President Obama Addresses Henry Louis Gates Incident

About ten minutes ago Barack Obama addressed what happened to Skip Gates at his home in Boston, MA. He said that the Boston police acted stupidly. He also said that "we have a long way to go" when it comes to race relations in America.

What do you think?

Tags: barack, inequality, injustice, justice, obama, police, president, race, racism, relations

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Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 6:29pm: i guess my question is, going past everyone's assumption and conclusion of racism, what did the cop do that would make us see racial disparity?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 6:41pm: your doubts don't amount to racism. my question is specific. what did the police officer do that allows us to reasonably conclude he acted from a place of racism?

myalovely1 said:
The police illegally arrested a 58 yr old man on a cane, who had no arrest warrents, who had not commited a crime, who was unarmed, who was not intoxicated nor under the influence of drugs. They violated his civil rights and tarished his name.

He was locked out of his home after returning from a vacation at night and his neighbor called the police on him because he looked "suspcious". I guess all the neigherbr saw was black skin at night and didn't recoginize him. I doubt a neighbor would've call the police on a white man who could've been a burglar.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gracy on July 22, 2009 at 6:42pm: Obama is right about race relations and having a long way to go. Rush Limbaugh and his crew of idiots are going to have a field day with this one. The police should have left it alone after Gates showed his id. There was no reason to arrest him.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gracy on July 22, 2009 at 6:44pm: According to Gates, he would not have been arrested if he was a white man. The police are saying he was showing out and they got tired of it, so they arrested him for disorderly conduct.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gracy on July 22, 2009 at 7:01pm: Police don't have all of that information when they get to your house. I know this, if I leave the garage door up, my neighbors come and check on me. They are all up in my business and I love them. LOL!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 7:13pm: so i guess no one will tell me what the cop did, other than being white, that allows us to reasonably conclude he acted from a place of racism.

oh well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 7:25pm: i understand the cops being in the wrong. and i understand the alarming issues of racial profiling. i get all that. but the only reason we are concluding racism is because the cop was white. not because he said or did anything racist. had he been black or any other race for that matter, we would have called it stupidity, maybe even incompetence. and i'll bet donuts to a dollar had the professor been white and the cop black, no one would have cried racism. to declare racism with no tangible proof of it is just irresponsible in my opinion. and i promise, if someone tells me what the cop did or said that shows racism versus incompetence, i too will be up in arms.

Hannah Drake said:
Truth no one can say that because no one was in the cop's head and knows his mindset however if you take a general analysis of racial profiling you can come to a logical conclusion.

Why do more Black people/Latino people get stopped driving? After a certain percentage more pull over's than White people you can make a hypothesis which is typically supported by factual evidence of why this is happening.

With this guy being arrested I think the average person (they did not mention this to Obama on national TV because 1 person thought it was racist. Stevie Wonder can see something is not right with this) the average person can make a reasonable conclusion based on passed events and actions by police officers when it comes to race relations.

If the cops were in the right why drop the charges? They know what they did was foul and now they want it to go away but instead it has gained a national spotlight showing a blinding glare yet again on race relations in America.

Just on a hypothesis I can conclude had this been an old White man on a cane, he would be sippign tea and eating crumpets with the officers. JMO.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 7:47pm: i see. and i'm leaving this thread with this....
change the white cop to a black cop and fire would never have been yelled in the crowded theater. not even in the professor's recount of the incident did he say the cop said or did anything racist. instead, he concluded, solely on the color of that man's skin that he was racist. the professor was wrong for inciting racism in this issue.

Hannah Drake said:
http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,1&GT1=38002

This is how the Henry Louis Gates Jr. says it went down. Perhaps that will provide some insight on why a lot of Black people and I say people in general are up in arms.

TheTruthForReal said:
i understand the cops being in the wrong. and i understand the alarming issues of racial profiling. i get all that. but the only reason we are concluding racism is because the cop was white. not because he said or did anything racist. had he been black or any other race for that matter, we would have called it stupidity, maybe even incompetence. and i'll bet donuts to a dollar had the professor been white and the cop black, no one would have cried racism. to declare racism with no tangible proof of it is just irresponsible in my opinion. and i promise, if someone tells me what the cop did or said that shows racism versus incompetence, i too will be up in arms.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gracy on July 22, 2009 at 7:47pm: To tell the truth, racism is getting worse. When times are tough, those who have biased beliefs always use that as an excuse to commit acts of violence. And when you listen to the rants of these folks on conservative talk shows, they are very angry and irrational and once they all jump on the bandwagon, it sounds like a verbal klan rally.

I'll never forget an article that I read in Emerge magazine many years ago. It had to do with police killings of black males, many that went unnoticed. The peice was true investigative reporting and it was heartbreaking. When I started this, I said Gates could have easily wound up dead. And the cops, black and white, would have come up with a story to justify it. Even if they had to claim his cane looked like a weapon.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 7:55pm: you may as well leave this thread with me.....lol!

Eddie Parker said:
I am going to tell you what happened.The police checked Mr. Gates' ID,and were ready to leave his house.Mr.Gates felt violated,and he started yelling at the officers.He probably said that they would not have ask a white man for his ID.I tell black men,you are not going to win an argument in the streets with the police.If you truly feel wronged, file a complaint with Internal Affairs,and contact a lawyer. White people also get their ass kick by white police officers.LOL! I rather deal with white police officers than black police officers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Natalie on July 22, 2009 at 8:49pm: Truth, you ask a question any good lawyer, judge or jury would ask. Mr. Gates may have been going on his previous interactions with the people and cops in Boston. There is no absolute proof that this was racism but the possibility should not be dismissed. I don't believe all Whites are racist, but I believe everyone is prejudiced. My gut (my own prejudice talking) tells me that it was a White cop who wanted to teach an uppity Black man who's boss. If things like this happened to White people as frequently as Blacks, I wouldn't jump to call it racism.

Would you believe it was racism if Mr. Gates reacted the same way but instead of arresting him, they beat the crap out of him? Or even worse, shot and killed? - it can happen.

TheTruthForReal said:
so i guess no one will tell me what the cop did, other than being white, that allows us to reasonably conclude he acted from a place of racism.

oh well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TheTruthForReal on July 22, 2009 at 8:56pm: i would believe it was racism if the cop said or did something racist. beating an unarmed man, or even worse, killing him does not in and of itself make a case for racism. i am not naive to the fact that racism still exists and is still active, i just don't believe in categorizing every negative interaction between a white figure of authority and a black person racism. i deal with each incident on its own merit. show me racism in this case, and i'll agree this case was racist. concluding that this case is about racism solely because the cop is white and white people have had a history of racist behavior is not good enough for me.
Queen Alli said:
.

Would you believe it was racism if Mr. Gates reacted the same way but instead of arresting him, they beat the crap out of him? Or even worse, shot and killed? - it can happen.; ▶ Reply to This