Felipe Fernández-Armesto is an Oxford don, a historian who holds the Principe de Asturias Chair at Tufts University and author of 19 books, who is respected around the world for his work. I happen to have assigned one of his articles for my students to read this week.
While attending a History conference in Atlanta, he crossed the street, on his way from one conference hotel to the other across the street, along with crowds of other conference participants. Apparently, the off-duty policeman who had been hired by the Hilton to direct people to the crosswalk was tired of being ignored by snotty history professors.
I'm posting the three parts of his interview on YouTube because he is a wonderful storyteller. Part 1 tells of his grievous offense (jaywalking and talking back)and how he was assaulted by the police and arrested before the horrified eyes of the other history professors crossing the road.
Part 2 tells of the eight hours he spent in the Atlanta detention center, his hearing before the judge on criminal charges, and his fears that this would affection his residence status:
Part 3 is where he reflects on the experience and utters the Spanish curse "Pleitos tengas y los ganes" to explain why he decided not to sue the city of Atlanta.
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10 comments:
Marvelous post.
I’ve watched the entire interview. He is refreshing because he does not practice the quick little sound bite way of speaking that so many people on camera tend to do, even the non-professional 15-minute famers. I like the digressions, especially the ones that include self-reflections. He labels himself bourgeoisie and realise how this incident gives him a reference, a lived experience, one far better than any colleague could have told him about. A point for him. His type (or I should say look) has not been the target of police brutality, however, now that it is, to me, it demonstrates just how out of control the police are becoming. Not saying they were not out of control before, but now their brutality is not just limited to the poor or other minorities. Perhaps now, a voice on the matter will be listened to. Did you hear how he said the inmates were kinder to him than the police? For real. Mr. Glendower wants me to keep my license and everything up to date because he is convinced if I ever get stopped I’m going to jail. I drive a like a nun in hopes of avoiding that fate, because I know I will not be able to keep my mouth shut or to fight back if I’m assaulted. The police are bullies! Absolute power corrupts and signs of that absolute power are coming out in the form of assaulting jaywalkers. Maybe if more people like this are at the receiving end of the police they will be quicker to understand the hostility that so many people have for the police.
I would love to have coffee with this guy.
"Pleitos tengas y los ganes" is quintessentially the main theme in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House. The whole 800+-page novel is a scathing review of lawyers, the courts, judges, the entire chancery. In the end, Richard Carstone does when the biggest case in history, however, he dies a day or two later leaving a devoted wife and an unborn child.
Bravo for this professor engaging foresight over ego.
Yes, things are dire. And he does have the fortune of having been able to arrange to have a long interview recorded and posted to YouTube without having to give a two second sound-bite to the news, that his relative prestige in his field gives him a certain status, etc. He also is quite famous in Great Britain and was able to publish a column in which he told his version of the story. And, because he's an academic, he uses this occasion to reflect/teach!
But I posted the whole thing in part because he is hilarious and in part because he is reflecting in quite a serious way on how milizarized U.S. society is becoming. When you read comments on this kind of story, lots of people say things like, "if you talk back to police, too bad for you!"
All of my European friends who travel have some really unpleasant story to tell about border hassles, even with all their papers in order, fingerprints, digital pictures, searches, interrogations, missed flights, denied entry. Lots of the kids at my daughter's school have to live in fear that their parents will be snatched off the street and deported without due process.
Hah, I hadn't seen your second comment yet! You are going to make me read Bleak House soon, no matter how much other work I have to do, instead of leaving it for summer.
But I posted the whole thing in part because he is hilarious and in part because he is reflecting in quite a serious way on how milizarized U.S. society is becoming.
Yes I agree completely on both points. He gave me quite a few LOL moments. And yes, we are a police state. When I was in London in 2005, I saw the difference big time. Trying to get another trip to Europe. Fingers crossed.
In the end, Richard Carstone does when the biggest case in history, however, he dies a day or two later leaving a devoted wife and an unborn child.
Should be win, not when.
That Bleak House is like chocolate to me. LOL! I only do a little each day. Yummy.
Also, yes, I cannot stand those people who yap "don't talk back to the police." "If you did not have anything to worry about then there will be no problem." Blah blah blah blah blah.
The plot thickens: videos 1 and 2 have been pulled.
It's already in Wikipedia and their links to the videos still work. Odd.
Meanwhile, from this I learned the term "superdon."
I, too, need to read Bleak House. We'll have to have a Bleak House club or something, as per the Shulamith Firestone reading at Twisty's.
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