Bite Your Tongue

[Benny B]

July 26, 2009

Bite Your Tongue
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

Being obnoxious isn’t a crime.

As we reflect on the arc of civil rights dramas from Jim Crow to Jim Crowley, my friend John Timoney, the police chief of Miami, observes: “There’s a fine line between disorderly conduct and freedom of speech. It can get tough out there, but I tell my officers, ‘Don’t make matters worse by throwing handcuffs on someone. Bite your tongue and just leave.’ ”

As the daughter of a police detective, I always prefer to side with the police. But this time, I’m struggling.

No matter how odd or confrontational Henry Louis Gates Jr. was that afternoon, he should not have been arrested once Sergeant Crowley ascertained that the Harvard professor was in his own home.

President Obama was right the first time, that the encounter had a stupid ending, and the second time, that both Gates and Crowley overreacted. His soothing assessment that two good people got snared in a bad moment seems on target.

It escalated into a clash of egos — the hard-working white cop vs. the globe-trotting black scholar, the town vs. the gown, the Lowell Police Academy vs. the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Crowley told a Boston sports station that Gates “seemed very peculiar — even more so now that I know how educated he is.”

Gates told his daughter Elizabeth in The Daily Beast: “He should have gotten out of there and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, good luck. Loved your PBS series — check with you later!’ ”

Gates told me Crowley was so “gruff” and unsolicitous “the hair on my neck stood up.” Crowley says Gates acted “put off” and “agitated.” But the strong guy with the gun has more control than the weak guy with the cane. An officer who teaches racial sensitivity should not have latched on to a technicality about neighbors — who seemed to be outnumbered by cops — getting “alarmed” by Gates’s “outburst.”

From Shakespeare to Hitchcock, mistaken identity makes for a powerful narrative.

A police officer who’s proud of his reputation for getting along with black officers, and for teaching cadets to avoid racial profiling, feels maligned to be cast as a racist white Boston cop.

A famous professor who studies identity and summers in Martha’s Vineyard feels maligned to be cast as a black burglar with backpack and crowbar.

Race, class and testosterone will always be a combustible brew. Our first African-American president will try to make the peace with Gates (who supported Hillary) and Crowley (whose father voted for Obama).

I tracked down Gates by phone at J.F.K. on Friday after he had talked to the president and agreed to go to the White House for a symbolic beer with the man he labeled “a rogue policeman.” Gates, coughing from a cold he picked up in China, said he wondered if perhaps “fate and history chose me for this event.” He was pleased with the thousands of empathetic e-mail notes he’s getting, material for a PBS documentary on racial profiling.

He says he’s ready for “marriage counseling” from the “Solomon” in the Oval, who wrote in his memoir that the police pulled him over “for no apparent reason.” “If Sgt. Crowley and the president and I meet, it’s clearly not going to be like Judge Joe Brown, OK? ‘You tell your side, you tell your side.’ We have to agree to disagree. But I would be surprised if somebody didn’t say, ‘I’m sorry you were arrested.’ ”

How can they ever reconcile their accounts? Crowley says he asked Gates to come outside and the professor replied, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Gates wryly suggests Crowley got the line from watching “Good Times” as a child.

“Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?” he asked. “I’m 5-7 and 150 pounds. I don’t walk on ice, much less (expletive) with some cop in my kitchen. I don’t want another hip replacement.”

I asked how he felt when he learned that Crowley was the one who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Reggie Lewis, the black Celtics basketball star, in a vain attempt to save his life after a heart attack in 1993. He replied: “I don’t stereotype. I never saw him as the head of the Ku Klux Klan. Maybe he was just having a bad day.”

And Gates says that if anyone thinks he’s a fiery black militant, they’ve got the wrong guy, considering he married a white woman, has mixed-race daughters and has white blood himself.

Mike Barnicle warns that the next time Gates needs 911, he should call the Harvard faculty lounge instead. But Gates ripostes, “I have a feeling the Cambridge police will be especially attentive to my needs.” He said that, as he was packing for China, he got a call from the Cambridge police soliciting a donation and told them to try back in two weeks.

“I haven’t quite decided,” he said between coughs, “if I’m up to that right now.”

[drkaje]

People are making too big a deal of this.

[headhuntersix]

Bottom line...if a cop tells u to do something, friggen do it.

[Benny B]

People are making too big a deal of this.

It has really only become a big deal due to the Limbaugh-FIXED News crowd. They needed a topic for which they could attach their hatred of Obama and Black people. It will soon dissipate, but it provides a "teachable moment" for those who are able to be taught.

As Ms. Dowd pointed out, arresting a handicapped man in his own home for disorderly conduct is STUPID, as originally stated. Hence, the reason the charges were dropped.

[headhuntersix]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAA...u lib douchbags will never ever learn. Barry made this an issue, the idiot professor made this an issue...not the cops, not Fox News not white people....u race baiting morons did. The only teachable moment is do what cops tell u and u won't get arrested.

[OzmO]

It has really only become a big deal due to the Limbaugh-FIXED News crowd. They needed a topic for which they could attach their hatred of Obama and Black people. It will soon dissipate, but it provides a "teachable moment" for those who are able to be taught.

As Ms. Dowd pointed out, arresting a handicapped man in his own home for disorderly conduct is STUPID, as originally stated. Hence, the reason the charges were dropped.

It was a combination of being stupid on both ends.  The cops were stupid to arrest him but smart to potentially view him as a suspect "before" his Id was established.  He was stupid to act a fool.  I haven't seen him do anything smart in this instance.  He should have been thankful they were there in the first place.

[drkaje]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...u lib douchbags will never ever learn. Barry made this an issue, the idiot professor made this an issue...not the cops, not Fox News not white people....u race baiting morons did. The only teachable moment is do what cops tell u and u won't get arrested.

It's a lot simpler than that, HH6.

Criticizing the cops reminds people that he's still part black.

[The True Adonis]

Bottom line...if a cop tells u to do something, friggen do it.

Do you really believe in surrendering your rights even if you are in the right and the police officer is in the wrong?  Do you not value your civil liberties whatsoever?

[drkaje]

Do you really believe in surrendering your rights even if you are in the right and the police officer is in the wrong?  Do you not value your civil liberties whatsoever?

The cop has a gun.

STFU and discuss civil liberties in court.

[tonymctones]

The cop has a gun.

STFU and discuss civil liberties in court.

thats exactly right, if you feel youve been violated then take it up after the fact dont sit there and defy the police and expect everything will be ok...

[The True Adonis]

thats exactly right, if you feel youve been violated then take it up after the fact dont sit there and defy the police and expect everything will be ok...

There was a place called Krakow that I think you would have loved.

[tonymctones]

There was a place called Krakow that I think you would have loved.

theres a place called utopia but it was an obama lie, sorry you bought into it...

[The True Adonis]

thats exactly right, if you feel youve been violated then take it up after the fact dont sit there and defy the police and expect everything will be ok...

I am also willing to bet that had you lived during the American Revolution, you most certainly would have been one of the many Loyalist Tories obeying the British every step of the way looking out solely for your own self-interest as this was the Loyalist appeal.  Luckily self-interest and dogmatic obedience to authority did not win out.

I think you would have much enjoyed wearing a red or a green coat.

[Purge_WTF]

Do you not value your civil liberties whatsoever?

  He's a "party first, country second" type, just like that fat drug-addicted asshole he idolizes, so no.

  The fact is that the policeman decided to hassle the guy, even though it had been proven that he lived there.

[tonymctones]

I am also willing to bet that had you lived during the American Revolution, you most certainly would have been one of the many Loyalist Tories obeying the British every step of the way looking out solely for your own self-interest as this was the Loyalist appeal.  Luckily self-interest and dogmatic obedience to authority did not win out.

I think you would have much enjoyed wearing a red or a green coat.

LOL funny how you try to draw an anology from this which is a case of both parties acting irresponsibly to the revolution...your idiocy is amazing ive shown you up time and time again for it and yet you keep coming back...Was the cop wrong for doing what he did I would say so but was it within his power I would say so. The simple fact you try to compare the oppression of britain to our founding fathers to this simply shows your stupidity. 

[tonymctones]

  He's a "party first, country second" type, just like that fat drug-addicted asshole he idolizes, so no.

  The fact is that the policeman decided to hassle the guy, even though it had been proven that he lived there.

LOL who put a quarter in the fuking monkey?

[The True Adonis]

LOL funny how you try to draw an anology from this which is a case of both parties acting irresponsibly to the revolution...your idiocy is amazing ive shown you up time and time again for it and yet you keep coming back...Was the cop wrong for doing what he did I would say so but was it within his power I would say so. The simple fact you try to compare the oppression of britain to our founding fathers to this simply shows your stupidity. 

I am not making a reciprocating comparison, just an apt analogy in hopes of portraying a fantastical, yet accurate depiction of where your sentiments lie.  It would behoove you to learn the difference.

[tonymctones]

I am not making a reciprocating comparison, just an apt analogy in hopes of portraying a fantastical, yet accurate depiction of where your sentiments lie.  It would behoove you to learn the difference.

it would behoove you to not sensationalize and create straw men arguements with ppl who have put you in your place time and time again. Simply put I could say that your stance is you should fight oppression at all costs even if it meant the cop would kill you right there and then, but that probably wouldnt be accurate would it?

[The True Adonis]

it would behoove you to not sensationalize and create straw men arguements with ppl who have put you in your place time and time again. Simply put I could say that your stance is you should fight oppression at all costs even if it meant the cop would kill you right there and then, but that probably wouldnt be accurate would it?

Depends on the cause and if one is willing to die for it.

[tonymctones]

Depends on the cause and if one is willing to die for it.

do you think gates cause was worthy of dying for? or even going to jail for? probably not so he should have just stfu and done what he was told and took it up later in court if he had a problem...

[IFBBwannaB]

Depends on the cause and if one is willing to die for it.

Your lying ass is certainly willing to lie for any cause, so where is your degree bitch...ohhh I forgot..."the cause" made you say fuck off on the years you put into it 

Anyway, Obama is a little bitch and he should learn to bite his tongue !

[24KT]

July 26, 2009

Bite Your Tongue
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

Being obnoxious isn’t a crime.

As we reflect on the arc of civil rights dramas from Jim Crow to Jim Crowley, my friend John Timoney, the police chief of Miami, observes: “There’s a fine line between disorderly conduct and freedom of speech. It can get tough out there, but I tell my officers, ‘Don’t make matters worse by throwing handcuffs on someone. Bite your tongue and just leave.’ ”

Can this get any more ironic? It's almost like the Lincoln / Kennedy connection.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy, and Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

As the daughter of a police detective, I always prefer to side with the police. But this time, I’m struggling.

No matter how odd or confrontational Henry Louis Gates Jr. was that afternoon, he should not have been arrested once Sergeant Crowley ascertained that the Harvard professor was in his own home.

President Obama was right the first time, that the encounter had a stupid ending, and the second time, that both Gates and Crowley overreacted. His soothing assessment that two good people got snared in a bad moment seems on target.

Quoted For Truth!

It escalated into a clash of egos — the hard-working white cop vs. the globe-trotting black scholar, the town vs. the gown, the Lowell Police Academy vs. the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Crowley told a Boston sports station that Gates “seemed very peculiar — even more so now that I know how educated he is.”

Gates told his daughter Elizabeth in The Daily Beast: “He should have gotten out of there and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, good luck. Loved your PBS series — check with you later!’ ”

Gates told me Crowley was so “gruff” and unsolicitous “the hair on my neck stood up.” Crowley says Gates acted “put off” and “agitated.” But the strong guy with the gun has more control than the weak guy with the cane. An officer who teaches racial sensitivity should not have latched on to a technicality about neighbors — who seemed to be outnumbered by cops — getting “alarmed” by Gates’s “outburst.”

From Shakespeare to Hitchcock, mistaken identity makes for a powerful narrative.

A police officer who’s proud of his reputation for getting along with black officers, and for teaching cadets to avoid racial profiling, feels maligned to be cast as a racist white Boston cop.

A famous professor who studies identity and summers in Martha’s Vineyard feels maligned to be cast as a black burglar with backpack and crowbar.

Race, class and testosterone will always be a combustible brew. Our first African-American president will try to make the peace with Gates (who supported Hillary) and Crowley (whose father voted for Obama).

I tracked down Gates by phone at J.F.K. on Friday after he had talked to the president and agreed to go to the White House for a symbolic beer with the man he labeled “a rogue policeman.” Gates, coughing from a cold he picked up in China, said he wondered if perhaps “fate and history chose me for this event.” He was pleased with the thousands of empathetic e-mail notes he’s getting, material for a PBS documentary on racial profiling.

He says he’s ready for “marriage counseling” from the “Solomon” in the Oval, who wrote in his memoir that the police pulled him over “for no apparent reason.” “If Sgt. Crowley and the president and I meet, it’s clearly not going to be like Judge Joe Brown, OK? ‘You tell your side, you tell your side.’ We have to agree to disagree. But I would be surprised if somebody didn’t say, ‘I’m sorry you were arrested.’ ”

How can they ever reconcile their accounts? Crowley says he asked Gates to come outside and the professor replied, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Gates wryly suggests Crowley got the line from watching “Good Times” as a child.

“Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?” he asked. “I’m 5-7 and 150 pounds. I don’t walk on ice, much less (expletive) with some cop in my kitchen. I don’t want another hip replacement.”

I asked how he felt when he learned that Crowley was the one who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Reggie Lewis, the black Celtics basketball star, in a vain attempt to save his life after a heart attack in 1993. He replied: “I don’t stereotype. I never saw him as the head of the Ku Klux Klan. Maybe he was just having a bad day.”

And Gates says that if anyone thinks he’s a fiery black militant, they’ve got the wrong guy, considering he married a white woman, has mixed-race daughters and has white blood himself.

Mike Barnicle warns that the next time Gates needs 911, he should call the Harvard faculty lounge instead. But Gates ripostes, “I have a feeling the Cambridge police will be especially attentive to my needs.”  He said that, as he was packing for China, he got a call from the Cambridge police soliciting a donation and told them to try back in two weeks.

“I haven’t quite decided,” he said between coughs, “if I’m up to that right now.”

“I have a feeling the Cambridge police will be especially attentive to my needs.” --Henry Louis Gates II
"I haven't quite decided if I'm up to that right now" --Henry Louis Gates II

[Soul Crusher]

Do you really believe in surrendering your rights even if you are in the right and the police officer is in the wrong?  Do you not value your civil liberties whatsoever?

TA - again, you are a complete moron. 

What does civil liberties have to do with screaming racist insults at a cop in public who went their to protect the private citizens' home? 

[24KT]

TA - again, you are a complete moron. 

What does civil liberties have to do with screaming racist insults at a cop in public who went their to protect the private citizens' home? 

Was he screaming racist insults?

[Soul Crusher]

Was he screaming racist insults?

Sgt. James Crowley, cop who arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., denies he's racist
BY Beverly Ford In Cambridge and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Friday, July 24th 2009, 1:57 AM

 
Senne/AP
 
Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley says that he's not racist for arresting Henry Louis Gates, citing the CPR he gave the Celtics star Reggie Lewis (below) as proof.

Harvard prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrested outside his home, calls police 'racist'

The white cop under fire for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. blasted President Obama Thursday, saying he was "way off base" for accusing police of stupidity.

A defiant Cambridge, Mass., Sgt. James Crowley refused to apologize for the collar a day after Obama defended his Harvard professor pal in a prime-time news conference.

"I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts," Crowley, 42, who teaches a course on racial profiling to police academy students, told Boston radio station WBZ-AM.

"I acted appropriately. I've done nothing wrong."

Later in the day, Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs tried to walk back the President's comments that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting" Gates.

Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One, "Let me be clear; he was not calling the officer stupid."

Gibbs said Obama felt that when it became clear that Gates was not a burglary suspect, "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed."

Gates said he understands why Obama used the word.

"I think that the circumstances are so egregious that it was the adjective that ... logically popped into his head," Gates said Thursday on "The Gayle King Show" on Sirius radio.

"People ... are looking for something that I could have done to justify Sgt. Crowley's actions. There's nothing that I could have done to justify Sgt. Crowley's action," he said.

Speaking for the first time since the ugly incident, Cambridge Police Chief Robert Haas said he was "deeply pained" by the President's comments.

"We take deep personal pride in this agency," Haas said. "We don't have the reputation that we have been painted with."

Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the Cambridge Police Department, responded to a reported break-in at the renowned scholar's home last Thursday.

A neighbor reported seeing two black men break into the professor's home. She was unaware the man forcing his way inside was Gates, who had locked himself out.

When Crowley arrived, he told an incensed Gates he was investigating a report of a break-in and asked for his identification

"Why? Because I'm a black man in America," Gates responded, the police report says.

Gates initially refused to hand over his ID, instead angrily accusing the officer of being a racist and "leveling threats that he wasn't someone to mess with," the report says.

After Gates produced his Harvard University ID, he repeatedly demanded Crowley state his name, which the officer claims he had already done.

Crowley said Gates continued hurling insults at him as he left the home. Crowley arrested the scholar for disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped.

"He was arrested after following me outside the house, continuing the tirade even after being warned multiple times - probably a few more times than the average person would," Crowley told the radio station.
Gates demanded Crowley apologize.

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

________________________ ________________________ __________________

See Jag, Gates is the idiot in this.

The idiocy was compounded by Obama.