Porcine Picture Piques Post
By Monte Wolverton | July 28th, 2009 | PERMALINK
Here’s an email I received in response to my admittedly edgy cartoon of the Cambridge Police at the door of H.L. Gates.
Sir, I am writing you regarding your cartoon of July 27th, 2009. I respect the fact the we live in a free country where everyone is entitled to speak their mind, as long as it does not endanger anyone else. This is a right I have a personal stake in, being as I served with great men and women of all ethnicities in the branch of the armed forces you mention in your cartoon - The United States Marine Corps. I understand that you also draw for Mad magazine, so I am not surprised that you make your money using edgy satire and controversy. Please don’t misunderstand, I do have a sense of humor. However, I cannot let your assertions go unanswered. An examination of the current situation to prove my point. You assert that police officers, specifically the Cambridge Police Department, are ‘pigs’. You use this, of course, because it is a derogatory term and is an attempt at humor. Ha ha, look at Dick Cheney offering to send in the Marines to help the fuzz beat down some black people. We know that all cops are racist pigs who like giving out stick time to minorities. The Marines are too, since they belong to Dick Cheney. I assume that you are also referring to the African-American officer that later responded to the call at Prof. Gates’ Harvard owned house as a ‘pig’. I hope you are consistent enough to call officers pigs to their face not only when you are pulled over, but when they are the first responders to the scene where you happen to have been in an accident; I would have respect for your position at that point. Fellow officers of multiple ethnicities have stated that the officer that arrested Prof. Gates was doing his job. Why must you malign him and all those who work with him? I guess you didn’t read that Sgt Crowley teaches other officers about racial profiling, and how to avoid it. I guess that you didn’t read how Sgt Crowley gave CPR to a dying Reggie Lewis. While there are officers out there who should be in a different line of work (Oklahoma state trooper in the news recently comes to mind), the last thing regular officers need is people taking the position that you took. How about doing something to encourage more minorities to become officers? How about donating to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, which gives scholarships to children? How about finding a way to address this situation in a positive manner, instead of jumping off the cliff of prejudice? I really don’t think your cartoon was helpful - I think it only solidifies tensions between law enforcement and the public. Bottom line, to borrow from Aaron Goldstein of the Canadian Free Press, you are judging Sgt Crowley by the color of his uniform, not the content of his character. Please think about it. Sincerely, Scott Marshall
Okay, I will. First, let’s talk about the pig representation. Please note that word does not appear in the cartoon. I believe, traditionally, it has been used as an epithet for police who overstep their authority. As the broad majority of police in this country are dedicated public servants who are careful to execute their duties within their lawful authority, and are putting their lives on the line to keep law and order in our communities — this certainly cannot apply to most police.
Officer Crowley, a respected and professional policeman, was doing his job when he responded to the call, and when he questioned Professor Gates. In my estimation, he made a bad call when he refused to accept Professor Gates’ identification. It could be argued that Professor Gates should not have become irate, should not have played the race card, should have been calm, cooperative and respectful with armed police detaining him in his own home, even though he was suffering from jet lag. Such a thing would be difficult for me. Officer Crowley chose to arrest Professor Gates for “disorderly conduct.” Disorderly conduct? This seems to me to be an egreggious error in judgement — but, still, police are entitled to errors, like all of us. Gates is marched off to the station, held for 4 hours and then released. By dropping the charges of disorderly conduct, the police admitted that the charges (and therefore the arrest) were a mistake. An apology on Officer Crowley’s part, and an apology by the Cambridge Police would have largely diffused the matter at this point.
But no — they refused to give in. They had to “stand behind” Officer Crowley. At this point I believe they exceeded their authority and opened themselves to ridicule by those of us in the media whose job it is to point out hypocrisy and — stupidity. Hence, my cartoon.
Political cartoonists are here, among other reasons, because public servants (politicians, police, military, judges, etc, etc.) need to be reminded periodically that their authority is not inherent or divine — it derives from “we the people.” Authority has a tendency to grow out of proportion — it must be questioned, and questioned often for a society to remain free.
Hopefully, when Gates and Crowley get together with the President for a beer, they will all emerge as friends and this incident will be over.
What bothered me the most, however, is an ongoing problem. Where was the public outrage? Even my normally acerbic and radical friends in the editorial cartoonist community offered what I thought was an insipid (although very well-drawn in most cases) response. Meanwhile, the President accurately described the Cambridge Police actions as “stupid,” and was taken to task for being outspoken.
So I decided to complain a little and do a cartoon with some balls.
To all my friends and relatives who are police, sherrifs and deputies — keep doing your job — I appreciate it immensely. But if you exceed your authority, please understand, that as part of a free media and national discourse, I have to do my job too.
|
|
Comments
Comment from Gene
Time July 28, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Monte, the explanation you give for this rather incendiary cartoon only makes sense if we can agree that this was a clear example of a police action that went rogue. I dare say I read as much as you or anyone else regarding this incident, and I don’t think it’s an inescapable conclusion that the cop was out of line. In fact, the data made available subsequent to this action, including written and video excerpts, tend to show that Gates has a more volatile racial attitude than Crowley. I guess if I came to this discussion with as pronounced a right-wing attitude as your left-wing cosmology, I would say that Gates is clearly the “bad guy” in this story. But, since I wasn’t an eyewitness to this event (and, by the way, neither were you) I’m not going to declare one the villain and the other the hero.
Comment from Liz
Time July 28, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Scott said: “Losing control of a situation could mean losing your life.”
Scott, you fail to mention the obvious - when a police officer loses control, that means we civilians are at very real risk of losing *our* lives due to the bad temper and/or bad judgment of the officer with the authority and the gun. This happens over and over and over again, particularly when law enforcement engages with minorities. Outrage over these abuses fueled by racial profiling is spotty, probably because they’re so common word of each new incident is like breathing in the air. Yet when law enforcement is called on it, we’re supposed to feel sorry for the poor officer who is a fine and upstanding citizen and so forth no really he is? No.
You’re the ones with the guns and the so-called training. Don’t want to be the villain? Hold to a higher standard. Speak out when one of yours pulls a critical fail as in this situation. You’re not hired to be the oppressor. You’re hired to be a servant to the law. Your attempts to derail attention away from the core issue in this case is typical, wearying and blind.
Comment from Al
Time July 28, 2009 at 7:13 pm
If anyone’s keeping score, tally up one for Scott. I couldn’t have made those points any better. He seems to speak from close experience. Monte speaks as if he just came from getting a speeding ticket for going 5 miles/hr over.
Comment from Carlos Iriondo
Time July 28, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Mr. Wolverton; I profess great respect for the journalism and for your work in particular. A cartoon like this on a such a contentious matter shows courage and clear mind. Unfortunately the society has become complacent on the police and the military and therefore has given them excessive leeway in exercising the authority granted to them by \" we the people\". They are our servants; they have to treat us with respect. It is not acceptable that you are arrested at your own house because you enter it on a way that may look suspicious to somebody else. ! It is your house and you enter it as you see fit! The police shall know better than that; if they choose to act on a disrespectful and cavalier manner
(as they often do) they deserve the name calling and the distrust the public generally reflects upon them.
It is our duty to revise the role the police is carrying on among us and request our governments legislate accordingly.
Comment from Disa
Time July 28, 2009 at 7:31 pm
The thing Monte is taking into account here, and the majority of people taking him to task for doing?
If you’re not black you do not know what it is like to be the oppressed race.
You do not know what it is to be told “the policeman is your friend” only to find out that isn’t true. Because you get pulled over for DWB - Driving While Black.
You do not know what it is to have a friend, acquaintance or relative shot by a police officer…shot dead…because it looked like that person might go for a weapon. Or like they had one.
You do not know what it is to be presumed angry and a criminal when you’re not doing anything wrong.
You do know how to dismiss and minimize any person of color making a genuine observation about being on the wrong end of racism by saying they’ve played “the race card”. Because dismissing, diminishing and minimizing is easier than admitting an uncomfortable truth. The 911 caller says she didn’t say black men, but the Sergeant’s report says the witness told him there were black men. And they never spoke to each other.
The officer could’ve realized that Professor Gates, exhausted and frustrated and jet lagged was reacting perhaps more strongly than the situation warranted; he could’ve accepted the ID, tipped his hat, and wished Professor Gates a good evening. He chose to exert his authority and walk the man out of his own house to arrest and humiliate him. He had the power to make this a non-issue, but he chose instead to arrest this man for disorderly conduct — and Prof. Gates wasn’t directing his tirade at anyone but the Sergeant. If the Sergeant had backed down, the whole thing would’ve diffused. As a peace officer, you’d think he’d understand about diffusing situations and letting peace reign rather than further aggravating an already upset person over an obvious misunderstanding.
Comment from EgregiousEgregious
Time July 28, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I suppose it could have been worse:
MOBILE, Alabama (AP) — Police in Mobile, Ala., used pepper spray and a Taser on a deaf, mentally disabled man who they said wouldn’t leave a store’s bathroom.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....htm?csp=34
Comment from Aaron
Time July 29, 2009 at 12:19 am
Yeah, it may be that none of us Whities know what it’s like to be pulled over for DWB, it’s generally even harder for non-Americans to understand US race-relations (or the lack thereof), but as an expatriate who is regularly pulled over for Driving (or Riding) While Being White (and Therefore Rich) in a country with next to zero actual law-enforcement and zero oversight, I can at least suffer a small taste of the sheer inconvenience an accident of birth can cause.
As a generally law-abiding individual, both in my country of birth and my country of residence, allow me to say that Obama was totally correct in categorising the Cambridge Police’s actions as stupid. Whether he was applying to the officer in question’s actions at the scene or the whole department’s actions in closing ranks or both, he was 100% correct.
It could be said that Professor Gates did not use all of his judgement in dealing with Sgt Crowley, but it can definitely be said Crowley used none of his judgement in dealing with Professor Gates.
I, too, would have told the police to take a hike had they spoken to me like a criminal while I was in my own home and had already identified myself to them. Given my job, I would have gone on to offer to make them famous (I work in tv news), or should that be infamous, but I guess Professor Gates didn’t need to do that, his friends and colleagues have done that service to Crowley for him.
Too often the police, like the politicians, forget that they work in a position of trust, a position of trust given to them by the very people they are talking to. Thankfully, the words “too often” are seriously subjective. Again, as a non-American, it has not been my experience that the police walk the streets of my home country with a well-honed siege mentality. Instead I can say that, despite friends’ experiences to the contrary, 100% of my personal dealings with the police in three different states (and therefore three different forces) have been polite, even when I was the juvenile offender who’d just been busted.
Since moving O/S to follow my career my dealings with the local police have simply reinforced just how professional the police of my home country are.
My sole experience of US cops is through the ever more mind-numbing tv show “Cops”. Working in television, I realise that the producers are culling the footage they shoot for the best “product” that will evoke the biggest reaction from the audience, but by Christ, you haven’t half hit on the very worst image campaign possible, have you?
Comment from John S.
Time August 19, 2009 at 2:20 pm
“Authority has a tendency to grow out of proportion — it must be questioned, and questioned often for a society to remain free.”
Authority must be respected, too, for a society to remain free. There’s a line between proper questioning of authority and screaming at a policeman for doing his job trying to keep your neighborhood safe.
Comment from Scott
Time July 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Monte,
Thanks for posting my email. I would like to address a few of your points, but don’t intend on making this a running debate; I am sure that both of us are solidified in our positions, and I respect that.
First, I don’t think it matters that the word ‘pig’ wasn’t actually written in the cartoon. Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? What else does a pig in a police uniform with the words “Cambridge Police” written on it mean?
If you are not intending to malign all officers, fine. I certainly understand that; however, if you are wanting to point out police overstepping their bounds, why not do a cartoon on the State Trooper in Oklahoma who was choking the Paramedic? That case is a clear cut example of an officer out of control. And that brings up another point. I often hear people complain that police officers are on a power trip. This is true to some extent, but I don’t hear anyone asking why. The reason that -most- officers are that way is because they have to be. Losing control of a situation could mean losing your life. Some are better at it than others (and some need to be fired), but that is the basic reason. Sgt Crowley could not identify for certain that Prof. Gates lived there, and the first ID that he was given was a Harvard ID; I don’t know about Harvard, but at my college, my ID did not have my address on it. It would appear that Prof. Gates was trying to bully Sgt Crowley, or at least interfere with his need to identify who lived there. With most officers, that should arouse suspicion that everything is not right with this situation. Sgt Crowley did the right thing by asking Prof. Gates to come outside, and also by arresting him. Losing your temper is still no excuse for breaking the law. As far as the charges being dropped, charges get dropped all the time. The police would be spending all their time apologizing. States Attorney are usually the ones who decide to keep or drop charges anyway. What I am saying is that if Prof. Gates was wronged, he did not help himself by getting in the way of the officer. It would have been much better for him if he had followed the example of the paramedic who was choked by the state trooper, and gone after him through the system. I don’t agree that by not apoligizing they exceeded their authority. They shouldn’t have to apologize if they are doing their job; and I think it’s obvious that they were.
There, my .02. Thanks for giving my view a fair shake. It’s been fun dicussing this, but it’s too bad it happened in the first place.
Scott