This has become the all-purpose excuse for any action, under the delusional idea that freedom in America means that you have the right to do and say anything to anyone and not face any repercussions. This was again on display at the Dallas airport when one person launched a completely unprovoked verbal attack on another traveler who happened to be wearing a pink shirt. When another traveler asked him what he was so upset about, the man replied that it was all about “queers”.
But when he suddenly kicked the man in the pink shirt, to their credit the other people around immediately jumped on him and subdued him and the police arrested him. When the police officer, who happened to be black, asked the man why he started the fight, he replied, “You want me to tell you the reason why I did it? Because this is America, that’s why. The same reason you get to live to breathe to walk black.”
You can watch video of the whole thing taken by a bystander.
The man’s comment in this context that “This is America” is revealing. For many people, ‘America’ as a concept is not that of a pluralistic nation made up of diverse people. Instead it is a white, heterosexual, Christian entity and those who do not fit that mold are interlopers to be tolerated at best, and kept out at worst.
As the numbers who fit the bill of being ‘real Americans’ shrinks, one can expect elements of them to grow more belligerent and violent and irrational because that is the usual response of privileged groups when they become fearful that the world is slipping out of their control.
If he’d been black, he might have died in a hail of bullets.
The cop was very careful and handled him well.
Looked to me to be a textbook take-down and neither more nor less violent because he is white. It has to be noted that as soon as they grabbed him he stopped thrashing around, more or less went limp, and didn’t heighten tension and confusion by screaming and hollering a whole lot. Thrashing, resisting actions by the officers, and screaming would have stressed everyone out more and might have led to escalation of force.
One thing that worked to his advantage was that there were so many people working to take him down that they all felt in control and on top of the situation even though he is a big guy and potentially a major safety risk.
I note that the officers maintained an arm-lock which torques the shoulder joint and forces the body and head down. That might have been unnecessarily humiliating and physically abusive. Taken too far or too long that lock can cause intense pain and permanent damage to the shoulders and nerves.
I suspect the officers were taking out a bit of revenge on him. The racial remarks didn’t help any but it might as well have been the injection of violence in an otherwise uneventful day, or the added paperwork. Perhaps just after-action jitters and shakes. The transition from adrenaline wide open to calm and collected is tough and it can lead to abuse. Some departments advocate, assuming the personnel are available, a rotation of officers so the ones jazzed up on adrenaline are not the ones handling the suspect administratively.
It is also possible the guy did or said something not caught on camera that led them to believe he was likely to act out so they felt the need to maintain tighter control.
Either way, it is a gray area, and possibly a bit of rough justice.
“I note that the officers maintained an arm-lock which torques the shoulder joint and forces the body and head down. That might have been unnecessarily humiliating and physically abusive. Taken too far or too long that lock can cause intense pain and permanent damage to the shoulders and nerves.”
My heart bleeds….
Interesting. I thought it was against the law to take pictures (or video) in airports since the war started. Is that no longer the case?
I can believe many things, but that the world is somehow in the control of this man or people like him isn’t one of them. I doubt he has any “privilege” to lose. All I see is a drunken, violent bigot who happens to be white flying off the handle. What I don’t see is how his perceived race or skin color has anything to do with his behavior, or why anybody should fear that those who share his skin tone are in imminent danger of going off like him. Somehow, the race of the people who intervened to stop this escaped mention, except for the black cop.
Sean,
It is usually people who have little else going in their favor but the privilege that is threatened that are likely to react badly to these changes. People like this man are not really in control, as you point out. But as long as people who are like him still control things, he can still cling to the illusion that he is part of the dominant class. The crumbling of that illusion can be unsettling.
He thought the guy must be gay because he was wearing a pink shirt? Um, hmmm.. Our homophobic assailant may not be the brightest bulb either…
He should have been at my office for Breast Cancer Awareness… so many guys wearing pink his head would have exploded!
Guess I’m going to have to start wearing pink shirts more often.
Trolling the bigots is a fun past time. =P
Perhaps. Or perhaps, having information about how he flipped from perfectly calm to very aggressive without provocation, a little extra caution was exercised.
Don’t forget about the fact that Fox News and right-wing talk radio are constantly egging on people like him to be angry and fearful about virtually everything.