had pulled into a gas station in, I believe, Texas. He was confronted by white police officer who demanded to see his driver’s license. When the lieutenant questioned why the police officer wanted to see his driver’s license, when there was no indication he had done anything wrong, the police officer sprayed tear gas on him as he was sitting in his vehicle. He was ordered out of the car, even as he was screaming that he could not see. Incidents like this recur periodically, which confirm, in my opinion, that if a Black person behaved as I had, he would not have escaped unscathed, as I did.
Brian Leiter, who is a Marxist, has published several studies, some of them from Adolph Reed, a black Marxist professor, showing that police violence is directed towards the poor, regardless of race or ethnicity. More blacks are poor and thus, they are more often the object of police violence. You can find the studies by googling Leiter's blog, Leiter Reports.
I've been stopped by police in the U.S., Panama (in dictatorship), in Brazil (in dictatorship), and in Chile (in dictatorship and democracy), frisked, asked to show ID, etc. That happens less as I get older and studies show that cops react to perceived threats and for lots of reasons, they feel a lot more threatened by a young male then they do to someone in his or her 70's such as both of us. Cops are on the street all day, often in situations of stress and fear and no doubt they tend to over-react to perceived threats and probably to project their own aggressive and violent tendencies onto the people with whom they come in contact.
Since most situations of street violence come from young males of poor or working class origin, they fear them more than they do older people, especially obviously educated older people.
As I've been stopped by cops many times, I've learned to observe their reactions, body language and verbal cues closely to defuse such situations and in general, I've been able to do so. In Panama I had to pay a bribe and in Chile during the dictatorship, I was beaten by cops, but otherwise, I've been fairly successful in avoiding problems with them.
To AnonyMouse,
I have not submitted this comment to brag about how “great” an attorney I am. I have submitted it to underscore that Caucasians get treated differently than Black people by the police. And second, to demonstrate how the police abuse their power, and how crooked some prosecutors are.
That sounds like an invitation and it is almost irresistible. Sadly, I'll have to decline it-for now. :-)
- The AnonyMouse
PS
HA-HA-HA
Mr. Wallerstein has it right in my opinion. There are for sure some overtly racist and malevolent cops out there. But mostly, in my opinion, the excess police violence towards blacks is also due to risk assessments based on age, sex, and perceived social class, in addition to race. Cops are often scared and I would be too. It's not right that this is so, but I don't know what to do about it.
I remember Jesse Jackson once saying how bad it made him feel inside when walking at night and hearing someone behind him, and upon turning, feeling relieved it was a white guy. If that is something Jesse Jackson felt personally, well it makes you think a bit at the very least. I met Jackson once, which is not surprising since I walked three days with him as he was leading a large group of people in 1991 I think. 'Keep hope alive' is what we were chanting if I recall correctly. It was a big news item in Connecticut at the time, but I don't think it had much long term effect.
Jerry Brown,
I agree with what you say.
One thing I've learned is to never argue with a cop in any country I've been in. They expected to be obeyed instantly and to feel, as Howie says, that they are "in charge".
If they ask for your ID, show them your ID and take your wallet out slowly just to assure them that it's not a knife or gun that you're pulling from your pocket. Why make problems for yourself with a couple of armed people?
One response to this depression is la belle indifférence. Here's another response: you could use your loss of motivation andlack of enthusiasm for the things you used to enjoy to your advantage. How so? By reading a student of Chomsky on the history of the catastrophic group think of the elites. Since you don't care anyway, you might as well listen to me and read ESG and Carbon Pricing La La Lands: Elite groupthink in the planetary impasse.
Yeah, if it is just your own situation, then do what the cops say. But sometimes it happens you have to disagree with them because you are there on behalf of others, like at a picket line in a worker strike, and it is necessary to make their job more difficult. And sometimes the police are clearly abusing someone else and it is just wrong and you just have to stand up and tell them they are wrong even at the risk they start beating you. That has happened twice in my life and both were very scary incidents. Confronting five or six cops by yourself when they are beating someone else is pretty terrifying. Both times though, the beatings stopped and I avoided one thankfully. Although they may have just taken them somewhere else to continue later for all I know.
I believe most, if not all, agencies have written procedures for delineating a crime scene - yellow/red tape, etc.
Jerry Brown: "But mostly, in my opinion, the excess police violence towards blacks is also due to risk assessments based on age, sex, and perceived social class, in addition to race. Cops are often scared and I would be too. It's not right that this is so, but I don't know what to do about it."
There has been a lot of discussion about this in recent years, especially in the past 12 months. A wealth of information is available if you seek it.
One thing to do is to stop sending lethally armed police into situations that do not require their presence. Directing traffic. Writing parking violations tickets. Harassing homeless people. Responding to calls involving people who appear to be experiencing mental health disturbances. All of these tasks could be handled by others, and at much lower expense. Police generally aren't really even particularly well trained for handling mental health crises. Divert the funds that are spent on policing and use that money for teams of professionals who are actually trained for and dedicated to handling mental health disturbances and domestic disputes.
Dear AA
Good luck trying to stay a step ahead of the traffic cops. They are the frontline of fascism. As for me, I am happy to get dismissed from jury duty, which I have done happily and which is our right as citizens
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