Two days ago Obama made another of his lovely and eloquent speeches and everything was going fine and dandy until he was asked to comment on the arrest of a friend of his. He admitted that he didn't know all the details but accused the police involved of racial profiling. Being the internet savvy person that I am, I sighed a big, heavy sigh when he said that because I could only imagine the backlash.
Well, went on MSNBC today, and turned on the TV, and of course there's this big whiplash about it. Everyone's all upset because of racial profiling and all of this jargon and honestly, I think I support the cops in this. I deal with people on a day to day basis, and I know how they act when they feel they've been wronged in principle. I know how they overreact and I believe that the police asked him to show ID and he freaked out and then started doing the whole, "It's 'cause I'm black, isn't it!?" thing.
The point of the matter is not who was right and who was wrong in terms of the actual case. The arrested man had all charges dropped, but will not be getting an apology and everyone will go on with their lives. The thing that I find interesting is that Obama made a charged comment after admitting that he didn't know all the details. I think that a better thing for him to have done would be to say that he didn't know everything and wouldn't comment. Having the President call you stupid for essentially doing your job when he doesn't even necessarily know what he is talking about would be detrimental to your reputation. Cops have a hard enough time garnering respect, and giving the public the ability to say, "Well, the president said you were stupid in that one case, maybe you're being stupid here." is just a bad idea.
All I have to say is I hope I live in a community like one where the arrested man lived. I would love for my neighbors to be involved enough to notice someone--even me--breaking into my house.
...and I'll think we'll have to wait a bit longer to get a clear picture of what actually happened and reconcile the radically differernt accounts of Officer Crowley and Professor Gates. One the one hand, I'm sympathetic to any law officer that has to deal with an angry citizen who may directing that anger undeservedly towards the officer. However, I can also sympathize with the anger that I think ANYONE would have at being accused of breaking into my own home and subsequently arrested, especially if I felt that I had been targeted unjustly by the cop.
Personally, I'm curious why no one has pointed any fingers at the neighbor who reported the faux-burglary. I mean, how do you live on the same street as someone else and not recognize them when you see them trying to get into the front door of their own home? If there was any racial bias in this situation, I'm betting that it where it came from.
But as I said, we'll have to wait and see...
TTFN,
Blackout
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Marriage in the Bible
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
And the race issue starts up again. Alleged Racism sure seems to work in only one direction. However, I did see something the other day that lightened my heart. Take a look at this if you get a chance - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Put your best foot forward, just watch what you step in..."