President Obama Quick To Blame The Police In Arrest Of Harvard Professor Henry Gates
As is being discussed all over the media:
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest. "This still haunts us," Obama said. Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case Nonetheless, Obama said, anyone would have been angry if treated the way Gates claims police in Cambridge, Mass., treated him. Gates, a Harvard University professor, claims he was arrested in his home after showing ID to police who responded to a report of a possible burglary. "Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said during a prime-time news conference that otherwise focused on the health care debate. Gates' arrest followed a report of a possible burglary. A woman apparently saw Gates force the front door and called police. Police came and demanded that Gates show identification. Gates was arrested shortly afterward for alleged disorderly conduct, a charge that was dropped Tuesday.
Obama, unfortunately, used the opportunity to lash out at police across the county:
"What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately," Obama said. "That's just a fact." That disparity is a reminder that "race remains a factor in the society," Obama said.
What does this have to do with anything? Obama's comments will merely inflame a public that is already critical of the police. Obama should have used the opportunity to either make no comment or explain that often times people do loose control and act disorderly and need to be arrested - even Harvard scholars - even friends. Instead, Obama made it a race issue. This is unfair to Sgt. James Crowley and to the tens of thousands of police officers (of all races) across the country.
