Open the Gates!!

I have been out of the country recently (Tennessee) and haven’t been able to get to my blog. I was talking to my brother (who is a New York Ex-pat who now lives outside Nashville) on my drive down. He was telling me about Barack’s speech the night before. He told me about Obama’s ‘stupid’ sentence. Although I love my brother and trust him implicitly, he is one of those gun-nut conservatives from the seemingly sovereign Volunteer State. (OK- so I’m a pro-concealed carry guy – with limits, but that’s another story). So I talk to my just-as-confused partner in Chevastac Analysis Corp and he tells me the same thing. Hmmm. Something seems wrong here. Gotta look this up myself. So, after getting into Murfreesboro, I feed the squirrel to get him running to power up my mother’s computer (which I believe was just upgraded to the only 14.4 modem in town). All the paper’s say the same thing. I can seem to find absolutely no evidence that supports Henry Gates. Obama was truly wrong in stepping into this fray. If for some reason, he felt he needed to step into the fray, he should have gotten all the information first, then denounced Gates and praised officer Crowley.

            How about this scenario: What if Officer Crowley (and his HISPANIC partner) just left after someone else refused to be cooperative, refused to identify himself, and claimed it was their house? What if these were real criminals breaking into Gates’ house? What would ANY community (Black, White, Irish, Indian) think 3 days later when the real family was found bound and gagged and beaten in the house? Would Gates be there to support the officers? Would he be saying that officers should let all black men be belligerent and non-cooperative if they say its their house? No. Gates wouldn’t be looking for a medal for these guys. He’d be screaming for their heads. In reality, scholars, students and staff at Harvard should be calling for Professor Gates head.

            Now, I gotta call a spade a spade here. If the local police saw me jimmying my own door, and came by and asked what was going on, I would be relieved to know that the police were there and doing their job, and would cooperate fully. I guess I could ask if they were stopping me because I was Irish. Or german. Or Irish German. Or if its because I’m a state worker. Or if it was because I wasn’t a natural born Adirondacker (yes, I grew up 2 miles outside the blue line). But then, the only satisfaction I would get would be to see how well the cuffs were secured to the jail cell that evening.

            But back to Obama. Yes, there are still race problems in America. Yes, there probably is illegal profiling going on. But, this isn’t one of those cases. Officer Crowley is the type of officer you want in your town, be it a white, black or Hispanic neighborhood. He was hand-picked by the BLACK police commissioner to head up the ‘anti-profiling’ for the department. He’s is only guilty of doing his job as we all hoped he would. If Obama wants to move some type of race agenda forward, this was one of the worst possible situations he could have chosen. It is probable that Gates is a friend, and he had a knee jerk reaction to the situation, which is understandable, if not actually acceptable in a president (its not like Gates lied to a federal grand jury or outed a CIA operative, ya know).

            As if all this wasn’t enough. The media has been prattling on how this infuriated conservatives and police unions. Well, if Obama wishes someone happy birthday, it infuriates the conservatives, but the police unions were truly and rightfully enraged. But, guess who else was enraged, or should have been enraged? EVERONE else!Why would the press and media somehow not be upset by this? This takes a big sheen off Obama’s big tent race relations agenda. It calls into question (again) his choice in black leaders.   Moderates should have been P-O’d. Democrats. Liberals. This is a topic that both Obama’s supporters and detractors can both come to a consensus that this was, to quote Barry, ‘Stupid’