Sgt. James Crowley being interviewed. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department says he is not a racist and I believe he is not a racist. And he is not evil. He is, in fact, from where I sit a good cop. A very good cop.
But Sgt. Crowley should have known better.
Crowley should have worked harder to deflate the situation but instead chose to escalate the situation to a point of no return. Had the person he arrested for disorderly conduct been anyone but Professor Henry Louis Gates, we wouldn't be discussing any of this. But it was Professor Gates and in my view that is a good thing.
Otherwise, these type of incidents would never get discussed publicly.
And that is the point now. We should be discussing these types of situations.
Sgt. Crowley should accept Professor Gates offer to meet and discuss the situation. Crowley can learn quite a bit from Gates. And maybe Gates can learn something from Crowley. So let's quit the nonsense and become adult about this situation. The President of the Untied States was asked a question and he answered it from his heart. As a black man. I am quite sure that Barack Obama, prior to becoming President of the United States was profiled. And it is from that perspective that he answered the question.
The nation is ready for this type of dialogue. And of course we need health reform. Hey, we can do both. Chicago City Hall Examiner.
Comments
Whatever.. This is why laws are on the books. Shall we walk away from everyone that is cause a disturbance. After all is Gates better than anyone else or is it because he is in the public eye and a friend of Obama's. Health reform, right first lets go after all the crime that takes place in the medical field. Tons of money is waisted to due to corruption. That money could be better served helping those without medical coverage.
i love the way you guys spin it on the "cop should of known better". how about the so called prof. acting in a responsible manner instead of a racial one! people are getting sick of this racial bias given out everyday by every black person who will be heard. stop whining and love instead of hate. that includes the president of the united states!
Bull crap. This is one of the dumber post I've seen on this matter. The one who "escalated" this incident was "Professor" Gates. Gates should have more respect for our police officers, rather than castigating them for doing their jobs. If there's fault here, it's Gates'.
Are they serious? Thier big egos must have been hurt by Obama's remarks. Its very very simple. When a cop arrests an old man for breaking and entering his own house because he left the keys somewhere, ITS STUPID. We are so accustomed to Cops treating us arrogantly and roughly that we call it part of thier duty. Well its not. The result matters. The fact of the matter is that the cops harassed an old man when he was in his own house. The method was wrong and the result was even wronger. The cop was simply stupid.
This is the stupidest article written by non other than another liberal. I'm so sick of the lack of common sense by liberals. The more that black people and spanish people claim racism the more attention they get. GET OVER IT, you were never a slave, your parents weren't even slaves! I never enslaved you, but you sure are doing your part to enslave white americans! Just look, we have a black president and soon our taxes will be the highest ever...that is slavery! welcome to the new world order....now i'm gonna go watch some B.E.T. (Black entertainment TV)
There is no reason ever to treat another human being like dirt. Gates did just that and deserved to be arrested. It was not that he was arrested because of the breaking in, he was loud and obnoxious to another person. He deserved what he got, they never should have dropped the charges. Once a jerk always a jerk, then he teaches other people to be jerks. GREAT...this country is going down hill fast.
This article screams that you are liberal and biased. A person of Gates position should have known better than to treat another human being like that. We need to show respect for any person but to yell at a police officer like that is inexcusable. The president also should have answered more professionally. He let his biased be shown which makes him a weak person. A strong, wise person would have deferred judgment.
Any other person would be grateful to police officers and people who called police suspecting that robbery is taking place. "Professor" Gates shold be happy that he lives in the area where people actually call police and conserned about safety.
As we see, Mr. Gates got a lot of issues, ego and temper.
Let's accept that as the mother of a black man, I had to hiim warn to interact with the world differently than his white peers because the consequences when something goes wrong for him are life altering. I'm sure white parents don't have to process anything like this.
On all sides of this issue are nuts. People looking for a way o blame the world and others for their lack of goals, efforts, dreams and ambition. The politicans, media and others will contiune to have a filed day with this. It's always a big man or woman who can step back back or up and say I'm wrong, I'm sorry. My biggest question at what point did we lose the right to yell at or tell off whoever the hell we want to in our own homes? What we should fear isn't the person's race as much as the power they may have over our physical safety in that moment. None of us have the ability to read anothers heart. We only have history to remind us of man is capable of. Just another perspective from the peanut gallery.
What make me upset is all cops are the same they fail to understand that we have rights to say what we please that dont give you the ok to arrest someone for saying what that feel as long as it not threatening they abuse their power and what comes around goes around !
Mr. Presta, do you have access to reliable information that indicates that Crowley "escalated the situation" in some way? According to his police report, signed by witnesses, and the witnesses interviewed at the scene, it would seem that Professor (Dr.?) Gates was the only one escalating.
That all assumes that those reports are true, of course, and we should all be careful about taking anything as truth because it's written down. But I'm curious as to your source.
Don Gwinn
Chicago Gun Rights Examiner
People need to understand police officers have ego and temper also power trips just because you have a uniforms does not make YOU GOD you put your pants on one leg at a time what they do to people family and love one will surely come back to haunt their loves ones. I truley belive that !
It is clear that this so called professor does not belong in Boston. We should send this educator back to where he came from. While were at it, we should keep the Celtics all white. Go Celts!
I'm amazed that Gates is offended! I remember years ago a friend of my husbands loaned us the key to a summer cabin in New Hampshire. We arrived there at ~10pm and unlocked the front door, about 5 min later the cops arrived with guns drawn. Apparently the owner forgot that he authorized a burglar alarm be installed the week before. We (who are white) were shocked but patiently waited while the police department called the owner who explained the situation. End of story, the cops apologized and thanked us for our cooperation. We thanked them for their vigilance.
People like gate are the reason racism exists.
"The cop should have known better"????? What a cavalcade of lunacy. Anyone who mouths off to a man with a gun and a badge is deranged.
Sgt. Crowley was doing his job and the president had no business interferring. Professor Gates was wrong.
ohio - I suspect after about three weeks of having EVERY thug and scum you arrest berating you,verbally abusing you in every garbage mouth lowlife way they can think of, you might change your opinion some - unless,of course, you're another brain dead liberal who's taken the usual vow to learn nothing ever nor to ever use your brain to try to think anything through. By the way, as usual, you're dead wrong. Free speech is not and never has been the right to curse and swear at police officers. What that IS, is disorderly conduct. That IS an arrestable offence. Get a clue someday.
Presta: --"But Sgt. Crowley should have known better.Crowley should have worked harder to deflate the situation but instead chose to escalate the situation to a point of no return." -- Shouldn't they screen you guys a little better. It's one thing to be stupid and hopelessly slanted in your viewpoint. But it's really another to simply misrepresent the facts. If you read the police reports, it is clear that ALL of the police officers present conducted themselves properly, but that Henry Gates continued to be uncooperative and to harass the officers. He was warned, yet refused to stop his tirade against Officer Crowley. GATES could have tried to deflate the situation, but refused to do so. He got just what he, not only deserved, but what he demanded: an arrest for disorderly conduct. You're right, Crowley's not a bad police officer,but he can't learn anything productive from Gates - except how to be a total miscreant and a jerk - sort of like John Presta,except that you are also a liar.
Presta----Are you insane? Are you totally disconnected from reality? I don't see any education on your biography. Why don't you get some before you write totally unsubstanciated nonsense as if it's the facts.
Another example of the backwards upside down vision of John Presta.
---but he should have known better than to put his own jumbled views of reality down on a piece of paper and then submit it to examiner.com as if it is a real, well thought out and researched article to be read and taken seriously. It is not really an article, as I mentioned, but it should have known better than to maquerade as one.
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