President Barack Obama is standing by his assertion that police did not need to arrest a Harvard scholar who was trying to get into his own home.
Obama said in an interview with ABC that he has “extraordinary respect” for the challenges and hardships that law enforcement officers face every day in their line of work. But at the same time he said he didn’t think it was necessary to arrest Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Obama said “cooler heads should have prevailed” in the incident. But he did not retract his initial statement that he thought police had “acted stupidly” and said such incidents “get elevated in ways that probably don’t make much sense.”
Meanwhile, the Cambridge police commissioner said his department is “deeply pained” and his officers were “deflated” by Obama’s statement.
Commissioner Robert Haas commended the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, as a decorated officer and said his actions were in no way motivated by racism.
“I believe that Sgt. Crowley acted in a way that is consistent with his training at the department and consistent with the national standards of law enforcement protocol,” Haas said.
Crowley, 42, has maintained he did nothing wrong and has refused to apologize, as Gates has demanded.
Crowley responded to Gates’ home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused, flew into a rage and accused the officer of racism.
Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday.
When asked why the charge was dropped if Crowley did nothing wrong, Haas said, “We basically felt this was a situation we needed to move on from – that we didn’t need this to be a prolonged sitaution, and we needed to focus back on what we do in terms of providing safety and protection for this community.”
Gates’ supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw “two black males with backpacks” trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed.
Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.
“I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry,” Obama said. “No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 – what I think we know separate and apart from this incident – is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact.”
Asked about how he and his officers felt after Obama’s remark, Haas said, “This department is deeply pained and takes its professional pride seriously.”
(Source: CBS News)
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26 Responses
The president showed the country another reason why executive experience is necessary. When you don’t have executive experience you make these STUPID BRAIN LESS comments like we heard as an answer to the PLANTED question the other night.
The report from the officer was clear as a bell that Gates DESERVED to be arrested.
I guess it’s just the first stage of phasing out the police force to replace them with the civilian force
Hashem yishmor
What America needs is a law to curb the CO2 emissions coming from Obama’s big mouth. A president doesn’t have to weigh in on everything, especially local law enforcement matters. Lacking executive experience, he has yet to learn when to simply shut up. Instead, he is ubiquitous–everywhere, all the time.
Wow, that last line of Obama gives it all away. He is a true product of Wright, Farakan, J Jackson etc.
The President is ignoring the fact that Gates was not arrested for trespassing. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. The fact that he was in his own home is irrelevant.
The stupidest thing about this story is probably the President’s remark. I understand that he was defending his friend, but to make a public statement without first checking all the facts, and to say, in that public and uninformed statement, that it was racism, is at best irresponsible.
It also tells us a lot about the way Obama thinks. In essence, he made a prejudical statement against a white cop, BECAUSE it was a white cop and a black citizen. Think about THAT.
blacks and hispanics are arrested disproportionately is because they comit crimes dispoportionatley
The president also showed that he is just another angry black man. A person of reason would ask why would the president want to stick his nose into an event which would have otherwise disappeared from the radar screen by the next day? Why would he make himself look so foolish as to say “I don’t have all the facts but the police were stupid?” Why further inject the charge of racism when the police officer was not only following SOP but trying to protect this professor’s property.
The possible answers are that Obama’s rage, against people in authority (perhaps against whites in general) is just so powerful that it suppresses his reason.
Second, this is a distraction from his failing attempt to transform our economy into a socialist one and transform our society into one in which the lives of senior citizens are too expensive to be worthwhile.
Obama also owed something back to blacks, who in overwhelming numbers voted for him alng racial lines and not out of ideology.
I’m sure that immediately after this is posted the liberal jews out there will be typing their little leftist fingers off in rebutal.
Since Obama took office, we’ve lost more jobs, our newborns begin life mired in a lifetime of debt, racial tensions have increased, our pregnancies and ear infections are soon to be scrutinized and dispatched by underpaid ignorant unmotivated bureaucrats, and the world looks upon the once mighty USA and snickers with disdain. WHO exactly acted STUPIDLY?
I read the report. What is it that he did that made him DESERVE to be arrested? He was arrested for yelling at a cop while standing on his own property, while presenting a threat to neither himself nor others. Isn’t this exactly the sort of threat to our individual liberty the Obamanation stands for?
What an utterly irresponsible and immature president we have. He wasn’t there, yet he feels he can make these remarks. If a cop says something , you listen. Don’t start screaming racism. You can always file a complaint afterwards. I feel very badly for that cop and that department. Just doing their job, and the most powerful man in the world feels he can criticize cuz its his friend. What a moron.
What obama is neglecting to consider is that any one breaking in to a house may be an imposter perhaps with a desire to obtain something valuable from gates’s house knowing gates is out of the country. If anyone who raises a tummult intimidates the police from performing his job there is a strong possibility that an imposter will prevail.this should not be a question of stupidity. It is a question of what the law permits police to do when someone is cursing them out and yelling at them while they are investigating a possible crime in action.
5-
Why do you think President Obama would have responded differently if a black police officer had arrested a black man for being annoyed that he was being asked to prove that he was in his own house? I suspect he would say that, yes, black people are just as capable of having anti-black prejudices as white people are. In fact, I’m pretty sure he has.
As for it being being possible to commit disorderly conduct while standing on your own porch (at the request of a police officer who asked you to step outside of your house to talk to him), this is probably technically true, but if the Cambridge police don’t have better uses of their time and handcuffs perhaps I should consider moving there.
Did everyone notice how Obama was so excited to answer this obviously planted question????
Finally, he was “at home” in his community organizer rabble rouser clothing! Too bad he doesnt know how to wear the clothing of the President of the USA.
The good news is that its 1198 days to the Nov 2012 election and about 468 days till the 2010 election!
mosheemes2,
Let me help you since you need it.
When an officer knocks on your door asking you to please step outside because a neighbor called in saying that it seemed like there was a break-in in progress and you respond quite belligerently to the cops — YOU ARE AN IDIOT!
Had Gates come out and thanked the cop for his assistance etc., this would have been nothing with nothing. Of course Gates was looking for press and Obama after admitting that he knew nothing about the case, should have SHUT HIS MOUTH!
Shall I continue?
Gates’ actions made him DESERVE to be arrested and he was. Now he could claim racism to the judge.
I happen to think that Obama is right and I want to bring to his attention the ticket I got last week. The cop was definitely racially profiling me and I’m going to ask Obama to talk about this matter on the air because the cop also acted stupidly. Where can I reach him?
Mark Levin (#1)
1. What would your reaction be to the same set of facts if the homeowner were a Yid who had raised the spectre of antisemitism? You are among those here who are quickest to see discrimination when the possible victim is a Jew.
2. I work for a law enforcement department at the state level – and even from that vantage point am hard pressed to think a white homeowner would have been subject to the same treatment.
3. While accusing another of being brainless – it’s a wee bit amusing to see you spell it “brain less”
Mark,
You could continue mostly because you didn’t actually answer my question. Is your argument that he “DESERVED” to be arrested because he’s an “IDIOT?” Is being an idiot in one’s own house now something that requires imprisonment, or perhaps should police officers exercise better discretion and let cooler heads prevail?
And as for the idea that Gates was “looking for press,” let me see if I understand your theory: When faced with a police officer standing in his house asking to prove that the house was his, you believe the first thing he thought was about the press coverage that would result if he was arrested? If so, why hasn’t he actually said something (beyond a statement from his lawyer) to the press? Does he not have their phone number?
Mark – I’d pay to watch you react to a goyishe police officer rousting you from your own home insinuating who were a burglar. Baruch Hashem you are a Jew – I can only imagine the slack you’d give us if you weren’t.
I personally know well a chief in a large force who is originally from Jamaica, and who is as black as the proverbial ace of spades. His 19 year son, a clean cut college kid, was jumped by two whites who darted out of a pick up truck when he left a friends’ house after a party in a white suburban neighborhood. The kid fought back, and when a patrol car stmbled on the scene the cops joined the fray, no questions asked, on the side of the two whites. The kid was seriously injured.
Eventually the truth came out – and my friend, the chief, reflecting on the case, said to me weeks later “this is America – it happens this way and there’s no point getting angry – we just gotta train our officers better.” That’s a mensch.
Oh, and he can “claim racism to the judge” because the charges were rightly dropped before he could get to the judge, as the arresting officer almost certainly knew they would be.
Obama is the idoit. He has to have something to say about everything and anything. He gets mad if he is contradict. He says we need the national health insurance but mister no it all does not know what is in it. He also does not know what happen at Cambridge. He is a self loving idiot and
I am total sick of seeing his picture and his family everyday in the new. He is not moshiach as
the leftist believe. I believe America is waking up to this phony rather PHONY
Wolffman (in sheep’s clothing),
You have me pegged incorrectly since I don’t necessarily cry antisemitism like you claim but that is neither here nor there.
I should also point out that my internet spell checker didnt like the way I had originally spelled brainless so if that offended you, please forgive me.
When the officer (who by the way is the one in the department that gives the racial courses and who is the one that ran on the court to give mouth to mouth to the Celtics player) knocks on your door saying that he is there due to a neighbor calling in a possible robbery by 2 blacks and the person in the house acts like a complete jerk about it, the person is looking for trouble. He should have given his ID and shut his big mouth. Its not a hard thing to understand.
Gates was probably upset that the cop didn’t recognize him after all Gates is a friend of the Obama and of the Oprah.
As for your nice little story, yes those things happen and it is very unfortunate. However in that case the cops were wrong and in Cambridge, the “perp” was WRONG and so is his president!
Mark Levin (in, well, Mark Levin’s clothing)-
For the third time, because you seem to not be understanding the question (I realize your last response was not directed at me, but still): What made an arrest in this situation necessary, or even slightly appropriate?
I will state flatly that I believe that a police officer should not arrest someone for doing nothing more than making a non-threatening verbal statement while standing on their own property regardless of whether that “perp” called the police officer a racist, an anti-semite, a fascist or a jackbooted Obama-thug. It has nothing to do with the racism, it has to do with it being lousy policework.
Do you think the Cambridge police department disagrees? If on his first day of class the semester Professor Gates tells one of classes (which he presumably does not teach on his own property) that his arrest was racially motivated, using exactly the same words and tone of voice he used from his porch, that he should be arrested again? Why not?
Why can’t people here realize that Gates wasn’t arrested for breaking and entering? He was arrested for disorderly conduct, which in fact he did outside his home in public, in view of some six people, I believe.
24-
We do realize that. It’s just that the “disorderly conduct” involved nothing more than calling a police officer a racist while standing on his own porch, after the police officer had asked him to leave his house with him. If that’s disorderly conduct, it’s really only because anytime a person doesn’t do what the police tell them to it might fit the definition of disorderly conduct. The question is whether this in this instance the police officer used his discretion stupidly, and honestly I can’t for the life of me see how someone would argue that he needed to take Professor Gates to jail for yelling at him. He should have ignored it and moved on, as any non-police officer would have in that situation. There simply is no reason or excuse for him not to have.
Gates is lucky the cop didn’t shoot him as a burglar
You know I think all the dummies who picked Obama actually regret it. I dont blame them after all the guy is a big talker.