Monday, July 27, 2009

Obama Reacted Stupidly

"Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."--Proverbs 16:18

There really isn't much I can add to the latest Obama outrage, that of him calling the Cambridge Police Department stupid. Pretty much anything I can say has already been said by Conservative bloggers and columnists and talk show hosts.

One thing I haven't seen on any blogs is the actual police report submitted by the arresting officer, Sergeant James Crowley and Officer James Figueroa. (not that no blogs have published it)

I found the entire Police report here.

Keep in mind that filing a false police report is one of the most egregious offenses of Police Department policies. It is grounds for immediate dismissal and/or imprisonment. It is highly unlikely that a police officer would lie about what happened, especially in this case, considering the number of eyewitnesses, including both civilian and police personnel.

Plus, a police report has to be filed as soon after the incident as possible, which hardly gives Sergeant Crowley time to come up with some kind of credible fabrication.

No, Sergeant Crowley's version is undoubtedly accurate.

Now. There are a few things about this case that are glaringly obvious:

1. Henry Louis Gates is a racist bigot.

2. This is one more example of a black man shamelessly playing the proverbial race card in an effort to procure special favors or treatment.

3. Obama showed himself to be equally as despicably racist as Henry Gates.

On this last point, I would add, it's really pretty stupid to speak out in this knee-jerk fashion before all the facts are revealed. If Obama had simply said, "I have no comment at this time", he would have saved himself a lot of embarrassment.

Of course, that goes without saying.

But, instead, he stupidly assumed that a white police officer was racist because one of his racist friends said so.

That's right I said it! Obama reacted stupidly!

This is one of those cases when discretion on Obama's part would have been the wiser choice. It would have been more prudent for him to allow himself to be brought up to date on the particulars of the situation before making comment.

But that is not in Obama's nature. Obama is too arrogant.

Arrogance, as I once pointed out, is not necessarily a bad thing. Arrogance is an important trait in salesmen, for instance. It helps a salesman to believe he can close any sale regardless of the difficulty. That requires a certain amount of arrogance.

We've all seen this attitude in friends, co-workers, and enemies many times in our lifetimes, and we will continue to see it until the end of time.

But Obama's arrogance is an entirely different brand of arrogance.

This is evident in his absolute refusal to admit he was wrong to say the Cambridge Police Department acted stupidly in the arrest of Henry Gates. Pathological narcissists such as Obama would never admit fallibility in even the most innocuous matters.

What stubbornly arrogant people like Obama do when proven to be wrong about someone, is, rather than apologize, which normal people would do, simply make some kind of overture, in hopes that the offense will just go away.

And now, what do we see Obama doing?

He has offered to have a friendly little sit-down with Sergeant Crowley, Henry Gates, and himself, over a beer.

This is the typical attempt at apology exemplified by stubbornly arrogant people. It is his way of apologizing.

This offer of a meeting is simply wordplay utilized in an attempt to stem the tide of outrage over Obama's embarrassing remark. He doubtless has no intention of actually following through with his gesture.

But, assuming he would actually follow through with the invitation, which is doubtful, it will be too little, too late for Obama.

He has shown himself to be the small-minded racist bigot most of us believed him to be, and the gloss is beginning to wear off.

14 comments:

Joe said...

As you know, I certainly agree with you on this one.

I have officially dubbed President BO "Racist-in-Chief."

Mark said...

Yes, Joe. He certainly showed his true colors, didn't he?

Z said...

What was telling and scary was his reaction was so REFLEXIVE...an angry black man with a HUGE chip on his shoulder and HE'LL TELL AMERICA HIS FEELINGS...And to hell with facts. He knew....like Murtha 'knew' our Marines killed innocents..
Obama and Martha were wrong..neither will ever apologize, though Obama's pretty darned good for apologizing for US all over the world, right Mark!? TRUE COLORS, indeed. How sad....and, I believe he's also the first president to slam conservatives by name, and demean Conservative channels,etc.....Robt Gibbs does the same; they're still in campaign mode OR it's a Chicago thuggy way of life...slamming and insulting and dissing people who disagree. HELP!!!

Always On Watch said...

I agree with every workd of this post!

BHO's friendly little sit-down with Sergeant Crowley, Henry Gates, and himself, over a beer has a couple of connotations to me:

1. BHO wants to schmooze.

2. BHO is making a condescending offer with that beer, something like, "I'll sit down with blue-collar worker Crowley and offer him what I think every blue-collar's preference of beverage is." I saw a post on this matter HERE. See the third comment -- the one by Pastorius.

BTW, at this very moment, Jesse Jackson is pontificating on the importance of the Gates incident. Jackson's take on the matter is nearly the diametric opposite of mine!

Anonymous said...

So the police never lies or do anything illegal?

Mark said...

I don't blame you for posting anonymously. You are as stupid as Obama.

Tonto said...

OKAY - this is what I got out of this fiasco...(1) everyone believes someone like Gates is going to have a chip on his choulder and knows he made a scene and acted stupid no matter what he says now. (2) as for the cop - well we know it had nothing to do with race - I can prove that - I defend police depts and officers ALL DAY and let me tell you most of the people suing the cops are WHITE stupid men with a chip on their shoulder - they have the experience Gates claimed to have had - the same story i hear every time a new stupid lawsuit comes in our office. I guarantee that would likely happen to ANYONE who did that to a cop.
Does anyone think a cop wouldn't do what Gates said? I do. But the question is why? was it race?
No - more like a cop being a cop? that is just the way they are. I got ten cases against cops for false arrest - all white men - all ticked off for being arrested when drunk in public or whatever. same stupid story. Absolutely nothing new here. I bet 100 White Boston men could come forward with similar arrest story of being pushed around by a cop. Big deal.
they were lucky a cop would show up for a burglary in progess. Doesn't happen in L.A. that is for sure.

Jim said...

So the police never lie or do anything illegal?

Mark said...

Jim,

By your stupid question, are you saying you think Gates was right in accusing Crowley of being a racist, and Obama was right in saying the police acted stupidly?

Seriously. You really think Obama and gates didn't act stupidly?

Are you that brainwashed?

Mark said...

Some police lie. Some Police do illegal things. Some even make mistakes on ocassion.

But not in this case. Sergeant Crowley did everything by the book. Gates and Obama were the ones that were out of line. And you know it.

Jim said...

"Some police lie. Some Police do illegal things. Some even make mistakes on ocassion."

Mark, you answered my question perfectly, so why was it such a stupid question? I find it curious that you can divine what I think about the situation from a legitimate question. It was apparent from your comments that you hold Crowley completely blameless in the situation, as if a police officer could never err or lie. Your later post suggests that police aren't inerrant, only that Crowley was.

I didn't say Gates was right. I think he overreacted to the situation. On the other hand, Crowley also overreacted. He had no cause whatsoever to arrest Gates. It's not illegal to be disrespectful to a police officer.

By arresting Gates, Crowley did indeed act stupidly. Once he had identified Gates and that Gates was in his own home, he should have left the scene. It was over.

As for Obama, I think he was unwise to have made the comment. I think it's clear that what he said was essentially correct, although "unwise" would have been better than "stupid". But I think he should have just stayed out of it at that point.

"Sergeant Crowley did everything by the book." Could be, it's still unclear. But even if he did, I'm sure that "the book" did not require him to arrest Gates. That was a judgment call, and poor judgment it clearly was.

Mark said...

Jim, what Gates was not arrested for being disrespectful to a Police officer. He was arrested for creating a disturbance, which he clearly did. Did you read the police report to which I linked? Do you understand that an officer who lies about an incident on a police report is subject to severe penalties?

Gates was being uncooperative. Obama was being stupid.

Jim said...

Here is officer Crowley's police report. In it he states:

"She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of...Ware Street."

Whalen's statement:

"Whalen reiterated Murphy's prior statement that she never told Crowley at the scene that the men were African American. Which means that a) Whalen never raised the race of the men with the police, and b) Crowley, either willfully or otherwise, appears to have falsely stated in his report that he had been advised of Gates' race prior to approaching the house [emphasis added]."

Apparently Crowley did not tell the truth. What "severe penalties" will he face?

How can one create a "public disturbance" in his own house or on the porch of his own house by yelling at someone? Why was he released without charges? Having ascertained that Gates was legally in his own home, why didn't Crowley simply leave instead of contributing to the "public disturbance"?

Now, I know you're going to say I hate cops, hate America, and believe all cops are lying SOBs. That would be false. I'm merely pointing out that Crowley is not perfect in this situation.

Unknown said...

I have been arrested tree times and all three times the police lied in their police reports. The largest criminal organization in the united states is LAW ENFORCEMENT period.