Have you heard about Harvard Professor Henry Gates? Having returned from a trip, he found that the door to his home was jammed, so he and his taxi-cab driver tried to force it open. Eventually Professor Gates got into his house via the back door. Some sharp-eyed neighbor saw the professor trying to get into his house and called the police to report an attempted burglary. The police arrived, and Gates explained. Now the story diverges: Gates contends that the police demanded proof of residence because he is black and would never have made such a demand to a white man who obviously was the legal occupant of the house; the police claim Gates flew into an abusive, unreasonable rage, so they arrested him on a charge of "disorderly conduct." The charges were subsequently dropped, a fact which demonstrates that the charge of "disorderly conduct" was pure police intimidation of somebody who irked them because he wouldn't obsequiously put up with their crap. The story got extra legs when, at his recent press conference, President Obama stated that the police behaved "stupidly." Now the police are demanding an apology from Mr. Obama; Mr. Gates is demanding an apology from the police.
So who's telling the truth? My money is on Professor Gates. I don't believe a word by any of these cops, whose defensive is "we followed procedure". So what, if that "procedure" lets you target black men because of racial profiling? That's precisely what Professor Gates is claiming. How is following racial profiling procedure a defense against a charge of racial profiling? So I am on the side of one of Harvard University's most distinguished, celebrated, and honored scholars. The cops responded to a possible burglary 9-1-1 call, found a black man in the supposedly burgled house, and hassled this man because they could and because that is their standard operating procedure. Now the cops are lying about what they did and pretending that they're the real victims because the police always do the right thing and their actions should never be questioned.
Once upon a time, I might have given the cops the benefit of the doubt. But real life, personal experience forbids. I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the abuse, harassment, and belittlement of a black man, charged with no crime, by white cops in a public place in full view of a store full with customers. I was livid. No white citizen would have tolerated such behavior, and no cop would have dared treat a white citizen with such contempt. But they treat black men in this manner with impunity. So I'm standing with Professor Gates.
But the squishy Mr. Obama may not be standing with us, for he has already back-pedaled a bit by stating yesterday that "cooler heads should have prevailed," which means that maybe Mr. Gates did something wrong. How long before he melts like an ice cube in the hot summer sun and blames everything on his good friend Mr. Gates? A day? Two? Let's see. Today, Mr. Obama stated that he could have "calibrated" his comments differently. What does that mean, I wonder? Nothing good for Mr. Gates. What will this limp noodle say next?
Read about it here
For the most part I agree with you, except that neither you or me or Obama have ever been a cop who is put in real danger every day of the week by burglars and other criminal creeps. I wouldn't want my son or husband to be a cop for all the money in the world, which as we all know cops don't make squat despite the danger they put themselves in every day. Have we run into bad cops? Sure. Taylor and his friends were detained, frisked, had their cars searched and endured a half hour of horrible cursing and threats by a cop. Why? Because they are teenage boys. Not black, but teeangers. It happens. It happens everywhere. But not all cops are bad. Did Mr. Gates, being such a celebrity in the area, maybe have an attitude? Could be. We'll never know because none of us were there.
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