From the "Black People Arrest Themselves" files

[KRonn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32092715/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/

White House qualifies Obama 'stupidly' remark
White officer who arrested Harvard professor won't apologize over incident

[CountDeMoney]

My God, the racism of the Cambridge PD knows no bounds: now they're gunning for the President!

Crowley's union predicts Obama will regret remarks
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

The lawyer for the police union that represents Cambridge Sergeant James M. Crowley today predicted that President Obama will regret that he accused department officers of "acting stupidly" when they handcuffed Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. even after he showed proof that he lived in his house.

"He conceded that he didn't have all the facts, and indeed he didn't," Alan J. McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said of the president. "I suspect that when the full picture comes out, he will regret the remarks he made."

Obama, speaking at a nationally televised press conference Wednesday night, said he didn't "know all the facts" about the case and didn't know whether race played a role in the arrest of Gates, who is black, by Crowley, a white officer investigating a burglary report.

But the president added that it is "just a fact" that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped by police -- evidence "that race remains a factor in our society."

McDonald, the lawyer for the 50-member police union, says he knows Crowley personally and considers him a topnotch officer who behaved appropriately in the Gates arrest.

He said he and members of the union "were disappointed" in Obama's remarks. "I think perhaps the president might have second thoughts about shooting from the hip."

The White House today, meanwhile, backed away slightly from President Obama's remark.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters traveling on Air Force One that Obama did not regret the remark during his primetime news conference Wednesday night, but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid.

Obama felt "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed" once the officer realized Gates was in his own home, Gibbs said, according to the Associated Press.

[Sophie Scholl]

I suspect that race may have played a role in the officer's actions.  That suspicion is based on the difficulty I have imagining that in situation involving white persons of similar prominence in that community - such as the Mayor of the city or Justice Breyer - that the officer would have arrested that individual, cuffed him on the porch of his house, and then detained him in custody for 4-5 hours.  And so far, no one in this thread has suggested that the latter is a realistically imaginable scenario.

I'd say neither the Mayor or Justice Breyer, if they are both white as you suggest, would throw the race card around, so therefore it would be nigh impossible for them to have the same incident occur as it did.  This whole exercise in alternate history is therefore rendered moot and no more useful than an unexplained Tim map.

[Malthus]

I suspect that race may have played a role in the officer's actions.  That suspicion is based on the difficulty I have imagining that in situation involving white persons of similar prominence in that community - such as the Mayor of the city or Justice Breyer - that the officer would have arrested that individual, cuffed him on the porch of his house, and then detained him in custody for 4-5 hours.  And so far, no one in this thread has suggested that the latter is a realistically imaginable scenario.

I'd say neither the Mayor or Justice Breyer, if they are both white as you suggest, would throw the race card around, so therefore it would be nigh impossible for them to have the same incident occur as it did.  This whole exercise in alternate history is therefore rendered moot and no more useful than an unexplained Tim map.

Well ... I suppose they could still have said "you don't know who you are dealing with". But I doubt many would express much sympathy for that particular comment. 

[Berkut]

If someone who was not black, but a prominent member of society had a temper tantrum and tried to use their position to intimidate a cop, and the cop slapped cuffs on him, everyone would be cheering the cop on.

[garbon]

If someone who was not black, but a prominent member of society had a temper tantrum and tried to use their position to intimidate a cop, and the cop slapped cuffs on him, everyone would be cheering the cop on.

Lies.

[garbon]

Btw, I think we can all agree that our commander in chief acted deplorably and should have stayed out of this minor squabble.

[Caliga]

Btw, I think we can all agree that our commander in chief acted deplorably and should have stayed out of this minor squabble.

[Caliga]

Yeah, but hearing him speak on the local news, and then demanding that the officer BEG forgiveness, has left me feeling a bit otherwise about the illustrious professor.

Well it seems likely that his students didn't have a tendency to question his OSSUMness to his face.

[Siege]

Is there anybody here that seriously think the cop was the one on the wrong?

[garbon]

Also, I like that the cop is a "racial profiling expert."  Next we'll be hearing from his black friends.

[garbon]

Is there anybody here that seriously think the cop was the one on the wrong?

Yes.

Although just one of two, as they both played it wrong.

[Berkut]

Yes.

Although just one of two, as they both played it wrong.

You are only saying that because you are black.

[Razgovory]

Is there anybody here that seriously think the cop was the one on the wrong?

It's always a bad move to arrest the friend of the President.

[CountDeMoney]

Also, I like that the cop is a "racial profiling expert."  Next we'll be hearing from his black friends.

Since agencies have to go through so much mandatory racial profiling training, all officers are racial profiling experts.