Comments on: Gatesgate: Let’s Go To The Audio Tape

By: Afi Scruggs

Afi Scruggs — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:26:16 +0000

News is a process. The more we know, the more intelligently we write. And lots of us jumped to conclusions based on information available at the time.

By: David Eisenbach

David Eisenbach — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:35:35 +0000

I agree with Gates, lets just get back to health care.

By: Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:24:41 +0000

Elie and David, yes, it’s interesting how our default setting is to believe a police report!

Anecdote: About six months ago, I was pulled over without cause in a college town late on a Saturday night. The cop came up to my window and told me that he “smelled alcohol in the vehicle.” He was lying. There was no alcohol in the vehicle, and I don’t drink. In fact, I told him that it wasn’t possible for him to smell alcohol because I hadn’t touched a drink since July 17, 1999. Yet, because I was driving late, in an area near bars, they still called for back up, had me do the sobriety test thing etc. My point: cops lie as course of habit.)

A question for you though–in my view, Obama’s description of the cops “acting stupidly” is a pretty accurate one. (Though, after he said that, I knew what the headlines from the press conference were going to be.) So do you think the cop should get his invite rescinded?(though of course that won’t happen.)

By: David Eisenbach

David Eisenbach — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:44:50 +0000

Cheers to you for admitting your mistake. As a writer who makes plenty of ‘em, I know its not easy. In any case check out my T/S post on how Gatesgate is more about the police state than race. Isn’t it amazing how everyone is so surprised that the cops lied? What a shock. Anybody ever hear of the Blue Wall? And by the way there were black cops who backed up Crowley’s story 100%. This story is more about the blue-and-white than black and white.

By: Elie Mystal

Elie Mystal — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:43:03 +0000

Cheers to that, Vickie. I can’t wait to get into racially tense discussions about who should pick up the check!

By: Vickie Karp

Vickie Karp — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:29:38 +0000

Elie, I wish the entire country would go out for beers or lemonade, in groups of three, however long it takes, to discuss race. I think everyone should apologize to everyone. We’ve all been both smart and stupid. We’ll never find out who’s the most to blame, the second-most to blame, the third, although we can play that game together if we want. And here’s that poem … Amiri Baraka, in a gorgeous long poem about African American history, says somewhere, and this may be a slight paraphrase, “On the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is a railroad made of bones.” Our hearts had to break on this issue before they could re-build and handle the complex knowledge of human nature. Maybe, for enough of us, they pretty much have by now.