Take this for what it's worth. Did some looking around.
RenfredJagabat
07/25/09
I know this officer very well. He needs no "cluing in" on race relations. He grew up in public housing surrounded by the racial diversity Cambridge is known for, including many African-Americans, Jamaican-Americans, Haitian-Americans, Italian-Americans, and Irish-Americans. He was given the name at a young age by folks in the neighborhood because his hair was so light as a kid. He has worked his entire career, from the time he was a youth center counselor to his appointment to the Cambridge Police, to teach young people the value of friendships that transcend race and to bring the city's neighborhoods together. I have watched Whitey many time diffuse delicate and charged situations with a sincerity, good humor, and diplomacy that few people possess. Perhaps above all, he is an outstanding and dedicated father who works very hard to support his family and his community.
While I appreciate the value of online forums and rely on many blogs to get my news, I am continually uncomfortable with speculation and comments about people and situations many know nothing about. It is easy to lambaste someone like Whitey without giving pause to the accuracy l
07/25/09
LelandEscardadente
07/25/09
i have plenty of problems with what happened here in cambridge last week, and i'm much more sympathetic to gates than crowley. but this is just silliness. clueless, really.
michael "whitey" daniliuk is a good good friend of mine and my family and many cantabridgians of all stripes. he grew up as a very fair ukrainian kid IN THE PROJECTS, hence the nickname. he's about as far from a racist as you can get -- among other things, he worked serving unprivileged youth (many "of color") for well over a decade in cambridge teen centers -- and the funny thing is, he's probably one of the few cops on the CPD who would even THINK about breaking rank to get behind the perspective that racial profiling is real and so is police abuse of power.
c'mon, dude. you could have asked him. what do you expect? that he should change his license plate in light of this week's events, despite having had this nickname for 30 years.
i'm all for holding the CPD accountable, but this is dumb and unfair.