Racism and Government II

The arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has opened the flood gates on racism. Both Mr. Gates and the Cambridge police department are at fault. I don't know all of the details, but rarely is one person to blame for an incident like this. As I understand the facts, Mr. Gates had to force open a stuck door. A neighbor saw someone forcing open a door and called the police. When the police arrived, Mr. Gates did not furnish identification immediately. During the incident he started accusing the officers of racial profiling, even after providing his I.D. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. He was wrong for bringing race into the issue and the police officers were wrong for arresting him. The only way he could be justified for his actions is if the police department has been harassing him for some time. Both to blame...get over it and move on.

Obama made a comment that the "police acted stupidly." This was an inappropriate comment from him, especially after he stated that he does not have all the facts. Last night I saw on a news program that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has put together a petition asking if Obama's comments were presidential. With all of the problems we are facing in this country, they are spending their time and money on this? Ridiculous! Of course his comments were not presidential. I don't need the results of a petition to tell me that. I also saw that at least one politician is saying that the president should not criticize law enforcement. Why not? Is law enforcement above criticism? I think we need to criticize law enforcement more. We need to be critical of their actions because they are enforcing the laws that we, through our politicians, have created. We need to make sure they are doing their jobs properly and not becoming a rogue group like we see in so many other countries.