Somali Police Lady Arrested

Here is a very brief summary of the episode.

It is true all of the reporting on this I'm aware of has given simply the charges; the location of the arrest; the venue; and the sex, nationality, and occupation of the offender. It is also true none of the reporting I have heard or seen on this has made any overt implications. No, no trace of "Aha! And therefore... something about immigration generally or immigration for or against certain countries."

None of that anywhere. However, when I realized that my mind had made that connection, I began wondering why, then, this arrest had received even the attention it had.

While always unwelcome and justifiably upsetting, it's hardly unheard of that some cops some times don't act the way a citizen expects them to. Those instances are often reported. Depending on the press-value, they may become national headlines.

Nearly every account of this story I'm aware of begins by mentioning that this is Maine's first Somali police officer. Why? Sure, yes, I can see it in the way that the first black whatever tends to make headlines simply for being the first black whatever. The link I gave to an article about the arrest is from The San Antonio Express-News, a paper based in Texas. Here's one from The Seattle Times in Seattle, Washington.

The arrest was made in Massachusetts. The officer, from Kenya, lived in Maine. Both of those states are in the northeast of the U.S. Why in the world does a relatively minor story like this (no one was killed, right?) make its way to the headlines of papers literally on the other side of the country and parts in-between?

I cannot help but feel that reason is for the purpose of shaping opinion on immigration.

Make no mistake, I support not only true immigration reform because the policy we've been "acting" under for too long has proven grossly ineffective. I'm even a fan of a merit-based system as opposed to a lottery system. I'm cool with all of that.

I'm also well aware of the fact that Somalia has a bad reputation for a reason. And I'm fine enough with that.

What I'm not so cool with is what occurs to me as the implied message that this one officer may very well be evidence that Somalis are or could be problematic. Of course I can't prove that this is the intent of any of the reporting including even the initial local report. Yet, as I mentioned, why would Seattle care what a lone officer of any background does in Massachusetts?

Yeah, yeah, the "information age" and all that, but still. Is it necessary to publish something simply because its available to you? I doubt it. If that were true, we'd be even more inundated with all sorts of drivel and minutia from across the globe.

My thinking on this may be wrong, but until I'm offered a more plausible reason for the reporting, I'm trusting my gut. And for now, that trust leaves a bad taste in my mouth.