As with the Gates incident, there are two stories here, and the media are picking up on only one. Everyone’s asking: why didn’t this police officer know who Bob Dylan was? Nobody’s asking: regardless of whether he was Bob Dylan or Bob the Builder, what right did this police officer have to demand his papers and force him into her car when there was no evidence of his having violated any law?
Apologies to Gary Chartier if a tune gets lodged in his head as a result of this post’s title.
“freewheelin’ and acting suspiciously”? Is this the USSA now? 🙁
Actually here’s another story just like it:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090815/people_nm/us_india_usa_khan
The thing itself is the abuse!
“I was really hassled perhaps because of my name being Khan”
http://khaaan.com/
I think Shatner did a very good job acting in that flick. So did Pauline Kael. Nick Meyer said he got a good performance out of him by making him do so many takes that he got bored, and it became more naturalistic.
The moment the police officer decided she would take him in, were Bob Dylan to resist in any way, she could then (by the book) charge him with “disorderly conduct” and “resisting arrest.” U.S. police powers applied ad hoc are laughably circular in justification.
Yeah it’s one of those things which would be funny in its absurdity if it wasn’t so tragic and brutal and times.
Maybe the police officer was just pretending not to know him so they’d get to arrest him and then tell everybody “Hey, I had Bob Dylan in my paddywagon!”
I had a pretty big *WTF???* moment when I first read about the Dylan incident.
Gosh, I don’t know what on Earth we’d ever do if didn’t have tax-funded police protection.