Henry Gates Jr. some simple rules to follow
 

I think Obama made a complete ass of himself with the comments he made about the incident. When he doesn't use his teleprompter and just talks off the cuff, that's when he puts his foot in his mouth.

He finally half-heartedly apologized today for his ignorant comments. He said,
"Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically," Obama said. "And I could have calibrated those words differently."

He "thinks he unfortunately gave an impression that he was maligning the Cambridge Police or Sgt. Crowley specifically". If that wasn't the impression he was trying to give then he probably shouldn't have accused them of "acting stupidly".

but he did use those words.

and so he apologized.

what am i missing here? is he supposed to use special presidential wizard powers to go back in time to not say the words he's now apologising for. what's your point?

he f'd up. no doubt.

he admits it and issued an apology. in public and directly to the officer in a phone call. no waiting.

would it be clearer if he had a large "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" banner?

Do you have rocks in your head? How did the cop not act stupidly?

He arrested a guy for "disorderly conduct" on his own property.

Why, because he asked for a badge number, the officers name, and bitched about a racial bias?

I think you still have the right to protest in public .. I think you still have the right to demand a cop identify himself in public .. when you can't protest and demand identification on your own private property - something is the matter with that. Whatever happened to free speech?

And he's a complete puss for apologizing.


The professor can overreact and be a dick all he wants .. he's on private property.

The cop's job is to enforce the law. He's not a high school principle out to punish rude behavior.

My point was two-fold. My first point was that his original remarks were way off-base. We both agree about that, so there is no argument there. My second point was that I thought his apology was sort of a luke-warm apology. He should have said, "I f'd up. I apologize." Instead he gave one of those apologies where he acts like his orginal words were misconstrued. His original words were not misconstrued. He said the wrong thing. He f'd up. That was my only beef with his apology. At least he apologized. I give him credit for that.

He apologized for two reasons.

1.) Because he's a politican

2.) Because people are morons.

I wonder why the charges were dropped so fast.

We all know the facts of the case and you are pretty much the only one who has reached that conclusion. Even fairly liberal black men like Juan Williams thought the President's remarks were way off base.

If the police are called to a scene for any reason, if you are ranting and raving at them and won't calm down, there is a good chance you are going to get arrested, even if you're on your own property.

This whole incident would have been avoided if this professor would have behaved like a normal person and just showed his identification.

Some white people close there eyes and believe racial profiling is made up. I happen to think its one of the worst problems with this country, if not the worst. I'm white & have a ton black friends from different area's of the country. Its crazy what they have had to deal with from cops that what I have (which is nothing).

You really can get pulled over for "driving while black". It happens every second in this country and its very embarrassing. You can get harrassed and searched just for walking down the darn street... I've never seen that happen to a white person though! And now apparantly you can get in trouble if you are black and your house proves you make a good living.

Its disgusting, and if Obama's comments pissed off some cops.. good. the one's here in Ocala are below human status when it comes to racial profiling.. just horrible.

Its 2009 and we are supposed to be a progressive country. Unfortunatly, some people, for reasons I will NEVER understand, think they are better than others.

I agree.

Off base for a politican who is strugging in recent opinion polls.

So, the cops didn't act stupidly?

And what the hell is the difference between saying they overreacted and acted stupidly.

He changed his words around now to make it sound nicer.

It's like a bettor stating an opinion saying Desormeaux acted stupidly by moving Real Quiet too soon in the Belmont ... than coming back after talking on the phone with Kent .. and saying they were wrong to say Kent acted stupid by moving RQ when he did .. he just overreacted by moving him when he did.

The point is that the cop screwed his job up.

The guy may have been a huge dick but he has that right to as an American citizen.

I'm glad the professor made a big deal of this... because its a huge deal and its not talked about enough in this country.

If you put yourself in his shoes.. you would be extremely pissed too. History had proved that the professor is the good guy in this thing.. not the bad guy.

It's supposed to be a free country... it's not when an individual doesn't have a right to protest on private property.

Cops get people who brown nose them and even give them free stuff just for being cops ... but when they have their feelings hurt the bad ones forget they have a job.. and its to enforce the law and not punish the rude.

They act like they're basketball refs giving technical fouls or something. That disorderly conduct charge wouldn't have had a chance in hell standing up in court.

Dude give me a break. He asked to see ID and the guy said something about his mother. The professor is a dick.

Amazing that this "racist country" through and through elected a black president.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/...tes/index.html

this is a great commentary.

Being a dick is not a crime.

The next time I go on someone else's property, and they are dicks to me, should I try and stage a citizens arrest of them?

No its not a crime, but when you are asked to show ID and you don't, then verbally abuse a cop who is called b/c of an intruder, I don't see anything wrong with arresting him and getting to the bottom of it....If Obama didn't realize he screwed up, he wouldn't have apologized. The only person that looks bad at the end of this is the professor. And nobody else.

If you dont think its a big deal maybe you just havent taken the time to witness it.. I have many times and i'm sure I will many more times.

My friend in college was repeatedly stopped walking down the street and thrown against a car and searched for no reason... heard a million stories like this.

My best friend in Ocala was pulled over 6 times in one month.. one time his mom was driving and the cops even said "hey this isnt your car". He doesnt even drive recklessly at all! I had a cop follow me for 5 miles, and was going about 15 over the speed limit (didnt see the cop behind me). I didnt get pulled over.. its a 100% sure thing I would have had I been the "wrong" skin color.

The worst was my white friend driving with a black guy in the passenger seat. They were pulled over and a dog was in the car. The black guy had nothing bad on him.. but the cops clapped when the dog was near the black guy so the dog sat down.. and they said they had the right to search him because he obviously was doing something illegal.. of course he had nothing all along, & my white friend actually had some pot in her pocket! But that didnt matter cause she's white!

Its not like white people have a very good history when it comes to the treatment of black people. Things are much better than they used to be but racism is still a huge problem. If you choose to not believe that or ignore it that's up to you. I know its true through personal experiences.

the election of Barak Obama doesnt change things.. was a great accomplishment (I just wish the first black guy elected wasnt so darn liberal.. wish he was a libertarian or republican.. but thats another subject) but things have a long way to go.

Eric Holder was very correct when he said as a country, we are cowards when it comes to this subject. Unfortunatly that hurt white people's feelings! Oh well, the truth hurts!

The cop didn't do his job right.

I'm sure the professor is a real bad guy though. Aren't they all?

WTF!!!! You guys are hysterical. This is the problem. This has nothing to do about race. Nothing. A white guy in the same situation would've been treated the same way. This cop teaches classes on profiling at his department and how not to do it.....Everyone wants to inject race into everything b/c it suits their needs or their desire for justice. It isn't here. Comprende? DrugS with comments like "aren't they all" you do nothing but show your own idiocy. So have at it.

of course he's a bad guy... He's a harvard professor and wealthy and BLACK! Thats an unspoken crime!

Maybe if the history of white and black relations was one of respect and equality, the professor wouldnt have had to react the way he did. He stood up for himself. Good for him.

yes I'm sure the neighbors would have called the cops on a white person trying to open the front door of their home.

THIS WASN'T A NEIGHBOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was someone walking down the street. They didn't know him....but again the facts mean nothing when your agenda is in question.

My agenda is only equality and respect.

All I know is that if you watch some of the police reality shows on various channels and I were a cop.

I would Taser everyone first and sort it all out later...

I have no idea what you are talking about. What was the professor mad about? If I'm trying to break into my own house (or even my own car if I locked the keys inside) and the cops come up to me and ask me what I'm doing, I'm not going to start ranting and raving. I'm not going to be angry at them. I'm going to tell them that this is my house (or car) and show them my identification.

a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to this.

thats fine, but it doesnt help the problem.

Do you think racial profilling does not occur?

Of course racial profiling occurs. But this case has nothing to do with racial profiling. This was not a case of some black guy getting pulled over for the color of his skin.

Is there any evidence in this particular case that the professor was treated differently because of his race? If you have some evidence that that is the case, I would like to hear it.

The officer who arrested the professor has been a cop for around 20 years. If this officer has a racial bias, I'm sure it would have come out a long time ago. If he has a racial bias, I doubt that this is the first time that he mistreated a minority. Yet nobody has come out and said that this officer has ever shown any type of racial bias. It is actually just the opposite. This officer has an impeccable reputation. There are bad cops out there, but this guy does not appear to be one of them.

So what evidence do you have that the professor was treated differently due to his race?

he stepped in a pile of sh*t when he really had no reason to get involved. it was a local issue until he spoke up.

he doesn't need to be the black president. he needs to be the president. he got back to the latter when he wiped the crap off his shoes with an apology.

plus, i'd be glad he apologized even if there were pictures of the cop in a pointed white hood. now i don't have to worry about my neighbor's calling him and having to explain at work why the president's talking about my loud music.

he got more important things to do. installing socialism, taking everyones guns, and running secret internment camps for conservative radio hosts are higher priorities.

Gates, 58, a world-renowned scholar and documentary filmmaker on black history, allegedly ranted to police at his Ware Street home, “This is what happens to black men in America!” and “You don’t know who you’re messing with!” in addition to verbally dragging Crowley’s mother into the fray.

Oh no he didn't

As long as he keeps pissing off the neo-cons, all is good. By the time he's re-elected, they'll still be looking for a candidate.

An angry conservative is a happy conservative

It's funny to see the spin on this.

If Dubya did this? Holy f.uck turds.

Perhaps if the professor had been of the same mind he wouldn't have gotten himself in trouble? of course when he writes a book on this and makes a couple of million he feel humiliated when cashing those checks? This wasn't a case of racial profiling because he wasn't questioned because he was black, he was questioned because the cops were responding to a call. And he was arrested because presumably he played the arrogant Harvard professor. I say presumably because none of us were there and the police report states this.
It wasn't his property either by the way.

We're not allowed to bring up Dubya

Every post by the right with their self RIGHTous, whoa is the US, all hell is breaking loose, we are f'd, he's an idiot, you're an idiot brings a smile to my face.

Kumbaya Bob, Kumbaya...

Nothing to see here. Move along.