Obama - right in attacking police sargeant??

So very true and it is nerve racking that the man who is supposed to be impartial to racial things brings up the fact of color. His health care plan is a set up to make more people dependant on the government so he shines the spot light on another subject to make people not pay as close of attention to a step he wants to take that no one even many in his own party believe will work. As for the officer, if he had not demanded proof and let the man go on his way he would have been sued and fired for not doing his job to protect the people, and what if he had not been at his house and he had hurt someone the officer didn't know that. That poor man is being martyred for no good reason. He did his job get off his back. But no our media will run with it and make a much bigger deal out of it because they can.

Any time anyone can play the race card, they will. I work in law enforcement and I've been called every nasty name under the books and have even had defense lawyers tell me that I need to take a racial class to learn not to be biased towards once race or another. I'm sorry, but the fact that I'm white and I arrested your black child for robbery does NOT make me a racist anymore so than standing in a garage makes me a mechanic. Your kid does the crime, they will be arrested. This type of racism happens every time a white cop arrests a black person. When do we ever see a black cop getting accused of being racist when he arrests a white man or a white child? There is a book called "The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse" that a LOT of people need to read.

Because that guy was a friend of Obama's. Obama even admitted he doesn't know what happened but he automatically snapped to a judgment. It is not for him to comment on this. He needs to allow the police to solve the issue.

I don't know the entire story on that incident, but I had to break into my own house once. While doing it I kept thinking to myself, I look like a criminal right now. I wouldn't be surprised if someone calls the cops on me. Nobody did, but if the cops had shown up I would have eagerly explained why neighbors called and shown appropriate ID to the officers. Once somebody calls they do have reasonable suspicion to search you and your home.

Not having been there to witness it, it's hard to say for 100% certain. But, if things went down as the homeowner says they did, I have to agree with him and Obama, it was stupid. I can understand the cop having to investigate a call on a crim ein progress, I can understand him questioning the guy. But when he showed his ID to the cop and got arrested for disorderly conduct, yeh, it was handled badly and "stupid". But again, I wasn't there. All accounts I heard though, from the homeowner and a spokesman from the police department, the cop acted way out of line. What is equally stupid to me though is a reporter asking such a question at an important prime time presidential press conference. I was stunned. I didn't catch who the question was from but if he worked for my publication or tv station, the guy would be fired for stupidity and incompetence.

"White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the president does not regret his choice of language. "Cooler heads should have prevailed. That's what the president denoted," he said. "He was not calling the officer stupid. The situation got out of hand." The officer did keep cool. The police report, including the statement of the second officer on the scene (who happens to be Latino) indicates that it was clearly Professor Gate's behavior and causing of a scene that led to his arrest for disorderly conduct. Cool heads indeed, too bad that Professor Gates hadn't kept a cool head. Here's the police report: http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Gates_Arrest.pdf The president should have kept a cool head and not rushed to judgment on the word of his friend, Gates. BTW, Officer Crowley, who is at the center of this controversy was the campus police officer who administered CPR and mouth to mouth rescucitation to Reggie Lewis, the basketball player who suffered a fatal heart attack. “I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer." I guess Obama didn't know that, either, just like he didn't know any of the other facts of the case.

I have watched many police dramas on television and it always seems like the one that does not show his id and proves that he is not that criminal who broke into houses or ran down those kids or whatever, is always a black man. I wonder why? I mean I have a double back in Vancouver B.C. where I used to live, Mary I believe (someone called me that once in a evil knowing sort of way) and if I was mistaken for that tr*mp, I would take out my id or any form if id I had on and said "see my name is A- " and that would be the end of that. But this guy who happens to think that he is right because he is darker then the rest of us, does not want to show his id. Knowing this, I feel rather insulted, to think that someone thinks I am dishonest because my skin happens to be a beigy sort of pink! I have been asked for my id many times and it did not bother me and sometimes the person who wanted to see it was either a Canadian Aborigine, Chinese, or even black.

I'm not sure I'd call it an "attack" but I have no problem with what he said. In the first place it wasn't him that changed the subject from health care it was the reporter that asked the question about this arrest. I understand now there are several versions of what actually happened but apparently as of last night the President had heard the same version I had - that the man had shown his ID immediately and had then been arrested for disturbing the peace, I think it was. Could the President possibly have chosen a different word than "stupidly"? Sure, but this gentleman is a personal friend of his and even the POTUS has friends and reacts a little more strongly when something happens to one of them that he doesn't consider quite fair. There wasn't anything wrong with the neighbor calling the cops thinking the house was being broken into and there certainly wasn't anything wrong with the police answering the call. What happened next is where the problem lies depending on what actually happened. You ask, "And why does it have to be all about the fact that he is black and the sargeant was white?" I don't know about it having to be "all about" that fact but the fact is there has been quite a history of white police officers treating "people of color" differently than they treat white people. Most cops are great and are not racists and I'm sure it's likely this officer is one of the good ones but there should be an investigation simply because of what has happened in the past so there can be no mistake about it. The commentators I was watching last night predicted that one question would be the "headline" of the press conference and they got it right, didn't they? Annie

He did show the ID, after being asked twice and acting like a belligerent fool, if we go according to the police report. None of it has anything to do with his skin color. It has everything to do with him acting like an idiot and blowing things out of proportion. I'm sure Sharpton has wet himself at the prospect of causing turmoil in the life of another "whitey" again. It would be a shame if Obama falls in line with people of that mind set.

I guess I'm going to have to read further on this one. Another mylotter, sent me a link but I haven't read it yet. On the news this morning they were saying that he had already proven who he was prior to being arrested. Beyond all that, I agree that it was wrong for Obama to even bring it up when he was supposed to be discussing health care. It is a police matter and still under investigation. He is entitled to his personal opinion but it should not have been aired on television the way it was.

I agree, he should have shown I.D, I'm sure it wouldn't have taken longer then like.. a minute or two to produce it. - Its like he thinks hes above the law or something...

I think you got your facts all wrong. First of all the President was asked that question by the press. Second of all Mr. Gates showed his ID to prove who he was and that he belonged in that house. I believe its when Mr. Gates got a bit upset by the way he was being treated by the police and that is why it escalated to him being arrested. However, President Obama was totally correct in calling the Police "Stupid" because they were. I'm sure the police were embarrassed and instead of apolozing they got attitudes. I'm sure if they had said Mr. Gates we are so sorry but we had to be sure, everything would have been fine. But Police think they are they are GOD Almighty with all the power and they can say and do whatever they want. In case you are thinking that this must be a black person writing this, I'm not, I'm a white female and truly do not like the police for the most part. No, I've never been in trouble at all. Its just I've seen to much in my 52 years on this earth. Plus I have had cops in my family and I know about the game the cops play. There is really not one institution in the world that you can trust 100%.

I saw this on yahoo and your take is violently different. Good thing you are reporting it. Yahoo made it sound like a traffic stop. And in those cases you get DWB - driving while black. If this was about a domestic police call then it has nothing to do with race.

From a white perspective [which I am], I wondered why all the big fuss; why didn't he just show the policeman his ID? But, being married to a black man, I've learned that there is a whole different perspective on things. Blacks have suffered terrible persecution because of their race here in the states [my husband could tell you stories!], and their initial reaction is to be defensive and to feel threatened. They initially don't trust police [and usually with good reason], and I'm sure the man thought that he was being accused of a crime because of his color. After all, how could a black man possibly be the home owner of that house? Police should be trained in how to de-escalate situations, not to make them worse. They should also have training on how best to deal with such racial situations. It is an unfortunate situation, one that can happen all too frequently; people respond to a situation based on their past experiences, not always realizing that the other person is doing just the same thing. This often can lead to conflict. Hopefully this situation can be used as an example of the need to clarify and improve race relations here in the United States.