Obama ‘stupidly’ comment disappoints Mass. cop

NATICK, Mass. (AP) - A white police sergeant who arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Thursday he’s disappointed President Barack Obama said officers acted “stupidly,” despite acknowledging he didn’t know all the facts.

Sgt. James Crowley responded to Gates’ home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused and accused the officer of racism.

Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday, and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley.

Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

Full Story Here:
Obama ‘stupidly’ comment disappoints Mass. cop

If my understanding of this is correct, the professor was seen trying to enter a home, HIS home, and doing so by breaking in because he had lost, forgot or misplaced his house keys. I can’t fault the good doctor for that, been there myself on one occasion.

Gates later went on to say that the door was jammed. Maybe so, I can’t argue that fact one way or another, but in ANY case, he was making a forced entry into a residence, be it his or that of someone else. A forced entry was made.

A neighbor apparently saw an *unknown* individual committing what appeared to be a break-in, into a residence that is, as I understand it, in a high crime area, and said neighbor did the right thing and called the police.

And again, IF my understanding is correct, officers responded and caught Dr. Gates in the process of breaking into what turned out to be HIS home. The officers detained him, Dr. Gates told the officers that it was HIS home, the officers demanded PROOF of such and at this point Dr. Gates went off on a hate and invective filled racist tirade and was arrested for disorderly conduct. If I have ALL of MY information correct that is.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. may well be a renowned black scholar, but apparently the responding officers didn’t know him. Those officers were well within their line of duty by demanding identification from Gates. Suppose there really had been a break-in and suppose the perpetrators had told the responding officers a tall tale of being the owner of the home? And suppose the officers acquiesced to those tall tales and left the home to be burglarized unabated?

What would Dr. Gates have said then?

Gates has said he was “outraged” by the arrest. He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant’s name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

“This isn’t about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America,” Gates said.

He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are “to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman.”

Of course Gates was outraged, real life jumped up and slapped him in the face. He wasn’t fawned over by those that knew and respected him. He was subjected to every day, run of the mill, good law enforcement by officers that were doing the job they were hired to do, that job being to SERVE and PROTECT the citizens and property. So, yes, Dr. Gates, it IS about you, whether you like it or not. All you had to do was produce some identification and the cops would have bid you good day and left you in your academic world of respect and privilege.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »