“A white police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home insisted Wednesday he won’t apologize for his treatment of the Harvard professor,” Fox News reports. Gates was arrested after a neighbor phoned police about a possible burglary at Gates’ house. As it turns out, Gates was the “burglar” — he claims he had to force the door open because it was jammed. Police say that Gates became belligerent and accused them of racism (“This is what happens to black men in America!” he shouted), prompting the officers to arrest him.
Barack Obama jumped into the fray Wednesday night during his prime-time news conference (about health care), saying, “[T]he Cambridge police acted stupidly” in arresting Gates. He added, “[T]here is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact.” Perhaps that’s because blacks and Latinos commit crimes at a disproportionate rate to their percentage of the population.
Obama, who has a difficult time hiding his own racism and resentment, then declared that federal officials should work with local law enforcement “to improve policing techniques so that we’re eliminating potential bias.” Ah, yes. Maybe the ATF Waco planners could help out. Or maybe we could all stand in long lines so the TSA could search grandmothers in order to not offend jihadis.
In the end, Obama later “clarified” through his mouthpiece Robert Gibbs. “He was not calling the officer stupid, okay?” Gibbs scolded. Not that the president regretted the remarks, Gibbs added. Too little, too late. In light of the fact that Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, is the police academy expert on racial profiling and was hand-picked by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, the Fraternal Order of Police issued a rebuke of the president Thursday. See, now Obama has just made a union mad.
Posted by nhiemstra on July 25, 2009 at 6:43 am
Well maybe if you read the police report, you might see that Gates had a “chip on the shoulder” and was escalating the issue.
When a police officer is standing in front of me I listen quietly and follow his directions. Gates could have experienced much different results if he hadn’t been confrontational from the beginning. It’s not a race issue, it’s an issue of respect for authority.
Like it or not, the police officer had the authority and Gates escalated what could have been a peaceful situation (Then Obama made it worse by putting his two cents in without knowing all the facts).
Posted by Dee on July 24, 2009 at 2:39 pm
It must thrilling for you to call anyone who is not white or male, a racist. If some cop became rough with me before giving me a chance to explain what happened, I would be pissed off as well.