Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Obama rushes to quell racial uproar

World Jul. 25, 2009 - 09:26AM JST ( 38 )

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Order by Time Order by Popularity

38 Comments

0

SargeJul. 25, 2009 - 09:11AM JST

"He stopped short of a public apology"

Of course. That would have implied that he was wrong.
0

LFRAgainJul. 25, 2009 - 10:20AM JST

He's not wrong. Contrary to training, contrary to common sense, Officer Crowley let the situation spiral out of control when he confronted Gates. Is the Cambridge Police Department going to stand behind their guy? Of course they are. Is Obama going to stand behind Gates? It would appear so.

Do I think Gates is an angel in this? Of course not. He acted like a pompous ass, quite frankly, and pulled the "racism" card a little too casually, as far as I'm concerned. Also, for the life of me, I can't understand how Gates wouldn't be a little more grateful that the police were taking seriously their charged duty to protect the homes and property of those in their jurisdiction. Gates was being a massive a-hole about it, and I have no doubt he would have been badmouthing the Cambridge PD if someone had robbed his home and the police had not prevented it.

BUT - there's always a "but" - if cops are trained to deal with domestic violence calls and armed drug dealers, then I can't imagine a pompous ass being such a major obstacle to calming the situation as to warrant a trumped up charge of disorderly conduct - conduct that may very well never have come about if the officer were more diplomatic. Crowley's not just a police officer; he's a peace officer. He could have and should have done things to defuse the situation. After all, that's his job. And he shouldn't have let Crowley get under his skin. In other words, he got spooked by a potentially embarrassing situation and reacted stupidly by escalating it. They both did.

Honestly, what Obama should have said - and he would have been dead on-target for it - is that BOTH parties were behaving stupidly.
0

nandakandamandaJul. 25, 2009 - 10:42AM JST

LFRAgain. Agreed.
0

smithinjapanJul. 25, 2009 - 10:56AM JST

sarge: "Of course. That would have implied that he was wrong."

Only in the minds of the feeble. An apology CAN be used simply to mollify the person offended, as is very frequently the case in Japan. Just look at the incident a few years back in which the American sub was performing an 'emergency surfacing', the US government at the time REFUSED to apologize for killing a Japanese fishing crew because it would mean the goevrnment was 'sorry', when all the Japanese wanted was an apology.

Too many people think that it's some weird admission of guilt, and in turn that that guilt is some kind of incredible sin and/or that the person who says sorry is ultimately a fallible character. Hell, look at the reaction from you guys when the US goes to other nations to apologize! You'll notice the officer ALSO refuses to apologize -- people will pounce all over either the minute they do, even if the apology is just to make the other party feel better.

Anyway, it's good that the president can at least admit he could have chosen better words. I don't think he was 'wrong' in saying what he said, he just could have said it better. Regardless, it doesn't excuse the officer's actions.
0

MolenirJul. 25, 2009 - 11:04AM JST

BUT - there's always a "but" - if cops are trained to deal with domestic violence calls and armed drug dealers, then I can't imagine a pompous ass being such a major obstacle to calming the situation as to warrant a trumped up charge of disorderly conduct - conduct that may very well never have come about if the officer were more diplomatic.

I disagree actually. I think he was correct in his actions. When a person will not calm down, one way to calm the situation, is to simply arrest them. Thats how it works in DV situations as well. Arrest someone, take em in. Give everyone a chance to cool down, and reflect on their actions etc, and hopefully, cooler heads prevail the next day. The man Gates was going off, screaming at the officer, refusing to show ID, etc. The officer couldn't calm him down, so he acted the way he should, and arrested him. If this was any other person, that would be the end of it. Black officer would have done the same thing. Though I suspect a black officer wouldn't have had Gates screaming at him about racial profiling etc.
0

Bgood41Jul. 25, 2009 - 12:01PM JST

There are bad cops out there, but this case is about "the arrogant of black elite" in the U.S. For not knowing the fact and as a lawyer in his profession, allegedly speaking Obama was so stupid to say that cops acting stupidly. Of course, without any shame Obama is now acknowledge that he should calibrate for better words, and both men are overreacted and invite them to wash down with beers in the white house. Cops across the U.S demanded the "apology"; for Obama went around the world to apologize about America, but of course he could not apologize on his own action. SHAME.
0

Suzu1Jul. 25, 2009 - 12:02PM JST

There is a lot of backpedaling now that it is known the police have audio recording of the entire encounter. Strangely Gates is not pushing for release of the tape.........
0

Klein2Jul. 25, 2009 - 01:58PM JST

Bgood You seem very confident without knowing any one of the people involved, OR the facts of the case. Perhaps by becoming involved to some degree, Obama is emphasizing that this is a teaching moment.

Personally, I know all I need to know. Police intruded into this man's home based on what appears to be an anonymous neighbor phone call. That is not probable cause. They should have left him alone and gotten more information. If they had done that to anyone after they had just returned home from the airport, they would have been quite angry. To someone with reason to believe it was racially motivated or menacing, of course they would go ballistic. Private citizens have a right to privacy. He was never armed and represented no danger to anyone.

Molenir: why do the police need to calm him down? If they had just left, he could have gone back to his business, and the police could have gone back to whatever they were doing. Why not give a name and badge number? Why arrest citizens without charging them? Is that really a good idea... or only with black people?

As we know, this is a point of tension in urban America. Going around arresting people based on racial profiling would be tolerated how long in Japan? How long before white people would be screaming epithets as they are led to the KOBAN to cool off for awhile?
0

Klein2Jul. 25, 2009 - 02:19PM JST

LFR Your post is mostly right on. The fact that this is Cambridge MA suggests two things to me. MAYBE pulling the race card was a little over the top, and MAYBE expecting that a black person is a crack dealer is a little whacko. Both of those observations support your conclusion that both overreacted.

But wait, whoa wait. One person is allowed and entitled to overreact, and one is expected and in fact PAID not to overreact. To me, the police have to give the apology here because they MUST be the responsible party. To say that they are not is to say that they did not control the situation, and they certainly did. He had the gun, whether he unholstered it or not, and he had the badge, and he had a car and a radio. Society expects that he will represent you and me.

To me, the officer should be a man and just say

look, sorry for giving you a hard time. Someone called and I was trying to protect your stuff from burglars. I had no way of knowing who you were. We should have observed you rather than confronting you. We will try to do better.

No shame there. Everyone gets back to work. Police officers are public SERVANTS and they should act like it.
0

MadvertsJul. 25, 2009 - 03:01PM JST

Bah, send their asses to the Whitehouse for a beer as Obama suggested.

I think Obama acted stupidly for entering into this ridiculous affair, but not living in the US I guess I'm pretty ignorant of the racial tensions there....
0

cleoJul. 25, 2009 - 03:03PM JST

Police intruded into this man's home based on what appears to be an anonymous neighbor phone call. That is not probable cause.

Read the police report. That doesn't appear to be the case at all. The woman who phoned in was waiting for the police outside the house, she was not 'anonymous' at all. Also the officer identified himself to Gates, who refused to tell the officer his name, immediately accusing him of racism. If the report is correct, and there is no reason to think it is not, this Gates person is a grade-one jerk.

why do the police need to calm him down? If they had just left, he could have gone back to his business

Until Gates deigned to identify himself, for all the police officer knew 'his business' might be ransacking the house he's just broken into.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17512830/Gates-Police-Report
0

LFRAgainJul. 25, 2009 - 03:26PM JST

Nice score on the police report, Cleo. Thanks for that.

Yeah, from the report, it sounds like Gates is a fairly large jackass.
0

sharky1Jul. 25, 2009 - 03:59PM JST

I wouldn't call Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton supporters in this issue. They are two of the biggest racists I have ever seen next to Louis Farrakhan and Malcom X. There only position is to gain exposure for themselves and stir up racial dissent. It's too bad that the first black president of the United States stooped to their level of thinking. All this considered, it would not be wrong for Obama to apologize to the police officer, and it would not be wrong for the officer to apologize to Gates, and it would not be wrong for Gates to apologize to the police officer. If all apologized to each other, then maybe someone will be forgiven by the other party.
0

Helter_SkelterJul. 25, 2009 - 04:43PM JST

Supporters including Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson called the arrest an outrageous act of racial profiling.

Of course. These race pimps gotta keep racism alive. It's their living.

"And I could’ve calibrated those words differently.”

"Calibrated". Yeah, whatever. You meant what you said and said what you meant. Own up to it and apologize for your inappropriate remark.
0

TriumvereJul. 25, 2009 - 05:09PM JST

"If the report is correct"

That's a pretty big "if", Cleo.

"and there is no reason to think it is not"

And what, is your reason for think it is, exactly? Or do you just trust the officer by default in these situations?

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of respect for the police, but logic would dictate that you should approach both Gates' and the officer's accounts with a bit of skepticism, as they both hae potential to be self-serving. Unless, of course, you've already made up your mind about who you are going to trust going into it.
0

TriumvereJul. 25, 2009 - 05:11PM JST

that should read: "thinking"... and "have".

damn, got to spellcheck these things more often...
0

MadvertsJul. 25, 2009 - 05:38PM JST

Bah, the copper was on a power trip and so was Gates. Everyone has acted stupidly, including the president for entering into this fray.

They should go to the Whitehouse, have a beer and make a nice phot-op to help hide the apparently seething racial tensions in the US.
0

TriumvereJul. 25, 2009 - 05:47PM JST

Heh. I'm with Madverts on this, with save that I think that the cop, being a cop, had a higher level of responability to live up to. I was rather surprised Obama got involved; politicians - especially presidents - generally know when to keep their heads down. Still, it's worth noting that Obama wasn't far from the mark... he never accused the cop of racism, he just noted that there is a clear, ongoing problem with racial profling in the US and that the officer had exercised poor judgement in arresting the man - something I think you can make a strong argument for.
0

sailwindJul. 25, 2009 - 05:50PM JST

I think the beer idea on the face of it sounds pretty good, though there might be a problem with it after all.

Mr. Gates seems to be pretty obnoxious guy when he is sober, I'd hate to see what he is like after he had few beers in him.
0

MolenirJul. 25, 2009 - 05:53PM JST

They should go to the Whitehouse, have a beer and make a nice phot-op to help hide the apparently seething racial tensions in the US.

Heh, well I don't agree that the cop acted stupidly, I do agree that Gates and Obama both did. Still that beer at the White House sounds like a good way to make up for the whole thing.
0

cleoJul. 25, 2009 - 06:11PM JST

And what, is your reason for think it is, exactly? Or do you just trust the officer by default in these situations?

By default? No. But the police have made an official report and made it publicly available. If the report were not correct then independent witnesses would surely have popped up by now saying 'Actually no, that's not how it happened'.

Compare the police report with the statement made on Gates' behalf by, I presume, his lawyer - http://www.theroot.com/views/lawyers-statement-arrest-henry-louis-gates-jr

It just doesn't sound convincing. If things happened the way Gates says, why did he insist on asking for the officer's name and badge number? Once he'd established who he was and that he was in his own house, why didn't he simply thank the officer for investigating the call? Why on earth would the officer handcuff Gates in the circumstances Gates describes, and if those were the circumstances, why did none of the other people standing around at the time, police or neighbours, object then or come forward later?

Gates' official story is full of holes and doesn't ring true.
0

TriumvereJul. 25, 2009 - 06:25PM JST

I'm not saying that you should trust Gates, rather, I'm saying that you shouldn't trust either of them. The truth most likely lies somewhere in the middle.

If we flip this around, and assume that the officer's report is true, then we still have the problem of that the conduct that Gates is accused of fails to raise to the standard of "disorderly conduct" as defined by Massachusetts State law, even if you take the officer's account verbatim.

Now, before people start in on "disturbing the peace", let's make sure we're clear on the standard we're talking about here:

fighting or threatening, violent or tumultuous behavior, or creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition for no legitimate purpose other than to cause public annoyance or alarm

Also note that Gates' accusation of racism fall under the umbrella of "political speech" which is specifically exempted in the statue.

(from http://www.slate.com/id/2223379/)

As far as I can see, this entire incident can be summed up in three short sentences:

1) Gates was being an a-hole. 2) Cop arrested Gates for being an a-hole. 3) It is not against the law to be an a-hole.
0

TriumvereJul. 25, 2009 - 06:54PM JST

Adendum:

I'll take a stab at a few of these:

If things happened the way Gates says, why did he insist on asking for the officer's name and badge number? Once he'd established who he was and that he was in his own house, why didn't he simply thank the officer for investigating the call?

Easy. Same answer to both of these: by this time Gates, rightly or wrongly, had already decided that his rights were being abused by a racist cop and that he wasn't going to take it lying down.

Why on earth would the officer handcuff Gates in the circumstances Gates describes...

Another easy one: to teach him a lesson. The officer decided that Gates was being disrespectful, and decided to haul him in to show him who's boss. Cuffs for maximum humiliation. Infact, if you lend creedence to Gates' account, the officer appears to have repeatedly tried to lure him onto the poarch so he could do exactly that; hard to arrest someone for "disorderly conduct" when they are inside their own property.

and if those were the circumstances, why did none of the other people standing around at the time, police or neighbours, object then or come forward later?

What sort of standard is this? How do you know they didn't object? Better yet, how do you know they didn't disapprove but declined to get involved all the same... happens all the time. Even better, what are you expecting them to object to? They weren't in the house when the initial exchange took place, so they had no way of judging the cop's behavior or to see if Gates was justified in his reaction. And no-one disputes Gates was vocally accusing the cop of racism and mistreatment from his porch when arrested. How many witnesses are coming forward to say how Gates was "creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition" from his porch?

Basically, what you are saying is "if Gates is innocent, why hasn't anyone stepped forward to put a stop to this?" Not exactly the sort of standard I want my justice system to conform to.
0

MadvertsJul. 25, 2009 - 07:03PM JST

Triumvere,

"3) It is not against the law to be an a-hole."

Heh, and 4) It's an international phenomenen. And sadly, there's lot's of 'em.

Saliwind,

"I'd hate to see what he is like after he had few beers in him."

Agreed. I bet it's lite beer at the Whitehouse mind, not proper European beer :p
0

nandakandamandaJul. 25, 2009 - 07:08PM JST

Maybe Gates is timid way down inside there under all the black pride stuff.

Maybe he saw the white cop, made a racist analysis of the situation, and panicked. Who knows?

Behind all this 'racist' rubbish though, it's down to two male egos here. Not sure if sharing a beer at the White House will solve it, but put them both in a life-threatening team experience, and they might just begin to generate some respect for each other and be able to joke in hindsight about what after all has to have been the classic unscriptable situation. Fact is surely stranger than fiction! LOL
0

SargeJul. 25, 2009 - 08:26PM JST

"knocked off stride"

Obama really should just stick to what's on the telepromter.
0

BadseyJul. 25, 2009 - 08:38PM JST

The "neighbor" was just walking by when she saw Gates and his accomplice trying to break in. =Most likely lived in the area and not next door = Most likely didn't know who the man with the cane (Gates) was. -This is sort of the racial profiling that Gates alludes to.

Thankfully Massachusettes has these "Nutter Laws" so people like Gates can be arrested and held until they are in a calmer state of mind. I believe the Nutter Laws were placed in the state constitution by the Puritans who also started Harvard as their first college (also first U.S. College). You got to hand it to the Puritans -they were so ahead of the game, but they were also the first to burn liberals who they classified as "witches"
0

MocheakeJul. 25, 2009 - 09:14PM JST

I wouldn't call Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton supporters in this issue. They are two of the biggest racists I have ever seen next to Louis Farrakhan and Malcom X....Sharky1 Yeah, and I suppose all the white racists just up and disappeared since whites so graciously elected a black president on the basis of his color and not his merit. Any cop comes to my house here in Japan or in the States and tries to arrest me is going to leave with his baton in a different position. I stand by Mr. Gates. Walk in different shoes and see the difference. Go to a place and get profiled over and over for no reason then tell me how much you all like it.
0

WolfpackJul. 25, 2009 - 10:41PM JST

Sarge says:

Obama really should just stick to what's on the telepromter. Very true. Whenever he gazes away from his teleprompter he starts mumbling, uses alot of filler words - 'uh, umm, ahh' - and gets into long-winded statements that don't really mean anything. The race question however put him in his comfort zone. For the first time in the press conference, he answered a question directly, clearly, and without fumbling his words.

With his poll numbers declining and his domestic agenda in trouble, the last thing Obama needs to be doing is causing a national uproar over race. His efforts to tamp down the issue are made worse his refusal to apologize for singling out the white policeman. Ironically, he seems to feel that America is always wrong but he never is. Far from being "post-racial", Obama is unable to get beyond the racial sensitivities that he has for the preferred side of his own racial heritage. A president should never allow himself to be interjected into a local issue like this. However, he couldn't pass up the chance to go after a white policeman even though he didn't know any more details then the fact that his buddy Professor Gates was involved. He reflexively protected his friend and went after the working class white policeman.

This is the kind of thing that you get with a Left-wing ideology that is focused on peoples racial differences and not focusing on the content of each individuals character.
0

elbudamexicanoJul. 26, 2009 - 12:36AM JST

Are there racist white cops in the USA? Sure, there are, but was this guy a racist? Maybe he just wanted to teach the Havard Professor a lesson? Sounds like Prof. Gates saying stuff like do you know who I am? etc...is a quick way for cops to get angry and for them to put sassy folk (of any color) back in their places. The proff. should have just said, hey the president of the USA is my personal homey, and you gonna get fired! I doubt that Obama will get him fired, too many liberal dems up in Massachussets that voted for him and who would like to vote for him in the next elecctions.
0

TheQuestionJul. 26, 2009 - 12:38AM JST

I'm not saying that you should trust Gates, rather, I'm saying that you shouldn't trust either of them. The truth most likely lies somewhere in the middle.

A bit paranoid are we? I'm not saying that nessicarily makes you wrong, I simply tend to believe uncontested police reports more than the gentlemen who played the race card the second he found out the officer wasn't a minority.

If we flip this around, and assume that the officer's report is true, then we still have the problem of that the conduct that Gates is accused of fails to raise to the standard of "disorderly conduct" as defined by Massachusetts State law, even if you take the officer's account verbatim.

I don't know, shouting and oppressive behavior towards and officer of the law in front of a growing crowd of onlookers seems to be proper justification in my mind. Just imagine if Gate's was an overweight shirtless man on Cops and was cussing and shouting at the officer, I doubt you would have an issue with a charge then.

Any cop comes to my house here in Japan or in the States and tries to arrest me is going to leave with his baton in a different position. I stand by Mr. Gates. Walk in different shoes and see the difference. Go to a place and get profiled over and over for no reason then tell me how much you all like it.

Hay, I see where you and other JT posters are comming from, profiling is annoying, I know, but I've always complied because the officers are merely acting on experience. In the place where I grew up most crimes are commited by hispanics, I happen to be of Cuban heritage, if a pattern exists you would be stupid to ignore it. So my parent's complied, I complied, and we even managed to get to know some of the officers. This kind of stuff still happens from time to time but I keep matters discrete and respectful in hopes my positive attitude manages to make an impact.
0

SuperLibJul. 26, 2009 - 03:39AM JST

The real problem is race relations, but the bigger problem now is how the US steps on our own you-know-whats when dealing with racial problems. We have a situation here where no one really knows that happened. It mostly has to do with emotions or gesturing, not necessarily physical actions, and to that extent we'll never really know exactly what happened. That's to say there's no clear cut answer either way.

So what do we do? We turn it into a race circus. Without any way of knowing exactly what happened this situation is an extremely bad case study for race relations, yet now it's on the front page of every newspaper in the world. The usual demands for apologies are being made when in fact we don't know if it's warranted. I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of clear-cut cases where an apology is in order, yet we're going to use this specific case to have the discussion.

Obama has already made comments and has had to soften them. The Governor is asking for an apology and calling it "every black man's nightmare." How can he make a statement like that with such fuzzy evidence? Because it's the usual knee-jerk reaction to racism, and in the end it doesn't even matter if the racism was real or not. It reminds me of the sexual harassment cases where in the end the specifics of the case took a back seat to the need to make people "aware" of sexual harassment. So guilt or innocence went out the window, it was simply used as a trigger for people to get their agenda out there. Sharpton and Jackson get involved and they don't ask if this cop did anything wrong, they start giving speeches about racism overall because it's an opportunity to do so. When you give general lectures about race when talking about this case then the guilt is suddenly assumed. We could very well have a situation where the cop did nothing wrong at all but it will be remembered as an example of race problems in the US.
0

OssanAmericaJul. 26, 2009 - 05:02AM JST

The police report is very enlightening. Hats off to Cleo fot that. I hope they release the recording of Gates ranting in the background. I really don't see any evidence of Crowley "escalating" the problem as it appears basically a unilateral verbal attack, lack of cooperation, and ridiculous attitude on the part of Gates. As for his getting arrested, once Gates followed Crowley outside and continued with his rant he was indeed guilty of disorderly conduct and his getting arrested was proper protocol. Of course it seems this race baiter may have been aiming for just that. The charges were subsequently dropped bot because of any fault in the arrest but clearly an effort not to make this a bigger issue. The bigger problem in my mind is that we've got a man in the White house who does't think before he talks, can't apologize when he's caught in error, and doesn't choose his words but calibrates them.
0

TriumvereJul. 26, 2009 - 11:53AM JST

A bit paranoid are we? I'm not saying that nessicarily makes you wrong, I simply tend to believe uncontested police reports more than the gentlemen who played the race card the second he found out the officer wasn't a minority.

Paranoid? No, just skeptical. A little skepticism is healthy. Police fake police reports all the time... a tactic when pulling people over for supposesd drivng violations is to claim that "they smelled of alcohol". This has happend in cases certain cases where it has been later proven conclusively that no alcohol has been consumed. Once again, this is not a knock at the police; I'm sure most officers are upstanding cops that don't falsify their reports, but just look at this logically:

Conciously or unconciously, the police report will likely be biased toward the officer, simply because he wrote it from his own perspective. Same is true of Gates' account. Now, add to that the pressure to potray youself in the best light given the level of controversy and what you get is two documents that should be viewed with a little bit of healthy skepticism.

As for his getting arrested, once Gates followed Crowley outside and continued with his rant he was indeed guilty of disorderly conduct and his getting arrested was proper protocol

Maybe elsewhere, but not in Massachussetts it wasn't. Once again, the definition of "disorderly conduct" as defined by the Massachusetts court has been posted, and Gates' behavior doesn't meet that standard.
0

LFRAgainJul. 26, 2009 - 11:59AM JST

" . . . to put sassy folk (of any color) back in their places."

Wow. We're just pulling out all the stops here today, aren't we?
0

Helter_SkelterJul. 26, 2009 - 04:49PM JST

Obama rushes to quell racial uproar

...that he helped create.
0

sharky1Jul. 26, 2009 - 11:23PM JST

Oh, and mocheake doesn't think the sharky gets profiled...I see you don't have all the facts either...