Obama the Immaculate showed his thoughts about racism in plain view Wednesday evening, at the end of his healthcare newsconference. He was responding to a question about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a noted black scholar, at his home by Cambridge MA police. The police were responding to a call about a possible burglary at the home.
"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 is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."
"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 is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."
- Obama, newsconference 7/22
Courtesy of Fox News, here is a link to Gates' arrest report:
Looking at the report, there should be serious questions as to what happened in the incident. It is certainly not clear that the officers involved acted in a racist or stupid manner. The report clearly shows that Gates was the offender in the incident, and showed a tremendous amount of stupidity. At the very least, this should be investigated to see what exactly happened.
In any case, it is completely inappropriate for the President of the United States to interject himself into this, with such a stinging attack aimed at the police, even though he apparently hadn't read the police report, or didn't care what was in it. Obama, in doing this, is just as bad a racist as he is accusing the police of being.
I do know this - If I refused to produce my identification and screamed insults at an officer, I am going to end up in jail. And that is not because of racism, it would be because of my stupidity.
2 comments:
Of course, blame the cops. So nice that the President has to say something about this arrest. Were there no arrests of any white guys by black cops that he could comment on?
Nope. Right away it's racism, it's profiling, it's the cop's fault.
But I'm glad to see that by today he has backpedaled a bit. He really should NOT have commented, no matter what his feelings.
I listened to his 'apology'. He never apologized. He still doesn't think he said anything wrong. The ONLY reason he came out and made his comments yesterday was the firestorm of criticism he had received from the public, from police officers around the country, and from some parts of the media.
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