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This is a topic from the Current Politics and Religious Topics forum on inthe00s.
Subject: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: LyricBoy on 07/23/09 at 3:20 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly
Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert
AP - By Denise Lavoie
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.
Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.
"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.
Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in.
Crowley, 42, has maintained he did nothing wrong and has refused to apologize, as Gates has demanded.
Crowley responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused, flew into a rage and accused the officer of racism.
Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday.
Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw "two black males with backpacks" trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed.
Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.
"I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."
In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he followed procedure.
"I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."
Crowley did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday by the AP. The Cambridge police department scheduled a news conference for later Thursday.
Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest. He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.
"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said.
He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."
The president said federal officials need to continue working with local law enforcement "to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias."
Fellow officers, black and white, say Crowley is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.
Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, and a statement from the city called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate."
The mayor refused Thursday to comment on the president's remarks.
Police supporters charge that Gates, director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, was responsible for his own arrest by overreacting.
Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: Rice_Cube on 07/23/09 at 4:10 pm
So...what's going on now? ??? :o
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: danootaandme on 07/23/09 at 4:25 pm
For someone who is supposed to be sensitive to racial profiling. I would say his going on the Dennis and Callahan Show, a sports talk show known for its "racial insensetivity" to explain his side shows a woeful lack of understanding on many levels.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: LyricBoy on 07/23/09 at 4:31 pm
For someone who is supposed to be sensitive to racial profiling. I would say his going on the Dennis and Callahan Show, a sports talk show known for its "racial insensetivity" to explain his side shows a woeful lack of understanding on many levels.
Or maybe his life is not centered on his race. He is well within his rights to go onto any TV show and tell his story, just as Gates has the right to get Al Sharpton on the case; Al is rarely known to take any "side" other than the black "side". Many white people see The Reverend Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton as a race baiter too.
And so there is the problem in our country. One man's open discussion is another man's "racial insensitivity".
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: danootaandme on 07/23/09 at 4:42 pm
Or maybe his life is not centered on his race. He is well within his rights to go onto any TV show and tell his story, just as Gates has the right to get Al Sharpton on the case; Al is rarely known to take any "side" other than the black "side". Many white people see The Reverend Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton as a race baiter too.
And so there is the problem in our country. One man's open discussion is another man's "racial insensitivity".
Yeah, but any one of the local news stations would have chomped at the bit. This is news, not sports. He chose a sport station, the one show that is an open wound in the black community. As I said in the other thread, these are the guys who referred to an escaped Gorilla as a Metco Gorilla, Metco being the program that sends minority students out of district to better schools. They never do news, but they did for this one issue. Odd, just odd.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: MaxwellSmart on 07/23/09 at 6:48 pm
Yeah, but any one of the local news stations would have chomped at the bit. This is news, not sports. He chose a sport station, the one show that is an open wound in the black community. As I said in the other thread, these are the guys who referred to an escaped Gorilla as a Metco Gorilla, Metco being the program that sends minority students out of district to better schools. They never do news, but they did for this one issue. Odd, just odd.
At least Crowley didn't go on Howie Carr or Jay Severin. Could've been worse.
Maybe it has less to do with race than with the way cops treat everybody regardless of color!
::)
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: danootaandme on 07/23/09 at 7:53 pm
At least Crowley didn't go on Howie Carr or Jay Severin. Could've been worse.
Maybe it has less to do with race than with the way cops treat everybody regardless of color!
::)
I ditto that.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: Macphisto on 07/23/09 at 9:34 pm
Yeah, but any one of the local news stations would have chomped at the bit. This is news, not sports. He chose a sport station, the one show that is an open wound in the black community. As I said in the other thread, these are the guys who referred to an escaped Gorilla as a Metco Gorilla, Metco being the program that sends minority students out of district to better schools. They never do news, but they did for this one issue. Odd, just odd.
What did they say on this show that offended black people?
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: danootaandme on 07/24/09 at 5:19 am
What did they say on this show that offended black people?
You don't think calling a gorilla a Metco student is offensive?
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: LyricBoy on 07/24/09 at 6:46 am
You don't think calling a gorilla a Metco student is offensive?
Interesting. These two guys make a remark like that and are castigated. (Note, the station suspended the guy who made the Metco remark for two days)
The Reverend Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson makes a series of derogatory comments about the Jewish people and he is considered a pinnacle of tolerance.
Danoota, by your standard, Jesse Jackson should be in palookaville by now, shunned by commentators.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: danootaandme on 07/24/09 at 7:46 am
Danoota, by your standard, Jesse Jackson should be in palookaville by now, shunned by commentators.
By my standards he should be in palookaville, personally I am sick of seeing his face, he should have been gone a long time ago. I have never defended those remarks and considered them the basest of all comments, especially by someone who participated in the civil rights era.
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: Rice_Cube on 07/24/09 at 11:20 am
You don't think calling a gorilla a Metco student is offensive?
In the context you described, it is pretty offensive, yes.
Was the actual conversation between the officer and the gentlemen also offensive?
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: MaxwellSmart on 07/24/09 at 9:05 pm
The Reverend Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson makes a series of derogatory comments about the Jewish people and he is considered a pinnacle of tolerance.
Can you come up with an example that's under a quarter century old? I've got issues with Reverend Jesse, but "hymietown" isn't one of them.
::)
Subject: Re: Gates Arrest - Uh Oh...
Written By: Macphisto on 07/25/09 at 2:49 pm
You don't think calling a gorilla a Metco student is offensive?
I was asking because I don't know anything about this show. Now that I've looked up this incident, I would agree.