Professor Gates, front cuffed.
Image source, Carter/APBy Tony Vega
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here to review the police report.
What we know according to various news reports and witness accounts are that Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. returned home from a trip to China. Gates came home to a faulty front door due to a prior break-in. This prompted him and another person to force entry by shouldering the back door.
The next turn of events is a positive one. Far too often apathy sets in and folks in communities across the nation look the other way, but thankfully not Mr. Gates' neighbor. A neighbor reported men breaking into the house, unaware that it was the professor returning home.
Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department responded to the 911 report of two black men with backpacks breaking into a home. Upon arrival, Crowley observed a male inside of the home. Crowley asked the male to step out onto the front porch, unaware that this male was Mr. Gates. Harvard professor Gates opened the front door and exclaimed "
Why, because I'm a black man in America!?"
By all accounts, it seems that Mr. Gates took umbrage over being challenged by a uniformed officer. The sergeant asked for identification, Gates initially refused and challenged the officer. Mr. Gates also berated the officer and repeatedly called him a racist.
In the presence of the police, Gates made a phone call and accused Crowley of being a racist to a third party. Sgt. Crowley says the acoustics of the kitchen and foyer area made it difficult to make radio transmissions over the yelling of Mr. Gates. Upon obtaining an earful and identification from Mr. Gates, Crowley informed Mr. Gates that he would continue speaking to him outside of the home, at which time Harvard professor Gates sated, "
ya, I'll speak to your mama outside."As Sgt. Crowley descended the front stairs of the home to the street area, Mr. Gates followed and continued his barrage of insults and tumultuous behavior, causing a crowd to gather. Gates did not cease this behavior upon threat of arrest. Mr. Gates was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct, which was later dropped by prosecutors.
Professor Gates charges racism. Barack Obama charges stupidity on the part of police and hints to racial profiling by saying, "
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."
Here are some additional FACTS, perhaps Obama the divider would care to learn about; Sgt. Crowley is an expert on racial profiling and teaches a course of how not to single people out because of their ethnic background or culture.
Sgt. Crowley also demonstrated his lack of bias when he administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on NBA star Reggie Lewis who suffered a fatal heart attack. Remember folks, it is not mandated for cops to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, that is a personal choice.
Barack Obama may have hoodwinked the nation when he ran on a platform of unity. Obama may have perpetrated a con when he claimed he was not from the same racially perverse cloth that his mentor and preacher man was.
The Jeremiah Wrights of the world claim a black person cannot be a racist because they are not in a position of power to be a racist. When you make a negative claim against another person because of his race that is a racist point of view, period.
When a white man is accused of being a racist because he arrives on a scene in a police uniform to investigate a crime and he is accused of being a racist and stupid, where is the charge of bias for the accusers?
The support for Professor Gates is divided along racial lines and common sense falls into the gap. Instead of cautioning the nation to assess by fact before judgment is levied, Barack Obama stoked the flames of resentment and played the role of a race-arsonist. Jeremiah will be proud.
Another fact that is not mentioned by Barack Obama is that Sgt. Crowley front cuffed Mr. Gates. Procedure is to rear cuff prisoners, but he considered Mr. Gates' condition (Gates walks with a cane) and made sure he was comfortable.
Barack Obama likes to quote "facts," let's take another look at a factual sequence of events that Barack Obama and the rest of us are privy to;
Mr. Gates, a burglar suspect, was not stopped at gun point, not ordered onto the ground AND given the benefit of the doubt, that he was the homeowner BEFORE verifying his identification. Folks, I don't know about you but that does not sound like racial profiling to me. Wait, maybe it was, perhaps if it was a white man Sgt. Crowley would have used sound police tactics and rear cuffed the suspect and verified later.
Perhaps, Sgt. Crowley gave Mr. Gates the benefit of the doubt because he was afraid of being called a racist. Damned if you do, damned if you don't! Perhaps, the good sergeant should have acted in a sound tactical manner and treated the man that just shouldered his way into a home as a burglary suspect.
Perhaps, Barack Obama was
in fact listening to Jeremiah Wright after all.
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