Acting Stupidly

By now, most people have heard about the controversial arrest of Professor Henry Gates by a Cambridge, Massachusetts police sergeant. Although the charges were dropped, the story has continued to snowball.

This whole thing could have been avoided if Gates would have just cooperated with the police. But, no. He wanted to push the issue. He knew exactly what he was doing and took advantage of an opportunity. He knew how it would look for a white cop to arrest a prominent black professor. He played the race card and it worked.

Gates claimed he was a victim of racial profiling. Kind of ridiculous when you look at the facts of the case. Basically, the police are called to investigate the report of someone trying to break into Gates' house (by the way, there had been recent break-ins in the community, but let's not facts get in the way). The police arrive and find the door jimmied open with Gates inside. They ask him for ID and he starts making accusations of racism. After the police ask him the settle down, Gates continues to run his mouth. Ultimately, he is arrested for disorderly conduct. He cries racism all the way to the police station.

The bottom line is, Gates should have been grateful that his neighbors thought enough of him to call the police when the thought his home was being burglarized. He should have been grateful that the police quickly arrived to check out the situation. But no. He choose to be belligerent and forced the police to arrest him. Being a professor, he's obviously a very smart man and knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to paint the image of a white police officer putting a handcuffed, middle aged black processor into the back of the squad car.

The story got new legs when President Obama answered a question at his health reform press conference. Without knowing the facts, Obama quickly criticized the police for the arrest. He said they acted "stupidly". Not surprising, since I believe Obama is a racist himself. After all, didn't he spend twenty years listening to the hate speech of Reverend Jeremiah Wright? So, it didn't surprise me that Obama would back his brother.

Let's look at the arresting officer. Yes, he's white. And to race hustlers, this is all that's required to make him a racist. However, they might have a hard time proving that he's a racist in this particular case. After all, Sergeant James Crowley has taught courses on how to not racially profile. He also volunteers his free time to coach youth sports. I'd be willing to bet there are at least a few black kids on his teams. And when Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis (who happens to be black) collapsed during a practice session in 1993, Crowley was the one who attempted to revive him by giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation. This sure doesn't sound like a racist to me.

So, here we are. The latest I heard was that Obama is going to have Gates and Crowley over to the White House for a beer. I think this is purely a political move on Obama's part. He knows that he put his foot in his mouth with his comments. He has pissed off police unions across the country and he knows he's got to do something to save his ass. Kind of ironic.....Obama appears to be the one that acted the most "stupidly".

KW