President Barack Obama plunged his presidency into a charged racial debate and set off a firestorm in one of America's most liberal bastions by siding with a black Harvard scholar who accuses police of racism.Obama may have learned a lot of things during his six months in office, but he still hasn't learned out to act presidential. A president should know better than to express an incendiary opinion like that, especially after acknowledging that he doesn't have all the fact.
Saying he was unaware of "all the facts" but that police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, "acted stupidly" in their arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Obama whipped up emotions on both sides of an issue that threatens to open old wounds in America.
His comments marked his biggest foray into the hot-button issue of race since taking office in January, and underline how racial issues remain very much alive despite advances embodied by his election as the first black U.S. president.
"Unfortunately, the racial divide is still there. It's still very raw. I think he was trying to let the majority of non-minority Americans have a sense of what it is like to a black or Latino," said Boston University professor of politics Thomas Whalen.
But many in Massachusetts said he crossed a line by passing judgment on police while acknowledging he did not have all the facts. Online polls in Massachusetts show strong support for the white arresting officer. A police union and his department's chief also came out strongly in his defense.
"Based on what I have seen and heard from the other officers, he maintained a professional decorum during the course of the entire situation and conducted himself in a professional manner," Cambridge Police Department Commissioner Robert Haas told a news conference.
Obama's comment stunned the city's policemen, Haas added. "They were very much deflated." He said he has appointed a panel to review Gates' arrest.
Others questioned whether Obama should have so strongly backed Gates, a friend, over the police without knowing fully what took place.
"He should steer clear of it if he doesn't know all the facts," said Patricia Lynch, 49, a consultant and graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, as she emerged from a Boston cafe. "For any specific case, you have to go only by the facts of that particular case."
It was stupid and very unpresidential.
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2 comments:
He reacted 'stupidly' in his comment.
The speaker from Boston needs to visit the real world. He says, "I think he was trying to let the majority of non-minority Americans have a sense of what it is like to a black or Latino."
Duh. Gates is a Harvard professor. So this is what life is like for Harvard professors, I guess -- which is to say, the police arrive in response to a call and the Harvard prof says "you don't know who you're dealing with" and starts arguing that his privileged life exempts him from replying to police questions in a civil manner.
His defenders are acting "stupidly." And the biggest incident of stupidliness is coming from the Big One.
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