David Smallberg <das@ucla-cs.ARPA> <das> (11/09/84)
... > Wasn't it also police Chief Ed Davis while discussing the > controversial choke hold (that killed a kid on PCP they were trying > to restrain) who said: > "The choke hold shouldn't be used on Blacks, just normal people." > I guess its 'normal' to be Gay in L.A. - just not Black. Check your facts before you condemn. It was L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates who said something like "We may be finding in some blacks that there is a physiological problem not present in normal people." (The quote is not exact, but preserves his ambiguity.) Many people raised a big stink about this, since they thought Gates was contrasting "blacks" and "normal people". This is about as stupid as the stink raised about Reagan saying submarine-launched missiles were recallable -- if you read the actual quote, his words were ambiguous; they might well have referred to the recallability of the submarines. In Gates's case, it's pretty clear he intended to contrast "some blacks" (i.e. those with a physiological problem) with "normal people", just as one might say "Some Jewish babies cannot digest milk, unlike normal babies." Now other actions and statements indicate that Gates may harbor some racial biases (just as other statements indicate Reagan IS a bit confused about some weapon characteristics). The point is, if you're going to jump on someone, jump on him for the right reasons (and in both cases, there are plenty!). -- David Smallberg, das@ucla-cs.ARPA, {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!das