Obama: Cambridge police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest

[NHSparky]

Obama: Cambridge police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest

LINK

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor July 22, 2009 09:15 PM

<excerpt>

President Obama addressed the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Cambridge home during his news conference tonight, saying that "anyone would be angry" and "the Cambridge police acted stupidly."

Obama prefaced his reply by saying that "I might be a little biased here" because "Skip Gates" is a friend, and by acknowledging that "I don't know all the facts."

He then recited what has been reported, and joked that if he tried to jimmy the lock at his current residence -- the White House -- "I'd get shot."

But then he went on to say that there's a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately.

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, 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. That's just a fact," Obama said.

============================================================================

(edit: emphasis mine.)

Damn, Barry--could you say something a little MORE stupid?  And no, you haven't recited EVERYTHING that was reported.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I stated yesterday that this presser would be the beginning of the end of L'il O's presidency and he has exceeded my wildest expectations. 

[Schadenfreude]

Keep on talkin' Barry!

[Gratiot]

It appears that nigga broke in and hung up pictures of his family everywhere! I saw this once before when I was a rookie.  Let’s sprinkle crack on him and get out of here

 

[Gratiot]

But then he went on to say that there's a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately.

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that....

But I think it's fair to say... that the Cambridge police acted stupidly....

Shame on him 

[docstew]

While I'm pretty sure this would be dismissed by the judge, with a speech to Gates about how just showing his ID would have had the police on their merry way, it's entirely outside of 0bama's lane to comment on this.  As the man who is tasked with ensuring enforcement of the nation's laws, it's not his place to comment on individual policemen.

[miskie]

This story amuses me on so many levels - but I'm amused most that it happened at The People's Republic of Cambridge - The Kremlin on the Charles.

[TheSarge]

  And no, you haven't recited EVERYTHING that was reported.

I was reading this in the WSJ yesterday.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had “no idea who he was messing with,’’ the report said.

And this:

According to the police report, Gates himself--before the arrest--shouted, “This is what happens to black men in America!”

(Gates’s lawyer, Charles Ogletree, issued a statement on Gates’s behalf. Ogletree’s account of the episode is entirely different from the police’s in mood and emphasis, but the only factual disagreement seems to be over the officer’s response to when Gates asked him his name. The policeman claims he answered several times; Gates claims the policeman failed to respond to several such requests.)

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB10001424052970203946904574302304074459422.html


Link to the police report:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/CANON8AA683_LNOTESMAIL_07202009-153909.PDF

[BEG]

While I'm pretty sure this would be dismissed by the judge, with a speech to Gates about how just showing his ID would have had the police on their merry way, it's entirely outside of 0bama's lane to comment on this.  As the man who is tasked with ensuring enforcement of the nation's laws, it's not his place to comment on individual policemen.

Exactly, during the whole exchange I was thinking, "WTF are you doing even commenting on this". It was a totally planned question so he could waste time not answering questions on his healthcare plan.

[Rebel]

Exactly, during the whole exchange I was thinking, "WTF are you doing even commenting on this". It was a totally planned question so he could waste time not answering questions on his healthcare plan.

Hell, he spent an hour of not answering questions about the healthcare bill he's pimping. Hell, he's on record saying he didn't know all the details or provisions in the bill. WTF? Then sit your sorry ass down, read the f'n bill, THEN talk to us. 

[vesta111]

I was reading this in the WSJ yesterday.


And this:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB10001424052970203946904574302304074459422.html


Link to the police report:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/CANON8AA683_LNOTESMAIL_07202009-153909.PDF

OK,OK this is so strange in so many areas, darn but I am over my head with confusion.

Facts, homeowner arrives home and has a problem unlocking his front door. Homeowner manages to get inside-----all is well.

Police arrive due to a call from a neighbor about a possible home invasion.

Police show up minutes after the homeowner has gained access to his home.

Fact, the police have no idea what they are going to find at that address and as this is a very wealthy neighborhood, they  go in cautious.

Police find a man in the home and inquire about his identity and what the man was doing to cause alarm from a neighbor.

This individual becomes outraged at being questioned by the police that are there to protect him and his property,

Golly Gee they have the nerve to ask him for identification, he feels that if were a different race the cops would just take his word as to who he is and leave.

Anyone with a brain in their head would have been greatfull that the neighbors were looking after their property, the police arrived in short order and feel safe and protected.

Why I ask would anyone in his position  act in such a bazaar way.?

This goes beyond comprehension for me, the homeowner was not behaving in any way other then he was drunk or on drugs.

Now we have the President of the United States speaking out on this.

Sorry folks, I will go hide under my bed for an hour or so, wont help much but I feel somewhat safe there.

[zeitgeist]

Obama: Cambridge police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest

LINK

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor July 22, 2009 09:15 PM

<excerpt>

============================================================================

(edit: emphasis mine.)

Damn, Barry--could you say something a little MORE stupid?  And no, you haven't recited EVERYTHING that was reported.

Even better is the number of dump fires this has ignited.  I only wish I had enough time to stay inside an play today.....

[seabelle]

Anyone with a brain in their head would have been greatfull that the neighbors were looking after their property, the police arrived in short order and feel safe and protected.

Exactly.  In my community it's called Neighborhood Watch.  It's almost as though Gates was provoking a racial incident for publicity ?  What was it the neighbor saw?  Don't you think she'd recognize him?   

[thundley4]

I look for the US Attorney General to start an investigation into entrenched racism in the Cambridge PD.

[TheSarge]

Why I ask would anyone in his position  act in such a bazaar way.?

Because there are people in this country so obsessed with racethat if a white man says "hello" to someone else of pallor before he says "hello" to the black man it's because he's racist.

Never mind the fact that the person of pallor walked through the door first.

It's no different than the idiots at DU who manage to weave politics into every little shred of their life.

[seabelle]

More about the arresting officer:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090722cop_who_arrested_henry_gates_im_not_apologizing/srvc=home&position=0

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics [team stats] superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

more.......

[TheSarge]

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police%20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF

I would suggest that before the President decides to make any more comments about how the Cambridge PD handled the situation....he should read the police report.

The statement by the arresting officer is backed up by wittness report from a second officer on the scene that backs up the SGT's story.

If ANYONE acted stupidle...it was Gates.


And it seems that the police report makes Gates and the POTUS look so bad in how they are describing what happened...the Boston Globe has taken it down from their website.

[Sam Adams]

Obama never said the officer or the police department was racist, but he came close. He should wait until more is known about this case before commenting. He could really hurt police morale all over the country by this kind of talk, and he could embolden people to say, "See, the police are racist--even the president says so.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Blood is thicker than brainwaves, I guess.

[miskie]

OK,OK this is so strange in so many areas, darn but I am over my head with confusion.

Facts, homeowner arrives home and has a problem unlocking his front door. Homeowner manages to get inside-----all is well.

Police arrive due to a call from a neighbor about a possible home invasion.

Police show up minutes after the homeowner has gained access to his home.

Fact, the police have no idea what they are going to find at that address and as this is a very wealthy neighborhood, they  go in cautious.

Police find a man in the home and inquire about his identity and what the man was doing to cause alarm from a neighbor.

This individual becomes outraged at being questioned by the police that are there to protect him and his property,

Golly Gee they have the nerve to ask him for identification, he feels that if were a different race the cops would just take his word as to who he is and leave.

Anyone with a brain in their head would have been greatfull that the neighbors were looking after their property, the police arrived in short order and feel safe and protected.

Why I ask would anyone in his position  act in such a bazaar way.?

This goes beyond comprehension for me, the homeowner was not behaving in any way other then he was drunk or on drugs.

Now we have the President of the United States speaking out on this.

Sorry folks, I will go hide under my bed for an hour or so, wont help much but I feel somewhat safe there.

There is an important part of this story that NOBODY is reporting on save for a couple of local outlets here, that damages Gates even more. Why the professor's door was broken in the first place.

There has been a string of crimes recently where homes in the professor's neighborhood have been broken into IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY by forced entry through the front door. Its believed that the professor's house is the scene of a botched attempt by the same criminals. So, the whole neighborhood is on high alert, looking for people breaking into homes exactly the way Gates was breaking into his own house.

Now, Cambridge is a very well-to-do neighborhood. do you think the front door robbers are going to be poorly dressed people driving around in an old and busted POS ? HELL NO. The only way to not raise suspicion would be to blend in, and that would be to look like you belong there - ESPECIALLY if your going to rob a house in the middle of the day through the front door as people jog by, or ride their Segways to class.

So, a passerby sees this and calls the cops. She keeps going for her own safety. and then the arrogant Gates throws a hissy fit.

[JohnnyReb]

Wait a minute......ain't that the dude I've seen on PBS?

Now I get...."You don't know who you're mess'n with"....I'm a TV star.

[Rebel]

This was Obama's, "I'm in over my head, queue the Chicago Sun-Times Reporter so I can talk about something completely irrelevant and make all these cracka ass crackas feel guilty again!"

[thundley4]

Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.
Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.
"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.
Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in.

White House backs off "stupidly" accusation in Gates affair
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/White-House-backs-off-stupidly-accusation-in-Gates-affair-51505467.html

[Happy Fun Ball]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090722cop_who_arrested_henry_gates_im_not_apologizing/srvc=home&position=0

Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis
Denies he’s a racist, won’t apologize

By Laurel J. Sweet, Marie Szaniszlo, Laura Crimaldi, Jessica Van Sack & Joe Dwinell
Thursday, July 23, 2009 - Updated 2h ago

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

[RightCoast]

barack is an asshole.