President Obama’s Comments on Gates Arrest Hurt, Not Help Race Relations

By now you’ve probably heard about the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after he broke into his own home, and President Barack Obama’s rash accusation that police had acted “stupidly.”

The arrest certainly never needed to happen, and a racial component never needed to enter into the incident, but Gates apparently would have it no other way.

And the officer who arrested Gates, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Department, isn’t backing down.

From Fox News:

Crowley, however, has refused to apologize, and he told the radio station he did nothing wrong. He added he was surprised that a man as educated as Gates would start yelling epithets about Crowley’s mom, part of the incident that never made it into the police report.

“That apology will never come. It won’t come from me as Jim Crowley. It won’t come from me as a sergeant in the police department,” Crowley told WEEI.

“I know what I did was right. I have nothing to apologize for,” he added.

Based on everything I’ve read about the incident, he’s darn right he doesn’t.

As a former law enforcement official, I have responded to suspicious circumstances like this a number of times over the years. Whether it’s someone attempting to break into their own car or their own home after locking themselves out, if someone calls the police about suspicious activity, the police have a responsibility to identify the person once they make contact, ensure that the person is who they claim to be and that they are authorized to have access to the property–no matter what their skin color may be.

If police officers did not verify the identity of people found in suspicious circumstances such as this, burglars and other criminals might was well say, “Oh, this belongs to me” any time they were confronted by the police in the middle of a break in.

How would Gates have reacted if someone had really broken into his home while he was away, the police were called out, the perpetrator told them he lived there, the police left without verification, and the burglar made off with Gates’ valuables?

If Gates asked the police why they didn’t properly identify the person breaking in, and they said, “Well, we didn’t want to offend anyone,” would Gates have simply shrugged his shoulders and responded, “Oh, that makes sense.  Better that than to act in a manner which might open you up to charges of racism”?

It also doesn’t matter what President Obama thinks of the matter.  The president never should have injected himself into this situation, friend or not.

Expanding on the implications of the arrest, Obama told reporters Wednesday that this incident shows that there is a long history of racial profiling in the United States.

“Race remains a factor in the society. That doesn’t lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that’s been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us,” he said.

As president, he never should have said, “the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.”  Such comments undermine the respect for and authority of the police, and as the nation’s highest executive authority, are not appropriate for the president to make.  Police officials are rightly calling for an apology from Obama not unlike the one he seemed to think his friend Gates was owed.

Obama may owe the police department and public of Cambridge an apology for something else, too. According to WorldNetDaily and  the Somerville Times in 2007, Obama had accumulated 17 parking tickets between 1989 and 1991…which he only bothered to pay two weeks before launching his presidential campaign.

according to the reporting from the Somerville Times in 2007, as a Harvard Law School student, Obama got 17 parking tickets during 1989-1991 from the Cambridge police department that he left unpaid until just weeks before he announced his bid for the presidency.

“In other words, as a practicing lawyer in Chicago, he allowed these tickets and penalties to remain unpaid; as an Illinois state senator he allowed these tickets and fines to remain unpaid; and as a United States senator he allowed these almost-two-decade-old signs of his disdain for the law to remain unpaid,” commented John LeBoutillier on Newsmax.

The Washington Post said two years ago that the tickets included those for parking without a proper permit, parking in a bus stop and others.

The Associated Press reported in 2007 that Obama’s “healthy stack” of parking tickets was finally paid, including late fees, “two weeks before he officially launched his presidential campaign.”

Perhaps law is only important when violations thereof can interfere with a squeaky-clean campaign.

Contrary to what Obama implied, Gates was not arrested for breaking into his own home, nor because he was finally identified.  He was arrested for the disorderly conduct he continually displayed during the incident.  He called Sgt. Crowley a racist, kept yelling and continued to shout racially charged accusations even after Crowley went out onto the porch.

When Crowley tried to calm him down, Gates shouted, “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

Real Clear Politics has this:

As the situation progressed, Gates became increasingly frustrated. As Sgt. Crowley was leaving, he said, Gates told him “he picked the wrong guy to mess with” and “I’ll see your momma on the porch.”

That sound a lot like a threat of violence against Sgt. Crowley’s family.

It doesn’t, however, sound like proper behavior for any human being, certainly not a Harvard professor.

Police–and bystanders–can face instant threats from agitated people who refuse to calm down.  I have seen people go from non-violent to violent in the blink of an eye with no warning at all (other than their verbally out-of-control behavior).  At some point when a person refuses to calm down and act reasonably, a police officer has to make a decision about their own safety and that of others in the area.  It seems Sgt. Crowley made a reasonable decision, and Gates was eventually released after he later calmed down.

WHDH has an extensive interview with Sgt Crowley which sheds further light on the details, along with the belligerent, uncooperative behavior of Gates.  It also tells that  Crowley has for several years worked with a black colleague in teaching 60 cadets a year about how to avoid racial profiling, and how to respond to various incidents they may encounter in the course of their duties.

As the Politico video below shows, Sgt. Crowley’s actions have been reviewed and found in compliance with standard police procedure.

Obama is right about one thing: race unfortunately does remain a factor for some people, and does still haunt us. Unfortunately it isn’t simply a minority of petty white bigots, either; it also includes some petty black bigots as well. And whether they’re bigots in the strictest sense of the word or not, it also includes a number of childish brats like Gates and Obama who will play the race card anytime they or one of their friends is the slightest bit offended.

Isn’t it about time we all committed to create that nation of people Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of, where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”?

If we all agree that’s the kind of nation we’d like to live in, then it will take the commitment of every American, regardless of the color of their skin, and an end to childish, hateful behavior from all.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.