CBS News reports on the inevitable demand for monetary compensation for the Laugh Factory hecklers from Michael Richards:
Friday, one of the nation's most prominent attorneys, Gloria Allred, announced that she is representing Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, who say they were in the group that was targeted by Richards at the Laugh Factory last week.
Doss says he wants a "face-to-face apology" from Richards.
"To have him do what he did to me... I can't even explain it," Doss said. "I was humiliated, even scared at one point."
Allred is suggesting that Richards meet McBride and Doss in front of a retired judge to "acknowledge his behavior and to apologize to them" and allow the judge to decide on monetary compensation.
"It's not enough to say 'I'm sorry' on 'David Letterman,'" said Allred. "Our clients were vulnerable... He went after them. He singled them out and he taunted them, and he did it in a closed room where they were captive."
Captive? Let's get this straight. Richards is on stage, in front of a crowd of people, doing his routine, when Doss and McBride begin to heckle him.
Note that neither have denied heckling Richards.
Richards responds is a very inappropriate way.
Doss and McBride are scared? Vulnerable? Captive?
This is absurd. Richards was the vulnerable one. As anyone who is afraid of public speaking can attest, there is a real fear of standing alone on a stage with dozens or more people staring at you and judging everything you say. You can't even run away -- once you are on the stage, the judgment begins, and running off simply guarantees the worst possible judgment possible. That is being captive.
It was Doss and McBride who had Richards and the rest of the room captive. Richards because he could hardly leave the stage, and the rest of the room because they had paid to watch Richards, and not Doss and McBride, but could not mute running commentary from the hecklers. Since they wanted to see Richards, and Richards could not leave, they were forced to listen to Doss and McBride.
I'm sure neither Doss nor McBride would feel compelled to compensate the other audience members who felt they were forced to listened to their heckling.
None of this excuses Richards for what he said. But it is important to note that Doss and McBride must take responsibility for what really happened. For them to misconstrue the nature of their role in the events that transpired (they were baiting Richards as opposed to Richards holding them captive for the purposes of subjecting them to racist comments) is frankly predatory.
Of course, responsibility is the ultimate hot potato. That is why lawyers like Gloria Allred are so successful -- they make a living on shifting responsibility from one party to another, and then replacing it with cash (taking a slice of the cash, but not the responsibility, for themselves, of course). Doss and McBride played a role in what happened. They initiated Michael Richards' rant. They could not have known that they were playing with a loaded gun, as it were, but they pulled the trigger on it. And I doubt too many people in the room appreciated their behaviour.
It takes some significant mental gymnastics to somehow cast Doss and McBride soley as victims here. But then Doss and McBride don't have to do the thinking. That's what Gloria Allred is being paid to do. All Doss and McBride have to do is give up any sense of responsibility so that Allred can do what she does best, and put that responsibility entirely one Michael's Richards' shoulders. That responsibility is quite the burden to bear. Helpfully, of course, Allred will be ready to lighten the load by emptying out Richards' wallet.
Personally, exchanging responsibility for money seems like a poor bargain. If I can't be held responsible, then my actions have no worth, since both the credit and the blame will assigned to whomever is truly responsible. I'd hate to be rendered worthless, even if it is for a fistful of dollars.
To me, the bottom line is what I can tell my kids. Michael Richards can teach his daughter Sophia about the importance of tolerance, and how racism is hurtful to both the target of the racism and to the racist himself. Doss and McBride can show off their big screen TVs, and teach their kids about the material benefits of being playing the victim shorn of all responsibility.
You tell me whose kids become better better people as a result of this lesson.
