Reflections From a Murky Pond

By now most of America, and probably the Civilized World, knows the basics of the altercation between Cambridge Police Officer, James Crowley and Black Activist and Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. President Obama’s cronyism, stupidity, and racism assured that the incident would be headline news.

Still, there is a lot of divergent opinions on the matter and the underlying causes of it. This is to be expected, since there are many who would use such an incident, and it’s inappropriate addition to the national news, to further their own biased agendas.

So let’s boil down the situation that occurred between Prof. Gates and Officer Crowley:

No! I won’t excuse You for being White and a Cop

On one side of the issue we have Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a professional racial activist who made his fame and fortune largely, though not exclusively, by capitalizing on the “plight of the Black man in America.”

Prof. Gates and his attorney, Charles Ogletree, released a statement – to The Root, a purely “Afrocentric” organ,  of course – outlining Gate’s view of the incident.

On the other side of the issue we have Cambridge Cambridge Police Officer, James Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the police force. Officer Crowley, in addition to his regular duties, has for the past 5 years taught a class on avoiding racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy. He was hand-picked to teach the course by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is Black.

Officer gates, along with his partner, Officer Carlos Figueroa, who is Latino, filed their official police reports of the incident.

What happened? A professional Black Activist and a White police officer who teaches an anti-Racial Profiling course had a dispute during the course of investigating a burglary. Since the issue boils down to the character and probable motives, I’ll you all decide whose story is closer to the truth and who had a motivation and predilection for racial antagonism.

Barring further developments, I’m done with this farce, though I may comment futher on tangential issues.

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President Obama and his Liberals are trying very hard to build outrage over the fact that supposedly 47 Million Americans are uninsured. They paint a sad and heart wrenching picture of poor but proud families who have to choose between food and healthcare – if they even have that choice in the first place.

Somehow I don’t think that the picture that they’re painting is of the Realism school; it’s likely Impressionist at best and completely Surrealist at worst.

So, about that picture …

Michael Ramirez from IBDeditorials proves once again that a single picture is worth more than a 1018 pages of words:

The 47 Million Uninsured in America

Oddly enough the number’s in Ramirez’ cartoon add up to 59.9 Million, not 47 Million Uninsured. I’m assuming he just discounted the 12.6 Million Illegal Aliens from the title so as to match up to the Liberals’ numbers.

Does that imply that the Liberals’ 47 Million uninsured claim are also discounting the 12.6 Million Illegal Aliens from their totals? That might sit poorly with some of their constituency

Healthcare and Health Insurance – related but tangential issue – Reform is certainly needed in the United States; that I don’t dispute. I strongly dispute that healthcare is a right though, and I even more strongly dispute that it is within the government’s purview to mandate it and control it. Most of all I staunchly dispute that the abomination that is Obama and his Liberals’ “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (AAHCA)” is anything but destructive to the American economy and Americans’ freedom.

Even if there truly were 47 Million Americans unable to receive healthcare, the price tag – both monetary and socio-political – attached to this bill is just too high to make it worthwhile.

So let President Obama and his Liberals in and out of Congress paint the situation anyway that they like. I’ll stick with something a bit more realistic, like Ramirez’ cartoon. It may be not be pretty, but it a lot more realistic – as well as being sarcastically funny.

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On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, President Obama acted stupidly. In point of fact, he behaved beyond stupidly. He behaved in an obviously racist manner that showed that he is still bitterly clinging to the Blacks’ tired grievances and feelings of insecurity. He also showed an intrinsic distrust of- and lack of respect for law enforcement personnel.

This is not the sort of attitude or behavior that right-thinking Americans wish to see publicly displayed by a POTUS. It is sadly not a completely unexpected attitude or behavior on President Obama’s part though.

From CNN’s transcript of President Obama’s July 22, 2009 press conference:

Question: Thank you, Mr. President. Recently, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you and what does it say about race relations in America?

Obama: Well, I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don’t know all the facts.

What’s been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house. There was a report called in to the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into — well, I guess this is my house now, so…

(Laughter)

… it probably wouldn’t happen. But let’s say my old house in Chicago.

(Laughter)

Here, I’d get shot.

(Laughter)

But so far, so good. They’re — they’re reporting. The police are doing what they should. There’s a call. They go investigate what happens.

My understanding is, at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I’m sure there’s some exchange of words. But my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house and, at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.

Now, I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.

President Obama accused Officer Crowley of behaving stupidly for “arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.” This is an accusation that showed that President Obama was choosing to both comment and render judgment upon something that he knew little or nothing about.

Of course President Obama might have known all he needed to about the incident to form an opinion about it – that being that it involved a Black man and White police officer.

Gates was arrested, as President Obama stated, for Disorderly Conduct. What the POTUS chose to ignore was that the conduct in question was acting in a loud and disturbing manner in public while harassing, insulting, and threatening a police officer who was there solely to protect Mr. Gates’ property.

The details of the debacle – which nobody except for Mr. Gates seems to dispute – surrounding Gates’ arrest are fairly well known, so I won’t post them here. The police report on the incident, filed by both Officer James Crowley and Officer Carlos Figueroa – one of those oft-abused Latinos – can be found here, if you’re interested.

Stupid, racist, bitter, insecure, and hateful to law enforcement – that pretty much sums up President Obama’s performance as far as I’m concerned. Sad when you consider that he was heralded as an inspiration to every Black child in America.

Some inspiration; they already have too many role models for that sort of mindset.

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