My Comments
One of the things I do here on St. Vincent and the Grenadines is work on an analysis of the social evolution of the human species. It comes slowly because it comes in fits and starts, especially when some event happens that is reported in the media.
Take the example of SVG Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves being roughed up by a racist cop who was too stupid to ask an old hand who that black guy was who was going in the building he happened to be hanging out at. The cop in the guard booth would have told him that it was Ambassador Gonsalves and that he belonged there and that he had diplomatic immunity so if you harass him, like you might normally harass a black man for the hell of it, you would likely get an international incident. Or maybe the local cops knew he was stupid and arrogant and wanted him to get into trouble so he'd get his stupidity and arrogance off their backs.
Whatever the circumstances were the stupid cop took the opportunity to display his stupidity and roughed up an Ambassador with dilemmatic immunity (so that will always be on his record). That is an incident that is presumably not an everyday event, probably because most Ambassadors have bodyguards. It is the kind of incident that is not reported too often, as explained by the political opposition. If you complain about something the NYCPD does, they will create a lot of trouble for you, if necessary creating a whole fictional event to describe in a court with a friendly judge.
Unfortunately for this stupid policeman he picked a black man to harass who was not only subject to diplomatic immunity, so it involved the State Department, who had to apologize for the cop's stupidity, but the particular Ambassador he chose to harass was not only an attorney but the son of the Prime Minister of the country he represents in the U.N.; so he wasn't afraid of the NYCPD and he not only had the voice of his own country behind him (except, of course, for the political opposition) but the U.S. Government as the host country of the U.N. and the U.N. itself, whose agreement with the U.S. is very specific about police harassment of U.N. representatives.
That made the incident of some interest to the news agencies, who serve media in countries where the population has a noticeable fraction of dark-complected persons. That, in turn, interested the media who serve the dark-complected populations of U.S. urban areas. And that brought out cases that were similar to the Ambassador Gonsalves.
Which brings up an interesting question. Why did a NY cop, no matter how stupid, have the impression that the NYPD would support him if he acted out his racism? And, indeed, why did they do exactly that, threatening the Ambassador with even more harassment?
More in the next blog entry.
Take the example of SVG Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves being roughed up by a racist cop who was too stupid to ask an old hand who that black guy was who was going in the building he happened to be hanging out at. The cop in the guard booth would have told him that it was Ambassador Gonsalves and that he belonged there and that he had diplomatic immunity so if you harass him, like you might normally harass a black man for the hell of it, you would likely get an international incident. Or maybe the local cops knew he was stupid and arrogant and wanted him to get into trouble so he'd get his stupidity and arrogance off their backs.
Whatever the circumstances were the stupid cop took the opportunity to display his stupidity and roughed up an Ambassador with dilemmatic immunity (so that will always be on his record). That is an incident that is presumably not an everyday event, probably because most Ambassadors have bodyguards. It is the kind of incident that is not reported too often, as explained by the political opposition. If you complain about something the NYCPD does, they will create a lot of trouble for you, if necessary creating a whole fictional event to describe in a court with a friendly judge.
Unfortunately for this stupid policeman he picked a black man to harass who was not only subject to diplomatic immunity, so it involved the State Department, who had to apologize for the cop's stupidity, but the particular Ambassador he chose to harass was not only an attorney but the son of the Prime Minister of the country he represents in the U.N.; so he wasn't afraid of the NYCPD and he not only had the voice of his own country behind him (except, of course, for the political opposition) but the U.S. Government as the host country of the U.N. and the U.N. itself, whose agreement with the U.S. is very specific about police harassment of U.N. representatives.
That made the incident of some interest to the news agencies, who serve media in countries where the population has a noticeable fraction of dark-complected persons. That, in turn, interested the media who serve the dark-complected populations of U.S. urban areas. And that brought out cases that were similar to the Ambassador Gonsalves.
Which brings up an interesting question. Why did a NY cop, no matter how stupid, have the impression that the NYPD would support him if he acted out his racism? And, indeed, why did they do exactly that, threatening the Ambassador with even more harassment?
More in the next blog entry.
posted by Karl Eklund at 8:42 AM
<< Home