Police union condemns Obama's comments

So, Obama plays the race card - and then admits he doesn't know anything about the subject. Now the Police union is hitting back, and rightfully so IMO.

Great example of both leadership and change - NOT!

article

President Obama's Wednesday night criticism of Cambridge, Mass., police has drawn a rebuke from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).

The criticism comes after Obama said Cambridge police officers acted "stupidly" when they arrested Henry Louis Gates, a friend of the president's, for breaking and entering into his own home. The president said it highlights ongoing problems with race relations in the U.S.

Jim Pascoe, executive director of the FOP's legislative office, noted that before Obama made the remarks, the president acknowledged that he was only vaguely familiar with what happened.

"That being the case, it's unfortunate that he chose to say anything," Pascoe said. "He wasn't there, and he doesn't know what happened."

Pascoe said it appears that Gates was the "provocateur" because he called Officer James Crowley a racist instead of producing identification as requested.

[edit on 7/23/2009 by centurion1211]

reply to post by centurion1211


Well now. I'm very curious to read member's reactions to this story.
Thanks for the post! Looks like the Prez wants to make race an issue to defend his friend. He may have forgotten himself and will live to regret that statement.

Edit for grammar clarification

[edit on 23-7-2009 by Hazelnut]

Does this same union ever condemn police brutality, misbehavior, tasering old ladies and young children, breaking the constitution, etc?

If not, then I don't give a damn WHAT this bogus, socialist union says.

Amazing that gates called the cop a racist when gates is the biggest racist of all
I went to wikipedia and read up on gates career and all he ever does is research and write about black history and black culture.

reply to post by Kaytagg


Good point. They don't seem to condemn much do they? They condemn the words of the president, but when police officers act out of line,

"It wasn't our finest hour."

reply to post by centurion1211


What I dont understand about this case is that the police had his Harvard ID and his drivers license. Didnt they bother to look at them? Didnt they look at the address on the drivers license and if they were wondering, did they run his license to make sure it was legit? The police screwed up on this one.

reply to post by rangersdad


Hold on, now. Read the story again. The police didn't screw up on this one. Gates did plenty wrong in this case.

Crowley responded to Gates’ home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused, flew into a rage and accused the officer of racism.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

So to answer your question, no, they didn't have his ID when Gates flew into a rage and started off playing the race card and playing the Rev. Jesse Jackson wannabe.

I think that it was a mistake for the POTUS to comment on a police arrest when he didn't have all the facts.

The courts are here to determine the right and wrong of a situation, not the President.

Oh and also:

The cop who arrested African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates refused to apologize and denied he's a racist, saying he once gave black basketball star Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"I wasn't working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn't working on a black man," Sgt. James Crowley told the Boston Herald. "I was working on another human being."

Crowley, 42, was referring to his actions after the Boston Celtics forward suffered a fatal heart attack in 1993 at Brandeis University, where he was a campus cop.

www.nydailynews.com...

Yeah, that sounds like a racist cop all right. *blatant sarcasm off*


[edit on 23-7-2009 by sos37]

Obama's Presidency is in my humble oppinion the Powers that Be playing the race card at a critical juncture were they need to bolster the line that seperates the haves and have nots to put time and distance from their own recent criminal spate.

The more you can keep people angry at each other and focused on petty emotional issues the more you can keep their eyes, and minds off of the big and pivotal issues.

Obama had no credible law making experience, he had never crafted a Bill in either Illisnois or the U.S. Senate that was voted into law and little of his U.S. Senate work even picked up Co-Sponsors. He has no significant administrative experience, military or foreign policy experience.

He is simply a good looking 'hip' black man who could tap into a very large segment of the population that votes normally in small numbers, the young and the minorities.

Obama's Presidency is going to be all about controversy, and the kind of emotionally charged controversy where people don't need facts to act out emotionally just an emotional appeal to their emotions to prompt them.

The good news is the statute of limitations on most of the crimes the Powers that Be have gotten away with runs out in 6 and a half more years!

I sure hope they are saving and spending the money they stole wisely in the meantime.

It's nuts that we have a clown like this running the country.

awesome thread. Generally the obama bashers also post in the police hating threads so it will be awesome to see what sides people pick on this one.

I think there was some racial motivation on the police part as they did arrest the guy who called for help because he was getting his house broken into. I don't think a cop would ask me to show my ID in a million years if they came to my house after I called them there for a break in.

On the other side, the guy probably popped off and said stuff he shouldn't. Big mouth meets racist cop who happens to be a friend of the president = issues.

All the guy had to do was show his id.Thats only s.o.p.And Obama shouldnt have said anything as he admitedly didnt know the facts.

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.

Hell with Gates and the cop thing. I am waiting for law enforcement to react to what about said about minorities being stopped by law enforcement.

what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

news.yahoo.com...

I guess law enforcement agrees with this fact.

I'm suggesting that the question regarding this enormously stupid professor was planted by the White House to deflect attention away from the completely vacuous speech and press conference about nationalized health care.

reply to post by sos37


Well I had a similar situation happen about 10 or so years ago. BTW, I am white....anywho....I was in my house with the top door to my front door open (double dutch door) and a policeman showed up and asked me who I was...I told him and asked why...he said that the alarm company called him to say that there was someone breaking into the house...I was stunned.....I was home with the best friend that I have ever had....and he asked to see my ID ....I said ok, hold on a minute while I get it....he asked dont you have it on you? I said why should I? I am in my own house!...so I showed him my drivers license, the addresses matched!!! And I was complaining about the alarm company....he looked at me like he wasnt quite sure what to do...finally he gave me back my license and gave me a ticket for a false alarm. Then he left.....

So I do understand what Gates went through, I just didnt overreact like he did. And why did he have to ask the officer for his badge number, couldnt he see it or his name tag that most cops wear these days???

The only thing worse than having a "dumb" President is having a "stupid" President.

Just wondering if these cops can take legal action against Obama?

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.

When Gates was told the officer wanted to see him outside he told the officer. "I will speak to your momma outside." Run your fat mouth to a cop. Go directly to jail. A white person would have been jailed as well. No racism here.

[edit on 7-24-2009 by groingrinder]

The whole point of the dog and pony show over this "incident" is to keep people on the fence over what to listen to and who to trust.
Welcome to your new nation our motto is "DIVIDE AND CONQUER" ! Get used to it... there is 3 1/2 years more of it to come.
Or at least until everyone gets to the point of wanting to straight up just kill each other off. But a police state run by the Obama civilian military and the white house is what we all need. Due to the fact not one of us can see past the color of a person's skin or whether or not they where born here and raised here yikes the list has gotten so long and politically correct I think perhaps I may have stepped off my politically correct soap box!
A nation divided is one that crumbles from within. It doesn't matter that the potus knew this guy or not he should have stayed mum on the subject; until he had all the fact's. He sure as heck should not have degraded the police of the area with out the fact's either and turned the whole thing into a race issue.
But hey that is the flavor of the month these day's! So carry on keep at each other's throats and by gawd keep up the divisions amongst yourselves! It is for the greater good of our country after all now isn't it...?...


[edit on 24-7-2009 by xoxo stacie]