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Obama says police acted 'stupidly' in arrest
AP on Yahoo ^ | 7/22/09 | Anne Gearan - ap

Posted on 07/22/2009 7:16:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest.

"This still haunts us," Obama said.

Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case. Nonetheless, Obama said, anyone would have been angry if treated the way Gates claims police in Cambridge, Mass., treated him. Gates, a Harvard University professor, claims he was arrested in his home after showing ID to police who responded to a report of a possible burglary.

"Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said during a prime-time news conference that otherwise focused on the health care debate.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: acted; blackkk; cambridge; footnmouth; gates; henrygates; henrylouisgatesjr; leo; mrskippy; obama; police; racemongers; skipgates; stupidly
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To: NormsRevenge
Headline?

Victimhood is the most lucrative industry that liberals have.
Henry Gates Industry Magnate To Be Named Czar
President names Harvard professor to eliminate "abuse" by police. "Could hurt fund raising," some complain.

21 posted on 07/22/2009 7:27:36 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: ForeignDude

There is nothing American or man about that piece of filth.


22 posted on 07/22/2009 7:27:55 PM PDT by Gator113 (I live in "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world." Imam Obama told me so.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Nice..... Every cop in America just said “so much for the benefit of the doubt for us”.

I hope he keeps flapping his gums.

In spite of pandering to Hispanics by trying to lump them into his race-baiting pity party, I really don't think they'll buy it.

Most Hispanics are a whole lot more conservative than he thinks they are, and they damned sure don't care about the self-inflicted travails of some snooty, self-righteous little prick from Harvard - black, brown, white, or otherwise.

With just a few simple words, he could lose supporters by the millions.

23 posted on 07/22/2009 7:28:53 PM PDT by conservativeharleyguy (Democrats: Over 60 million fooled daily!)
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To: NormsRevenge

I feel a tipping point coming up fast...


24 posted on 07/22/2009 7:29:51 PM PDT by islander-11 (Save Nantucket - Vote Republican!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Ahh...Norm...so now the President micromanages police activities along with everything else?

Why was this even a question at a Presidential Press Conference?!?!?!


25 posted on 07/22/2009 7:30:09 PM PDT by PennsylvaniaMom (7-27-09 Sarah Palin Independence Day!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Obama lacks the judgment to know when to keep his mouth shut. Wonder what he said about the Duke rape hoax as it drug out for a year?


26 posted on 07/22/2009 7:30:30 PM PDT by Will88
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To: Psycho_Bunny
To be commenting on this is waaaaaayyyy below the office.

Not when you're pandering to your base...

27 posted on 07/22/2009 7:31:19 PM PDT by Felis_irritable (Fool me once, I'll punch you in the...er, something or other...)
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To: NormsRevenge

Obama wasn’t there- how could he possibly know that the police were out of line in any way?

He’s going to look awfully stupid if the police are exonerated on this.

The remark is reminiscient of the Duke rape allegations where so many liberals were so quick to damn the lacrosse men before the facts came out.


28 posted on 07/22/2009 7:31:27 PM PDT by I_Like_Spam
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To: NormsRevenge

Heh...So what else is new? Stupid is as stupid does...


29 posted on 07/22/2009 7:31:40 PM PDT by Type Righter (“It will be a cold day in hell before he socializes my country!”)
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To: NormsRevenge
No kidding.

"...and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case. "

Then he needs to shut his mouth, open his eyes, read the facts and then keep his mouth shut.

I remember a number of local or regional cases like this where GWB was asked his opinion. No comments were forthcoming from our then President. Because he didn't know all the facts, he kept his mouth shut. You know...like an adult.

30 posted on 07/22/2009 7:32:19 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (The code word for the new racism is "diversity.")
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To: NormsRevenge

How does he know this without knowing all the facts in the case? Perhaps the man was abusive......


31 posted on 07/22/2009 7:32:57 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: ForeignDude
My understanding of it first time around was that he was in the house, on the phone, when the police arrived. It wasn't until he followed them outside and continued to raise hell that they arrested him.

Just imagine how pissed he would have been to return home and find his house had been cleaned out in his absence, then learn that his neighbor had seen two guys breaking in but decided not to call police because they were black and that would profiling.

This was a lose-lose situation for the police. If this man was determined to make it a racial thing the ball was in his court. It should help some that one of the officers was black.

This looks to me like a case of employing the old “the best defense is a strong offense” rule to me.

He says he never yelled at the police, but that will be easy enough to confirm based on witnesses. And supposedly there's a picture of him on the porch yelling.

32 posted on 07/22/2009 7:33:04 PM PDT by jwparkerjr (Palin Must GO! to the white house)
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To: ForeignDude

Gates was doing fine until he got attitude that far exceeded what one would call righteous indignation.

Cop who arrested Henry Gates: ‘I’m not apologizing’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2298762/posts

Post 18

Disorderly conduct. This is an AP account:

Police say the 58-year-old Gates yelled at the officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after the officer demanded Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home. Gates denies that he yelled at the officer, other than to repeatedly ask his name and badge number, and says he readily turned over his driver’s license and Harvard ID to prove his residence and identity. Gates said he was “outraged” by the arrest and has demanded an apology. He said he wants to use the experience to help make a documentary about racial profiling in the United States.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNR4dcq5sivgbez2rttRVWtTMXoAD99JQMJG0


33 posted on 07/22/2009 7:33:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard)
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To: DennisR
There is not too much reality between his two ears. He is fully delusional.

And with ears that wide -- whooo boy, we're talking big-time delusional. Il Dumbo sized delusional. Just look at that so-called zombie press conference tonight... [shakes head] ...unbelievable...

34 posted on 07/22/2009 7:34:32 PM PDT by Type Righter (“It will be a cold day in hell before he socializes my country!”)
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To: Republic
He calls himself African American...I always took that for black.

He can call himself whatever he likes. He is more white and Arab than he is black. His family owned slaves and he shares little if anything with the average American black person; grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, raised by white relatives, went to private schools, had two foreign citizenships, did not experience racism and benefited from being a foreign student, to name but a few....

He may say he is black, but he ain't black.

35 posted on 07/22/2009 7:34:34 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: achilles2000

If Obama was black, he could throw a baseball and wouldn’t be caught wearing Mom’s jeans.


36 posted on 07/22/2009 7:34:45 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: Dallas59

Barry Soetoro is setting the stage for his little foot soldiers to take to the streets and bring this country down. That’s been his goal from the beginning, and it will not change until we stop this coup d’etat.


37 posted on 07/22/2009 7:34:50 PM PDT by Sioux-san
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To: NormsRevenge
So, Gates’s house appeared to be being robbed and the police tried to thwart the robbery...yet the police are the bad guys? (I'd love to know what the untold story is. Was gates drunk or something? Why was he breaking into his own house?)
38 posted on 07/22/2009 7:34:56 PM PDT by utahagen
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To: achilles2000
He just wants to be...

When it suits him...

39 posted on 07/22/2009 7:36:22 PM PDT by FTJM
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To: PennsylvaniaMom

Why was this even a question at a Presidential Press Conference?!?!?!

Good question. It served it’s purpose tho.

whupped out his race card lickety split. He never leaves the Oval Office without it.


40 posted on 07/22/2009 7:36:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard)
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