Obama Takes Sides....Against Police

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This is making more news than the news conference itself, as it should. He stuck his nose into something he knows nothing about -- much like he's doing with healthcare. Cops around the nation are outraged, as they should be.

oh paleeze, the man was unfairly arrested at his own home. as to obama getting involved Professor Gates is a friend of the presidents, and he should be able to passionately respond, and for those of us who have been profiled, we get it and his recognition of such was heartening.

Consider the 2003 case of King Downing, director of the National Campaign Against Racial Profiling for the ACLU, who was detained at Logan Airport when he refused to provide identification to a police officer. Downing sued, saying he was the victim of racial profiling, and a jury found that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. Apparently, the Cambridge police didn’t get the message that detaining people based on their color is unconstitutional in America.

Maybe the Cambridge police officer was instead following the example set in the case of Jason Vassell, a former student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with no previous criminal history. Vassell, an African-American, was recently charged with aggravated assault and battery in the stabbing of two men inside his dormitory. The incident started when the two men, both white, reportedly smashed Vassell’s window while hurling racial epithets at him, then entered the building and attacked Vassel. The two white attackers got off lightly, while Vassell is facing serious jail time.

Or perhaps the Cambridge police thought that they could just ignore the law. That’s what some 40 percent of 247 Massachusetts police departments have done in response to a state law that requires them to track the race and gender of people stopped by police for alleged traffic violations, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety.

Those departments were found to have apparent racial disparities in traffic citations after a year-long study of citation patterns throughout Massachusetts. Rather than comply with the requirement to track all stops, however, nearly half of Massachusetts law enforcement agencies have simply disregarded the law.

I suggest people read the full police report before making judgements. The officer that arrested him is actually the department expert on racial profiling and the ex police chief who is black states that he stands behind the officer. Gee and you think a professor who is a spokesman for racism and has a history of screamng racism at everything might just be doing his usual thing? I read the full report and the officer reacted appropriately and was attemptng to leave when Gates continued on in full force outside his home and was causing a disturbance. The handcuffs were not applied untill then. He was not in his house but rather outside.