By Carlos Miller
Imagine how things would have turned out if, after my 2007 arrest for photographing cops against their wishes, I would have met with the arresting officers over a few beers in a meeting arranged by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
It’s not too far-fetched a scenario considering the Society of Professional Journalists sent a letter protesting my arrest to the mayor as well as to Miami Police Chief John Timoney and then-Civilian Investigative Panel Executive Director Shirley Richardson (who wasn’t worth a damn anyway).
The letter went ignored by all even though SPJ happens to the be the largest journalism organization in the United States.
Two months later, I launched this blog and here I am now, awaiting a decision from the appeal judges to beat the last of the original nine charges I was slapped with.
Meanwhile, my blog has gotten quite popular, visited by several thousand readers a day. Sometimes tens of thousands in a single day.
I am no longer being ignored.
If only we could have discussed this matter over beers …
Thankfully, President Barack Obama has more common sense than any of my local officials.
While many Americans took offense when he said the Cambridge police officers “acted stupidly” when they arrested professor Henry Gates, you have to respect a man who is not afraid to speak his mind.
And you have to respect a man who understands the bonding virtues of beer.
I’ve drank beer with cops several times over the years and it’s amazing how much I have in common with them. And it’s not like I don’t bring up the issues I write about on this blog. On the contrary, I use the opportunity to tap into their minds to find out what the hell makes them tick.
I’ve discovered that out of uniform and off the clock – and usually without other cops around – cops are able to see where I am coming from and will even agree with me about these issues. Whether this sentiment remains after the beer buzz wears off, I haven’t a clue.
But in the wake of what became a racially fueled incident (by the media and by professor Gates) – and became incinerated after Obama made his statements – the man was able to douse the flames with a simple beer invitation to the White House.
That’s my kind of president.
But while it appears that Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley and Gates are on their way to reconciling their differences, the rest of the nation is still engaged in a heated race debate, judging by the discussions on a multitude of internet forums.
Some are saying that Obama is the real racist. Others are saying that Crowley is the racist. Some are saying that Gates is the racist. And a few are saying his neighbors are the original racists for calling the cops after seeing him pulling up in a limo and breaking into his own house.
And some, like me, are saying that the issue is not black, white or brown but blue. That institutionalized culture of authority that many times oversteps its boundaries.
If anybody added to the sectarianism in this debacle, it was the Cambridge Police Union by immediately holding a press conference demanding an apology from Obama.
How is that any different than the Cambridge Chapter of the NAACP demanding an apology from the Cambridge Police Department in the days after Gates’ arrest?
And maybe it’s not much different than the Society of Professional Journalists coming to my defense in the wake of my arrest.
But journalists are not that tight-knit of a clique. As it is, some reporters are criticizing the reporter who started this whole race debate with her question to Obama during a press conference on health care.
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times asked the following question about the Gates’ arrest:
“What does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race relations in America?”
And here was Obama’s response:
“Well, I — I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here,” the president said. “I don’t know all the facts. What’s been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house; there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into –”
Then he stopped and smiled, suddenly realizing where he was. “Well, I guess this is my house now, so — – it probably wouldn’t happen.” The room erupted in laughter, with Obama joining in. “But let’s say my old house in Chicago –” He stopped, and paused a moment, and turned his head to the side of the room. “Here I’d get shot.” Another big laugh.
He went on to recount his understanding of what happened in the altercation between Gates and the Cambridge, Mass., police department — that Gates showed the investigating officer his I.D., proving his address, and was then arrested for disorderly conduct (after yelling at the police officer, according to the police report).
“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,” Obama continued. “But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”
The president recounted his own work in the Illinois legislature on a measure to curtail racial profiling by police officers. “That doesn’t lessen the incredible progress that has been made,” Obama said. “I am standing here as testimony to the progress that’s been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us.”
He was immediately criticized for his response. Many of his supporters stated he shouldn’t have even answered the question. That he should have just side-stepped it as politicians are supposed to do. These are the same people who voted for him because they wanted honesty in their government for a change.
Obviously, they can’t handle the truth.
And, of course, the same people who have been denouncing Obama since he emerged as a presidential candidate jumped all over him, accusing him of being racist, reverse racist. closet racist and whatever other type of racist that is out there.
And every cop in the nation felt as if Obama had been talking directly to them (but maybe that was just their guilty conscious over making stupid arrests).
But take a careful look at his response. Don’t just listen to the select excerpts the media provides. Read the entire passage.
First of all, he admitted he might be a little biased because Gates is a friend of his. And he also admitted he did not have all the facts. And he also said he was unsure of what role race played into the arrest. And he specifically said that “separate and apart from this incident” there has been a long history of police abuse against minorities. Remember, the reporter was the one who injected race into her question. He was just answering her question. And you know he would have been criticized had he not answered her question.
Here is the statement that divided a nation.
Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.
So that makes Obama a racist? That makes him a cop hater?
To me, that just makes him a freedom-loving American. One who is not afraid to speak his mind. One who understands the Fourth Amendment protects us against unreasonable search and seizures.
Or have we forgotten Don’t Tread On Me?
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I am a multimedia journalist who has been fighting a lengthy legal battle after having photographed Miami police against their wishes in Feb. 2007. Please help the fight by donating to my Legal Defense Fund in the top left sidebar, which helps pay for the thousands of dollars I’ve acrued in debt since my arrest. To keep updated on the latest articles, join my networks at Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed.
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20 responses so far ↓
1 Josh Zytkiewicz // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:17 AM
Good post and I agree with you Carlos.
2 Carlos Miller // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:23 AM
Thanks, Josh.
3 HSD // Jul 27, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Oh poor Carlos. What it must be like to suffer from a martyr complex. You keep thinking you were arrested for photography. It’s never entered your narrow little mind that you were arrested because you cannot control your temper, a temper which caused you to break the law (and stupidly so in front of multiple police officers). Even when the judge sentenced you to anger management, you keep coming here to make a martyr out of yourself, Carlos Miller, la victime, the great symbol of oppression.
I see two outcomes here: one, you continue to stew in your anger and self-pity until you have some kind of breakdown; or, two, you’ll become violent and end up in some kind of public standoff that will further escalate your self-martyrdom.
4 Kylie // Jul 27, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Carlos – Great post. The problem, as I see it, is that you (and several others who comment regularly) have enough intelligence and reasoning skills to get the real points in any discussion or recitation, while the vast majority of Americans (including several who comment here regularly) lack that intelligence level and/or reasoning skills. The former group understands what Obama was saying, the latter group (which unfortunately includes most -but not all- cops) thinks he was either calling all cops stupid, or calling all cops racist and thinks that he specifically called the Cambridge cops both stupid and racist.
5 steveo // Jul 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
I think Carlos is right on his resisting w/o 843.02 charge. There are so many appellate court cases in Fl concerning this statute as to boggle the mind. Half of the cases say one thing the other half say the other thing. Many cases say that you cannot be arrested for speech alone, others say alot of gobblty gook about whether there was speech and actions.
I hate this statute and the legislature needs to fine tune it, but they never will because this is the charge that Leos use in fl to arrest anyone they want and they use the “safety” excuse. this is a fall back charge that they use if they can’t think of any other reason to arrest a “non-compliant” suspect. Sucks
6 Jeremy Jojola // Jul 27, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Good luck Carlos…I’ve been reading you website often and often tell journalism students to check it out when I speak at classes, etc.
It’s been great to see this website grow–and I get quite amused when I see articles on this place get on digg and reddit.
7 LuisR // Jul 27, 2009 at 1:57 PM
I don’t drink or smoke so i really can’t comment on burying the hatchet with beer.
It doesn’t make Obama racist or even biased. It makes him look “stupidly” for commenting even before he any kind of clue about the situation. Regardless of wether you are a democrat or republican, one thing is clear, Obama has some scandalous friends.
Carlos, While i generally agree with many of your blog posts; We all know your bias against police in any questionable situation. Still, even you can’t deny that after all the information is put forward, it was clear that the officer was well in his rights to arrest the man and that he had a spot perfect record. To top that off, he is even known for training other officers for racially sensitive situations.
Professor Gates is the only one here that looks like a total tool. He is simply a black supremacist covered in the guise of a professor. Instead of actually waiting the situation out, he calls for a summit/press conference/media spectacular with other angry African Americans to speak their mind about the situation. The Media then pounced on that like flies on a fresh turd. Cameras were even focused on all of the African Americans on the crowd with pissed off looks on their face. Awesome use of the media.
If people would only see themselves as human beings and children of GOD first, we wouldn’t have these type of stupidity going on.
8 Carlos Miller // Jul 27, 2009 at 2:14 PM
LuisR,
I agree that the racial element to this story got blown way out of proportion.
This is why I didn’t even write about it at first because I felt there were more important things going on in the country.
But as it escalated, the issue had to be addressed.
The facts I went on to form my opinion are the following:
Man gets locked out of house, tries to break in and police are called. He shows them his ID, but then somehow gets arrested for disorderly conduct.
I am very wary of disorderly conduct charges because my experience is that it is an overused and abused charge.
And the fact that he was arrested in his own home made me question the police officer’s actions even more because as someone who has been charged with disorderly conduct, I know that it basically means you are creating a public nuisance.
9 Arnold // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:01 PM
He shows them his ID, but then somehow gets arrested for disorderly conduct.
Except of course that’s not what happened.
But of course it’s difficult for someone to see the truth wearing blinders.
This mess was entirely preventable by Gates. Instead of showing his ID, he began screaming about how he was being targeted because he was black. Notwithstanding repeated attempts, he refused to show his ID. It’s all well documented in the police report.
Anyone who sympathizes with Gates is an idiot.
10 Carlos Miller // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Ah yes … the police report never lies.
11 South Florida Lawyers // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:34 PM
The woman who called in the “break in” has disputed the police report. For example, she said they are carrying what looks like luggage, this was translated into “backpacks” in the report. She also said she did not know the color of the men, and also that she thought they might be just fiddling with the key and not breaking in.
12 EdinTally // Jul 27, 2009 at 3:39 PM
I really want to know how the officer was LEGALLY correct in arresting Gates.
Gates did not have to let the officer in his house: but he did.
Gates did not have to show his ID: but he did.
The officer never had the legal authority to arrest Gates: but he did.
For all the apologists, sheep and lemmings out there, stop trying to rewrite history and deal with the underlying issues.
13 MC // Jul 27, 2009 at 4:11 PM
EdinTally, you have no idea what you’re talking about. It was a lawful arrest. Gates had to show his ID. It was a B&E call. The more people like you rant with gibberish like that, the more you make the Gates faction look like bigger idiots than they already are.
14 EdinTally // Jul 27, 2009 at 5:02 PM
Trolling again MC? So your legal theory here is that any time a call goes to dispatch, due process goes out the window?
Please DIAF
15 steveo // Jul 27, 2009 at 6:24 PM
MC 13
Here’s some cases in FL. If you arrest someone solely on the basis that he won’t show ID is false arrest.
A defendant’s failure to cooperate with the police by refusing to answer questions or identify himself by name cannot itself be criminal conduct. This failure to refuse is protected by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Robinson v. State, 550 So.2d 1186 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989).
1. The defendant refused to give his name to the officer prior to being arrested. He was charged with resisting arrest without violence in violation of 843.02. The appeals court concluded that this conduct does not support a finding of resisting arrest without violence. J.R. v. State, 627 So.2d 126 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993).
MC, ever hear of the Bill of Rights?
16 steveo // Jul 27, 2009 at 6:30 PM
I started out thinking Gates was in the wrong, but after reading all the Leo and Leo sympathizer doodle, I’m sure the officers should be locked up for falsely arresting Gates. America didn’t turn their backs on Leo land. Leo land turned their backs on America.
17 steveo // Jul 27, 2009 at 6:34 PM
People like HSD and MC are convincing me that O.J. was innocent.
18 enhager // Jul 27, 2009 at 7:39 PM
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS (AP) – 1 hour ago — The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not describe their race.
The officer who arrested Gates, Sgt. James Crowley, said in his police report that he talked to Whalen soon after he arrived at Gates’ home.
“She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch,” Crowley wrote in his report.
In her 911 call, Lucia Whalen, who works at the Harvard alumni magazine, repeatedly tells the operator she is not sure what is happening. She does not mention the race of the men until pressed by a dispatcher to describe them.
“Um, well, there were two larger men,” Whalen says. “One looked kind of Hispanic, but I’m not really sure. And the other one entered and I didn’t see what he looked like at all. I just saw it from a distance.’”
19 Michaelk42 // Jul 27, 2009 at 9:33 PM
We live in an unprecedented age of access to information. At no time in human history has so much knowledge and information been so accessible, so quickly, so cheaply.
And yet clownshoes like MC still can’t RTFA.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html
And sweet zombie jeebus you can even listen to the bloody 911 call and radio transmissions.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/cambridge_polic_4.html
“One thing the tapes didn’t show: any clear background sound that indicated Gates was shouting during the incident. Another voice can be heard in the background of at least three transmissions, but what the person is saying is difficult to discern.”
20 AngryHateMusic // Aug 2, 2009 at 12:44 AM
To HSD: Carlos will continue to act intelligently, and will continue to be non-violent, as you well know. In turn, you portray the great possibility that you have perhaps experienced both of these harmful behaviors personally. Maybe multiple times. But then it is more likely that you are just a member of the “Coercive Monopoly Gang” called government.
Carlos, keep it up and thanks!
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