In which I (partially) agree with Tucker Carlson
July 28, 2009 3:21 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Tucker Carlson, on Henry Louis Gates:
What happened to him likely had little to do with race, but it's still appalling. His crime? Failing to be polite to a policeman. Except that's not a crime, or shouldn't be, and the rest of us ought to do all we can to make sure it doesn't become one.
I have no idea how much, if at all, race played a role in Gates' arrest, so I won't endorse Carlson's assessment of its likelihood. But the rest of Carlson's statement seems spot-on, and illustrates the way the media mishandled this story.
See, Barack Obama said all along that he didn't know if race played a role in the arrest. And he said the arrest was stupid anyway. That's almost self-evident -- Gates was arrested in his own home, and charges against him were dropped.
But the media pretended that Obama had said something hugely controversial -- and they did so by ignoring the fact that he had gone out of his way to make clear that he was not saying race played a role in this specific arrest. They just disappeared that part of his comments, and often suggested the opposite.
Had the rest of the media approached this the way Tucker Carlson did -- understanding that it's completely obvious that Gates shouldn't have been arrested -- their coverage would have been much better.
On the other hand, Carlson describes Gates as a "self-righteous whiner who probably cries racism every time he gets the wrong order at Starbucks." I tend to assume that if any 58-year-old African American had spent his life "crying racism" every time he encountered it (let alone every time he got the wrong cup of coffee) there would be enough examples to fill a book. As that isn't the case with Gates, Carlson's assessment of the professor seems ... odd.
Questioned by a reader about that description of Gates, Carlson pointed to a statement in Gates' Yale application. I'm reasonably sure that by 1970, Henry Louis Gates had experienced racism more significant than getting the wrong order at Starbucks, and almost as sure that Tucker Carlson knows this. When a reader pointed that out, Carlson took issue with Gates' use of the word "Whitey" in that application. Seems a little silly for a wealthy white man in 2009 to get so upset about a black man who grew up in a segregated town using the word "Whitey" 40 years ago, but that's Tucker Carlson for you.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2009/07/26/nr.comrade.in.arms.cnn
Most long haired types of the late sixties and seventies know that the police reacted very badly unless one groveled before them. I still find it impossible to believe Sergeant Crowley was surprised at professor Gates reactions. I would think it would be expected that one might react badly to being considered criminal in one's own house.
So yes cops make mistakes and there's nothing wrong with saying that or saying that there have been many cases in history where race has played a huge part in cops misbehavior.
I just don't think you can say definitively that this was a race related arrest in this particular case based on the public evidence. Obama didn't say it but others have.
Agreed, but it is Obama being hammered and Obama being called a racist in light of his answer. And since he is black and the officer was white they are portraying it as a race issue. Even though Obama was not even commenting on race. He was commenting on the fact that a middle aged man was arrested in his own home after proving to Police it was his own home. Every American should be appreciative of the president noting the absurdity of it.
Both Black and White professors support Obama and Gates, and they all say the obvious.......the officer blew it, and Crowley is putting up a huge smoke screen. Gates should not have the beer with Crowley until he apologizes.
So there is that.
Again, even though you don't care and/or will ignore the truth anyway. They don't refer to other officers as a "brother" cop for nothing. The police hang tight, just like men in combat units do. It has been shown time and time again, when an officer has crossed the line, that his "brother" officers will state "he is a great cop, he would never do that". Then down the road, after all the evidence has surfaced, we find out that actually he would do that, and did, and his "brother" officers were aware of it. Do some research and see what you find but; of course, then you would lose your talking point.
I don't know how often that happens, but it is possible that was a misunderstanding outside of Crowley's control. Or it's possible that he misheard it, or that his memory of the call altered after seeing Gates. It does raise a red flat in a situation where Crowley has enough strange behavior to account for already, though.
I think in this situation it would probably be okay to have a bowl of soup together, maybe a diet coke. But, no, I don't think a beer would be appropriate. It would send a very mixed message.
Our critism was based on his actions. How much of that critism made it to the media as something worth discussion?
I can go on with the slights, even go back to H.W.'s term and Reagan with examples, but I think you get my point.
Even the WH press corps didn't call him Mr. President, they called him Mr. Bush
Which wasn't very often because for most of Dubya's first 9 months in office he was bikin', or fishin', or golfin', or clearin' brush.
Nope, no respect.
Anyone with the capacity to learn was fairly suspicious of his abilities by election 2004 and in the end, i.e. 2006 ,it had become abundantly clear that President Bush was supremely unqualified for the job.
The canard that Democrats never gave him a chance is horse manure. It is just another in a long list of false Republican slogans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2009/jan/16/george-bush-approval-ratings-america
Really? Then you apparently do not realize that this person was a personal FRIEND of the President. You don't think if a WHITE friend of any President was arrested that the President would not be asked about it? Really?