Henry Gates and Presidential Attention
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve said anything here. To be honest, I’ve been so flabbergasted by a lot of what’s been going on, I simply haven’t been able to find the words to say anything. Today, however, I’ve been reading through the information regarding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and President Obama’s comments regarding the situation last night. This is a firm example of why you should be very careful of what gets said from the Bully Pulpit.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, Henry Gates, a Harvard University President and apparent acquaintance of the President’s, was arrested for disorderly conduct outside of his home earlier this week. From what has been gathered, he was returning home from a trip and he and his driver were trying to open his front door, which was stuck. His neighbor, not recognizing who it was, called in a suspected break-in in progress. Police arrived on the scene and verified Henry Gates’ identity. This is where the story starts to deviate, however.
The story that is being spun currently is that Henry Gates was arrested for no reason at all, other than for purely racist ones. He is claiming that he was arrested in association with the original complaint despite having proved that he lived at the residence in question. The President, during his remarks last evening, went so far as to say the police acted “stupidly,” and this was yet another sign of a continuing racial divide in the United States.
On the other side of the coin, we have the statements of the two responding officers, which can be seen in the police reports at the Smoking Gun. According to the police reports, Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct after following the originally responding officer out of his house and continuing to yell and berate the officer in an unacceptable manner in public. He was warned twice to cease and desist before being placed under arrest.
The actual situation aside, you now have a situation where the President has called police officers stupid for doing their job, even while stating he wasn’t aware of all of the facts in the situation. This is proving to be the norm in Washington at this point. You have politicians, including the President, making decisions and statements without all of the facts in the situation and with no apparent desire to have all of the facts. Instead, they’re quite happy to browbeat police officers and make major policy decisions with partial information at best.
I can’t speak for President Obama, but one of the first things I was taught growing up was to make every effort to have all of the facts before making a decision or saying something. It looks like this is a lesson the President should revisit before simply assuming someone acted incorrectly or with malice in a situation. I’ve found it saves you from egg on the face and meals of crow.
As a brief post-script, Robert Gibbs is apparently trying to spin the remarks today as the President not calling the officers stupid. Of course I fail to see how anyone would buy that when the President stated the officers acted stupidly. Of course, that was more than two hours ago. What’s the latest on Paula Abdul returning to American Idol?