Henry Louis Gates Kills the Argument For Slavery Reparations

The last time we saw Henry Louis Gates he was being arrested by Cambridge, MA cops who mistook him for a burglar as he broke into his own house. The ensuing flap became quite a mess when Obama accused the cops of "acting stupidly", and that resulted in the now famous "beer summit" at the White House.

Gates has also been seen lately as a commentator on the History Channel series "America, A Story of Us".

I didn't care much for Mr. Gates' race-card antics after his arrest. I though it was dishonest and disreputable to portray the actions of the cops in that situation as racist. That whole thing has long since blown over, but Mr. Gates is about to be thrust into a new controversy of his own making - he's coming out with a book that debunks the idea that whites are solely responsible for slavery and that as a result reparations are due to African-Americans.

From Pajamas Media:

Gates’ book — Tradition and the Black Atlantic – was also previewed in the New York Times. The review hit like passed gas in the middle of a hot Sunday Baptist church service to those who have made careers out of racial complaints.

Gates says that everybody is familiar with the role played in slavery by the United States and the colonial powers of Britain, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain. But he adds that there has been “little discussion of the role Africans themselves played.”

Can the church say amen?

Gates argues that the role Africans played was “considerable” and included the very kingdoms in western and central Africa that are praised as examples of Africa’s historical greatness every February during “Black History Month” celebrations.

How did this African involvement in the slave trade work?

Gates references the historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University — who estimate that 90 percent of the slaves shipped to the New World were captured and enslaved by Africans before being sold to European traders and commercial agents.

In essence, the slave trade would have been impossible on the scale it occurred without African business partners.

Scolding advocates for reparations — like Congressman John Conyers and Randall Robinson — ignore these inconvenient truths. But as my friend Larry Elder likes to say:

Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

But facts are persistent things, and Gates points out that the belief that Europeans alone are responsible is a fantasy. This view is a romanticized version promoting the notion that Africans were somehow just “kidnapped” by evil white men — the version promoted in the old television series Roots. The truth is, however, that slavery was a highly lucrative business for European traders and African sellers alike.

Though it may be new to reparation advocates, none of this information is new to anyone who’s honestly examined slavery.

There's a lot more at the link.

The book is due out in August and I've included a link for anyone who wants to pre-order it. I'm guessing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton won't be first in line to get their copies.

Democrats Threaten to Keep "You Lie!" Story Alive

How dumb are these people? Remember what happened when Obama held a press conference and decided to wade into the Henry Louis Gates arrest in Boston? Nobody can remember anything about that press conference except Obama's answer and the days of controversy that followed (remember the "Beer Summit"?)

Obama blew that one by getting involved in something he shouldn't have and by making a national story out of a local arrest.

Democrats don't learn. After last night's outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson, House Dem leaders are now demanding an apology on the floor of the House or Wilson will be censured:

On the House floor where President Obama spoke just a half-day earlier, two words shouted by a Republican congressman reverberated louder than the finer points of the health care debate.

House Democrats seized on House rules Thursday to demand South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson offer a high-profile apology to President Obama for shouting, "You lie," during the president's health care address.

Wilson called the White House shortly after Obama's speech to say he was out of line. The White House said early Thursday that the president accepted the apology.

But that did not put the issue to rest, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, also of South Carolina, asked Wilson to apologize on the House floor in front of his colleagues. The final vote of the day was held open by Democrats to give him an opportunity to do so, but he refused.

Democrats threatened to censure Wilson absent such an apology. So far they have not done it -- but even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier that a censure was not being considered, her top deputies kept it in the mix.

House leaders debated future disciplinary steps against Wilson at a weekly closed-door strategy session in Pelosi's office Thursday.

"I want Mr. Wilson to come to the floor of the House and apologize," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. He indicated that House leaders did not reach a conclusion on sanctioning Wilson.

"We need to figure out what to do," said one senior member of the leadership team. Another high-level House source suggested that lawmakers didn't want to let Wilson's transgression go unpunished "because of the magnitude" of the accusation directed at Obama.

Wilson has already issued a statement of apology and called the White House and offered a personal apology to the president (it was taken by Rahm Emanuel). The president has accepted his apology according to his own statement on the matter.

Wilson should not accede to Hoyer's wishes and go the apology tour routine on the House floor. Unless Democrats who booed Bush in 2005 want to get in line behind him, an apology on the floor is meaningless.

Personally, I hope they go the censure route because it will keep this story alive for days. What are people talking about today - the health care speech? Nope, the "You Lie!" statement and what Obamacare actually says about insuring illegal aliens (there's nothing in the bill to prevent it). It's taking all the air out of the speech.

I have no doubts that Rep. Wilson is sorry he said what he said in the manner he said it, but I doubt he's unhappy about what it did to the Obamacare message.

In Defense of Racial Profiling

A retired NYPD detective admits to racial profiling, but you need to read the whole thing to get the context.

Networks Chafing at White House Arm Twisting

Howard Kurtz has some background on the White House pressure that pushed three networks to carry Obama's last press conference live in prime time:

In the days before President Obama's last news conference, as the networks weighed whether to give up a chunk of their precious prime time, Rahm Emanuel went straight to the top.

Rather than calling ABC, the White House chief of staff phoned Bob Iger, chief executive of parent company Disney. Instead of contacting NBC, Emanuel went to Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric. He also spoke with Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, the company spun off from Viacom.

Whether this amounted to undue pressure or plain old Chicago arm-twisting, Emanuel got results: the fourth hour of lucrative network time for his boss in six months. But network executives have been privately complaining to White House officials that they cannot afford to keep airing these sessions in the current economic downturn.

The networks "absolutely" feel pressured, says Paul Friedman, CBS's senior vice president: "It's an enormous financial cost when the president replaces one of those prime-time hours. The news divisions also have mixed feelings about whether they are being used."

While it is interesting to see how a president handles questions, Friedman says, "there was nothing" at the July 22 session, which was dominated by health-care questions. "There hardly ever is these days, because there's so much coverage all the time."

Had Obama not answered the last question that evening -- declaring that the Cambridge police had acted "stupidly" in arresting Henry Louis Gates at his home -- the news conference would have been almost totally devoid of news. And that raises questions about whether the sessions have become mainly a vehicle for Obama to repeat familiar messages.

Mark Whitaker, NBC's Washington bureau chief, says Obama "is at risk of overexposure" and suggests the sessions are losing their novelty.

"Every time a president holds a press conference there is potential for news to be made, as he did, probably to his regret, with his comments on the Gates case," Whitaker says. Still, he says, "we would feel better" if White House officials "were approaching us with the sense that they had something new to say, rather than that they just wanted to continue a dialogue with the American people. There are other ways of continuing that dialogue than taking up an hour of prime time."

If it hadn't been for the Henry Louis Gates question I'll bet none of the three networks would be willing to carry another Obama prime time presser in the next six months. However, given Obama's propensity to make news with a dumb statement like he did that night, they'll probably comply in hopes that somebody will ask the question that kicks off the next two week media frenzy.

The Silent Summit

Andrew Breitbart writes about the infamous beer summit from last Thursday:

Well, that was pathetic. And it wasn’t an accident. The fix was in from the beginning.

Last week’s lackluster “Beer Summit” featuring Sgt. James Crowley, professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was orchestrated to end a national discussion on race, not begin one. That’s why there were no microphones, even though each participant showed himself to be perfectly qualified, astoundingly articulate and camera-ready for an illuminating and much-needed public debate.

The problem for the White House was the more the esteemed professor talked, the more trouble he created for his friend, the president. The clever photo-op sans audio was crafted to yank the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research off the stage, lest anyone begin to question what is being taught at Harvard these days.

Conversely, the more Sgt. Crowley weighed in, and his brave black co-workers spoke out, the more obvious it became that a national discussion featuring this cast of characters may not end with the results the professor and the president wanted.

The status quo was at risk, and Mr. Obama used his extraordinary powers to protect it.

Read the rest of it here. For all we know the participants could have been calling each other four letter words and we would never have known. I was hoping Sgt. Crowley would come out at the end of the meeting and say something like this:

We agreed to disagree. Gates still thinks I'm a racist and I still think he and Obama are arrogant jerks. Biden's just an idiot.

You Make the Call

Don Surber had these two photos on his site:

By the way, that's Sgt. Crowley helping Henry Louis Gates down the White House steps as Gates' good friend walks ahead.

Sen. Byrd was a constant critic of Bush, and yet Bush gladly extended a hand to help him.

Is there a connection between the two photos? You make the call.

The Beer Summit

Hmmm. The President is sitting next to Sgt. Crowley. Poor "Skip" Gates is stuck next to Joe Biden. That can't be going over well in certain quarters.

Word is that Sgt. Crowley will be holding a press conference after the event - around 7:30pm Eastern. I'm sure he'll be gracious, but it could be interesting.

Racists and Victims Share Beers in Rose Garden

The publicity event of the week takes place tonight at the White House when the president, Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police Department, and "black studies" professor Henry Louis Gates sit down together and make nice. ABC News tells us there aren't any planned apologies:

Tonight's the night. Gates, Crowley and the president crack their brews somewhere near the Rose Garden (not the picnic table, too hard to shoot.)

White House aides tell me that there is no "precooked" statement already agreed to and no apologies are necessarily expected.

In my opinion Crowley made a mistake in accepting this invitation. Why would anyone want to sit down and socialize with people who publicly called them a racist in front of the whole country and to my knowledge have not publicly apologized?

If I had been Crowley I would have offered a polite "no thanks" and would have gone on about my business. Instead, Crowley will be used as a political prop for Obama in the hopes he can make this whole thing go away. Gates will probably continue to be just what he is - a guy who hates cops and "whitey" and still thinks of himself as some sort of victim of racist police tactics.

It's all for show, and frankly I think Obama made a mistake in scheduling this event because it will keep the story alive for another day or two, and probably through the weekend shows as panels are asked their reaction to all this.

UPDATE: Looks like Obama has stepped on some other toes in the process. This is what Mark Knoller of CBS is reporting via Twitter:

However, Wall Street Journal reporting American-owned beer companies say the brews for the WH meeting should not be foreign-owned.

Obama will probably have to have another beer summit to assuage the hurt feelings of American-owned beer companies. It never ends.

And don't forget, while Gates is away, it's party on at his house!

Party at Henry Louis Gates' House!

Jim Geraghty notices a potential problem for Henry Louis Gates:

A Formula For Trouble

Let me get this straight: Because of the release of the 911 tapes, we know the street address for Henry Louis Gates. And we know he'll be at the White House on Thursday.

Is it just me, or is this an open invitation to burglars throughout New England?

Picture the 911 calls this week:

Operator: "911 Emergency."

Caller: "Yeah, I see two guys breaking into Henry Louis Gates house—"

Operator: "Real funny, pal, you're the third one today." CLICK.

Then again, people might not want to even make the call, lest they be accused of racism later.

I think I made that last point yesterday.

Political Video of the Day

Some of Sgt. Crowley's fellow Cambridge police officers stand up for their colleague. The embed feature isn't working, but you can see the video by clicking on the link. Key quote from a black female police officer when asked her opinion of President Obama's comments in this matter:

'I supported him. I voted for him. I will not again'

She had the same response to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Political Quote of the Day

From Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, on his Harvard application:

"As always, whitey now sits in judgment of me, preparing to cast my fate. It is your decision either to let me blow with the wind as a nonentity or to encourage the development of self. Allow me to prove myself."

He's grown older and supposedly more educated, but the chip on his shoulder is just as big today as it was when he was an arrogant snot-nosed kid.

And as Don Surber points out, "Skip" Gates skipped taxes, which makes him a lock on a future Obama cabinet position.

Obama's Bad July

I had a pretty good July. Made trips to Las Vegas and Michigan, and although it's hot now here in Southern California, it's not as hot as it's gotten at the White House this month:

Despite a number of former Democratic members and aides working in the Obama administration, Democrats on Capitol Hill have grown bolder in defying their party leader. Many centrist Democrats are worried that Republicans will have the upper hand in the 2010 elections.

Paul Light, an expert on the presidency and a professor at New York University, said the president's problems with Capitol Hill reflect "a miscalculation by the Obama administration on how political capital gets spent in Washington."

Light said that capital, even for a president who enjoys immense personal popular support like Obama, is spent a bit at a time on each initiative or piece of legislation.

"I think the Obama administration has been spending political capital at roughly the same rate the federal government spends money," Light said. "Eventually, it runs out."

Light quoted President Lyndon Johnson, who said that "if you don't get it done in six months, you're not going to get it done."

One of the reasons Obama has spent so much capital, aside from his ambitious agenda, has been his willingness to cede so much control to Congress, Light said.

While lawmakers like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are allies of the president, his political capital is not necessarily a priority of theirs.

To that end, Light says, Obama has made a mistake in making Pelosi his "broker," spending his political capital but not always to his benefit.

The other misstep that has bogged down the administration on healthcare specifically is Obama's inability to communicate effectively to the American people, Light said.

While it is shocking to consider that Obama is anything less than one of the best communicators in modern political history, when it comes to healthcare, he simply has not been able to make the sell to people who do have health insurance.

And Wednesday night's primetime press conference was a "disaster," Light said.

And that doesn't even consider the Henry Louis Gates mess that Obama willingly stepped in, totally drowning out his health care push. He's in a much weaker position as July comes to a close than he was when the fireworks were going off on the Fourth.

Republican Tries to Help Obama

He doesn't think he's helping him, but if this resolution goes through Obama becomes a victim of mean Republicans instead of a guy inserted himself into a situation where he clearly didn't belong:

Congress would demand that President Obama apologize to the officer the president said had "acted stupidly" in the arrest of a prominent Harvard professor under a resolution set to be introduced by one Michigan lawmaker.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) will introduce a House resolution on Monday demanding Obama retract and apologize for remarks he has made about Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley this past week.

Obama had said at his prime time press conference Wednesday that Crowley had "acted stupidly" in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, a racially-infused case which has sparked a national debate on race and policing.

The president refused to back down on his involvement in the case, but appeared in the White House briefing on Friday to say he had called Crowley to explain that never meant to insult the officer. (Obama also called Gates on Friday.)

McCotter's resolution would demand Obama "retract his initial public remarks and apologize to Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James M. Crowley for having unfairly impugned and prejudged his professional conduct in this local police response incident."

The resolution will come after an escalation in the Cambridge case the past two days after the president's initial statements on the matter. The nation's largest police group, the Fraternal Order of Police, blasted Obama for his remarks about Crowley and the Cambridge police.

McCotter is a good conservative, but he's also a media hound constantly looking for an opportunity to be interviewed or release a statement. This resolution does nothing but help Obama and it should be quickly withdrawn.

Obama Was Prepared for Gates Question and Still Blew It

Jack Dunphy, an LAPD officer (who writes under a fictitious name) has some interesting comments about the Henry Louis Gates affair:

On today’s Fox News Sunday, presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs admitted President Obama had been prepared to answer questions about the Henry Louis Gates arrest at his press conference last week. Bret Baier, filling in for regular host Chris Wallace, asked Gibbs, “Before Wednesday’s news conference, did you prepare [the president] for a question about Henry Gates’s arrest in Cambridge?”

“Well, look,” said Gibbs, “Let’s just say it’s safe to say we went over a whole lot of topics that we thought might come up, and certainly this was a topic that was, has been in the news . . .” He then went on to try to un-ring the bell by repeating the line that the president “hadn’t calibrated his words well,” and blah, blah, blah, beer at the White House, blah, blah, blah.

So now we know that President Obama didn’t properly “calculate” his words about the Cambridge police “acting stupidly” even after being prepared for such a question in advance. Thus is revealed the president’s tone deafness in failing to anticipate the backlash such an answer might provoke.

And now we are told, in a further attempt at damage control, that the Gates arrest can serve to educate all those mouth-breathing cops out there who may yet stumble into an unpleasant encounter with some other Ivy Leaguer. It’s our hope, said Gibbs, invoking that insufferable locution that one hopes will soon fade from common usage, that the Gates arrest can be “part of a teachable moment.”

So, since the president is keen on offering instruction, here is what I would advise he teach his Ivy League pals, and anyone else who may find himself unexpectedly confronted by a police officer: You may be as pure as the driven snow itself, but you have no idea what horrible crime that police officer might suspect you of committing. You may be tooling along on a Sunday drive in your 1932 Hupmobile when, quite unknown to you, someone else in a 1932 Hupmobile knocks off the nearby Piggly Wiggly. A passing police officer sees you and, asking himself how many 1932 Hupmobiles can there be around here, pulls you over. At that moment I can assure you the officer is not all that concerned with trying not to offend you. He is instead concerned with protecting his mortal hide from having holes placed in it where God did not intend. And you, if in asserting your constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure fail to do as the officer asks, run the risk of having such holes placed in your own.

When the officer has satisfied himself that it was not you and your Hupmobile that were involved in the Piggly Wiggly heist, he owes you an explanation for the stop and an apology for the inconvenience, but if you’re running your mouth about your rights and your history of oppression and what have you, you’re likely to get neither.

It was pretty clear from the press conference that Obama knew that question was coming and the reporter had been chosen to ask it.

And yet, he still came up with an answer that set off a major firestorm. Well done.

The Worst Week of the Obama Presidency

That's how Times Online (UK) describes the aftermath of the Henry Louis Gates mess and the collapsing health care bill:

The incident itself sounds like the invention of a scriptwriter. Take the first black American president and give him an inspiring ascent to the White House in which he brilliantly unites the nation in his address on race, one of the most sophisticated speeches in modern politics. Cut, a few months later, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a black professor is arrested after trying to break into his own home. Then imagine that the man in question, just to intensify the force of the allegory, was the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Cut back to the White House and the President enlivens a dull press conference by claiming that the police acted “stupidly”. Cue splutter and outrage across the networks and the instant jury of the bloggers.

Barack Obama originally changed the tone of the discourse on racial origin in America by a brilliant leap of logic. With great rhetorical flair, he avoided excuses and assumed innocence on the question of prejudice. In that spirit, on July 17 he delivered a sermon at the 100th anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in which he warned black parents to take their responsibilities seriously and told black children that growing up poor is no reason to get bad grades. In a characteristically resonant phrase he encapsulated his own recasting of the debate: “No one has written your destiny for you ... No excuses! No excuses!”

President Obama has by no means undone all this good work with one ill-conceived remark. But for a politician as adept as he is, it was a serious mistake. It is axiomatic as a politician that you do not respond to detailed cases. But, more than that, Obama’s response — that the incident recalled the history of police prejudice against black people — seemed to contradict his message of unity. The rapidity with which the President, in an unguarded moment, sought to make that connection seemed to open a gap between what he usually says and what he really thinks.

This has capped the worst week of the Obama presidency so far. A comment out of place will not run for too long. Of more durable concern is the uneasy passage of President Obama’s vaulting ambitions for healthcare reform. If President Obama fails to extend insurance coverage to at least some of the 47 million Americans without it then his presidency will never quite recover.

I'm not sure his presidency will recover from the Gates incident. He showed a flash of very unpresidential behavior, and that image will stick in a lot of minds. I don't care whether he invites all the parties to the White House for a beer, everyone will know it's nothing more than a photo op designed to make a stupid statement go away.

All it took was one question to derail his entire health care press conference. I hope some other journalists are coming up with similarly loaded questions for the next presser.

Maybe This is Why Obama Reacted So Strongly to the Cambridge PD

It seems that during his days at Harvard Barack Obama was quite the scofflaw, and that may explain why he so quickly, and without sufficient facts, condemned the department when they arrested his friend and fundraiser Henry Louis Gates for excessive racial jerkitude:

President Obama, who targeted the Cambridge, Mass., police department with his comment that one of its officers acted "stupidly" in the arrest of a black man, has a history with the department dating from his college years to as recently as the launch of his presidential campaign. ...

According to the Somerville Times in 2007, as a Harvard Law School student, Obama got 17 parking tickets during 1989-1991 from the Cambridge Police Department that he left unpaid until just weeks before he announced his bid for the presidency.

"In other words, as a practicing lawyer in Chicago, he allowed these tickets and penalties to remain unpaid; as an Illinois state senator he allowed these tickets and fines to remain unpaid; and as a United States senator he allowed these almost-two-decade-old signs of his disdain for the law to remain unpaid," commented John LeBoutillier on Newsmax.com.

The Washington Post said two years ago that the tickets included parking without a proper permit and parking in a bus stop.

The Associated Press reported in 2007 that Obama's "healthy stack" of parking tickets was finally paid, including late fees, "two weeks before he officially launched his presidential campaign."

Said Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for Obama's campaign during his race to the White House, "He didn't owe that much and what he did owe, he paid. … Many people have parking tickets and late fees."

The White House press office did not respond to a request for a comment.

I'm sure the growing stack of tickets simply heightened Obama's hatred of the police, a character flaw that is quite common among his friends and mentors.

"It's Not About Me"

That seems to be a common refrain these days:

Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he's ready to move on from his arrest by a white police officer, hoping to use the encounter to improve fairness in the criminal justice system and saying "in the end, this is not about me at all."

We just heard Obama say the same thing about health care just the other day.

And in both case, it IS about them.

Black Officer Who Witnessed Gates' Arrest Speaks Out

Somewhere on the blogosphere yesterday I saw an item that referred to the photo of Henry Louis Gates' arrest and noted the black police officer in the picture. That blogger was questioning why we hadn't heard anything from him yet.

Well, today he has spoken out:

A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s home when the black Harvard scholar

was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation.

Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates' reaction to Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been."

Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley "100 percent."

Gates has said he was the victim of racial profiling.

President Barack Obama says the officers "acted stupidly." Lashley called Obama's remark "unfortunate" and said he should be allowed to take it back.

Nobody's stopping Obama from taking it back except Obama.

Yesterday, in an effort at damage control and to try and turn the attention back to health care, Obama phoned the white officer involved in the arrest. Perhaps he should call Sgt. Lashley too...and then every other officer he insulted on the Cambridge police department.

If he hoped to make this all go away with a phone call, so far it's not happening.

Cambridge Cops Ask Obama to Apologize

Good for the Cambridge, MA cops who are not going to let Obama get away with his slander of their department or their officers:

The Cambridge and area police unions voiced their support Friday for Sgt. James Crowley and called for an apology from President Obama for saying officers "acted stupidly" for arresting black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home.

"His remarks were obviously misdirected but made it worse yet by suggesting somehow this case should remind us of a history of racial abuse by law enforcement," Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference.

O'Connor also referred to statements made by Governor Deval Patrick -- the state's first black governor -- who called the arrest "every black man's nightmare."

"Whatever may be the history, we deeply resent the implications and reject any suggestion that in this case or any other case that they've allowed a person's race to direct their activities. However we hope they will reflect upon their past comments and apologize to the men and women of the Cambridge Police Department," O'Connor said.

How has Obama responded? With a classic non-apology apology.

Obama has said he was surprised by the controversy sparked by his comments. White House spokesman Roberts Gibbs said Friday that the President regrets that the media have gotten all worked up over the controversy and been distracted from other more substantive issues such as health care.

Obama is surprised at the reaction because in his world it's taken for granted that cops are racist and that black men are routinely harassed. He would be shocked to hear it any other way.

The cops are considering releasing the 911 tapes. I hope they do. It seems that every time there's any kind of incident in Los Angeles the tapes are in the media the next day. Let's get the out there so we can hear the radio calls as they went down, and possibly hear the ranting Gates at the same time.

Something For Henry Louis Gates to Think About

During his confrontation with the Cambridge police, after being seen breaking into a house and refusing to identify himself to the responding officer, Harvard "black history" professor Henry Louis Gates was heard to shout this:

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN AMERICA!

The Wall Street Journal thought it appropriate to remind Mr. Gates of a couple of things:

Mr. Gates lives in a city with a black mayor, a state with a black governor and a country with a black President.

Mr. Gates, this is not what happens to black men in this country. This is what happens to pompous, arrogant racist ###holes in America.