I’m completely flummoxed that people — cops, their apologists — are in any way offended by what the President said about the Gates arrest.
The quote, for reference:
Now, I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
Obama continued:
As you know, Lynn, when I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in the society. That doesn’t lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that’s been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause.
There is absolutely no room for offense on any of this.
- Obama Assertion 1: Any of us would be angry in Gates’ situation. You bet.
- Obama Assertion 2: The Cambridge cops “acted stupidly.” That’s also a no-brainer. After ascertaining that Gates was in fact in his own home, they arrested him for being angry with their behavior, essentially. It doesn’t matter what he said, or how he said it. They put him in cuffs and — this is priceless — “secured his cane” before taking him downtown on charges they knew good and well wouldn’t stick, and they did it because they didn’t like what Gates said. That’s stupid behavior.
- Obama Assertion 3: There is not a level playing field between whites and minorities when it comes to police interaction. It’s hard to imagine anyone would argue this point, either.
Gates was in his home. Cops were jackasses. Gates got loud. Cops acted stupidly. End of story. If you’re trying to make hay with this in the press as though Obama hurt your feelings, you’re just as much of a jackass as the cop who cuffed an old man in his own home on trumped-up charges.
Because he said the police acted stupidly and then said he did not know the details of the case. The police did there job, Gates is race baiting piece of shit.
Ah, Edgar. It is of course completely unsurprising that you’d chime in with an insulting and knee-jerk defense of perceived authority while completely ignoring any of Obama’s actual points. Stay classy.
I think this is a case involving two distinct generations of African Americans, not unlike the distinction between Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson, Jr. Because of his experience, Jackson Sr. is a lightning rod of controversy. He eats, sleeps, lives and breathes the sum of his experiences with racism, and he has legitimate cause to do so. Jackson Jr. is much more moderate and much less prone to the theatrics and histrionics of his father. (I had the pleasure of hearing Gwen Ifill discuss this very same question at the AP Annual conference in San Antonio.) That having been said, there is a time and a place for Jackson Sr. antics, but this case didn’t have to be one.
To the points that you highlighted, allow me to address them sequentially: 1. No, we would not have been mad initally. We would have produced our ID, thanked the cop for showing up, and done whatever we could to reduce the cop’s suspicions that we were theives in our own home. After the fact, we would have been furious, sure, but by all accounts (his included), Gates was in a lather from the get-go. 2. Yup, the whole thing was stupid. Stupid for the cops to arrest him for B&E, but also stupid for Gates, a Harvard professor, to allow himself to lose control of his better angel and play into the same stupid racial sterotype into which too many people buy. 3. No, there isn’t a level playing field, and you would think that a Harvard professor who built his reputation on the academic exploration of that inequality would have had better sense than to fall into step to the same merry dance he has seen his too many of his fellows fall prey.
Gates is of the first generation of African American activists, like Jesse Jackson, Sr., who still rankle at the thought that they still might not get a seat at Woolworth’s lunch counter. The problem is that there is no more lunch counter–there’s not even a Woolworth’s.
Hey, quick question. You told me this joke and I forgot the punchline: what’s green and sits on your porch?
Sweet Lincoln’s Mullet!Clearly, your mind is clouded by your adulation for Barry.
Try looking up the definition of racial profiling and tell me how that would apply in this case? It is not like the police went looking for a black man to pin something on. Obama looks like a tool because of his cronyism. Irrespective of the fact(s) that his buddy instigated this by making implied threats, calling the police officer a racist, insulting his mother, and creating a confrontation out of nothing.
I have in fact had to show my ID to multiple police officers due to burglar alarms, and matching the description of a car ( in High School) for a B&E in Galveston. Never did I act to elevate the situation, even though I had shotguns wrongly pulled on me and my friends in the car case. There is no “perceived authority”. In fact the guy with the ability to arrest you always has the authority. Hell, even now when you call me classless I have not elevated this confrontation. I will next time. Hope you get the Ron Burgandy reference in the first sentence lefty.
I’m not sure Obama invoked the idea of racial profiling. What he said was:
None of that is controversial. N.B. that saying the cops acted stupidly doesn’t mean Gates didn’t say things he should not have said, but more on this in a minute.
At the root of this, however, is the fact that any time a cop arrests someone on a charge he knows won’t stick just to give them a hard time, he’s behaving stupidly. Further, such bullshit arrests were a staple tactic of racist cops in our parents’ generation. It’s a dumb thing to do. Period.
Further, a Federal decision (Duran v. Douglas, Arizona, cited here) makes it clear that cops are not acting legally when they arrest someone for insulting them:
I dunno about you, Edgar, but I think a cop who arrests someone on a trumped up charge is certainly acting irresponsibly, unethically, and absolutely stupidly — and the case above makes it clear what I said before: Nothing Gates could’ve said in his anger should’ve prompted an arrest. Once he proved who he was, they should’ve apologized and left — no matter what he did. Is he a firebrand, a provacateur? Could be. And he’d have had much less to crow about if the cops had been wise enough to let it go. Instead, they escalated.
Stupidly.
Well now they’re all going to share a barley pop at the White House, and racism will be ended once and for all in the lower 48 and Hawaii. Alaska is exempted, of course, because Inuits hate teh colerds by virtue of tribal law.