quote:

Originally posted by shaolin_Z I did, and?

here's my position on the man and the situation, which was stated in my first post:

quote:

I'm not police supporter, but I have to believe that Gate's somehow provoked the police because he thought they were being racist. In fact, if you ever watch Gate's on television, it becomes clear he thrives on racism because it legitimizes his existence. If he can't discuss how blacks are discriminated against in the US, then he has no role in life.

nowhere did i say he acts/looks like a thug.

In my college all these white kids take 'criminal justice' as their major.. i asked them why you all guys take this course.. they say they want to be a cop in future and beat some black ass.

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un-fucking-believable -- this soap opera isn't going away but actually getting bigger.

Obama makes his SECOND statement on this today:

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"The favorite American pastime is not baseball, it's moral crusades."

That's Obama's strength and weakness at the same time; he speaks too much.

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Vernato

Obama shouldn't have interjected himself into this situation. It was public enough, he shouldn't have opened himself up to the scrutiny. It really wasn't necessary to add the power aspect to the complaint. I heard about this long before Obama made any comment.

That said, both of these individuals acted like retards from what I've seen and read. It's one thing to come in with guns up on a B&E, but another to drag out the homeowner if he's offering to provide proof of ownership. But did he offer that? I haven't seen a statement either way, though I realize I haven't been following this a ton.

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"Go back to bed america your government is in control
Here's American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it,
Watch these picturary retards bang their fuckin' skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom,
Here you go America you are free to do as we tell you
We want your soul
Your cash, your house, your phone, your cash, your house, your life" -Adam Freeland - We Want Your Soul

This story gives me sick feelings.

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The Democratic Party

quote:

Originally posted by ******** However they were responding to a B&E report - question is how did they know - did he have an alarm system? If so didn't he know the result of breaking into his home?

I think his neighbor called it in.

___________________
"Go back to bed america your government is in control
Here's American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it,
Watch these picturary retards bang their fuckin' skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom,
Here you go America you are free to do as we tell you
We want your soul
Your cash, your house, your phone, your cash, your house, your life" -Adam Freeland - We Want Your Soul

I do want to mention some more thoughts I had on this matter.

Generally, according to scientific research, when human beings see a stranger, they are hard-wired to categorize (pigeonhole) that stranger according to three criteria: age, sex, and race.

Curiously, all the talk about race in this incident has obscured another stereotype very much in play here: age. Everyone, from the media to President Obama, has used the age argument in discussing the case: Gates was a "middle-aged" or "old" man with a cane, which surely would lead one to believe that it's highly unlikely he could be capable of burglary. In effect, Obama and the media themselves encourage the very stereotyping they seek to demolish; however, one stereotype is arbitrarily seen as toxic, the other as acceptable and useful. What gives?

Speaking of arbitrariness, why are so many people eager and willing to believe the naive-sounding view that race is "only" skin-deep? To claim that, yes, the pigment of one's skin was shaped by the ecological conditions experienced by that person's ancestors, but, NO, the minds under that skin were not in the least, seems like an extraordinarily sweeping statement, with a huge burden of proof.

I'm not a racist, I'm a realist who's interested in the truth. To me, the claim above is suspicious and runs counter to my own experiences. Evolutionary forces are unlikely to act on just one aspect of an individual; they probably sculpt the mind as well as the body. I've interacted with many different ethnic groups, and for any given ethnic group, in my experience, all of its members did have something in common that I recognized, including my own group (Jewish). Whether it was personality, world view, behavioral oddities--sometimes it took longer to discern, but it was there.

I'm not making any value judgments here. I'm merely saying that there are, in fact, patterns of personality and behavior linked with race and ethnicity. The world is a surprisingly predictable place.

___________________
"The favorite American pastime is not baseball, it's moral crusades."

Mr. Gates overreacted, which caused the officer to get annoyed and spoil his day.

If I were a police officer responding to a call of B&E, and the first thing the dude at the door says to me is "You're only here because I'm black, and you're racist!", then I'd probably want to ruin his day as well.

That being said, the officer should have returned his ID, said "Sorry for bothering you sir, have a good night." and went about the rest of his day.

___________________
Captain Planet is gey.
Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Heart???
These forces are supposed to combine to create Captain Planet?
Bullshit.
Those forces combine to create a soaking, boiling mudstorm on Valentine's Day.

Black female cop in Cambridge police dept. who voted for Obama says she is appalled at his remarks, and will not vote for him again.

I didn't see this thread when I posted a new one. I deleted that and here is it's content.

quote:

Obama hopes Gates, policeman can work things out over beer The scholar, the officer who arrested him and the president will have a casual meeting with the aim of defusing tension over the incident earlier this month. By Peter Nicholas 8:49 PM PDT, July 27, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- It started out as a casual suggestion: three guys working out their differences over a beer. But President Obama's offer to play host to the cop and the professor entangled in a debate over racial profiling now has the imprimatur of high-level diplomacy. White House aides are downplaying expectations that the beer summit that Obama suggested last week will produce a resolution. * Arrest of Gates also shines a light on 'disorderly conduct' laws * Henry Louis Gates Jr. * Obama seeks to defuse furor over his police remark It's set for Thursday, an administration official confirmed Monday night. Both Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department and Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have agreed to come. That means Obama is on the hook to achieve some kind of agreement. Bilateral get-togethers between Obama and a host of foreign leaders in recent months have gotten less attention. The image of the president trying to use a beer-drinking session to mediate an ages-old, highly volatile dispute has given new definition to diplomatic mission. Obama offended Cambridge police when he said that they had acted "stupidly" in arresting the professor on a charge of disorderly conduct at his home July 16 after a reported possible break-in. Gates and Crowley have left open the prospect of suing one another. And none of the three has apologized, although Obama came close last week when he said his choice of words was poor. What does the president expect from the meeting? White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in an interview that it might be the first step toward a rapprochement. "A lot of this is going to happen between them [Gates and Crowley], without the president, going forward," Gibbs said. "You had a situation where, for whatever reason, both individuals couldn't step back. And at least this will provide an opportunity to show people that that's possible -- and hopefully start a bigger dialogue." The beer summit will be monitored closely. Many black leaders believe Obama was on target with his initial comments. They don't want the moment to pass without a fuller discussion of racial profiling. "His first response was appropriate, which was that the police officer's behavior was stupid, not that the officer was stupid," said Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington office of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. "I don't believe that [Obama's] assumption is that, 'We all overstepped a little bit, and now it's all good and let's have a beer and how's your family,' " Shelton said. "If that were the intention, this is an incredible opportunity that would have gotten away from us. The issue is bigger than that. The behavior of that police officer still needs to be dealt with, and the issue of racial profiling still needs to be addressed." Law enforcement agencies will be watching closely for any sign that the president will favor his friend Gates over Crowley. New details of the arrest emerged Monday in the form of the 911 call that first alerted police to a possible problem at Gates' home. A dispatcher asked the caller about the race of the two men seen pushing through the door. The caller, Lucia Whalen, did not identify either man as black, although she said one might be Latino. She also told the dispatcher that she had seen suitcases near the door and that the episode might have been an instance of someone having "a hard time with their key." Gates had been returning from a trip to China and could not get his front door open. Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said that "she never used the word 'black' to describe the man, ever. Not during the 911 call. Not afterward." Police ultimately dropped the charges against Gates, but the arrest became national news. In fact, when aides helped the president prepare for his news conference July 22, they told him the incident had become a prominent story and could come up as a question. So Obama was ready. But he escalated the situation with one word he would quickly come to regret: "stupidly." Gibbs said: "I think if he would do it again, he would change a word." Obama's conciliatory statement two days after the news conference helped defuse the issue, Gibbs said. But even had the president chosen to cast the actions of Cambridge police differently, an uproar may have been unavoidable, he said. "Whenever you get race and politics, it's like catnip," Gibbs said, sitting behind his desk in his West Wing office. "All you need is a spark -- and cable television is happy to do that." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...0,5578765.story

When he first commented on the case and said police acted "stupidly" I thought it was just a dumb mistake. Commenting on racial issues so bluntly was never Obama's M.O. So he just let his mouth keep talking when he should have STFU.

However, I floated the possibility it was intentional. Health care was getting a lot of criticism. Maybe he did it on purpose to take the heat off health care and give the press a red herring? They've done things like that before.

Now this is just WTF. He is hosting a meeting with these two? After trying to walk back his comments earlier, he is again jumping right into the mix. If at least partially intended to divert media attention while health care closes in the last few weeks before August recess, I'd say it's got a good chance of doing that.


The only relevant reply before I deleted the thread:

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka In the sense that his press conferences and questions asked are entirely scripted, I'd say perhaps Josh is right about it being planned. At the same time, I think it's more likely that it was just a poorly thought out comment said without the aid of TOTUS. Who knows. it's overblown. The police report on The Smoking Gun was funny.