What If It Had Been A Burglar At Gates’ House
by Big Dog on Jul 24, 2009 at 18:32 Political
Henry Louis Gates Jr, a Harvard Professor and friend of Barack Obama, arrived at his home last week after a visit to China. He was having trouble getting his door opened and a neighbor called the police because it looked like someone was breaking into his home. The police arrived and asked him for some ID. Gates became irate and initially refused to show ID. He was eventually arrested because he followed the police officer outside to continue his tirade. Gates accused the officer of racial profiling and said the cop was a racist. Al Sharpton got in on the action and this became a national story.
Sgt. James Crowley said that he is not a racist. He is an instructor on racial profiling and he tried to save a black professional basketball player by administering CPR. It is unlikely a racist would preform mouth to mouth on a black man.
Barack Obama added fuel to the fire by stating that he did not know all the facts and that he did not know if race was a motive but that the police “acted stupidly.” The White House has been doing damage control since the remark. Gates has demanded an apology and SGT Crowley said that he would not apologize, now or ever.
I wonder what would have happened if Crowley had shown up at the residence and an actual burglar was in the home and the burglar said that he was to owner so Crowley left without asking for ID thus allowing the crook to rob Gates blind. You can bet Crowley would be in some real hot water. Also, how did Crowley know if a criminal was behind the door with a gun and that Gates was trying to get rid of the officer because of that threat?
SGT Crowley did his job. Gates should be happy that law enforcement quickly responded to the report of a possible robbery and that they asked Gates for ID to ensure he was who he claimed to be. Gates should also be happy that the police took the time to ensure there was not a dangerous situation behind the door.
Instead Gates and the race hustlers, including his race hustling buddy in the White House, have made this an issue about race instead of solid law enforcement. Could this have been handled differently? I don’t know because I was not there but I do know that if you become belligerent with the police you can end up arrested.
A black police officer who was at the scene backs up SGT Crowley and says that he supports him 100%. Sgt. Leon Lashley said Gates acted strangely and that Crowley did things correctly.
Let’s see how long this twists in the wind before Obama is forced to apologize for indicting a police officer, and playing the race card, for doing his job.
UPDATE: This letter says quite a bit. Obama, SHarpton and Gates should read it.
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Tags: crowley, gates, lashley, Obama, racism, sharpton
We have three observations about the Harvard professor incident:
1. We find it interesting that the fact that this was the professor’s home was evidently not established early on way before the dispute escalated;
2. We find it fascinating that the versions of two members of society, who most would ordinarily view as responsible and honest citizens (this obviously does not include politicians), would vary so dramatically from a factual point of view.
3. Finally, considering that the reading and viewing public were not present at the scene (and thus have no first hand knowledge), and that there is no video tape to our knowledge of the sequence of events and what was said, how so many have formed conclusions, and made assumptions, about who did what and who was wrong.
There are some things which Professor Gates might have considered upon the arrival of the police, no matter how incensed he may have been.
Nowadays, everyone forms their opinion based on color- and this is up from even the past 20 years- we are fracturing more and more as a society, along color lines.
Going backwards is not a good thing.
Chicago Police dog Bear accused of racial profiling at, http://stopthepresses2.blogspot.com/search/label/Racial%20Profiling
Well, I do know that dogs owned by whites bark more at Blacks, and dogs owned by Blacks bark more at whites, but i seriously doubt the dog was actually “Profiling”- perhaps he could smell a gun or gunpowder, or drugs- who knows?
What puzzles me is the blatant hypocrisy Hussein exhibits- if he is, as he claims, the “first Post- racial” Resident we have had, he would have been neutral in his comments, but he was quick to blame the police as being stupid- a statement he had to retract- at least as far as he could, as this is a Resident who never admits to a mistake (such as the Surge), but he is now finding that he doesn’t necessarily have a magic mouth.
The police are not the bad guys here- in any profession there are distasteful people- witness who is in the WH now- but by and large, the police try hard to be race- neutral, and considering what they are up against out there, they do well.
I find it humorous that, because he has raised a ruckus, as we say in the south, he has now drawn the attention of investigators who have found, so far, at least 11,000 dollars that were misallocated, or not correctly represented on his charity, Inkwell- a charity for assisting Black writers and scholars.
Who knows what they will find if they dig deeper?
It just goes to show, don’t raise a ruckus- you don’t know what you’ll stir up.
Anyone who automatically assumes that Gates is right, should visit: http://www.colorofcrime.com
Then they could see the stats that cops (black AND white) see.