Bob Dylan vs. New Jersey cops
Does Dylan’s detention, for walking around a Long Branch neighborhood, tell us anything broader about U.S. society?
"Oops," said Lauren Viera in the Chicago Tribune. Police in Long Branch, N.J., briefly detained Bob Dylan after rookie cops failed to recognize the music legend, and he didn’t have ID. In fairness to the 22-year-old officer who answered the call about an “eccentric-looking old man” wandering around looking lost, “it was pouring rain," and Dylan did look haggard. But it can’t look good treating Dylan like “a complete unknown.”
News reports are focusing on “the ‘ha ha, they didn’t know it was Dylan!’ aspect” of the incident, said Steven L. Taylor in PoliBlog, but the “real story” is that “a man can’t go for a walk in broad daylight” without ID. Dylan was cooperative and polite, but he wasn’t breaking any law, and this isn’t a police state. As Radley Balko notes in Reason, “I just don’t see the punchline.”
Given that this was settled amicably “exactly one week after the highly publicized arrest” of Henry Louis Gates Jr., said Noel Sheppard in NewsBusters, it’s suspicious that the media “buried” the story until now. I guess if a gracious “white rock legend is detained by police for having the nerve to walk around a minority neighborhood,” that’s not a “teachable moment.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It's a bit of a stretch to spin this as a "sinister" media conspiracy, said Roy Edroso in The Village Voice. “Maybe we’re thick,” but how does the arrest of a black academic in his own home after he has shown police his ID relate to an ID-less Dylan being “hassled” by cops for “loitering”? This must be what they mean by the August “silly season.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?
In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meat
The Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published