How cool is it that we have an articulate, smart president?
Can you imagine Bush talking about a good friend who is a top scholar of African American lit and studies?
Oh, heck, can you imagine Bush talking about a good friend who's a top scholar of anything?
This is only tangentially related... One of my friends is married to a cop, and I argued with her all day (via Facebook) about Obama's remarks about it. She was totally offended that he said that the police acted stupidly. And she said the "liberal media" was making this huge case about the cop being a racist. I said, 1. the media can't be entirely, unequivocally liberal if they're making a big deal about Obama (their supposed superhero) calling the police stupid, 2. that the charges against Gates would NOT have been dropped if the cop had been entirely justified in arresting Gates.
ReplyDeleteI worry that our friendship is on the line about this. To me, she's blowing it out of proportion, but she is married to a cop, so of course she feels a lot more protective of the bad reputation police sometimes have than, say, I would.
(As far as politics goes, she's an independent, but this sort of stuff makes the "right" side come out quite a bit further. Ugh.)
i am so amazed at the people who think the arrest was justified. i personally would be very upset if i was accosted in my own home, accused of breaking and entering, and then the police didn't just leave when proof was provided of residence. gates was arrested on his own porch, supposedly for attracting the attention of onlookers -- and the onlookers were there because cops showed up on their quiet street. even if gates was yelling on his porch, that is not a crime.
ReplyDeletefie, that interaction sounds so uncomfortable. i honestly cannot understand how anyone could view this arrest as justifiable. whether or not gates could have behaved more respectfully to the officer is beside the point -- the officer had established there wasn't a crime, and he needed to say "sorry for the interruption, thanks for your time" and walk away.