The town of Ferguson, Missouri is turning into a warzone before our eyes. After Michael Brown was shot and killed by police, the city burns while journalists are being arrested in McDonald’s and protestors are met with extreme force and tear gas. They are terrible, disturbing scenes for anyone that cares about their homeland.
As events unfolded in real-time, Five Thirty Eight brainchild Nate Silver just couldn’t resist telling a story about his own run-in with police on Twitter. And, well, it fell a little flat. While I’m sure Silver’s account is authentic and he didn’t mean to come off as so tone-deaf, this moment probably wasn’t the best of times to talk about how his personal experience with police ended happily ever after with a burrito.
1. I got arrested once a couple years ago. Was two blocks from my apartment. It escalated fast & I don't remember all details.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
2. Walking home after picking up dinner, saw an unmarked car who'd pulled someone over. Very unusual for my neighborhood. Stopped to watch.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
3. 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
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
4. 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.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
5. The men never identified themselves as police. I wasn't 100% sure they WERE police until we got to the precinct.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
6. After about an hour in jail, I'm like "sorry guys, was just stressed out and having a rough day … my bad!"
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
7. 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.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
8. Funny now, but super frightening at the time. Everyone has their bad days. Not everyone has a legal monopoly on force.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 14, 2014
Even some of Silver’s supporters rightly questioned the wisdom in telling that story while the scenes in Ferguson played out. Needless to say the words “white privilege” were thrown around more often than in a college liberal arts ethics paper. When the punchline of your story is “eats burrito and gets to go home” maybe it’s best not to compare your plight to that of others who are getting brutalized with riot gear or worse. The point being that not everyone gets to be as lucky as Silver.
We'll know the power of Twitter if someone holds up a "I Stole Nate Silver's Burrito" sign during RAW.
— Tim Ryan🦤 (@TheSportsHernia) August 14, 2014
https://twitter.com/fart/status/499766283877883904
wasn't aware it was "white people who got arrested that one time but it's a really funny story just hear me out" time on twitter
— Lana Berry (@Lana) August 14, 2014
https://twitter.com/Joe_TOC/status/499765404760563715
"Did you hear about Nate Silver? Burrito. Ate it." – Peter King
— Mark Ennis (@MarkEnnis) August 14, 2014
This happened to Nate Silver once. MT @thedailybeast: Justing Bieber managed to avoid being tried for drunk driving http://t.co/esPXBn4Oeo
— Lynn Pounian (@Panger2024) August 14, 2014
https://twitter.com/erikmal/status/499761684009873409
I do feel for Nate Silver in this case because I think he had good intentions at the start, but we all know where that leads. This is far from the worst thing anyone will ever do on Twitter, but goes to show that nobody is safe from dipping their toes in rough waters.
Let this be yet another valuable social media lesson. If you have an anecdotal story about your own personal experience that relates to something very serious happening in our world that ends with you eating take-out and hitching a ride home, best to leave that one in drafts. Or at least do a TwitLonger where nobody will bother to actually read it.
Or on second thought, just don’t tweet. Don’t even think about it. Ever.
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