Gates = Hypocrite

[Hawkmoon]

Un-flippin' believable.

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7814&eeid=6699868&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=-2&ck=&ch=ne

Gates says it's time to 'move on' from his arrest

Published: 7/25/09, 9:05 PM EDT
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS

BOSTON (AP) - Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he's ready to move on from his arrest by a white police officer, hoping to use the encounter to improve fairness in the criminal justice system and saying "in the end, this is not about me at all."

After a phone call from President Barack Obama urging calm in the aftermath of his arrest last week, Gates said he would accept Obama's invitation to the White House for a beer with him and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley.

In a statement posted Friday on The Root, a Web site Gates oversees, the scholar said he told Obama he'd be happy to meet with Crowley, whom Gates had accused of racial profiling.

"I told the president that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative," Gates said. "I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sergeant Crowley for a beer with the president will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."

It was a marked change in tone for Gates, who in the days following his arrest gathered up his legal team and said he was contemplating a lawsuit. He even vowed to make a documentary on his arrest to tie into a larger project about racial profiling.

In an e-mail to the Boston Globe late Friday, he said: "It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience."

In a statement to The Associated Press, Gates promised to do all he could so others could learn from his arrest.

"This could and should be a profound teaching moment in the history of race relations in America," Gates said. "I sincerely hope that the Cambridge police department will choose to work with me toward that goal."

Gates, 58, did not say in his statement if he planned to file a lawsuit.

Crowley did not return a telephone message seeking comment Saturday.

The outcry began Monday, when word broke that Gates had been arrested five days earlier at the two-story home he rents from Harvard.

Supporters called the arrest an outrageous act of racial profiling. Public interest increased when a photograph surfaced of the handcuffed Gates being escorted off his porch amid three officers.

Cambridge police moved to drop the disorderly conduct charge on Tuesday - without apology, but calling the case "regrettable."

Obama, who had said Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates, sought to tamp down the uproar Friday. He spoke to Crowley and Gates during separate telephone calls and declared that Crowley was a good man.

Obama invited the officer and the professor to the White House for a beer. He conceded his words had been ill-chosen, but he stopped short of a public apology.

A trio of Massachusetts police unions released a joint statement shortly after Obama's latest comments, saying Crowley had a friendly and meaningful conversation with the president.

"We appreciate his sincere interest and willingness to reconsider his remarks about the Cambridge Police Department," according to the statement. "It is clear to us from this conversation, that the President respects police officers and the often difficult and dangerous situations we face on a daily basis."

Gates added that he hoped his arrest would lead to a greater understanding about racial profiling in America.

"If my experience leads to the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying," Gates said on The Root. "Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law' is a lived reality."

(Bold-face added for emphasis)

This man has such an incredibly inflated opinion of himself that he is oblivious to the blatantly obvious fact that the only person who really needs to learn something from this incident is Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I can't see any possible way that his arrest could lead to a greater understanding about racial profiling in America, since racial profiling was never a factor.

I sincerely hope that Officer Crowley is "unavailable" when the President's invitation comes through.

Now ... where's that :barf: smiley?

[LadySmith]

I see this as a severe case of back-pedaling by Gates while attempting to save face.

Obama embarassed himself. Somebody's got to take the blame for it. 

[MechAg94]

The only true lesson learned is that no one should assume racist intentions where none exist.  He probably isn't the only one to need that lesson, but he is the one in this story.

[Chuck Dye]

My experience in a campus police department leads me to suspect that Crowley's principle mistake was that he was NSW, Not Sufficiently Worshipful,  a crime to which professors are particularly sensitive.  Prima donas are not just female, nor only opera singers.  Gate's nearly instant play of the race card was just piling on.

[Standing Wolf]

On the "bright side" that all too often sheds little or no light, he's made it slightly more difficult for the old leftist extremist cry of "Racism! Racism!" to be taken seriously.

[Perd Hapley]

It just keeps getting better and better.  From Friday on, this Gates story is the only bright spot in the news.  Well, other than the trouble the health care bill might be in. 

The Cambridge Police Department wasn't cowed, they came out swinging in defense of their guy. 

A black officer who was on scene was supportive. 

The White House realized their blunder abuse of Presidential power, and backed down.

Now Gates realized he hasn't a leg, and is hoping the whole thing will just go away. 

 

[MicroBalrog]

From Friday on, this Gates story is the only bright spot in the news.

And the President's approval rating dipped below 50%.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i wish i thought crowley would be allowed to go after gates. but given the executive command structure (mayor and gove) i suspect he will be encouraged not to.  be a shame . love to see gates in court

[Ben]

The text Hawkmoon bolded in the article got my hackles up too. Because the MSM didn't call Gates on his backpedaling and the sheer audacity of making it about him now being the guy who will now teach us all a thing or two, instead of a guy who needs to learn a lesson. All the stories I see on this are coming off as, "... what a gracious gentleman he is to  meet with the President and cop, and now also grace us with his intellectual insights on race relations."

He can talk to my mama.

[Standing Wolf]

I just read a quick and dirty article indicating part of the Won's problem may be his having owed hundreds of dollars' worth of parking tickets in that town when he was in college, which he ignored until shortly after he started running for president.

[Perd Hapley]

And the President's approval rating dipped below 50%.

Yeah, but the same thing happened to Palin, so...    Not that she was my hope for 2012, but she's so far superior to most of the jokers in office today.

[longeyes]

We can thank Prof. Gates for knocking Obama's mask off and showing him for the race-obsessed guy many of us already figured him for.

I too hope Sgt. Crowley sends a respectful "thanks but no thanks" to the White House for that beer invitation.  He doesn't need to get pulled into a "teachable moment" when the only people who need to learn anything are Obama and Gates.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

We can thank Prof. Gates for knocking Obama's mask off and showing him for the race-obsessed guy many of us already figured him for.

I too hope Sgt. Crowley sends a respectful "thanks but no thanks" to the White House for that beer invitation.  He doesn't need to get pulled into a "teachable moment" when the only people who need to learn anything are Obama and Gates.

Those who pay attention have known about Obama from the beginning.  Those who don't won't learn anything from the Gates episode.

[longeyes]

Not so sure about that.  There's a squishy middle that's wobbling.  It would have only taken three per cent of voters to change their votes to have kept BHO out of the White House.

[nico]

We can thank Prof. Gates for knocking Obama's mask off and showing him for the race-obsessed guy many of us already figured him for.

I too hope Sgt. Crowley sends a respectful "thanks but no thanks" to the White House for that beer invitation.  He doesn't need to get pulled into a "teachable moment" when the only people who need to learn anything are Obama and Gates.

I'm not sure about that.  On the radio this morning they mentioned that Crowley voted for obama.  One can hope he learned something from this. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

yea voting the way your union tells you has consequences

[Monkeyleg]

On the radio this morning they mentioned that Crowley voted for obama.

In one of the first statements Crowley made to the press after Obama opened his yap, he said he didn't vote for Obama. Not that it makes any difference, but his comment came across as slightly sarcastic.

[S. Williamson]

King Arthur: I am your king.
Woman: Well, I didn't vote for you.
King Arthur: You don't vote for kings.
Woman: Well how'd you become king then?

[KD5NRH]

Not so sure about that.  There's a squishy middle that's wobbling.  It would have only taken three per cent of voters to change their votes to have kept BHO out of the White House.

Well, the puppet on the other hand might have been a little better, but we really needed a lot more than that to get a whole different puppeteer.

[longeyes]

No one said McCain was the answer.

We had the answer a long time ago and we lost it.

[Hawkmoon]

This entire situation has become a circus, and "the Media" are fueling it.

911 caller in Gates case to speak publicly
Published: 7/29/09, 7:05 AM EDT
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
BOSTON (AP) - The woman who dialed 911 to report a possible break-in at the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. plans to speak publicly for the first time.

Lucia Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, says her client wants to get on with her life after being hounded "relentlessly" by reporters in the days since Gates' arrest triggered a national debate about racial profiling.

A news conference is scheduled for noon on Wednesday.

Whalen was vilified as a racist on blogs after reports that she described the possible burglars she saw as black in her 911 call.

Tapes of the call released earlier this week revealed that Whalen did not mention race. When pressed by a dispatcher on whether the men were white, black or Hispanic, she said one of them might have been Hispanic.

So the woman saw two black men apparently forcing their way into a house. Even if she HAD described them (correctly) as black men (which she did not, according to the tape), exactly how is describing black men as black men "racist"?

I confess to being a white male. If a black person describes me as a white male, can I call that black person a racist?

[Viking]

This entire situation has become a circus, and "the Media" are fueling it.

So the woman saw two black men apparently forcing their way into a house. Even if she HAD described them (correctly) as black men (which she did not, according to the tape), exactly how is describing black men as black men "racist"?

I confess to being a white male. If a black person describes me as a white male, can I call that black person a racist?

Don't be silly. Only white people can be racist.

[nico]

Don't be silly. Only white people can be racist.

true.  Although it appears that the lady in this case might not be racist, she is obviously sexist for describing the males as males. 

[freedom lover]

true.  Although it appears that the lady in this case might not be racist, she is obviously sexist for describing the males as males. 

Dude, only men can be sexist pigs. You must have been improperly educated by the women in your life.

[longeyes]

This is America 2009.  Logic is no longer your friend.