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Stupid Is As Stupid Does
The cop who arrested black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. is refusing to apologize.
I don't blame him, given Gates' refusal to acknowledge he behaved badly himself and provoked his own arrest on his own front porch last week.
Instead of being grown-up and respectful of the job the cops were trying to do (protecting Gates' property from a suspected burglar) Gates' became irritated and belligerent.
Not that that justifies the cop arresting him. As I said in an earlier post it is not against the law to be rude to a police officer, especially when one is in one's own home. It may be dumb but it isn't against the law.
It would be nice is if both men acknowledged their mutual responsibility for the situation escalating to the point that it did. It has evolved into a rather silly national drama about "how far we have to go when it comes to race in this country."
Even the President of the United States has weighed in saying the Cambridge cops "acted stupidly." But Mr. Obama himself acted stupidly by misstating the events that led up to Gates' arrest on national TV (he made it sound like Gates was arrested on suspicion of being a burglar in his own house).
Also the president failed to acknowledge that his "friend" Gates may have acted badly and bears some responsibility for what happened.
The cop claims the arrest was "by the book" but that's a bit of baloney. The "book" gives cops plenty of discretion in these situations. The best ones would have defused the it or unable to do that would have told Gates to "Have a nice day" and left the scene.
But then you would think a Harvard professor would be smart enough to engage a lowly working-class cop without getting himself arrested. Unless and, of course, that became his goal. In which case, Gates is a genius. A "teaching moment," our elites like to call them. This one showing that no matter how high a black man rises in this society or how accomplished he becomes, he will always be a potential criminal in the eyes of white policemen and put behind bars for no reason.
America voted a black man President of the United States but that doesn't mean racism is a thing of the past in this country. The governor of Massachussetts and the mayor of Cambridge are black but that doesn't prevent one of the premier black scholars in America from getting arrested and thrown in jail for no good reason.
How can Henry Louis Gates Jr. admit he too was wrong that day? "Teachable moments" like this don't come along every day.
I don't blame him, given Gates' refusal to acknowledge he behaved badly himself and provoked his own arrest on his own front porch last week.
Instead of being grown-up and respectful of the job the cops were trying to do (protecting Gates' property from a suspected burglar) Gates' became irritated and belligerent.
Not that that justifies the cop arresting him. As I said in an earlier post it is not against the law to be rude to a police officer, especially when one is in one's own home. It may be dumb but it isn't against the law.
It would be nice is if both men acknowledged their mutual responsibility for the situation escalating to the point that it did. It has evolved into a rather silly national drama about "how far we have to go when it comes to race in this country."
Even the President of the United States has weighed in saying the Cambridge cops "acted stupidly." But Mr. Obama himself acted stupidly by misstating the events that led up to Gates' arrest on national TV (he made it sound like Gates was arrested on suspicion of being a burglar in his own house).
Also the president failed to acknowledge that his "friend" Gates may have acted badly and bears some responsibility for what happened.
The cop claims the arrest was "by the book" but that's a bit of baloney. The "book" gives cops plenty of discretion in these situations. The best ones would have defused the it or unable to do that would have told Gates to "Have a nice day" and left the scene.
But then you would think a Harvard professor would be smart enough to engage a lowly working-class cop without getting himself arrested. Unless and, of course, that became his goal. In which case, Gates is a genius. A "teaching moment," our elites like to call them. This one showing that no matter how high a black man rises in this society or how accomplished he becomes, he will always be a potential criminal in the eyes of white policemen and put behind bars for no reason.
America voted a black man President of the United States but that doesn't mean racism is a thing of the past in this country. The governor of Massachussetts and the mayor of Cambridge are black but that doesn't prevent one of the premier black scholars in America from getting arrested and thrown in jail for no good reason.
How can Henry Louis Gates Jr. admit he too was wrong that day? "Teachable moments" like this don't come along every day.
posted by Spencerblog at
7:54 AM
2 Comments:
This so called Dr.Of Victim Hood (African Studies)could have mailed away to National Geographic for that degree. The police are responding to a burglary in progress which is not racial profiling . In post 9/11 United States all races need to act with self control with the police (he is no genius). When police tell you to come out of the house after a second call for burglary in progress at this address you do what the police say period. This only show's affirmative action college degrees does nothing for anti-social behavior.
I wish there was a pill that could turn people like Gil black for a few months to see how they get treated by police, store owners, judges, loan officers, etc.
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