Monday, July 27, 2009

Professor versus Policeman



Having been around a few years, I admit to having had some interaction with police officers. For the most part, they were professional and respectful.
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Of course, instinctively, I’ve always tried to be deferential in dealing with cops. And why wouldn’t I? They have handcuffs, tasers, and guns; they can arrest me and put me in jail at their whim. Knowing this, do I feel a certain level of unease and even some resentment for them? Absolutely. After all, they have much power; I have little. In a court of law, in the absence of witnesses, their word would trump mine. So be it; I accept this and act accordingly.

Having said all that; I know we need these guys and gals in blue. I don’t carry a gun—bad guys do—and I know the fact that cops have them is what keeps bad guys from doing whatever whenever to the people I care about. I’ve used this metaphor before, but similarly, sheep are not fond of the shepherd dog that protects them from the wolf.

What brought on the writing of this post is that I just read
Officer Crowley’s report of his arrest of Harvard Professor Louis Gates, corroborated by Officer Figueroa. Having read it, I really hope that Gates follows through on his threat to sue Crowley, because if he does, it will come out in court that Gates is a big fat horse’s ass.

The irony is that the reason the incident took place in the first place is due to an earlier break-in attempt at Gate’s house that caused the door to malfunction when he came back from a trip overseas, which only shows that Gates SHOULD have been pleased that the Cambridge police responded to what might easily have been a repeat of the earlier break-in. Instead, Gates took on the air of “angry black man;” in this case, he played two cards: the one for race, and the “do you KNOW who I AM?” card. I don’t know which card is worse—perhaps the elitist card IS the more detestable of the two, but I am contemptuous of anyone who uses either.

Then, I see Barrack Obama on the news, the supposed mender of ALL divisions racial, the one man who SHOULD have stayed out of the fracas completely, and instead of butting out with an appropriate “no comment” he chimes in with his “two cents” at the tail end of a press conference within only a few hours of this itty-bitty incident, describing the actions of the Cambridge Police Department as stupid, because, as he “understood” it, his friend, Professor Gates, was arrested for disorderly conduct “within” his own home.

Obviously, this is a tempest in a teacup, but what it shows once again is that Obama has no business being president of the United States. He’s not only a rank amateur at this serious business of running the country, he’s an imbecilic one. Did he really forget that his constituency is no longer exclusively black people from the cop-hating part of Chicago entertaining real or imagined grievances against all police in general? It would seem that he did.

For me, Obama’s reaction smelled like the OJ verdict all over again. Remember? In a nutshell—white policemen BAD, picked-on black man GOOD. Watching Obama instinctively rally against the Cambridge cops reminded me of the nausea I felt in the pit of my stomach as I watched the scenes of black people across the country celebrate the release of that murdering savage, simply because he was “their man,” despite overwhelming evidence that he did it, since it MUST have been planted by dirty cops, and even if he WAS guilty, so what, since how many other times have innocent black men gone to jail due to the damned deceiving cops?

And now, after seeing Obama’s similar anti-white cop knee jerk reaction, is there a police officer anywhere out there—black, white or latino—who does not now believe that the boss of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer does NOT have their back—at least to the point of giving them the benefit of the doubt?

Crowley should have arrested Gates NOT for disturbing the peace, but plain and simply for being an abusive boorish blowhard. If I had been the policeman on scene I probably would not have arrested him; I would have gently handcuffed him, put him in the squad car for a few minutes to cool his ill-mannered jets, and then released him with a warning. Cops do have that kind of discretion, but I’m also just as happy that he brought the shriekingly-disgruntled cop-hating wannabe-martyr in for a full measure of inconvenient detention.

As much as some people hate the police, and do not include me in THAT number; we MUST cooperate with them in order to maintain a safe society. You’d think someone Crowley’s age, who is older EVEN than ME, would instinctively understand this. In this case, Officer Crowley, responding to a suspected larceny in progress—knowing full well that robbers routinely carry weapons—appears to have acted appropriately and reasonably. Why then would someone supposedly as learned as Professor Gates immediately respond with disrespectful verbal abuse?

Once again, is this Gates guy really the kind of person that Obama proudly counts among his best friends? Sounds like Louis Gates and Reverend Wright are co-leaders of the club of “successful bitter black men of the USA;” they certainly have the same weighty chips on their shoulders.

1 comment:

Ed said...

When I read about this and officer Crowley's response, everything sounds exactly like standard protocall that I have witnessed or read about. Everything fits.

When I read about Gates and his official response, all I can think about is the picture of him handcuffed, howling, and obviously mad and know without a doubt that his story of him not being able to shout due to a severe chest infection is a bunch of crap. I'm hoping some of the audio of the radio traffic that night gets releases as well.

As I said in my post, Gates=Pompous Ass