Some readers may recall my disagreement with certain social scientists about the validity of using police reports (and similar documentation) as sources to fact-check ethnography. To put it succinctly, some sociologists apparently believe that cops lie so frequently that no police report should ever be trusted. Others have rejected the idea of relying on the “authority of people at the top – police, lawyers, and law professors,” and one ethnography blogger has called me a “police advocate” because I have sometimes referred to police reports.
In response, I posted this piece about three circumstances in which it makes sense to believe the police: (1) when police reports have been corroborated; (2) when the police are describing their own lawful procedures; and (3) when there is contemporaneous documentation and the police have no reason to lie.
Now I would like to add a fourth circumstance.
Over the past several days, Donald Trump has insisted that he saw “thousands and thousands of people” in Jersey City cheering at the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Pressed by George Stephanopoulous, Trump said, “George, it did happen. There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations.”
Of course, that never happened, as confirmed by the police in both Jersey City and Paterson (which was the subject of the original rumor).
Is there any doubt that the police would have been aware of “thousands and thousands” of cheering people on 9/11? Unless one is a paranoid xenophobe, is there any reason to mistrust police assurances that the alleged cheering is just an ugly rumor?
In other words, police reports can and should be relied upon – in reasonable circumstances – as documentary evidence of both events and non-events. The peremptory dismissal of all police sources – whether by sociologists or Trumpites – is simply a way of crediting rumors over facts.
Trump is a transparent xenophobic demagogue who confuses capitalism with civil society (a common confusion). This how our republic ends, if it isn't over already.
Posted by: terry malloy | November 23, 2015 at 11:20 AM
Steve:
you sure stir up the soup!
You are a very effective attacker (sarcasm here, sorry).
But, given what I think are your other sensibilities (other than hating Republicans and trying to pick every piece of low hanging fruit to smear them all), would you care to comment on the absence of celebrations after the tragedy?
I do not support Trump. I do not believe that what he said about Jersey City was true. I do not support prejudice or religious bigotry of any type.
Will you answer honestly? Please Steve, tell us what you know about world wide reportage of celebrations in numerous communities after the tragedy.
Posted by: anon | November 23, 2015 at 05:58 PM