Colin Powell Criticizes Prof. Gates: "He should Have Known Better"

[SuperTrouper]

Retired Gen. Colin Powell weighed in Tuesday on the controversial arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., chiding his friend for not cooperating with the cops.

"When you're faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him," Powell told CNN's "Larry King Live."

"I was taught that as a child. You don't argue with a police officer."

Gates flew off the handle July 16 when a cop investigating a reported break-in asked him to prove he lived in his own house.

"I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," Powell said.

But he also questioned why Gates, a frail 58-year-old who is one of the nation's most prominent black intellectuals, was handcuffed and hauled downtown after it was clear he hadn't done anything.

"I would have thought at that point some adult supervision would have stepped in and said, 'Okay, look, it is his house. Come on, let's not take this any further. Take the handcuffs off,'" Powell said.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/07/29/2009-07-29_colin_powell_on_gates_you_dont_argue_with_cops.html

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. "He should Have Known Better".... Oh the irony. nt

[mzteris]

2. yeah, cause black kids are taught

not to mess with "the man". . .

OMFG - if Gates had've been white, he would NEVER have been arrested.

[emilyg]

5. So are white kids.

[mzteris]

12. not in the same way

not in the same way, at all.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. I'm just saying. Speaking of people who should have known better than to

trust sociopathic chickenhawks.......

[Lerkfish]

3. "he should have known his place and not gotten uppity."

is what he seems to be saying.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Powell is coming down in much the same position as a lot of other rational people.

If either of these gentlemen would have kept their cool, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[Dreamer Tatum]

8. Buzz, don't you know

That the zeal of outraged do-gooders will always trump the opinion of an actual friend of the man?

[Lerkfish]

9. and you were on the porch, right?

its a good thing rational people like you turn a blind eye to the rights of citizens. Its what our country is founded upon: absolute right of the police to ignore laws.

oh, you rational people, you know there were a lot of rational people in germany in the 1930's as well.

[masuki bance]

6. I don't understand why Gates would get upset at all when questioned. Isn't it a good thing

when you have people watching out for your property and valuables?

[TheKentuckian]

10. The authoritarian lackey speaks out but I still see law abiding citizen arrested in home.

Everything IS NOT a two way street and the truth is not always somewhere in the middle. What we have is abuse of police authority and a lameass attempt to CYA.

[Lars39]

11. Of course, Ambien user that he is, Powell was never jetlagged.

Always rolled off those planes fresh as a daisy.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. "Have known better" - As in delivering the go-to-war speech, Colin?

Hypocrite.