Total Victory
Chalk one up for law and order, and a civil society.
The President of the United States doesn’t invite racial-profiling bigot cops to the White House. Or say things like this. Boston Herald:
I actually just had a conversation with Sergeant Jim Crowley, the officer involved. And I have to tell you that as I said yesterday, my impression of him was that he was a outstanding police officer and a good man, and that was confirmed in the phone conversation — and I told him that.
And because this has been ratcheting up — and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up — I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically — and I could have calibrated those words differently. And I told this to Sergeant Crowley.
Sure, there’s a grab back. Come on, we’re talking about Obama. He almost makes Bill Clinton look classy. And honest.
I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well. My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.
The fact that it has garnered so much attention I think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America. So to the extent that my choice of words didn’t illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.
Yeah, well, stupidly is as stupidly does, to paraphrase Forrest Gump. About that “media frenzy,” as a proud Tabloid-American, I resent the implication that any of this is somehow my fault. It all could have been over quickly and quietly, with dignity for all, after Gates’ lawyer and the Cambridge cops cut a deal to drop the disorderly charge. Instead, Gates decided to keep shooting his mouth off. After which Obama did the same.
Anyway, I’m not sure “total victory” is the correct choice of words to describe what Sgt. James Crowley has accomplished, repelling a full-bore racial-profiling assault from a Harvard professor and the President of the United States. Technically, “vindication” would be the more correct word. But that ground looks more like “scorched earth.”
I almost feel bad for Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. It’s gotta suck. Sitting there in Oak Bluffs on Martha Vineyard, with his 24-gear handmade German tricycle with the ice cream truck bell (no cruel jokes about what a grown man wants an ice cream truck bell on his tricycle for, please). Trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Trying to figure out how to make it right. Anti-racism crusader, done in by his own racial profiling.
OK, here’s Gates, via The Root:
… my unfortunate experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use this to diminish racial profiling and to enhance fairness and equity in the criminal justice system for poor people and for people of color.
And to that end, I look forward to studying the history of racial profiling in a new documentary for PBS. I told the President that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative. I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sgt. [James] Crowley for a beer with the President will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige.
As awkward as this has been for Obama, I’m not sure he minds the attention being taken off the slow-motion trainwreck that is his health care initiative.
But apparently Gates still doesn’t get it. If he wants a New Yorker article and a PBS documentary out of this, he’s going to have to dig deep and challenge his own thinking on race relations. A simple misunderstanding and flared tempers lacks a little umph and isn’t going to cut it. Hard to get indignant about that. But I dunno, Professor Gates, there could be something in this idea that we are entering a new phase in race relations, some new ground you can chart out. Maybe we’re approaching a place in this country where no one can make immediate assumptions, throw around accusations, and make demands anymore. Where there has to be some room for nuance, understanding. And the recognition that racism is a two-way street. Think about it.
Obama, too, who also called this a “teachable moment.” Absolutely. If he’s willing to listen, and learn. Turns out this is not so much about race as it is about being civil. In the transcendant words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”
The picture above, by the way, is Cambridge Police Sgt. Leon Lashley flashing the peace sign. He responded with Crowley to Gates’ house and said yesterday he backs Crowley “100 percent.” I guess he doesn’t approve of Harvard profs pulling a nutty on cops who are trying to do their jobs, either.
OK, it’s over. As the cops like to say, move along. Nothing to see here.
News and commentary at Memeorandum.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:24 pm Comments (6) on Friday, July 24, 2009
6 Responses to “Total Victory”
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July 25th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
It’s clear from reading that piece about Professor Gates’ tricycle that he is as big a name-dropper and narcissist as the Me-In-Chief. I don’t see much chance of reevaluation and learning going on there.
July 25th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Mr. Obama said:
What a delicious insight into our president’s thought processes.
Note: “. . . there was an overreaction . . .” (by the officer) and compare that to “. . . Professor Gates probably overreacted . . .” (my emphasis).
And thus, the moral equivalence in which an abusive Gates is no more culpable than a polite, duty-driven cop isn’t even reached: Crowley overreacted, and Gates probably overreacted.
Sheesh . . .
July 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
P.S. Heather Mac Donald has written a fine piece on this matter entitled Promoting Racial Paranoia — it’s well worth reading.
July 25th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I have decided that Billy Mays has been reborn in the visage of Barack Obama.
http://www.jourtegrity.blogspot.com
July 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Huh. Wonder whether Obama overreacted.
July 26th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Gates is a race hustler, pure and simple. Like Jackson and Sharpton, he based a career on it. My guess is his “narrative” is swallowed whole by maybe as many as 95% of the African-American community. Uh, wait a minute. Wasn’t that their vote for Obama? (Sound of police whistle). Move on, people. No racism to see here.