This is why I think Obama will be a good president, not a great president. In this case we have a cop with a temper who was clearly in the wrong, who abused his authority by arresting a harmless old African American man outside of his own home, and now Obama is inviting that same dirty cop to the White House. Why not just invite Marc Fuhrman from the OJ trial? What about the guys who raped Abner Louima? Even if Gates overreacted, Crowley is clearly in the wrong. He’s a cop and should know how to behave. Not only does his police report reek of inaccuracies and inconsistencies, but he arrested an old man who posed no danger to him whatsoever. It’s an abuse of authority, and the president has invited this thug to the White House. Unbelievable.
Obama has the right mindset, but he caters too much to popular opinion, even when he doesn’t have to. In this case, taking a stand against police abuse was not hurting his popularity, much the same way it didn’t hurt his popularity when 80/20 campaigned against him after he refused to sign their questionnaire. Yet he caved to 80/20, the same way he caved to this dirty cop and his supporters.
It really isn’t a big deal; I know that. He was still the best of the candidates last year. The most important issues are healthcare and the economy, and people should focus on that. Still, it’s disappointing that our first Black president keeps caving on important issues of race and culture.
Related posts:
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
8(
I wouldn’t say...
Obama isn’t a leader, he’s a mountain climber. He seeks out the next great personal challenge. He wavers like hell when the pressure’s on. He’s more interested in not “tarnishing” his campaign rhetoric about a “new tone in Washington” etc than in being a responsible leader.
This punk Crowley should be under investigation by the Justice Department, given the full anal exam by every civil rights investigator the DOJ has and then given a show trial that ends with him being ass-raped in a federal pen by a career convict.
Preferably BLACK!
This punk cop has been arrogant, reckless and racist. Giving him anything other than a non-stop punch in the mouth every day of his degenerate life is the same as validating his bullcrap.
Obama is pandering to the white vote. They don’t want to see black people “abusing” the position we’ve earned by daring to –GASP!!!!!– denounce racists when we see them, and deal with them decisively in such a way that they can’t threaten anyone.
Welcome to change we CAN’T believe in.
I agree. I would’ve rather him say, “No comment” than to make a statement against police misconduct, waver, and then condone this punk cop’s actions by inviting him to the White House. We know Obama’s opinions; it’s just that he refuses to take a stand on these opinions.
Well, even as president of the United States, he’s still a minority.
As a minority you pick your battles and living another day to fight the good fight. Plus Obama is as radical or even progressive as many believe he is. He’s more of a democratic centrist.
It is so great to be white and right in America. Now that’s white privilege when you can dictate what is and isn’t controversy in the news and when you can get the president to retract his words. White perspective, white denial, white logic, white power for the win. Oh shit am I being a racist drum beater. Fuck, me and Obama are both in trouble with Robert.
Oops I meant to say
Well, even as president of the United States, he’s still a minority.
As a minority you pick your battles to live another day to fight the good fight. Plus Obama is NOT as radical or even progressive as many believe he is. He’s more of a democratic centrist.
jab jab! lol!
Obama is doing political damage control.
He can have his White House photo op with Officer Jim Crowley and Herny Louis Gates, and even promote it as a “Can’t We All Just Get Along” moment.
But it won’t sweep under the rug the broader issues of racist profiling and police brutality that this incident implicitly brings up.
It’s these bigger (and more explosive) issues that Mainstream America is nervous about, and why they reacted so vehemently to Obama’s relatively mild criticism of the arrest as “stupid.”
It effectively negates the possibility of Crowley getting discplined for his misdeeds. There’s a time and a place for everything, but dialogue with a corrupt cop is not the solution, at least not prior to a proper ethics inquiry. It’s clear that Crowley lied, and unfortunately now he’s not going to suffer any repercussions for that lie.
Yeah, I was pretty bummed about this whole B.S. of inviting Crowley for a beer, at Crowley’s SUGGESTION!?! Come on Obama, you’re the President of the U.S., misunderstanding or not, you cannot arrest a man inside of his own home if he’s yelling at you to get the hell out of it.
Wish there were some video of the whole incidient so that the media could put it on full blast and show the world what a true idiot this jackass Crowley is and Obama can tell Crowley to take that beer and shove it up his ass.
I just heard the audio of the incident. Unfortunately, it’s hard to hear very much except for when the cops are talking directly into the radio. Well, at least it exonerated that poor woman who called the police.
Well you can tell how deeply Obama feels about the whole incident when he made the initial statement, now he is backtracking/compromising its just for political reasons. He had to, to keep powerful people on side.
Hes just picking his battles, saving up his political capital for other important battles that will win the war…..It will be interesting to see what happens to Crowley’s career in the future 5-10 years from now, if he will be able to get promoted or not. Also, he will find it quite difficult to take this sort of action again…
Obamas being pragmatic…