On March 3, 1991 Rodney King led LAPD on a high speed chase. When he finally pulled over, he resisted arrest and was severely beaten.
On July 16, 2009 Robert Louis Gates Junior refused to cooperate with a Cambridge Police officer who was investigating a reported robbery. Mr Gates followed the Officer out of the house, berating the officer with charges of racism and threats of “you don’t know who you’re messing with”. When Mr. Gates did not desist, the police officer cuffed him, had another officer recuff him more comfortably, retrieved Mr. Gates cane, and had a maintenance worker secure Mr. Gates house. When asked about this incident President Obama responded that the Officer acted “stupidly”.
Mr. Gates is a Professor of English at Harvard, and a black man. President Obama is – well President of the United States, and a black man. James Crowley is a Cambridge police office, and a white man. Officer Crowley responded to a report of a burglary at Mr. Gates house. When Officer Crowley asked Mr. Gates to provide evidence that he was in fact the resident of the house he refused. The reason the incident was reported was that Mr’ Gates and his driver were trying to force the door open, because it had been damaged in a previous break in. Instead of showing the officer his ID and thanking him for doing his job Mr. Gates called him a racist. So who acted stupidly in this situation?
Is racism actually dead? No. But it is no longer institutionalized. We will never be free of bigotry, prejudice, racism, et al. Go into any high school in this country and you will find this behavior between cliues that have nothing to do with race. Some people are mean, some are stupid, and all of us can be mean or stupid under the right/wrong circumstances. In this incident Mr. Gates was both mean and stupid. Is he mean and stupid on a regular basis? I don’t know, and President Obama admitted that he didn’t know much about this incident, and yet he passed judgement on Officer Crowley. Sometimes it’s okay to say “I don’t know”, even when your President. Mr Obama did more harm to race relations in this country with that one statement than any incident any recent memory.
I learned at a very young age, and had it reinforced often through my teenage years, that when you are questioned by a police officer you respond “Yes Sir”, “No Sir”, “Thank You Sir”. Even when you are innocent and powerful insulting a police officer is a bad idea. In this country no one is above the law. No one. If you are pleasant to police officers they are usually pleasant to you, even when you are guilty. Or, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
My information regarding this incident came from the police report. If I find that this information is not accurate I will revise my opinion.
#1 by ransom147 on August 9th, 2009
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while i concur that both Mr. Gates and Mr. Obama acted “stupidly”, i will point out that there is another issue here. the cop, not having witnessed a crime, was in violation of mr. gates’ rights as guaranteed by the 4th amendment. it is a very dangerous thing when the police have the power to violate your rights based on a neighbors suspicion, which is what happened. it’s like recently i heard of some community offering rewards to people who reported individuals w/ “illegal” guns. very scary.
as to the racism, you are right on target.
#2 by admin on August 10th, 2009
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I disagree. The Fourth amendment does not prevent an officer of the law from asking a suspect in a criminal investigation from for his identification. Mr. Gates was a suspect. The officer had no way of knowing wether Mr Gates lived at that residence or was there to rob the house, unless Mr. Gates provided his identification. Officer Crowley’s request was not unreasonable.
#3 by ransom147 on August 10th, 2009
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for a truly liberty oriented perspective please watch this from about 2:15 on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wE2rlgv4Ro&feature=PlayList&p=6A2B01736182C444&index=8
the judge and sheriff mack explain it much more effectively than i can.
i’m not against being polite. i’m of the same “yes sir no sir” variety you are. but i would never seek to have that notion enforceable by law. and sheriff mac makes an excellent point about “disturbing the peace”.
sometimes defense of liberty requires standing up for people whom we find deplorable (race baiting douchetards like gates, or the vile spewings of racial purists alike). because when we do we are standing up for liberty for everyone, not just the jerks.
the sad thing, is that racism is not the issue here. what is the issue is that we’ve been conditioned to think that it’s ok for well intentioned people to violate our rights in the name of public safety.