Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cambridge Police Chief Defends Crowley; MA Governor Patrick Defends Gates

Robert Haas, the Chief of the Cambridge Police Department, has publicly defended Sgt. James Crowley.

On the other hand, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is defending Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Haas said he did not believe Sgt. Crowley "acted with any racial motivation at all." When asked about President Obama's comment last night that the Cambridge Police Department had "acted stupidly", Haas replied the Department is "deeply pained."

Governor Patrick, for his part, had no comment on President Obama's remark other than to say Obama "was quite capable of speaking for himself.” Patrick said he emphasized with Gates in "feeling powerless" while he attended Milton Academy in the 1970s and being "stopped for no reason than just being on the sidewalk." The Governor did not elaborate further.

Patrick did say, "I guess I would say you ought to be able to raise your voice in your own house without risk of arrest.”

Ahem, Governor. Gates was arrested outside his home. I guess the Governor didn't have all the facts before him. Just like his good friend President Obama.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neither of the these men need to be defended. Mr. Gates and Sgt. Crowley obviously had a gross misunderstanding, which went too far. If one looks objectively at Sgt. Crowley, they will clearly see this had nothing to do with race. It was a matter of him confirming who the person he was contacting. Mr. Gates apparently took offense and raised holy heck, on the basis of his race. Put the egos and race issue aside, and I would be certain to say Sgt. Crowley would have done the exact same thing he did in this situation, until he was met with such hostile opposition.

Anonymous said...

Barack obama and deval patrick are both men who act out of arrogance and stupidity; the cop was doing his job. Neither obama and patrick knew the facts yet judged. I am totally disgusted by the fact that obama is our president. The same goes for patrick.They are both racists.

Anonymous said...

I want to express my support to Officer Crowley. It was not he or your department that was stupid. Rather it was the black President of the United States who made a stupid racially oriented uninformed black man who has not had appropriate data to make such a statement.

Anonymous said...

Officer Crowley owes NO APOLOGY to Gates, or anyone else for doing his job as it is defined, The race card is being played too often, and this is only the beginning for obvious reasons,

Anonymous said...

Officer Crowley racially profiled Professor Gates. Once the professor proved that he owned the property, the police should have left. That did not happen. It is not against the lw to yell at the police. These incidents show that racism is alive and well. 400 years of oppression and mass genocide cannot be erased by the election of one black President. This nation will never be the greatest on earth until the ghosts of it's past are confronted.

Carol said...

The problem with implicit bias is that a person does not know it exists. It causes a person to look at the actions of a person of another race with a greater level of suspicion. It skews your perception of the other person. Sgt Crowley does not need to be a racist to have implicit bias. He was the professional in the situation and was trained in defusing such situations. He did not need to have the last word but arresting a 58 year old man with a can who was angry in his own home. There was no reason to assert his authority is this manner. He could have walked away.

Anonymous said...

Obama should have stayed out of it. He thinks he owns the world now. I am concerned for Crowley, smells like a set-up, I hope Crowley takes someone with him to the meeting with Obama and Gates. My gut feeling is that Obama will make Crowley look very guilty. You see that is the way Obama works. They need to just drop the whole thing. Don't play it out anymore. Let it go.

Anonymous said...

SGT. CROWLEY OWES NO ONE AN APOLOGY. HE WAS SENT TO DO A JOB AND MR. GATES REFUSED TO SHOW I.D.,THEREFORE HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. I SENT AN EDITORIAL TO THE GLOBE CONCERNING THIS BUT I'M SURE IT WASN'T PUBLISHED. MR. GATES HAS RECEIVED HIS 15 MINS. OF FAME BUT HE HAS ACTED VERY FOOLHARDY AND IF ANYONE IS OWED AN APOLOGY IT SHOULD GIVEN BE SGT. CROWLEY. OBAMA SHOULD HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO RATHER THAN INTERFERE IN SUCH A NON-PRESIDENTIAL MATTER AS THIS.

Anonymous said...

Cambridge lost a great opportunity to kick ass

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