Obama ‘stupidly’ comment disappoints Mass. cop
Published: July 23, 2009
Updated: July 23, 2009
NATICK, Mass. — 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.
“I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry,“ Obama said. “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 is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact.“
In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he had done nothing wrong in arresting Gates.
“I support the president to a point, yes, I think it’s disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue and something that plays out here,“ Crowley told WEEI. “As he himself said ... he doesn’t know all the facts.“
Crowley did not immediately respond to messages left by The Associated Press on Thursday.
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.“
Crowley, 42, said he won’t apologize. And his union has expressed “full and unqualified” support for him.
Fellow officers, black and white, say he is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.
Gates’ supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw “two black males with backpacks” trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed.
The president said federal officials need to continue working with local law enforcement “to improve policing techniques so that we’re eliminating potential bias.“
“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,“ Obama said. “That’s just a fact.“
Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, and a statement from the city called the July 16 incident “regrettable and unfortunate.“
The mayor refused Thursday to comment on the president’s remarks.
Police supporters charge that Gates, director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, was responsible for his own arrest by overreacting.
Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university’s race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.
Richard Weinblatt, director of the Institute for Public Safety at Central Ohio Technical College, said the police sergeant was responsible for defusing the situation once he realized Gates was the lawful occupant. It is not against the law to yell at police, especially in a home, as long as that behavior does not affect an investigation, he said.
“That is part of being a police officer in a democratic society,“ Weinblatt said. “The point is that the police sergeant needs to be the bigger person, take the higher road, be more professional.“
___
Associated Press writer Melissa Trujillo and Denise Lavoie in Boston contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
What strikes me most about this whole thing is not the incident itself or Obama’s ridiculous comment but the press/public reaction. I think we could glean a more useful insight into our troubled & divided nation by reflecting on the “Reader Reactions” to articles concerning the Gates, Crowley & Gates incident.
One of Randy’s posts most intrigued me:
‘I think it’s helpful to understand that many in the Black Community have learned or have been conditioned from friends and relatives to leverage anger and offense as a means to getting something…Over the years, this technique has met with great success, so you see it used with increased frequency. This technique has also been proven effective by those who sling around terms such as “homophobe” and “sexist”…Once these trained accusers sense that they can gain something with a frantic racial accusation, it’s “game on”. The accusation is made, the crowds gather, the truth is the first casualty and all kinds of concessions are made by the accused.’ Posted by ( Randy ) on July 25, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Randy seems to describe a socialization by peer & other pressures within certain ethnic & lifestyle groups. It seems to me that Randy’s point of view could be derived in part from similar socialization pressures that encourage embracing a victim identity & leverage[ing of] anger and offense as a means to” some form of payoff.
I believe that the Republican Party has successfully tapped into the intergenerational psychological trauma to the white people of the slave states. 1940s the South was Solidly Democrat territory. With the Democratic sponsorship of the Civil Rights legislation, Republicans lost their historic base in the South—Black voters. The Southern white middle class angered the grant of civil rights & voting rights to blacks & saw themselves as alienated by the Democrats.
In 1968 Republican strategists & the Nixon campaign effectively used race as a wedge issue (busing, desegregation…etcetera) to appeal to white southern voters. In 1980, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, gave his first campaign speech @ Neshoba County Fair near Philadelphia, Mississippi, where in 1964 three civil rights workers were murdered:
“I believe that there are programs like that, programs like education and others, that should be turned back to the states and the local communities with the tax sources to fund them, and let the people [applause drowns out end of statement]…I believe in state’s rights…”
The Dixiecrat South is now a Republican stronghold. And the Southern Strategy has reaped many a vote north of the Mason-Dixon.
I’ve culled some “Reader Responses” from Associated Press article “Obama ‘stupidly’ comment disappoints Mass. Cop” that appeared in the RTD 07/23/09, which I think indicates a culture of resentment that has been exploited for political advantage:
“I’m sick of the Black Gestapo pushing everyone around…large number of minorities do go around looking for reasons to be offended…you will see more of a divide in this country because good, honest, hard working whites don’t want to have their lives ruined by ACCUSATIONS…If I was the police officer, I would file a multi-million dollar law suit against Gates…Obama couldn’t help himself. Just like Gates, he couldn’t just keep his GIANT mouth shut. Obama is such a polarizing and devisive individual he made a point at the expense of a good man’s career. Frankly, there’s a segment of the community that is looking for offense and I, for one, am tired of walking around on egg shells with them…A growing segment of the population has just about had it.Trying to get along and be nice often backfires. After just being elected president of this great nation, Barack Obama has the AUDACITY to play the race card? Give me a break.It just proves the point that there is no point to ‘walking on eggshells’… LiberalLies… the Black Gestapo has convinced me that being nice, being helpful and trying to work together is going come back to bite you…bets about how long it will be before Gates decides to file a discrimination lawsuit against the policeman.If Johnny Cochran were still alive…the Lord High Messiah Obama… Super Prez is showing us what he really is: an egomaniacal bigot who thinks he can say anything he wants…this proves that obama has a racist outlook…You are racist, YES! Period!…I would have knocked Gates off his holier than thou throne and risked my job but boy that really would have felt good…Obama is racist.”
Posted by ( fedup ) on July 25, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You really are a sad sack. But then those who refuse to accept responsiblity always have to find a victim and victimizer. What is most sad, is that you have to make up your supposed “facts” and then contort them to come to your conclusions. But then no one ever said you were living in reality.
Posted by ( Will ) on July 25, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Wikipedia is about as reliable as your opinion. Which means it is useless. However the last politician to use the word was….... (drum roll) your own leader in the senate - Byrd - the only present or former member of the KKK, and not surprising, he is a democrat (the party of the KKK).
Nothing made up Will. reno and clinton did explore the possiility of using the military. And actually did get “advice” from Delta Force.
No, they did not go in with guns blazing.
There are many who to this day believe that the army was directly involved.
i just transcribed the information to see what the sophist role felt like.
It sort of feels like a rat on a wheel.
A bit of a dimwitted rat.
How in the world does cocktail party circuit acquaintance, translate to “intimate.“ And by the way, you did not answer my question about Professor gates.
Had you indeed ever even heard of him?
If you had not it could help to explain your inability to accept the fact that I might be a little more up on the goings on in academe than yourself. You made such a fuss over a throw-away remark.
I don’t know Will, it seems that
“It’s hard to stop posting when people just can’t get their facts straight.“
Nooooooooooooo Will, hard to stop posting when people just WON’T get YOUR version of the facts straight.
As a government employee, shouldn’t Obama, after making idiotic and bigoted comments, be compelled to attend sensitivity classes?
In the past two weeks, Obama has admitted that (a) he hasn’t read legislation that he is trying to push through and (b) that he’s commenting on a situation involving a racial issue in which he doesn’t know the facts. That’s more than the sign of an amateur, that’s the sign of a child.
Will,
If you look hard enough into the night you will see light (stars, to make it easy for you). That does not make the night bright. There are still racists, but my current experience has been that it’s the blacks that are the worst offenders. The excuse is that in the past there was racism against blacks.
I’m too young to have experienced the problems of the older generations regarding equal rights. I do not have guilt for what happened before me. I respect everyone, until they disrespect me.
Obama is the one who chose to make a National issue out of the situation by commenting before he knew all the facts. He PUBLICLY took the opportunity to insult Crowley and the police. So- NOW- he wants to forget it ever happened and smooth it over by PRIVATELY have a beer between the three of them. Well- too little too late!- maybe he should have PRIVATELY told his opinion to them in the first place! When you condemn someone for something PUBLICLY- then you need to APOLOGIZE PUBLICLY!“ A lot of people were affected by his “off handed remarks”.
Obama’s sincerity seems to lie in what he said originally- rather than the “QUICK FIX” he has suggested now that his opinion was not appreciated by the police or a lot of people. Bringing the races together was suppose to be his intend when he was elected. It looks like that took a large step backward.
Gates has gotten his ATTENTION- but not exactly what he had anticipated. He should take a class in MANNERS!!He should act his age and show some RESPECT for the police!
Crowley is not the one who should apologize- that is for Gates and Obama to do.
Will, No, I haven’t read any bio’s on Wilson, glad you are purportedly so well-read. You need to “google” definitions? LOL
You must be very literate then. I haven’t seen any high-brow vocabulary here to need looking up in any refernce material, yet.
Your sophistry is a fool’s game and you lost. You are now pulling Wilson into your argument to try to support what?
As I said, what may or may not have been is not relevant to what is now.
If Obama was supposed to be the centrist racism tamer, and he really is a racist, how does that help?
Hint for the annoyed.
If someone uses a word you don’t know in a comment forum, just type the word and definition into google and it’ll pop up. That way you won’t have to get annoyed by locating your dictionary and discovering it isn’t in it.
Greta: “By the way I seem to remember that Clinton and Janet Reno used the military to flush out the Branch Davidians.“
You remember wrongly. It was the ATF and the FBI. Not that facts are worth checking. Just make stuff up.
I’m impressed tho you know so many people intimate with Gates, and that they’re all unanimous in supporting your opinions.
It’s hard to stop posting when people just can’t get their facts straight. I love “Richmond Dave too”
“okay other presidents may have been racist, not that that is known”
Are you seriously telling me that Woodrow Wilson wasn’t a racist? Have you read any good biographies of the man? “Not that that is known.“ What a stupid statement.
Greta -
It is thoroughly amusing that Will still doesn’t get it. He tries to sound intelligent by referencing tropes and litotes, but after being thoroughly reputiated, continues on his merry way. Obviously, he’s a fool dressed in Obama’s clothing, unable to see reason when it’s thrust upon him.
Although, I have to give Will credit, he appears to have accepted the reality that Gates and Obama are racists, and tries to impune other presidents, instead. Let’s say, okay other presidents may have been racist, not that that is known, but the fact is Obama surely is. And that is a problem. He is currently president, not was president. Will doesn’t think that Obama’s racism will may it more difficult for the rest of the blacks who actually are trying to get ahead?
My wife was recently charged with discrimination in firing a black in her office. That after having promoted several of them in her office. She expressed concern about what others might now think about her. All the other blacks and everyone else in her office supported her; she is in no way racist. She hired the person that charged her. Why then hire her to begin with, if she was so racist? And to have promoted other blacks? Obviously, racist.
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