The Cop, the Prof, and the Pres.

So you've probably heard about the arrest of a certain Harvard professor in the town of Cambridge. That means you've probably heard about how Obama shot his own face off during the last thirty seconds of a 55 minute, primetime speech on what was supposed to about healthcare.

Events like this are quickly picked up by one of the regulars on Gaia Online's Political forum, given a cynical title for the discussion and create a new thread to discuss/troll. This thread had the witty title "Ooops! No teleprompter this time, Obama...", and was written by Semper Ducemus, one of the forum's few conservative regulars.

Anywho, another reg, GunsmithKitten, pointed out that Sgt. James Crowley (the "racist" cop) should have left Gates alone when the prof showed him his ID.

(Notice: the rest of this blog post follows along similar lines with the thread response)

Except that according to the police report Gates did not show his ID. (Gate's attorney disputes this claim.)

The report says Crowley had asked Gates for some identification and Gates
shouted that he would not give any information and called the sergeant a racist.
According to the report, Gates then yelled, "This is what happens to black
men in America." When Crowley tried to calm him down, Gates shouted, "You don't
know who you're messing with."

I'd like point out that Gates is the head of Harvard's African and African American Research. Given Mr. Gates' job he may have immediately jumped to the conculsion that Sgt. Crowley was being a racist cop, even though the officer was following procedure, according to the Cambridge police commissioner (who is black).


I'd also like to point out the little, but very significant fact, that Sgt. James Crowley teaches a course for cops on how to avoid singling out people based on race.

For five of the past six years, Crowley also has volunteered alongside a black
colleague in teaching 60 cadets per year about how to avoid targeting suspects
merely because of their race, and how to respond to an array of scenarios they
might encounter on the beat. Thomas Fleming, director of the Lowell Police
Academy, said Crowley was asked by former police Lowell Commissioner Ronny
Watson, who is black, to be an instructor.

Because of this fact I find it very hard to believe that Mr. Crowley is a racist.


In the end our new president looks like a complete fool on prime-time television, but the good news is that almost publicly apologized to Sgt. Crowley and even invited him and Gates over to the White House for a beer.

Will those 'two words' come back to bite Obama later?

As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."