Ugly stuff is and has been happening in Ferguson, Missouri. People were talking about it on Twitter the other night. Nate Silver, noted statistician, and now editor of the FiveThirtyEight blog for ESPN, joined in with an apercu about police use of force. Against Nate Silver.

As reported in New York magazine’s “Daily Intelligencer,” it took eight tweets to tell the story. And get him one heap o’ scorn.

I got arrested once a couple years ago. Was two blocks from my apartment. It escalated fast & I don’t remember all details.

Walking home after picking up dinner, saw an unmarked car who’d pulled someone over. Very unusual for my neighborhood. Stopped to watch.

Men from the unmarked car noticed me watching, asked me to leave the scene. I asked them to ID themselves as police officers; they didn’t

I didn’t leave. Didn’t take long from there before there was a lot of yelling and swearing and me in handcuffs. They were pretty rough.

The men never identified themselves as police. I wasn’t 100% sure they WERE police until we got to the precinct.

After about an hour in jail, I’m like “sorry guys, was just stressed out and having a rough day … my bad!”

Cops suddenly get super chill. Gave me my take-out dinner (a burrito!) to eat in the cell. Let me out an hour later. Even drove me home.

Funny now, but super frightening at the time. Everyone has their bad days. Not everyone has a legal monopoly on force.

Gawker called it a “master class… on How Not To React To The News That Doesn’t Involve You…. don’t make it an occasion to tell the story about That Time You Were Arrested (as a white man) and the cops were actually nice and let you eat a burrito.” They used the word “idiotic.”

Poynter put it in a roundup of news developments:

“Meanwhile, Nate Silver remembered that time he ate a burrito in jail: Thanks for the update.”

The “Daily Intelligencer” headlined their comments “Nate Silver Tells Tone-Deaf Burrito Arrest Story Amid Ferguson Protests, Gets Epically Burned” and said “…while police in Ferguson, Missouri, were indiscriminately firing tear gas and rubber bullets at a mostly peaceful group of protesters and journalists, two of whom were arrested without cause, data whiz Nate Silver thought it would be a good time to tell a silly story about how easy jail can be if you’re white. But instead of an allegory on racial privilege, the Twitter tale — which included being fed a burrito (!) in his cell — came off as especially oblivious while interspersed with video, images, and accounts of what looked like a war zone from others. Silver just kept tweeting about himself.”

(No one can resist mentioning the burrito.)

The next day Silver tweeted:

Sent a stupid set of tweets last night about a run-in with cops I had a few years ago. Came across the opposite from how I’d intended.

My story was so trivial as compared to the really awful, unacceptable shit that’s going down in Ferguson. I screwed up.

Working on a longer response, which I’ll post later.

The Intelligencer’s followup story was headlined “Nate Silver Is Sorry for Telling His ‘Misguided and Naive’ Burrito Arrest Story During the Ferguson Protests.”

And he gave them this statement of apology:

Like many of you, I’ve been shocked by the conduct of the police in Ferguson, Missouri. A teenager has been shot by cops under questionable circumstances and citizens and journalists have been arrested for seemingly doing nothing wrong.
For me the news also sparked a memory of a bad experience I had with cops a few years ago. I thought I could relate by sharing it last night on Twitter. I’ve since come to realize that was misguided and naive.
Here’s what I get now — what I understood intellectually, but what I didn’t understand emotionally before I saw the response to my tweets: What would it be like to constantly live with the fear and powerlessness I felt for a few hours the night I got arrested? Experiences like mine might be rare for a privileged white person, but they aren’t rare for some black people, poor people and other minorities.
In my case, I got out of jail after kowtowing to the cops. I was stressed out, I explained. I hadn’t meant any harm. I was sorry. If I were black, would I have been able to play the “I’m a nice guy” card with the (white and Hispanic) police officers? I can’t know for sure. But history tells us this is an option that white people sometimes have and black people almost never do.
I’d like to think that people should be more willing to speak out when they see or experience police misconduct on any scale. But my anecdote was so minor as compared to Ferguson that last night wasn’t the right time for me to share. I’m sorry.

Well. That’s a good apology. He takes responsibility, and he says exactly where he went wrong.

It is perfectly fair for him to omit the irrelevant burrito.

It’s very true that Silver’s experience probably didn’t end in a worse way because he’s a presentable white guy. “Sorry guys, I was just stressed out and having a rough day. My bad!” may come off as respectful submission to authority if it comes from a white guy. But it may come off as dishonest wheedling by a sociopathic sleazeball if it comes from a black guy. (Diagnosing sociopathy or “antisocial personality disorder” is all the rage in law enforcement circles these days. Ask your probation officer if this is right for you.)

Tone-deaf is a good word for Silver’s original tweets. He took up the point about police brutality, but totally missed the point about how different groups of people are treated. Completely missed it. There’s more at issue in Ferguson.

But, in Silver’s defense, his story is not silly or trivial. It is one of serious abuse of power. He did nothing wrong. He was told to stop looking by people who refused to identify themselves. He was grabbed and cuffed by people who refused to identify themselves. He was taken away in an unmarked car by people who refused to identify themselves. He was tossed in a cell by people who turned out to be police.

That’s bad stuff. Illegal. Arrogant.

Then they let him grovel, did the good-cop routine, treated him somewhat politely, and gave him back the take-out food they’d taken from him.

Alas for human dignity, it was a burrito.

Which he had to eat in a cell. Why? Apparently he wasn’t charged with anything. Since he hadn’t done anything – it is not a crime to watch people in a public place, even if they later turn out to be police. Probably they were just being jerks. Power-corroded jerks. (Or maybe they’re isolated, traumatized, stressed, paranoid people in a crazy-making job?)

The first apology in this story is the one Silver gave to the cops who had arrested him for no legitimate reason, while refusing to identify themselves

. “Sorry guys, was just stressed out and having a rough day … my bad!” His bad? What was he apologizing for?

Not leaving when some random people told him to leave a public place? Asking if they were police? Struggling (apparently) when they seized him, cuffed him, and bundled him into an unmarked car?

Did he have to apologize for them to relent? It’s an illustration of how badly police can behave on an ordinary day, and how little recourse even a white guy may have.

He wasn’t shot, he wasn’t tear-gassed, but he was subjected to an abuse of power.

And I’m sure the burrito was cold by the time they let him eat it.