Patterico's Pontifications

7/27/2009

Resurrecting an Old Column: Trouble in the Ivy League

Filed under: Current Events,Race — Jack Dunphy @ 2:30 am



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

In an earlier post, our host graciously linked to two columns I wrote back in my salad days at NRO. I recalled another, which I think captures, in a (I hope) humorous way, the frustration many police officers feel with all this talk of racial profiling. You can read it here.

–Jack Dunphy

10 Responses to “Resurrecting an Old Column: Trouble in the Ivy League”

  1. I thought it was pretty cool that Officer Dunphy wrote the cited column prior to 9/11.

    krusher (791666)

  2. I love the way the language of the column mocks Ivy Leaguers’ precious way of speaking. Sounds like someone might be a Monty Python fan, too, if I’m not mistaken.

    Patterico (cc3b34)

  3. I would feel too sorry for a chess player to ever hit him with a nightstick. Poor nerds. On the other hand, the one I know personally started Tae Kwon Do at the same time as chess and I would just not him period. 😉

    nk (b26631)

  4. I’d describe it as classic P.G. Wodehouse but I’ve always been partial to Bertie, Jeeves, and their similar (mis)adventures.

    DRJ (6f3f43)

  5. Heather MacDonald weighs in with an observation. No humor but a modicum of sense.

    I’ll be ready to concede that “race” — defined, per Obama, Holder, Ogletree, and Gates, as racism and skin color — remains a significant factor in social outcomes when the same proportion of black children as white children are raised in two-parent, married households without greatly lowering the black poverty rate, or when black crime drops to white and Asian levels without proportionally reducing the black prison population. Until we conduct that experiment, though — which is wholly within the capacity of individuals to do — I’ll remain skeptical that the race activists’ favorite “race issues” are predominantly the consequence of white Americans’ atavistic bigotry.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  6. Not a believable story. Chess players rarely if ever use solid boards any more. In a park, it’s either vinyl roll-up boards, or immovable concrete chess tables (Washington Square Park).

    Official Internet Data Office (6ac5ad)

  7.      Dunphy’s point is also a very serious one. And, it is likely to lead to even more excuses to make charges of racism.
         That is, a police officer may develop a subconscious hesitation to respond to situations in which a black person is the victim for fear that the victim may turn on the officer. Then, longer response times to reports of crimes against black victims will give rise to accusations of poor service due to racism.
         Perhaps the matter could be COMPLETELY fixed if Gates would man up and acknowledge that race had nothing to do with the matter except to the extent that he brought it up.

    Ira (28a423)

  8. Ira, the police have had to deal with that forever with domestic violence calls. A lot of jurisdictions reacted by demanding the arrest of all parties and sorting out things at the station.

    nk (c15e00)

  9. Brillant column. I wonder how the police reacted after the Rodney King verdicts, or Ramos and Campeon.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  10. nk, because of Gatesgate there will be on more subconscious reason to hesitate going to help a potential victim who is black.

    Ira (28a423)


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