Cambridge Fiasco

Carl,

The only racists I know of is the one who REPEATEDLY writes about it. Blog after blog after blog about the future Supreme Court Justice, Obama, and now the Harvard law professor. Be careful when you write about others' allegedly racists remarks or actions, when the only thing you have offered is an equilibrium of the sorts.

hope does spring eternal in response to this blog post... nascarfanatic, nathan.evans, you made my day... with great respect, thank you.

hi carl,

how about an alternative line of reasoning on this event. lets start with what we know. we know that we have two very different stories about the event. we know that the sort of behavior the cop is accused of exhibiting does not fall outside the realm of possibility for a police officer. however, we also know that the behavior the professor is accused of exhibiting does not fall outside the realm of possibility for a black activist. what we do not know is what actually happened. nor do we know either of the principals involved. so all these people expressing certainty about what actually transpired are just talking out of the wrong end of their alimentary canal. that would include obama. of course that would also include you. based on my life experience, i would think that the highest probability is that the truth lies somewhere between the two stories, and that each of the parties involved failed to take advantage of opportunities to defuse the situation. but that is only a guess, since i do not have direct knowledge.

that aside, while i do not know you either, i am familiar with your writings on here. you seem to be a fairly intelligent individual, yet unaware of the increasingly racist rhetoric that you are adding to the discussion. it would seem that it is your view that no black man could graduate from an elite school, or attain a high position without preferential treatment. likewise, for any minority, male or female. on top of that is the assumption that any minority in a position of authority would only use that position to promote racially biased causes. but, i guess that is just the product of the racist proclivities of one man who simply cannot deny his racist tendencies.

Wow . . . the usual comments and responses from the usual suspects. Nathan, your comment is just as one sided as Carl's so that makes you no better or less than him and the same goes for nascarfanatic. It is like watching a dog trying to catch his tail . . . you just have to laugh.

I do however believe that Carl is a little off base on this post also. Obama is more elitist than racist.

When Dr. Gates did an analysis of his DNA; they determined that he was about 50% Caucausian with European ancestory; the highest percentage of people with similar DNA were in France (several families in Bedford County descended from French Huguenots). I suspect that most of the people writing on this blog have a common ancestor with both Barack Obama (through his mother) and Dr. Gates.

A man's home is his castle and police officers must act accordingly and display a higher level of respect than you would when dealing with someone off the street. Somewhere we as citizens have been talked into surrendering our rights and allowing ourselves to be bullied in our own homes from the police and criminals alike. Where did our ability to use common sense and to show respect towards others go? I have reached the point to where I am ashamed of what this nation has become in many ways. In other nations children would love to have the ability to attend school, in America many children think school is a joke and many quit. In other nations people can receive affordable medical treatment when they have an accident or get sick, in America we use terms like pre-existing condition to disqualify the very people that need help the most. We can pay trillions of public dollars to go fight wars, but we struggle to find the money to build new schools or inspect shipping containers coming from all corners of the globe. It breaks my heart that we can't seem to address the problems that are really important and dedicate ourselves to making things better. I still believe that we are the greatest nation on the planet, but if we don't begin to fix something soon we will all feel it.

Carl, your comments are right on the mark. Other media are afraid of telling the whole story. Even at Obamas follow up about Cambridge he stated that Gates was arrested in his home - which we know from media, is not true. No one was brave enough to correct him on this. Another incorrect statement goes unchallenged.

Now we hear the tape of the neighbor and the truth comes out about who raised the initial racist statements. Gates is the one who initiated the racist statements. It is he and Obama who have flamed racism.

Here in the Chicago area the black neighborhoods have frequently complained about the police not protecting their interest. But in the Gates situation the result of this protection is trying to put a racist leaning. Very typical. It's easy to call everything racist and make everyone else responsible for trying to tell the truth. Unfortunately racism is now inflamed more than ever. If this is a teaching lesson (the term first used by Rush Limbaugh) then it is that the police are evil and success is within our reach if everything is labeled racist- whether it is or not.

Here in the Chicago area I have listened to radio programs with predominantly black callers. The most blatant racism towards whites and Jews is spouted by these callers and the moderator does nothing to keep a balanced discussion.

I'm concerned about our future as a society if racism is so easily and successfully used as an excuse for proper behavior.

I expect there may be some who feel my blog is racist. That only confirms what I have stated above. Listen to the facts in the media and not just the biased reporting.

Gates was arrested outside his home for disorderly conduct. He showed disrespect for the police who were there protecting his property. He lashed out with racist statements without reason.

And Gates is free to say anything he wants, which is why the charges were dropped.

What ever happened to law and order?

Some have questioned the arrest for disturbing the peace that took place outside Gates' home. If a loud party is going on within someones home and the police are called, the police can make arrests if the parties involved are not cooperative. Gates is a loud mouth who believes calling someone racist will distract from the fact he broke the law and the arrest was legal. More important people than Gates, the academic, have been arrested when the law is broken. And we are a society of laws - hence our court system.

No one should be above the law, non racist or racist.

nathan.evans You provide definitions but the bottom line is he broke the law and was arrested.

Carl,

Thanks for your "intellectual" comments about me. Very professional. I usually stay out of political arguments because I am in a public business and I learned long ago that it is better to keep my opinions to myself, thus the reason my name is not listed. Of course, if all I had to do is watch the news, read the paper and write blogs, I would gladly list my name. I really don't care what you think, but it is obvious to me that you can not express your views without bashing President Obama. I don't agree with everything he is doing either, just as I didn't with President Bush, but I did not publicly show such disrespect for Bush. Prove me wrong...write a blog with your feelings about Sarah Palin's recent news. I will certainly read it.

Lazarus,

"this would come across as an assumption that obama was not able to get into (or thru) harvard on his own merits."

I agree with your point. My view is that Obama (like all of us) is a product of his environment and the sum of his experiences influences his judgments (at least the knee jerk). I certainly do not question his abilities or doubt that it is those abilities that propelled him to his current position.

In the case of Crowley he made a mistake. So long as he acknowledges the mistake and corrects it (he's done this before), then he is acting in an honorable fashion.

I suspect that he is taking time to think about things as he has done in the past. He knows that in acknowledging this faux pas he will materially damage the credibility of multiple organizations and talking heads. Essentially, he will be exposing the process of negative labeling. An extreme example is a Nazi labeling a Jewish person in Hitler's Germany. ... the rest is a simple extrapolation.

Unfortunately, if he does not acknowledge his rush to judgment with an apology, a substantial portion of the American people will view his lack of acknowledgment negatively. If he chooses to perpetuate the view that the practice of unilateral negative labeling is socially acceptable, he will set social evolution back twenty years.

Then again, somebody may prove Crowley makes a practice of entering crime scenes hurling ethnic slurs.

Obama currently has the opportunity to lead by example. Lets see what he chooses.

Gates overreacted and made an ass of himself, but I think the arrest was unnecesary. Once the police officer determined that he was the resident of the property, he had no business being there and should have just left immediately.

According to the police report, Crowley invited Gates to come outside after he kept yelling at him and demanding his name. So,inviting an already irate man to come outside, and then arresting him for being irate in public seems a little suspicious to me.

Also, according to the police report, the officer had already walked to the sidewalk, and had to go back up on the porch to arrest him. So, he obviously wasn't in the officer's face or refusing to "back off".

Here's one for you:

A guy getting off of work at a pizza delivery joint gets off of work at 1am. On the way home, he makes a left turn where there is a no left turn sign (hidden directly behind a tree) because he missed his turn. A police officer pulls him over. When the officer hands the driver the ticket the address is wrong. The driver lets the officer know that the address is wrong because he had just moved to that neighborhood. The officer tells him "I don't give a da** what the address is, just sign the F** ticket". The driver signs the ticket with his legal signature, which is not legible. The police officer snatches the ticket pad back, looks at the signature and tells the driver "Get your a** out of the car" and grabs the driver's arm. When the driver gets out of the car, he is placed under arrest for "disorderly conduct" (sound familiar?) and his car is impounded. When this goes to court, the judge asks the officer what happened, the officer tells him "He scribbled all over my ticket". The judge asks the driver to see his license and it has the exact same signature as the one on the ticket. The judge dismisses this frivolous charge.

The officer is a white cop and the driver is a black guy, would you consider this racism?

Note: The driver did not mouth off to the cop (the officer even noted this in court), he simply made an illegal left turn and then signed his LEGAL signature on the ticket.