Originally posted by Majic
Reflexive Tense
How ironic it is that so many people who decry racism, including the President of the United States, consider it wholly appropriate to denigrate and
defame a police officer because of his race.
The president didn't denigrate or defame a police officer due to race. He said the Cambridge police acted stupidly. Not stupidly racist.
He spoke of the situation as a whole. His first point was true, it is a situation where anyone could get upset. His second point I fully agree with,
the police acted stupidly in this instance. His third point was true as well, but I understood it to be more of a reason why Mr. Gate's acted in such
a manner and not justification for the behavior in any shape or form. Yet because Mr Obama put forward three valid points, people are combining them
into him having said that Officer Crowley acted stupidly due to his racism, and Gates did no wrong.
This really is spinning out of control. The police are going so far as to say the President's words hurt the efforts of law officers to dispel the
idea that they practice racial profiling.
It really isn't a big deal. Officer Crowley did nothing wrong based on the interpretation of the law, but made a stupid judgment mistake in assessing
a situation in dealing with an angry person. The charges were dropped to reflect this. Gates wants an apology that Officer Crowley does not need to
give, and the press wanted the President's opinion.
This should be a dead issue at this point but the spin machine keeps chugging along. Calmer heads have sadly not prevailed.