The circus comes to Cambridge: Skip Gates arrested

[Surfer]

I have never seen cops that were so intrusive, rude, and downright tribal as the ones I ran into when I lived in the Boston area. And the Cambridge cops I was unlucky enough to experience during the rather brief times I lived there were particularly bad. They were often openly belligerent, with a chip on their shoulders a mile wide for the college populations there, both student and faculty. In fact, anyone other than their fellow Irish- and Italian-American townies seemed to be immediately perceived as an enemy.

"You're a black guy in Boston -- you don't need my help to be completely fucked." - Dignam

[Al in NYC]

The one and only time I ever heard a cop use the N-word in public (although I've heard them use it plenty in private) was in Boston.

[jeff54]

Maybe it is my imagination, but cops 40 years ago were more like Andy Griffith and Gunther and Toohey in Car 54 where are you.

ooh ooh, Sorry but I just can't let this pass RH. The cops in car 54 were Gunther Toody and Francis Muldoon.

[groover]

Amos & Andrew (1993)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson Director: E. Max Frye

This incident is remarkably similar to the plot of Amos and Andrew, though that took place on Martha's Vineyard. The cops got really stupid in that one.

[clinthopson]

I thought that Obama handled this very honestly and clearly.

[jesus marion joseph]

Maybe it's me, but I don't think the cops have the right to arrest you for being lippy in your own home, particularly given the circumstances in the Gates incident. Too often police forget the first part of "To Serve and Protect."

Just so we're clear, I agree with you Root. And yes, cops are supposed to be able to keep their cool in volatile situations, but some are obviously better at it than others.

Having said that, it appears that there were "hot heads" on both sides of the equation (not that I blame Gates for being pissed, frankly). As of this morning Gates was demanding an apology, and the cop was just as adamantly refusing to offer one. Hardly seems like the best way to resolve a tense situation, BWTFDIK?

[Pete C]

From AP Article:

Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.


Richard Weinblatt, director of the Institute for Public Safety at Central Ohio Technical College, said the police sergeant was responsible for defusing the situation once he realized Gates was the lawful occupant. It is not against the law to yell at police, especially in a home, as long as that behavior does not affect an investigation, he said.


"That is part of being a police officer in a democratic society," Weinblatt said. "The point is that the police sergeant needs to be the bigger person, take the higher road, be more professional."



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/...lar_disorderly

[jesus marion joseph]

campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.

Disorderly conduct right there.

[Gentle Giant]

Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer | July 23, 2009

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.

Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in.

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.

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."

In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he followed procedure.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

Crowley did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday by the AP. The Cambridge police department scheduled a news conference for later Thursday.

Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest. He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said.

He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."

The president said federal officials need to continue working with local law enforcement "to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias."

Fellow officers, black and white, say Crowley is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, and a statement from the city called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate."

The mayor refused Thursday to comment on the president's remarks.

Police supporters charge that Gates, director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, was responsible for his own arrest by overreacting.

Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.

[Gentle Giant]

It's worth noting that the radio hosts, Dennis and Callahan, are both conservatives and assholes. That they support the cop does not impress me; that the cop refuses to take their bait does.

And as much as I support Obama, I think he was a massive dumb fuck to say what he did, even acknowledging that he was a friend of Gates and didn't have all the facts. Not only is he forced to backpeddle, regardless of the outcome, but why piss off the nation's law enforcement professionals?

Cambridge sergeant declines to criticize Obama
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley declined today to criticize President Obama for saying Wednesday night that police "acted stupidly" in the arrest last week of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., but he did say it was "regrettable" that anyone would speak without knowing the "whole story" of the confrontation at Gates's home near Harvard Square.

Speaking at length this morning on the Dennis & Callahan show on WEEI radio in Boston, Crowley maintained that "I know what I did was right." When the hosts asserted, however, that "professor Gates and the president of the United States owe you an apology," Crowley refused to bite.

"The president has a lot of other daunting tasks ahead of him," Crowley said. "I wish for the good of the whole country that he is successful in efforts to do the many things that he has to."

The radio show hosts persisted: "Well, hopefully on those other tasks he actually gets his facts straight, because clearly he didn't know what he was talking about when he addressed your little issue."

Crowley said: "I think it is regrettable that anybody on either side of this issue would make comments -- and you know I saw some of them, but I think it's regrettable that anybody, either somebody who supports me or somebody who thinks I acted inappropriately -- without knowing the whole story, without talking to those who were there who have firsthand knowledge of the events and who saw themselves the way in which professor Gates acted and what led to his arrest."

Obama was asked about the incident in the last question of his hourlong nationally televised press conference Wednesday night. After acknowledging that he was "a little biased" because he is friends with Gates and that he didn't "know all the facts," the president nonetheless said police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates after he showed identification.

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that," Obama went on. "But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, 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. That's just a fact."

And that fact, Obama added, is an example and a sign that "race remains a factor in this society. That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made.

"And yet the fact of the matter is, is that this still haunts us."

In an interview today with WBZ radio, Crowley said that while he "didn't vote for" Obama, he supports "the president of the United States 110 percent." But that does not mean he agreed with Obama's comment that Cambridge police "acted stupidly."

"I think he is way off base wading into a local issue before knowing all the facts," Crowley said.

This morning on WEEI, Crowley spoke for 22 minutes and offered his most detailed public explanation of why he handcuffed the renowned professor of African-American studies.

"He was arrested after following me outside the house, continuing the tirade, even after being warned multiple times, probably a few more times than the average person would have gotten," Crowley said.

The hosts asked: "How many times?

"He was cautioned in the house, meaning calm down, lower your voice," Crowley said. "Once we got outside in front of the general public and the police officers that were assembled there, two warnings, the second warning with me holding a set of handcuffs in my hand. It was something I really didn't want to do, but the professor at any point in time could have resolved the issue by quieting down and/or going back in his house."

Crowley continued, "There are so many things in this incident that keep me scratching my head wondering. I apologize, I was not aware who professor Gates was. And when I read the name off the card, it wasn't like I said, 'Oh, wow, that's professor Gates.' I'm still just amazed that somebody of his level of intelligence could stoop to such a level and berate me, accuse me of being a racist, of racial profiling, and speaking about my mother. It's just beyond words."

During the interview, the radio hosts made it clear how they felt about the arrest of Gates, telling Crowley that he did not "have to defend your character here because there is no reason to, you didn't do anything wrong."

"God knows the public is supporting you," one of the hosts said. "Maybe not the elites, maybe not the president of the United States, but the reaction on message boards, the reaction on talk shows, and just people on the street -- they are on your side, officer, you can be sure of that."

[Gentle Giant]

I'm surprised that Obama is surprised. Surely he's savvier than that.

Maybe this will come to be called Gatesgate!

Obama 'surprised' by controversy over saying Cambridge police 'acted stupidly'
President Obama said today that he was "surprised by the controversy surrounding" his criticism that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" when they arrested Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"I think it was a pretty straight forward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who is in his own home."

In an interview to air on ABC's "Nightline" tonight, Obama said it doesn't make sense to him that Gates was arrested.

"I think that I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do," the president said in the interview. "And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed. That's my suspicion."

Obama also said he understands the sergeant who arrested Gates an "outstanding police officer." But he added that with all that's going on in the country with health care and the economy and the wars abroad, "it doesn't make sense to arrest a guy in his own home if he's not causing a serious disturbance."

Earlier, the White House walked back somewhat Obama's remark.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling on Air Force One that Obama did not regret the remark during his primetime news conference Wednesday night, but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid.

"Let me be clear, he was not calling the officer stupid," Gibbs told reporters as Obama landed in Cleveland for two healthcare events this afternoon. He said Obama believes that "at a certain point the situation got far out of hand" at Gates' home.

Obama felt "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed" once the officer realized Gates was in his own home, Gibbs said.

Gibbs also said that Obama has not spoken with Gates since the incident last Thursday.

(The full transcript of the questions and Gibbs's answers on the issue is below.)

Republicans are jumping on Obama's remark, and trying to use it to target Representative Michael Capuano, the Somerville Democrat who represents Cambridge.

"President Obama laid a bold accusation at Massachusetts law enforcement officers from the bully pulpit yesterday, saying they "acted stupidly" while admitting that he didn't "know all the facts." Now that Cambridge police have been hit with this allegation by the White House, will Michael Capuano follow suit?" the National Republican Congressional Committee asked today in a release.

"Does Michael Capuano believe President Obama's comments were becoming of someone who holds the highest office in the land?" asked NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain in the statement.

"The president was slow to point out any wrongdoing in the wake of the Iranian election and his administration was quick to force through a failed stimulus plan even though they "misread" the economy. This is certainly a questionable rush to judgment coming from a president who hasn't exactly been quick to call out unconscionable behavior by a merciless foreign dictator or gotten his facts straight before advocating a trillion-dollar mistake to address our ailing economy. Is it really presidential for him to cast harsh judgment of a law enforcement official without all the facts? These questions warrant an answer from Michael Capuano."

And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the vehicle for GOP senators' campaigns, is aiming at Senator John F. Kerry of Massachuetts.

"Given the President's strong feelings on this matter, Massachusetts constituents must wonder: what does their Senator and former Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry think about President Obama's statement that the Cambridge Police 'acted stupidly?' Does John Kerry think it's appropriate for our nation's Commander in Chief to stand before a national audience and criticize the men and women in law enforcement who put their lives on the line every day, when by his own admission, he doesn't even know all the facts?" asked NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh.

Q Robert, some people thought it was a little unusual that the President waded into the matter between Professor Gates and the Cambridge police -- a little uncharacteristic of him -- when the facts are in dispute. You know, this is the sort of thing he might ordinarily say, I don't -- you know, I don't know all the facts. Why do you --

MR. GIBBS: Well, he did -- let's go through what he did say, because he did say, one, Professor Gates was a friend of his. He did say he didn't have all the facts. I think we've all read in the newspaper at least a baseline of fact that the President outlined first by saying you have an unidentified individual who jimmies open a door of a house; the police are called based on that; the police respond -- which you would expect a series of those events to transpire like that.

I think what the President ultimately talked about was, obviously there was a point at which, inside of the house, both parties involved, probably recognizing that the situation originally responded to wasn't what was actually happening, in terms of a crime being committed, and at that point -- at that point cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed. I think that's what the President was denoting in the ultimate arrest and the since dropping of those charges.

Q Why do you think he wanted to weigh in on this, though? He obviously --

MR. GIBBS: I appreciate your -- I appreciate the ability at nationally televised news conferences to pass on questions like it was a game show. But I haven't been afforded that -- I don't think the President has been afforded those possibilities before. But I will certainly pass along your suggestion.

Q But he did go so far as to say that the police behaved "stupidly."

MR. GIBBS: Well, again, I think -- again, as I just said, I think there's a point in this where it becomes clear that the situation as it was originally called in is not the current situation, right? At some point it becomes clear that the individual in the house owns the house.

And I think that's -- at that point, cooler heads likely should have prevailed on both sides.

Q Robert, does the President feel that he, ever in his life, has been a victim of racial profiling -- pulled over, questioned for no obvious reason?

MR. GIBBS: Let me check. I think there -- I think he mentions in his book an instance where that happens.

Q Has the President --

MR. GIBBS: And I know he certainly -- you know, I think he's mentioned, you know, being at the front of a restaurant where somebody hands him the keys to go get a car.

Q That's a little different from a police action to --

MR. GIBBS: Right, I don't know if he's ever felt -- let me double-check on that.

Q There was a Chicago Tribune story from 2003 that suggests that he did feel that way, but it didn't have any details --

MR. GIBBS: I recall that, and obviously -- you know, again, I think the President also touched on the fact that working with all involved -- communities, police, and all stakeholders -- on legislation to develop a series of statistics that would allow the state of Illinois to evaluate what was going on and how best to address it -- again, I think, the important thing working with all of those involved.

Q Can I just ask you to clarify one quick thing that he said last night? When he was talking about "I would get shot trying to, you know, break into the house," he was talking about the White House or was he talking about his home in Chicago?

MR. GIBBS: I assume he was talking about the White House. And as I said to him afterwards, having looked at a couple of them, the only people apparently not laughing at that joke were the Secret Service, at that point which, we were standing to one of the guys from the Secret Service, and he laughed. So I think he was --

Q He wasn't talking about Chicago or the Chicago police, is what I --

MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, I think he was talking about the White House.

Q Has the President spoken to Professor Gates at all?

MR. GIBBS: Not that I'm aware of, no.

Q Has anybody from the White House reached out to him.

MR. GIBBS: Not that I'm aware of. Not that I'm aware of.

Q And when you say that cooler heads should have prevailed on all sides, you're saying Professor Gates should have also handled it differently?

MR. GIBBS: Well, look, again, I wasn't there, the President wasn't there. I think at some point, again, you have a situation that is not as it -- as not as it was called in. I think when somebody -- I think being arrested in your own home for being in your home -- I think the fact that those charges have been dropped denote that there clearly was a point at which this got far out of -- far out of control.

Q But does he regret his use of language in saying "acting stupidly," because online polls show lots of people of Massachusetts were disappointed that he used those words while acknowledging that he wasn't in full possession of the facts.

MR. GIBBS: Again, I think if you look at the fact that a situation got as far out of control at a certain point as it did underscores the fact that things were going in a direction that neither wanted it to go in.

[GoodSpeak]

Does anyone really think that 2 white guys would have been treated the same way , especially after showing that he lived there ?

I don't think so.

I disagree.


Two guys who look like they are trying to break into a house are going to get the attention of the cops....especially if they are sent there by a 911 call.



Home invasions are happening with more and more frequency.

[walto]

I think Gates should let it go. He's threatening to sue, but I see it turning out for him the way it did for Oscar Wilde. Also, I think it's too bad that Obama, who's trying to get some important legislation passed, felt the need to get involved in this. Gates is his friend, and it was nice of him to offer support, but, as he said, he doesn't really know what happened, and it's a political distraction.

I wonder if Gates communicated with him prior. If so, it would have been menschy of Gates to tell him not to mention it.

[walto]

BTW, (perhaps unsurprisingly) I felt exactly the opposite from Pete about Obama's performance last night. I thought he was masterful--incisive, knowledgeable, convincing--and then he got into the Gates business and lost the thread. Pete is obviously not interested in America's health care crisis, but some of us are.

[Root Doctor]

I'm sure the "peace" officer in this case from a few weeks ago is also being unfairly maligned:

Candidate to confront deputies over raid
Host, guest arrested at Busby fundraiser
By Angela Lau
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced Monday that it has launched an internal affairs investigation into a deputy's use of pepper spray at a fundraising party for Francine Busby on Friday night in Cardiff.

Undersheriff Bill Gore said in a statement that he has spoken with several community leaders about the incident, including Busby.

"The only proper way to ascertain exactly what happened is to initiate an Internal Affairs investigation," Gore said. "We cannot take action based on media accounts and will conduct a thorough inquiry, to include interviews of witnesses at the fundraising event."

The party was Friday night in the 1300 block of Rubenstein Avenue, the home of Shari Barman, a Busby supporter.

It ended with Barman, 60, being arrested and jailed on suspicion of battery on a peace officer, and resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer.

Pam Morgan, 62, a Rancho Santa Fe resident and one of the guests, also was arrested and taken to the Encinitas Sheriff's Station, where she was cited for resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer.

Other partygoers were doused with pepper spray, and seven deputies, a sergeant and a helicopter were dispatched to the neighborhood of expensive homes.

Busby, Barman, guests at the party and a Sheriff's Department spokesman provided varying accounts of what happened.

Busby, 58, a Democrat seeking the 50th Congressional District seat in 2010, said she will meet with Sheriff Department officials today to find out who made what she called a “phony” noise complaint.

The Sheriff's Department received the complaint at 9:33 p.m. from a man who said someone was talking on a loudspeaker and a crowd was cheering, keeping him awake.

From about 8 to 8:30 p.m., Busby said, she used an amplified microphone to talk to guests, whom she described as middle-aged supporters.

During Busby's speech, Barman said in a statement yesterday, a man on the property behind her house shouted “disparaging remarks” about Busby and gay people. Barman lives in the house with her partner, Jane Stratton, 55.

After her talk, Busby said, people chatted.

“It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes,” Busby said.

Neighbors on three sides of the house said yesterday there wasn't much noise from the party. One man said he slept through it.

“We didn't hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter,” said Natasha Cortina, 43, who said she and her two children were home with the windows open.

Hugh Elliott, 53, who lives closest to the house, said he heard a deputy's radio, then arguing, coughing, crying and finally everyone spilling outside as the smell of pepper spray drifted over his back fence.

Deputy Marshall Abbott, who has worked for the department for about two years, was sent in response to the noise complaint, said Sgt. Thomas Yancey of the Encinitas station, which serves Cardiff. A member of the department's psychiatric emergency response team, who was riding with Abbott that day, went with him. Abbott could not be reached for comment.

While trying to deal with the complaint, guests at the party surrounded Abbott and he felt threatened, Yancey said.

“We don't like people standing behind us – we have Tasers, guns, clubs,” he said.

Busby said no more than 30 people were still at the party. Yancey said deputies' reports indicate there could have been as many as 50.

When Abbott arrived, Yancey said, he told Barman about the complaint, and she uttered an expletive about a neighbor. Abbott asked Barman for her birth date so he could issue a noise warning, but Barman refused to give it, he said.

Barman tried to walk away, Yancey said, and Abbott grabbed her. The guests took Barman away, and Abbott used pepper spray on them. In the chaos, someone kicked the emergency response team member, a woman who is 5-foot-2, Yancey said.

“He was pepper-spraying the faces of anyone who tried to talk to him,” Busby said. “People were stunned. It was something that none of us has experienced.”

In her statement, Barman said she asked the deputy why he needed her birth date, because he knew her name and where she lived.

“He told me I was under arrest, grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind me and threw me on the ground,” she said.

When Stratton asked the deputy to be careful because Barman had shoulder surgery recently, the deputy “knocked her to the ground,” Barman said.

After the pepper spray was used, the crowded backed off, and Abbott saw Barman in the kitchen and grabbed her, Yancey said. A man held on to Barman's foot to prevent her from being taken out of the room, and she fell to the floor. Abbott took out his Taser, the man backed off, and Barman was arrested, he said.

At some point Abbott called for backup and six deputies and a sergeant responded, Yancey said. Deputy Derek Sanders arrested Morgan, he said. There were no reported injuries.

Reports from deputies at the scene do not mention alcohol, Yancey said, which indicates people at the party were not suspected of being drunk.

“The place got out of hand,” he said. “If Francine Busby was there, why not take a leadership role, step up, and nip this thing in the bud?”

Busby said she couldn't intervene because the deputy was using pepper spray on people indiscriminately.

Barman was booked into jail at 2 a.m. Saturday and released on her own recognizance at 11 a.m., a jail official said. She is scheduled to appear in Vista Superior Court on Aug. 11 on the two misdemeanor counts.

Morgan could not be reached for comment.

Busby had sought the 50th Congressional District seat in 2006, but was defeated by Brian Bilbray, 53 percent to 44 percent. The seat was vacated by former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who is in federal prison after pleading guilty in a corruption scandal.

[clinthopson]

Those of us familiar with the area where the party was held know that this is a very affluent neck of the woods occupied mostly by people who remember FDR. Not exactly gang teritory.

I have several cops as friends and know that they look at almost every one they come in contact with as a possible criminal. That's how they are trained and that's the environment they live in.

These two incidents illustrate the built in chip on a cop's shoulder.

Maybe that's necessary, cops put themselves in danger every day, but I would think that more than just a few classes will change their attitude.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

That story, and the response of the police dept. upper echelon, upsets me way more that the Skip Gates affair. These people did far less than Gates and yet were treated far more harshly.

...But of course, they were all gay so they deserved it, right?

[Brandy Glass]

Where is the start of people hating jewish people? How can you tell if someone is even jewish? Ive known many jewish people but couldnt understand what made them any different then whihte people. Jewish people say they are not white people really?

[Brandy Glass]

Oh no! I typed this in the wrong post! Thats a jewish post!

[clinthopson]

Nu?

[Brandy Glass]

Yes I am new. I have to move my post but I dont know how.

[Gentle Giant]

Iceberg, Goldberg, what's the difference?

[Gentle Giant]

Obama calls Cambridge police officer
July 24, 2009 03:00 PM

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

President Obama this afternoon telephoned the Cambridge police sergeant accused of racial profiling and expressed regret for his choice of words at a recent press conference, saying he inadvertently ratcheted up the media frenzy when he said police "acted stupidly" in the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department and the work of Sergeant Crowley specifically. I could have calibrated those words differently," Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room. "I told this to Sergeant Crowley. I continue to believe that there was an overreaction in pulling professor Gates out of his home and to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I've heard, that professor Gates overreacted as well."

The five-minute phone conversation between Obama and Crowley took place at about 2:15 p.m., two hours after police unions held a press conference at a hotel in Cambridge asking the president to apologize. In recounting the exchange for the media, the president did not use the words "apology" or "sorry," but made it clear he regreted flaming the flames of an already explosive story.

"My hope is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what's called a teachable moment," Obama said. "Where all of us -- instead of pumping up the volume -- spend a little more time listening to each other and trying to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities. That instead of flinging accusations, we can all be a little more reflective about what we can do to contribute to more unity.

"Lord knows we need it right now."

The phone conversation between the president of the United States and a Cambridge police sergeant was the latest twist in a bizarre series of events that began on July 16 at Gates's home near Harvard Square. By the end of Obama's briefing this afternoon for the White House press corps, he took on a lighter tone.

Crowley and the president discussed "he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House," Obama said. "We don't know if that's scheduled yet -- but we may put that together."

The president also urged the press to leave Crowley's home in Natick and "stop trampling his grass."

[Monte Smith]

Yes I am new. I have to move my post but I dont know how.

Come on, former poster. You remember!

[walto]

Obama calls Cambridge police officer
July 24, 2009 03:00 PM

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

President Obama this afternoon telephoned the Cambridge police sergeant accused of racial profiling and expressed regret for his choice of words at a recent press conference, saying he inadvertently ratcheted up the media frenzy when he said police "acted stupidly" in the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department and the work of Sergeant Crowley specifically. I could have calibrated those words differently," Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room. "I told this to Sergeant Crowley. I continue to believe that there was an overreaction in pulling professor Gates out of his home and to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I've heard, that professor Gates overreacted as well."

The five-minute phone conversation between Obama and Crowley took place at about 2:15 p.m., two hours after police unions held a press conference at a hotel in Cambridge asking the president to apologize. In recounting the exchange for the media, the president did not use the words "apology" or "sorry," but made it clear he regreted flaming the flames of an already explosive story.

"My hope is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what's called a teachable moment," Obama said. "Where all of us -- instead of pumping up the volume -- spend a little more time listening to each other and trying to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities. That instead of flinging accusations, we can all be a little more reflective about what we can do to contribute to more unity.

"Lord knows we need it right now."

The phone conversation between the president of the United States and a Cambridge police sergeant was the latest twist in a bizarre series of events that began on July 16 at Gates's home near Harvard Square. By the end of Obama's briefing this afternoon for the White House press corps, he took on a lighter tone.

Crowley and the president discussed "he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House," Obama said. "We don't know if that's scheduled yet -- but we may put that together."

The president also urged the press to leave Crowley's home in Natick and "stop trampling his grass."

Obama is a hot shit. It's only been six months, but he's already the best president in my lifetime.

[GoodSpeak]

Psst! Clint. Don't feed the troll.

[Ron Thorne]

President Obama did the right thing, walto, and I heartily agree with your assessment.

[patricia]

I agree. I hope that the press now decides there's nothing left to squeeze out of this incident and moves on.
OOPS!! We should be so lucky.
I just heard that the Sunday talkshows, it seems, will be further dissecting this incident.
Healthcare, which is what the news conference was originally supposed to be about, must have been too boring for the newspeople to take notes.
Possible scandal always trumps information about boring stuff like people's health.
It usually only needs a line or two and divides people.
And it's easy.

[ran]

Watching this thing unfold and become the "Issue" just makes this more about black and white. America suffers from the deepest form of rac-isim.

Preface: It's easy to talk about this case because nobody was killed.

The cops get a free ride here , something bad happens and they get critisized and all of the sudden we're exposed to this rhetoric about how tough it is to be a cop and , oh , put you self in their shoes what would you do ? It's a tough job their under enormous pressure and their lives are on the line. All of it is true.

Nobody forced them to become a cop.

The other part of being law and order is to preserve the law and order not to marginalize and define it between some secret line that lives within all law enforcement.

Nobody asked these people to be cops. They choose to do it . They are not gods and they fuck up all the time. It goes with the job, you do a great thing nobody cares , you fuck up , the president is all over you.

There was no reason for the Pres. to retract other then the polls.

The worst part about this is that this has and will continue to be about what the Pres. said. As opposed to what the real issue is .

Cops fucking up is not the end all. They are human and I don't expect them to be perfect but when they do - lets just call it as it is. We all fuck up.

[Ron Thorne]

Preface: It's easy to talk about this case because nobody was killed.

It's also easy to talk about this case because none of us were present in Cambridge on that eventful day.