Black scholar arrest angers Obama

[Vulpix]

Black scholar arrest angers Obama


BBC News: The US president has said police acted "stupidly" when they arrested a black Harvard scholar outside his own home.
Prof Henry Louis Gates was held last week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to the top university where he teaches.
Barack Obama said the US had a long history of African-Americans being disproportionately stopped by police.

Officers were called to Prof Gates's house after a woman reported seeing two black males - the professor and his driver - trying to force entry.
Although the exact facts of the incident are disputed, Prof Gates was arrested outside his home after providing the officer with identification.
Mr Obama said: "I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry.

"Number two... the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."
An initial disorderly conduct charge was dropped and Cambridge police called the arrest "regrettable and unfortunate".

'Rogue policeman'

Mr Obama said federal officials should work with local police to "improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias".
He said that when he was in the Illinois state legislature, he had worked towards a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that African-Americans and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately.
"And that is a sign, an example of how race remains a factor in the society," he said.

Prof Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest and called the officer, Sgt James Crowley, a "rogue policeman". Sgt Crowley has refused to apologise.
During the confrontation between the two men, the 58-year-old professor reportedly said: "This is what happens to black men in America."
His lawyer said Prof Gates had just returned from a trip overseas and, upon arriving at the property with a driver, found his front door jammed and had to force it open.
By the time police arrived at the house, he and the driver had managed to get inside the property.
According to police, Prof Gates shouted at the officer and accused him of racial bias.

[Allenson]

I've been following this story some...and I've been finding it quite comical.

The best part was when Gates said something to the effect that if the police apologized, in return, he would personally tutor them on the history of racism in America.

I mean, how can you pass up a deal like that?

[Æmeric]

Barack Obama said the US had a long history of African-Americans being disproportionately stopped by police.

Negroes have a long history of commiting a disproportionate amount of the crime in America. If BHO feels there's an injustice in this he could just pardon the 50% of inmates in the federal prison system who are Negro.

[Cato]

Boohoo for the black guy.

[Allenson]

“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 Afri can-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately,’’ the president said. “That’s just a fact.’’

Yes, Mr President, it is a fact. A fact, in fact, that corresponds directly to Blacks & Hispanics committing more crimes, disproportionate to their overall populations. Not to mention that there could very well be a biological explanation for this.

Do you really want to talk about race, Mr. President?

[Allenson]

A related story.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/bre...eys_union.html

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

The lawyer for the police union that represents Cambridge Sergeant James M. Crowley today predicted that President Obama will regret that he accused department officers of "acting stupidly" when they handcuffed Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. even after he showed proof that he lived in his house.
"He conceded that he didn't have all the facts, and indeed he didn't," Alan J. McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said of the president. "I suspect that when the full picture comes out, he will regret the remarks he made."

Obama, speaking at a nationally televised press conference Wednesday night, said he didn't "know all the facts" about the case and didn't know whether race played a role in the arrest of Gates, who is black, by Crowley, a white officer investigating a burglary report.

But the president added that it is "just a fact" that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped by police -- evidence "that race remains a factor in our society."

McDonald, the lawyer for the 50-member police union, says he knows Crowley personally and considers him a topnotch officer who behaved appropriately in the Gates arrest.

He said he and members of the union "were disappointed" in Obama's remarks. "I think perhaps the president might have second thoughts about shooting from the hip."

The White House today, meanwhile, backed away slightly from President Obama's remark.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling on Air Force One that Obama did not regret the remark during his primetime news conference Wednesday night, but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid.

Obama felt "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed" once the officer realized Gates was in his own home, Gibbs said, according to the Associated Press.

[Æmeric]

BHO's remarks are part of his overall ignominy. An African-American (pc term, not mine) speaking from the East Room of the White House in primetime, griping about racism & playing the racecard. All but the most liberal & dumbist of Whites will put up with this. I've already noticed that there are fewer people who will admit to voting for him then there was last November.

[Cato]

Obongo was subtly (snidely?) asserting that only white people are racist and criminal. Their crimes, of course, are always racially-motivated.

[Loddfafner]

Unfortunately race is getting in the way of dealing with the real problem: police overreach. I put the incident with Gates in the same box as that of the SWAT team that invaded the home of some small town white Maryland mayor last year and killed his labrador retriever.

[Æmeric]

Weren't the police in that case Negro? It was in Prince George County which is controlled by the brothers. No one cried racism in that case.