Posted on Thursday, 23rd July 2009 by Roland_Melnick
In the last 10 mins of Obama’s healthcare propaganda session, he called on Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times. Her exact question was: “Recently, Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge…what does that incident say to you and what does it say about race relations in America?”
Right away, Obama declares his friendship with “Skip Gates” and admits he is biased on this incident. Does Obama then decline to comment due to this personal bias? No, he doesn’t.  He then says he doesn’t know all the facts on the incident. Does he opt out of this question by claiming he’d prefer to wait until all, or at least more, of the facts are in? No. Quite the contrary…he decides to jump in to the fray by trashing the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Police Department and by telling us all that racial profiling is still a problem in America.
Nevermind the fact that we don’t need yet another distraction from the con job being perpetrated on the American public in the name of healthcare reform**, Obama embraced the question and decided to run with Gates’ version of the events. Obama frames the incident in oversimplified terms, stating: there is a report of two men breaking into a house. Police respond and decide to arrest Gates inside his residence even though they already knew he lived there. For this, Obama declares the police acted “stupidly.” Here is the exchange:
Well, gee Mr. President…glad you see no need to cast aside personal conflicts and wait until you know more about the incident before commenting on national television. Maybe you could have deferred comment and simply read the police report to gain additional information and perspective on what happened. You don’t have to believe the report 100%, but taking in all the information available and making a reasoned, logical assessment of what happened should not be asking too much. I know you can’t be bothered to read the 1000+ pages of the proposed health care bill, but the Cambridge PD report is a mere three pages.
Obama “stupidly” believes that Cambridge police arrived and simply arrested a man in his house for no apparent reason other than he is black. He then, “stupidly,” refers to this incident as another example of racial profiling and uses this fabricated opportunity to launch into a diatribe on the subject. The last thing I ever thought I would have to do is explain what racial profiling is to Obama, but here goes.
Racial profiling, as a concept, has its roots in 1980’s law enforcement. Drug trafficking was skyrocketing and police agencies openly created profiles for spotting traffickers on our roads and in our airports. Many of these techniques focused on the race of potential targets and, for obvious reasons, had to be scrapped in favor of more sophisticated methods.  Today, racial profiling commonly is alleged in police actions, like traffic stops, where an officer initiates the action.Â
The concept of profiling relates to the officer’s decision to act based on race. In this incident, the police were responding to a citizen report and were duty bound to investigate. They didn’t decide to confront Gates because he was black, but because a citizen called police saying they observed two black men forcing open a door.  The action here was not initiated by the police and just plainly isn’t a case of racial profiling. In fact, the police report, written by Cambridge PD Sgt. James Crowley, indicates that much more occurred before a decision to arrest was made…at least, much more than what Obama “stupidly” claimed to have led up to the arrest.
Since I wrote the first draft of this post this afternoon, additional details via Breitbart  have come out on the-man-who-would-be-racist according to “Skip” Gates and President Obama. Sgt. James Crowley, as it turns out, has been an instructor on the topic of racial profiling for the last five years…perhaps Obama could get a refresher on the topic in Sgt. Crowley’s class. Sgt. Crowley had been selected for that job by former police commissioner, Ronnie Watson…a black man. Sgt. Crowley is reported to be well-respected and dedicated.
Gates’ reaction following his arrest?
By his own account, Gates was defiant of the sergeant’s authority from the beginning. When the sergeant ordered him to come outside, he flatly refused. In Sgt. Crowley’s mind, he was told two guys broke into his house. Did the notion ever enter Gates’ narrow mind that maybe, just maybe, the sergeant wanted him outside for his own protection? Of course not, when all you see is racism, then every white cop is a racist.
With his refusal to comply with the order, the sergeant explained why he was there and requested some proof of residence and ID. Is that so unreasonable? Mr. Gates then claims that the sergeant refused to give his name and badge number, so he thought it would be to accuse the sergeant of racism by asking, “Are you not responding to me because you are a white police officer and I’m a black man?” Mind you, I don’t believe for a minute that is what Gates said. He then claims he followed the sergeant outside to the porch where he was arrested. He claims he knew he was in danger and saw “how vulnerable people of color and poor people are to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman.” Gates sounds like someone who made an ass of himself and feels he has no option but to go on the offensive to save face. Sorry “Skip,” not buying it.
As for Crowley’s reaction to this…no apology to Gates…not now, not ever.
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Why do we not see reporters chasing down Gates, asking: “What is so difficult in speaking with an officer? Do you see yourself as above the law and not required to speak to the police? Do you want to go on record as formally requesting that your neighbors never call the police even if it looks like someone is breaking in to your house?” We’ll see none of that. Instead, we get a very touching interview by Soledad O’Brien who also admits having Gates as a professor in college–glad to see she can put her journalistic integrity aside to help a friend.
My final question is this: Where will our allegedly post-partisan, allegedly post-racial, allegedly thoughtful, allegedly intelligent President come down on all this? I hope Crowley isn’t waiting for an apology…more than likely the American public will be treated to another arrogant Robert Gibbs official statement like “Do you have a more pertinent question?” or the #1 Gibbs standard, “I’ll get back to you on that.”
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**Do not take this as a door opener to make this thread a health care debate…those who do will be deleted or edited.**
Posted in Home | Comments (33)
33 Responses to “Despite Admitting Ignorance, Bias…Obama Jumps Into the Fray”
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July 24th, 2009 at 12:34 am
As much as I’ve always thought The One was an empty bag of Personality, I couldn’t muster much anger towards him. Now, just about everything out of his mouth pis*es me off.
I wrote about this Gates situation on my blog this afternoon, although not in as much detail since it’s not an exclusively political blog.
July 24th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Obama’s poll numbers are tanking, his health care plan is going nowhere fast, the Obama economy sucks and so what does a liberal do- throw out the race card. No surprise here. He is known to throw people under the bus, but this time, he threw a cop under the bus and that is not going well.
Obama has no shame, he doesn’t care who he hurts. It really is about him.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:01 am
P.S., I also thought the question was a plant, why else the this question be thrown out there among all the other health care questions?
July 24th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Gates and Obama owe Crowley and the Cambridge Police an apology. Race became a factor when introduced by Gates. As for Obama’s stupid statement about Blacks being stopped by police “disproportionately”, Blacks commit crimes disproportionately to their numbers which might be why they are stopped by police “disproportionately”, and those crimes are committed “disproportionately” against other Blacks. For Obama to make the statement he did is a reflection of his own biases and comes as no surprise to me considering he chose to align himself with the likes of Jeremiah Wright until Wright became a political liability.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I just can’t believe the comments made by the President when he doesn’t know the facts of a situation. To blindly walk off the plank and blather on so carefree about something where one only knows what is reported, apparently by the press, is just plain foolish. Because it certainly seemed to me by how the President prefaced his remarks by saying its been reported. Even Obama should know that one should not rely on the press for a completely accurate account of sensitive events, if not most events being written about. A smart man would have simply said that he could not comment on something he did not have all the information on. Instead of joking that he would be shot if he tried to break into the White House. More disturbing is that it appears the present President has no real respect for the police or any kind of law enforcement at all. Not a very good message to send to the American people at all.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:01 am
He’s a blithering idiot. I told you.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Roscoe, I don’t Obama was relying on media reports. He was relying on personal communication with Gates, in my opinion. It shows an utter lack of class and serves as further evidence that Obama is not ready for prime time.
What I can’t figure out is how such a narrow-minded person as Gates can be considered a scholar.
The more info that comes out on this, the worse Gates and Obama will look.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Roscoe, the question got him off script and away from his teleprompter. When that happens to anyone, they then speak from the heart. Obama firmly believes everything he said. The real danger now is that he has empowered every little black street thug and the thug supporters with these remarks which will make it very much more difficult for cops to try to make neighborhoods safe for the law abiding black folks who are being held hostage in their own neighborhoods by these urban terrorists. I’ve seen this before and it isn’t good. You currently have a Police Chief and a couple of aldermen who will support you when you’re doing your job. Hopefully that will be enough if an incident arises and the usual suspects start jumping up and down for the press.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Sadly the police officers will never work again, for Omama has spoken.
If my employer said this about me, in a news report, I would contact my lawyer immediately, cause the chance for promotion are gone.
Defamation is serious business, besides did anyone report on the apparently diverse police presence at the sceen, who may or may not have actually drove him to the police station.
In other words, black is right no matter what, we have a racist president. Great?
July 24th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I think the media is making this issue into a tempest in a teapot. The President took sides way to soon without knowing any of the facts and showed his predujice. Todays comments from the President are probably the closest thing to an apology we will ever see from him.
I have heard a little from both sides now and still don’t know what to make of it. The Officer seems to be behaving entirely professionally. The neighbor did what I hope any neighbor would do when they see something suspicious.
This almost certainly would have been no story at all with a few yes sirs, no sirs. Good luck to the prof and the officer, I think the prof just got to upset with the situation.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
No great surprise in Obama’s reaction, but a lot of disappointment. Guess he forgot he’s now POTUS, maybe had a flashback to his community organizer days. He’s backpedaling bigtime on the news tonight, looking like a real buffon.
July 24th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I’m glad to see that black officers are rallying to Sgt. Crowley’s defense.
July 24th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I’m becoming of the opinion this was staged.. not by barry but by Gates.
1) The cop is the one who is responsible for teaching about “the ills” of racial profiling.
2) gates does not live in a transient community, very affluent so everyone had to at least SEE who their neighbors were.
3) gates did not comply and actually picked up a phone … odd response.
4) no mention of the neighbor who called. If you recognize a neighbor and you have a clean eye shot to them “breaking into” a home, you could easily recognize it.
The whole thing stinks to me. .. sounds like another Morton Downey Junior or Tawana Brawley episode.
July 24th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Gates calls Crowley a “rogue” Officer and Obama tries to tell people today that when he said the police acted “stupidly” he wasn’t talking specifically about Crowley. Both Gates and Obama were perfectly willing to ruin Crowley’s career in law enforcement and now at least one of the arrogant bastards is trying to say he didn’t say what he said in order to weasal out of this.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Glenn,
You do realize that labamba knows Gates. They were bestest buddies while barry was at Hahhhhhhvaaad.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Seems like Mr. Obama made the mistake of shooting from the hip. Seems like we had a cowboy in the near past that was prone to do that. At least nobody was killed in this encounter.
July 24th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
“Seems like Mr. Obama made the mistake of shooting from the hip. Seems like we had a cowboy in the near past that was prone to do that. At least nobody was killed in this encounter.”
I’m assuming that barry will get involved now in every police encounter ranging from Fort Lauderdale Florida to St. Paul Minn. LOL…
July 24th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Easy way to fix this – Friend of Obama nametages.
FOO…say no more.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
USA has been very very good to Professor Hates and Obama.
“This is what happens to black men in America!”
July 24th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Simply, that only one guilty of profiling in this incident is Gates.
As for Obamamama, well, when one is indoctrinated by the likes of Ayers and Wright….
July 25th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I guess that since the “N” word has been banished, the “U” word has also. A shame, that, since it so aptly describes Gates and his conduct.
I’m waiting to see if SNL lampoons Obama like they did Palin. He’s been providing plenty of fodder for a series of sketches lately.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
“U” word?
July 26th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Uppity
July 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
uppity and the n word are completely uncalled for here.
Professor Gates behaved like a jerk. The officer has behaved very professionally since the incident and from the other witnesses during the incident. The President jumped to the wrong (IMO) conclusion based upon his bias either because he knows Gates or because he thinks he knows white cops.
The person who called in the report probably thought they were doing the resident a favor. Most people would be grateful that someone was looking out for them. Everyone regardless of color deserves the same level of Police protection and should thank a neighbor who looks out for them.
Instead Mr Gates took offense that a cop was bothering him. It might have been a bad day and maybe on another day the Prof would simply provide ID and act professionally but for whatever reason he didn’t.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Jay – Go back and read all the reports again. Distinguished scholar Gates did not take offense that a cop was bothering him. Distinguished scholar Gates took offense that a white cop was bothering him.
It’s pretty obvious which side of his bi-racial mouth Obama shot off in response to the question. The other side has been trying to make amends ever since.
Al and Jesse couldn’t pass up a chance to get their faces and voices on TV. They’ll never try to make any amends for their own outrageous conduct.
There were even rumors that Milwakee community organizer Lamont Harris was trying to raise money for a bus ticket to Cambridge.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I am not worried that a Harvard Professor is or is not a bigot. I think he probably is. I am worried that the current occupant of the White House may be.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Jay. Do you see a pattern developing in the type of person that Big Ears Obama chooses to be friends with??
I DO.
July 27th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
you mean the good Rev. White, Billy Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, now this fellow Gates. Yes I see a pattern.
He associates with radicals, he has said as much. The more Marxist or Anti US the more comfortable the President seems.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Not to mention his own ANGRY CORRUPT wife.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Guess the moral of the story is…anyone is now free to break into the home of Mr. Gates.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Yellow Bellied Troll?
July 30th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
did you hear the beer he’s going to “serve”.
Red Stripe — Jamaican
Blue Moon — South African Brewery.
Why didn’t he pick Sam Adams ?
August 1st, 2009 at 9:28 am
He is known to throw people under the bus, but this time, he threw a cop under the bus and that is not going well.
Obama has no shame, he doesn’t care who he hurts.