Following closely behind the tale we've been discussing of the police officer who showed his ass and got away with it comes this one of a police officer who did his job properly and is being publicly vilified for it, and may well be hung out to dry to appease the race-baiters and their ilk. Even the President has weighed in, making tha above statement. Drudge Report and Fox News are leading with the story, but to my utter amazement CNN has it listed third. Lots of stories to choose from out there so I'll just hit the "high" spots:
Police receive a call of a possible break-in. First on the scene is a white officer who finds a black man inside the house, and asks if he lives there. Man says he does. Officer asks for I.D. as proof of residence and man refuses and begins to loudly berate officer, calling him a racist, and says, "This is what happens to a black man in America!" Man continues to shout and berate police and refuses to cooperate so is arrested for disorderly conduct. The arrested man turns out to beHenry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent professor of "Black Studies" at a very prestigious university. The media circus begins.
I related a story here not long ago where I'd been in a situation akin to that. The local police had set up a fishing expedition license/DUI check roadblock just below my house. When I backed into my driveway (as was my habit then) an officer pulled up, got out, and asked if I lived there. I said I did and he asked for my I.D. I gave him my license and told him I'd just moved in recently and hadn't had the address changed on it. He asked for a bill or some mailed correspondence that showed my name and that address. I invited him in while I looked for such, found one, he took a look at it, said, "Thank you, Mr. S----." and returned to his patrol car.
From the police report (taken with a grain of salt because of the "thin blue line" behavior we've discussed in the other thread) and interviews of friends and neighbors of the officer, and interviews of people who witnessed the incident, the officer knows his job and did it properly. That cuts no ice with the race pimps, however, since Gates is "...one of the foremost authorities on race in America." as one reporter said it. I've noted that every news story has said that the officer "demanded" identification from Gates. Having been part of and/or witness to many situations where police wanted someone to show I.D. I can say that almost without exception, and unless the situation is so volatile that there's no time for niceties, the police will ask for I.D., at least civilly if not politely, more than once before the gloves come off, so to speak, and they begin to make demands and issue orders.
It's ridiculous that a man who is by all early accounts a damn good cop may well have his job taken away from him, or may have to leave it on his own hook, because racist, prejudiced, bigots accuse him of having the shortcomings they refuse to admit in themselves.
