Fuck the Nosy Racist Neighbour

Discussion in 'Off-Topic' started by deception, Jul 21, 2009.

  1. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Or Gates thinks his fame puts him above the law. There sure were a lot of witnesses, not one is backing up Gates.
     
  2. deception

    deception JBB Banned Member

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    there versions arent all that incongruous, in fact, both tell the same tale. however, there is a clear departure in support between white ppl and blacks as well as enlightened whites
     
  3. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    http://www.reuters.com/article/topN...23?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

    Obama stirs racial passions in Harvard case


    BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plunged his presidency into a charged racial debate and set off a firestorm in one of America's most liberal bastions by siding with a black Harvard scholar who accuses police of racism.

    Saying he was unaware of "all the facts" but that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, "acted stupidly" in their arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Obama whipped up emotions on both sides of an issue that threatens to open old wounds in America.

    His comments marked his biggest foray into the hot-button issue of race since taking office in January, and underline how racial issues remain very much alive despite advances embodied by his election as the first black U.S. president.

    "Unfortunately, the racial divide is still there. It's still very raw. I think he was trying to let the majority of non-minority Americans have a sense of what it is like to a black or Latino," said Boston University professor of politics Thomas Whalen.

    But many in Massachusetts said he crossed a line by passing judgment on police while acknowledging he did not have all the facts. Online polls in Massachusetts show strong support for the white arresting officer. A police union and his department's chief also came out strongly in his defense.

    "Based on what I have seen and heard from the other officers, he maintained a professional decorum during the course of the entire situation and conducted himself in a professional manner," Cambridge Police Department Commissioner Robert Haas told a news conference.

    Obama's comment stunned the city's policemen, Haas added. "They were very much deflated." He said he has appointed a panel to review Gates' arrest.

    Others questioned whether Obama should have so strongly backed Gates, a friend, over the police without knowing fully what took place.

    "He should steer clear of it if he doesn't know all the facts," said Patricia Lynch, 49, a consultant and graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, as she emerged from a Boston cafe. "For any specific case, you have to go only by the facts of that particular case."

    Gates, 58, director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Research, is a potent cultural force, listed as one of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans" in 1997 and friend of talk-show star Oprah Winfrey.

    His arrest outside his home last Thursday prompted a moment of national soul-searching, but the facts of the case are far from clear. Gates says the incident underlines the persistence of stereotyping, or racial profiling, even in liberal America.

    'DISORDERLY CONDUCT'

    Police say Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, accusing him of being uncooperative, refusing to initially provide identification and "exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior" by repeatedly shouting at a policeman in front of people gathered on the street in front of his house.

    The incident began when a woman caller reported a man trying to force his way into a home. Gates said he was unable to enter his damaged front door after returning from a week in China. Haas said he understood the home was broken into while Gates was away. Sgt. James Crowley arrived to investigate.

    The charge was dropped on Tuesday but Gates is demanding an apology from Crowley and has threatened to sue the police. Crowley has refused to apologize, saying he did nothing wrong.

    "I support the president to a point," Crowley said after Obama's comment. "I think it's disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue," he added on WEEI radio.

    A lawyer for the Cambridge Superior Officers Association, a union, told ABC News Obama was "dead wrong to malign this police officer specifically and the department in general."

    Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the president was not calling the police officer stupid. "He was denoting that at a certain point the situation got out of hand and I think all sides understand that," he told reporters.

    Still, the comments infuriated some Obama supporters.

    "I may have voted for him, but I'm really disappointed he's decided to inject himself into the middle of this BEFORE getting both sides of the story. And to do so by making such an outrageous accusation against the police," wrote one Boston Globe reader on the newspaper's web site in a comment that was ranked most recommended by fellow Globe readers.

    Some questioned whether the issue will mark a setback for a state where only 35 years ago black school children were pelted with rocks and bottles as they were bused into Boston's white neighborhoods in court-ordered school desegregation.

    Many felt such issues were finally put to rest when Democrat Deval Patrick became Massachusetts' first black governor in 2007. At a news conference on Thursday, Patrick called the case "troubling and upsetting."
    (Additional reporting by Ross Colvin and Erin Kutz)
     
  4. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    ^^^ Ted Kennedy's home.

    Shocking.
     
  5. deception

    deception JBB Banned Member

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    yeah blame the lion of the senate. i guess u want to shit on all american heroes from prof gates to senator kennedy.
     
  6. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    The people who vote him in disagree with you.

    And Obama, too.
     
  7. DaRizzle

    DaRizzle BLAKER

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    deception....pick your battles...this was not the case to do it on
     
  8. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    I am old enough to remember JFK and RFK. I loved those guys.

    Your lion of the senate is a different story, asshole of the first order.

    He was a drunkard, cheated on his wife, intervened on behalf of his nephew in a rape case, and used his immunity from libel lawsuits on the floor of the senate to say some of the most scurrilous things about people. In particular, a certain black man who was a Yale graduate. But many others. In retrospect, none of those things he said about those people have turned out to be true.

    I would pick your battles, as DaRizzle wrote.
     
  9. deception

    deception JBB Banned Member

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    so the kennedy's have had some moral hangups. in contrast, the entire republican party is in denial about its. and i think im clearly winning this battle over prof gates vs the bigot because im the only who making sense.
     
  10. Dumpy

    Dumpy Yi-ha!!

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    This has nothing to do with the subject of this thread. Why do you persist in using every thread as a platform to rail against whatever you want? You are truly the king of misdirection.
     
  11. Dumpy

    Dumpy Yi-ha!!

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    Apparently unlike you, I was not there, nor am I privy to what transpired other than what is being reported in the press, from interviews with interested and biased parties. I also have never met the people involved, nor do I know their personal policies, predilections, opinions, or histories. Thus, I won't attempt to interpret or judge this event, nor the people who were involved in it. If you want to use the publicly-available information to label certain people "right" or "wrong" or "racist" based solely on what you've read, all the more power to you.
     
  12. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Ask me if I care about the republicans, either.

    Except Ron Paul.
     
  13. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    I didn't bring up he is the "lion of the senate." I say the emperor has no clothes.

    Welcome back.
     
  14. Mamba

    Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Question, I'm too lazy to browse through the thread. Anyone talking about how fucking stupid Obama's comment was, saying the police acted stupidly?
     
  15. 44Thrilla

    44Thrilla cuatro cuatro

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    Yeah, he obviously didn't know both sides of the story before commenting. Now he has backtracked and reached out to Sgt. Crowley.
     
  16. Mamba

    Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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    When I was at the gym, there was a headline on one of the TV's saying that Cambridge PD want an apology from Obama. Has he issued one yet, or did he just reach out for them?
     
  17. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    http://www.reuters.com/article/dome...Type=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true

    Obama regrets remarks in racially charged case

    Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:40pm EDT
    By Steve Holland

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama backed down on Friday from a statement that police had "acted stupidly" in arresting a black scholar in a racially charged case that was rapidly becoming a distraction for Obama.

    The president made a surprise appearance in the White House press briefing room shortly after he spoke by phone to Cambridge, Massachusetts, police Sgt. James Crowley, who had arrested Henry Louis Gates, a prominent scholar of African-American studies at Harvard, last week.

    "Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically," Obama said. "And I could have calibrated those words differently."

    Crowley suggested Obama invite him and Gates, to the White House for a peace-making beer, and a plan was in the works to do so, Obama said.

    Obama later called Gates, had a positive discussion, told him about his phone call with Crowley and invited him to join Crowley at the White House in the near future, the White House said.

    The case quickly became a media frenzy, with Cambridge police in an uproar, Gates accusing Crowley of racist behavior and threatening a lawsuit.

    For Obama, who took office as the first U.S. black president in January. the incident was a distraction when his signature legislative priority, a healthcare overhaul, was stalling in the U.S. Congress.

    Obama said he hoped the event would end up being a "teachable moment, where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other" and improve race relations "instead of flinging accusations."

    "Lord knows we need it right now -- because over the last two days as we've discussed this issue, I don't know if you've noticed, but nobody has been paying much attention to health care," he said.

    DAMAGE CONTROL

    The incident began last week when police received a call from a neighbor that a man appeared to be breaking into the Gates' house.

    Gates, who returned home from a week in China to discover his front door jammed, entered his house through the back door. Police say Gates became belligerent when they went to the house and spoke with him inside.

    At a news conference on Wednesday night, Obama weighed in on the case, saying the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police had "acted stupidly."

    Obama pointed out that blacks and members of other minority groups tend to be stopped more frequently by U.S. police officers than whites.

    Until Friday, Obama and the White House had defended Obama's remarks. The police union stoked tensions further, firing back at Obama.

    "President Obama said that the actions of the Cambridge Police Department were stupid and linked the event to a history of racial profiling in America," Sgt. Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference in Cambridge.

    "The facts of this case suggest that the president used the right adjective but directed it at the wrong party," he said.

    With the incident threatening to escalate, Obama chose to engage in some damage control.

    He did not say he had apologized to Crowley, but his words were regretful. Obama said his impression of Crowley was that he was an "outstanding police officer and a good man, and that was confirmed in the phone conversation. And I told him that."

    He said his choice of words had unfortunately given 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."

    Obama said he continued to believe that there was an overreaction in arresting Gates and that he also believed that Gates "probably overreacted as well."

    (Additional reporting by Scott Malone and David Alexander; Editing by David Storey)
     
  18. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-us-harvard-scholar-arresting-officer,0,4731766.story

    Black officer at Gates home during arrest said scholar acted strange, supports arrest

    BOB SALSBERG |Associated Press Writer12:57 PM CDT, July 24, 2009
    CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s home when the black Harvard scholar was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation.

    Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates' reaction to Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been."

    Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley "100 percent."

    Gates has said he was the victim of racial profiling.

    President Barack Obama says the officers "acted stupidly." Lashley called Obama's remark "unfortunate" and said he should be allowed to take it back.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A multiracial group of police officers on Friday stood with the white officer who arrested a prominent black Harvard scholar and asked President Barack Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick to apologize for comments the union leaders called insulting.

    Obama said Wednesday that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" during the disorderly conduct arrest of his friend, Henry Louis Gates Jr., in his own home near Harvard University. Gov. Deval Patrick said Gates' arrest was "every black man's nightmare."

    Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said Obama's remarks were "misdirected" and the Cambridge police "deeply resent the implication" that race was a factor in the arrest.

    "President Obama said the actions of the CPD were stupid and linked the event to the history of racial profiling in America," O'Connor said. "The facts of the case suggested that the president used the right adjective but directed it to the wrong party."

    Officers responded to Gates' home on July 16 after a woman called 911 and said she saw two black men with backpacks trying to force open the front door. The woman, Lucia Whalen, has not responded to repeated attempts for comment.

    Gates has said he returned from an overseas trip, found the door jammed, and that he and his driver attempted to force it open. Gates went through the back door and was inside the house on the phone with the property's management company when police arrived.

    Police said he flew into a verbal rage after Sgt. James Crowley, who is white, asked him to show identification to prove he should be in the home. Police say Gates accused Crowley of racial bias, refused to calm down and was arrested. The charge was dropped Tuesday, but Gates has demanded an apology, calling his arrest a case of racial profiling.

    Gates, 58, maintains he turned over identification when asked to do so by the police. He said Crowley arrested him after the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

    Crowley has refused to apologize, saying he followed protocol.
     
  19. Dumpy

    Dumpy Yi-ha!!

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    Oh, OK. I missed the ironic use of analogy.
     
  20. 44Thrilla

    44Thrilla cuatro cuatro

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    Sooner or later, Gates is going to be forced to admit he overreacted. Everyday there's more information coming out that backs up the cop's story. Even Obama, his friend, won't stick by him.
     

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