July 23, 2009 8:44 PM
Obama - racial profiling a white cop
If anyone came off as behaving stupidly in this matter, it is Obama, who is still maintaining that he did not make a mistake when he ended his press conference last night by impugning the Cambridge police (after impugning just about everyone else he could find to impugn to make his case for government "health care"):By way of contrast, check out this article in which Crowley was encouraged to vent and yet took the moral high road:Obama stirs racial passions in Harvard case
Thu Jul 23, 2009
By Jason Szep
President Barack Obama plunged his presidency into a charged racial debate and set off a firestorm in one of America's most liberal bastions by siding with a black Harvard scholar who accuses police of racism. Saying he was unaware of "all the facts" but that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, "acted stupidly" in their arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Obama whipped up emotions on both sides of an issue that threatens to open old wounds in America. His comments marked his biggest foray into the hot-button issue of race since taking office in January, and underline how racial issues remain very much alive despite advances embodied by his election as the first black U.S. president. "Unfortunately, the racial divide is still there. It's still very raw. I think he was trying to let the majority of non-minority Americans have a sense of what it is like to a black or Latino," said Boston University professor of politics Thomas Whalen. But many in Massachusetts said he crossed a line by passing judgment on police while acknowledging he did not have all the facts. Online polls in Massachusetts show strong support for the white arresting officer. A police union and his department's chief also came out strongly in his defense. "Based on what I have seen and heard from the other officers, he maintained a professional decorum during the course of the entire situation and conducted himself in a professional manner," Cambridge Police Department Commissioner Robert Haas told a news conference. Obama's comment stunned the city's policemen, Haas added. "They were very much deflated." He said he has appointed a panel to review Gates' arrest. Read entire article here.
Cambridge sergeant declines to criticize Obama
July 23, 2009 11:34 AMCambridge police Sergeant James Crowley declined today to criticize President Obama for saying Wednesday night that police "acted stupidly" in the arrest last week of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., but he did say it was "regrettable" that anyone would speak without knowing the "whole story" of the confrontation at Gates's home near Harvard Square.
What a gentleman! But then, he is not only a police sergeant, but one who trains officers in avoiding racial profiling. Sounds like training Obama and his embittered friend Gates douls use themselves.
Sergeant James Crowley
Speaking at length this morning on the Dennis & Callahan show on WEEI radio in Boston, Crowley maintained that "I know what I did was right." When the hosts asserted, however, that "professor Gates and the president of the United States owe you an apology," Crowley refused to bite."The president has a lot of other daunting tasks ahead of him," Crowley said. "I wish for the good of the whole country that he is successful in efforts to do the many things that he has to."
The radio show hosts persisted: "Well, hopefully on those other tasks he actually gets his facts straight, because clearly he didn't know what he was talking about when he addressed your little issue."
Read entire article here.
My take: things aren't working out for our Glorious Leader, so time to play the race card to make sure at least one part of his base is secure.
And yes, I am cynical. And wish we had a leader who was truly committed to racial reconciliation rather than whipping up more hostility so as not to lose the support of the entire citizenry.
Posted in Everyday Heroes, Obama Nation | Permalink
Comments
Read the police report at smokinggun. Wow, that officer sounds like he was a lot kinder to Gates then my dad would have been!
Someone I know on facebook commented, "So the same Obama who when presented with LOTS of evidence that Jeremiah Wright was racist said he was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but when this whole Cambridge Police incident happens he says they "Even though I don't have all the facts it is clear the Cambridge Police acted stupidly". I'm going on the record predicting lower poll numbers for the Pres next week."
Posted by: Debra | July 23, 2009 10:13 PM
Barbara, By coincidence, I lived next to the other officer, Carlos Figueroa, for years. When I moved away from home and my parents got old, he used to shovel their sidewalk in the winter and wouldn't accept a dime for it. He's one of the most decent people I've ever met, a minority as well (Hispanic). By coincidence, I also went to Harvard, and I'm well-acquainted with people like Professor Gates, who are privileged to the max but still fancy themselves victims, and will escalate encounters knowing that, win or lose, they win. They can end the encounter as the triumphant bully or the aggrieved victim, and both outcomes are entirely agreeable. By one last coincidence, I want to thank you for posting my first-ever, YouTube video last week ("Hey there Obama/Drink the Kool Aid"). It's getting a lot of hits, thanks in no small part to you. It is a small world after all.
Posted by: John Keenan | July 24, 2009 2:00 AM
I'm inclined to agree with William Jacobson that this is about CLASS, not race.
Those dumb cops shouldn't mess with Harvard and White House elite.
[You may be right. But the more we find out about Sergeant Crowley, the more class he appears to have than the Harvard bigshot.
On the other hand, in the background I hear a black DC policeman being interviewed saying he agrees with President Obama. So it seems he is identifying more as a black man than a police officer,
Definitely a multi-layered situation.]
Posted by: Milehimama | July 24, 2009 12:35 PM
World Renowned Apologist Struggles with Stupidity!
Posted by: TDC | July 24, 2009 10:18 PM
I read this blog and comments. Academia really should get out in the real world more often. Delusions of grandeur and a desperate obligation to carry water for The Cause makes their world go round. And what a narrow, little world theirs is.
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