Nate Silver, Inspired by Ferguson, Tells Idiotic Arrest Story

Nate Silver, a man frequently hailed as the future of journalism, gave a master class this evening on How Not To React To The News That Doesn't Involve You (Ferguson edition). In short, don't make it an occasion to tell the story about That Time You Were Arrested (as a white man) and the cops were actually nice and let you eat 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

Just... don't do this.