And now the screaming starts

[Hutzpa]

Obama told the Cambridge police they are stupid.....<shakes head>



:popcorn:

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. That was a pretty brass statement

But then again, he did admit that he was somewhat biased, so........? ;-)

[BlueIdaho]

29. Do you mean Brash Statement? nt.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

30. Well, I guess so

What I really meant is that he's got a brass *pair* so to speak- for saying what he said but I already knew this about him and voted for him because of it.

[AuntPatsy]

2. at least he has proven he will speak truth to power regardless of whom it upsets

[MichiganVote]

3. The should have just cleared out. But the Prof., while entitled to anger, is not w/o blame

for losing his cool. Nobody really knows what the hell happened...the cops should have left, the Prof. shouldn't have pissed them off.

Whatever. On edit, at least its not another Michael Jackson story.

[Teaser]

9. Please. Cops keep hassling me (on my property) after I prove I belong there

I will tell them to GET BENT. Once I tell them to leave my property, they have to leave my property, unless they have a warrant.

[MichiganVote]

12. I said the guy was entitled to feeling angry and the cops should have left.

But the guy did lose his cool.

[HopeOverFear]

15. got damn right he lost his cool. He showed them his fucking ID

inside his house and theY STILL ARRESTED HIM!!!!!

[MichiganVote]

16. The cop arrested him after as he followed the cop outside his home.

Gates was yelling for the cops name and badge number. At that point the officer had the legal and professional duty to give it to Gates and he declined. Sounds to me like the whole thing got out of hand. The Sarge was probably subtly disrespectful and Gates was tired from a trip.

End of story.

[Raineyb]

11. It's getting so that you can't say shit on your own stoop

Oh right according to the police you can't and you're okay with it. It is not okay. It doesn't matter if the Professor pissed off these pissant cops. It is not acceptable for the police to trump up charges on which to arrest someone because the person they arrested pissed them off. Stop making excuses for it.

[MichiganVote]

13. That's not what I wrote at all. But when you learn to read, get back with me.

[Raineyb]

23. "The Professor shouldn't have pissed them off"

The Professor's not meekly STFU is what these cops used to excuse their bullshit "disorderly conduct" charge. The man was on his porch. You think the arrest was just fine. I conclude that you can't even talk shit on your own stoop and you're okay with it. Why? Because you've done nothing but make excuses for this bullshit arrest. What part of that contradicts what I said about what YOU posted?

I think you should take your own advice about learning to read. My reading skills are quite exemplary. Yours appears to need work.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. You say nobody knows what happened...

but that doesn't stop you people from blaming the black guy.

[MichiganVote]

19. "You people"????? And that's not offensive or meant to be offensive?

Come on....this was a situation that got out of control and I think the cop should have cooled it.

Let's lead by example and tone down the rhetoric.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. You can't go around blaming black victims and whine about toning down rhetoric.

Doesn't work that way.

[MichiganVote]

22. I think that Prof. Gates lost his cool. I don't believe he deserved to be arrested,

I don't believe the cop acted professionally and I don't believe that using the "you people" shit is going to get you anywhere. I didn't enter the guy's home, I didn't arrest him and I'm not going to apologize for having an opinion. Ever. Revise an opinion on the basis of fact? Sure, I can do that. Revise because of a thinly veiled "You people"...not going to happen.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. I'm not expecting you people to change your mind.

You people never do.

[MichiganVote]

27. Good to know. I'll keep your rules in mind.

[Raineyb]

26. You do beleive he deserves to be arrested. Otherwise you wouldn't make excuses for it. n/t

[Aqaba]

4. Correction... "acted stupidly"

Big difference.

[Hutzpa]

You know M$M is going to frame

it that way as per Chris Mathews et al.

[Fire1]

8. Indeed. n/t

[cocoche75]

5. Good,I hope he hits the 3 police officers from Grand Prairie, Texas next

[MercutioATC]

6. I just read Gates' latest account of events.

Solely considering his account, BOTH parties acted inappropriately.

The police had both the right and the responsibility to verify his identity, and he made that more difficult than it had to be.

However, Gates' version of events doesn't support his arrest.



I don't think the police's actions had anything to do with race. Gates viewed it as a racial issue (by his own admission) from the start.


(ON EDIT)

Gates' version here:

http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,0

[Fire1]

10. In reference to your last sentence, not surprising at all. n/t

[Thrill]

7. They did. They arrested a man who was standing in his own house

and showing them ID. If thats not stupid what is?

[billyoc]

14. So did the city, after they apologized to the professor.

[Birthmark]

17. The Cambridge police were indeed stupid.

Had they simply said, "My mistake. Sorry for bothering you." and left, we wouldn't be talking about this.

[Sebastian Doyle]

21. Sometimes cops are stupid.

I've never been arrested for "breaking into" my own home, but I had a cop threaten to arrest me for being drunk, inside my own home. No driving, no giving booze to minors, or being disorderly or whatever. Just shit faced. They were actually there because of some complaint with the idiots next door.

Dumbest part was when the cop - who I'd gone to school with - asked me for my ID so he could verify I was over 21. I said "dude, you've known me since the goddamn 4th grade. If you're old enough to be out of the police academy, I'm old enough to buy beer".

He really didn't have an arguement for that.

[MarjorieG]

24. Said acted stupidly. Wonder if had Camridge experiences of his own, much earlier.

[jberryhill]

28. "acted stupidly" --- anyone can do that /nt