Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Gates Case

The police report on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

President Obama's comments on the case.

The background of the police sergeant.

I may be missing something but it appears Professor Gates was the person acting stupidly in this matter. If that indeed turns out to be the case, will his career be damaged?

I think you know the answer.

6 comments:

Larry Sheldon said...

Yahbut, he is black.

To some people (not me) that is all they need to know. (Cf the President's Monthly Informercial.)


Heh. Captcha is "unize". Must be a sign.

Rob said...

Like most things there are two sides to every story, you need to check out both before drawing conclusions, instead of going off half cocked. On the positive, somebody noticed suspicious behavior, and reported it, the police arrived in a timely manner, tired to investigate, something now happened to cause the police to act in the manner that they did.......Prof Gates, may well have had id, but how would the police know, initially, if there wasn't an underlying legal issue such as family, court orders etc, police generally respond quickly decisively to any sort of aggression. Hindsight is a wonderful thing......It's so simplistic to always play the trump card, no matter what the trump card is.

pawnking said...

Not a good arrest, but not an uncommon one. The only shocking thing in this story is the fact that the President of the United States, in a nationally televised prime time news conference, saw fit to condem the police acting in this case with a blanket statement.

Whatever your views on the former president, you always know he sought to elevate and dignify the office. I could not in a million years imagine him, or indeed any other occupant of that office before, doing such a thing.

DarkoV said...

In agreement with Rob on this and I'd like to add one more thing. I know I'm "if-ing" here, but If the 2 people trying to get into Prof. Gates' house were burglars and the neigbour had not called in her/his suspicion, would there have been a mess as to why the neighbour wasn't looking out for Prof. Gates' interest, namely his residence?
Hopefully, the full story will come out and fully exonerate a public servant's intent to protect a constituent's person and property. I empathize for Prof. Gates' subsequent problems; I just wish he had empathized with the officer's duties.

DarkoV said...

..as far as President Obama's statement on the matter? I consider him an incredibly smart and articulate person; what the hell was he thinking?

Larry Sheldon said...

What we are seeing here is clear proof that this President (and his acolytes) are about race, pure and simple.

As a person opposed to racism since long before it got the name and became politically correct, I am truly saddened.