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Kudos goes to CBS' Jim Axelrod, who recalibrated the sidebar coverage of the Cambridge story. It is not an untapped insight into the state of race relations that the arrest of Henry Louis Gates affords. The insight is about the conduct of police officers. Axelrod took himself off to the Connecticut Police Academy to see how cops are trained to handle argumentative citizens. "Is it a crime to be disrespectful to a police officer?" he asked. No it is not. Yet as recently as 2007, there were 710,000 disorderly conduct arrests nationwide, each "largely dependent on the discretion of the officers."
ABC's Steve Osunsami told us that talkradio callers and black barbershop customers were learning different lessons from this so-called teachable moment but his soundbites contradicted his own reporting. This is what the radio caller said: "If you have an issue with a cop it is Yes sir. No sir and you keep your damn mouth shut." This is from the man with the haircut: "The man who has the badge has the power. That is the big lesson." The two appear to be in accord.
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