[Albion Wilde]

Gates is a piece of work. Now he’s trying to repair his public outbursts against the police who tried to protect him by throwing his own under the bus. It’s a little late to trot out the truth in defense of your own azz, Skip.

[Hunton Peck]

What I think he's trying to do here is use an appearance of reasonableness to recast the debate from whether reparations are right, just, or needed, blandly asserting that as a given, and focus instead on the details of how to go about it.