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Philip Weiss and Zo‰ Heller

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Cops and Black Men

By Philip Weiss
Posted Wednesday, June 9, 1999, at 6:36 PM ET

Dear Zed,

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Thanks for the kindness. I used "man panties" before and you didn't notice. 'Twas in a novel I published. The only novel I've published, though that's my chief activity, writing novels, here in the basement. I don't remember anyone commenting on man panties in that book. Though it was pretty funny then, too.

The last time I spoke with you, by phone, weren't you working on a novel? What's become of it? What do you think of the place of fiction now? Here we are two fiction writers, and we talk about current events. We haven't gone into the arts at all. Today's Times reviewed (negatively) a novel titled The Artist's Widow in which there is a character named Zoë. Zoë's popular these days. How do you feel about that? I find I am for fewer Philips, and deplore the fact that they named a country after me.

Do novelists read the paper differently (from civilians)? Here's what my eye caught on: In an article on the writer Hannah Pakula, I wondered about the age difference between her and her late husband Alan, the filmmaker. That's a marriage datum I collect (one of many). Do you? I felt it ironic that the first person to have her life saved by penicillin (Anne Miller) just died. I guess penicillin isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh? She was 33 when she almost died, 90 when she did die. Funny obit: Someone famous for having her life saved died. Married in 1932. Husband died in '78. No data on the age difference.

And in the Louima coverage, I was struck that one of the prosecutors said they were taking on a "belief system," the one in which cops learn to protect cops.

I know, it's a good thing: It's inspiring to see the prosecutors taking on police culture, inspiring that they're going to try three of the cops on obstruction of justice charges for the lies they apparently told about the crime. Still, I have some sympathy for the cops. Plainly they're brutalized. Why? They're the front lines in a race war that in tacit ways the privileged sign off on. The prisons are filled with black men. The cops' world, and job, is to some large degree, about black men. The whole thing is more complex than explanations like racism. I think we all have our belief systems, and all writhe and scream lest we're forced to challenge them.

Love,

Philip

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