Every Police Brutality Incident Gets Its Own Nate Silver Burrito Story
One day, the users of Twitter dot com will realize that the site’s prompt—“What’s happening?”—is a suggestion, not a command. But until that happens, men who have been told they are important will talk about themselves exactly when their stories are needed the least.
Last year, around the time of the first wave of protests in Ferguson, Nate Silver—an Important Man—told a little story about how one night he got arrested but the cops let him eat a burrito in his cell. (Let’s all pause for a second and picture this exact scenario. Okay.) The point of the story, I guess, was that cops can be good but also bad, which makes you think.
Last night, as the citizens of Baltimore reacted to the death of Freddie Gray, the Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill—a self-considered Important Man—told a story about how he was robbed at gunpoint in Baltimore once, which makes you think.
A few weeks later, he came to our free food pantry and I was filling his bag. I said, "Dude, you robbed me a few weeks ago. What the fuck?"
April 30, 2015
His life was ruined. He told me the gun wasn't loaded, that he would never hurt me. He said he robbed me b/c he knew I wouldn't call cops
April 30, 2015
What I remember was thinking of what my life would have been like if a police officer killed my dad for stealing a fucking can of beer.
April 30, 2015
Not every story a man has is a good one. Please log out.
