Limbaugh: "Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman"
July 24, 2009 1:12 pm ET
From the July 24 edition of Premiere Radio Network's The Rush Limbaugh Show:
Previously:
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Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Then to insult President Obama, with the fact that people were guilty and they voted for him solely based upon their own guilt about racism and slavery in this country.. I swear sometimes I just don't see how he sleeps at night..
What a ridiculous dodge. He could have left. You can't explain why he couldn't, or why he shouldn't.
What if there was a burglar there? The initial call said two people were breaking in? What if Gates was being held hostage? All of these are possibilities the officer has to think about.
If Professor Gates had been White.
Officer Crowley: Good evening sir, I'm officer Crowley with the Cambridge police department. We received a call from your neighbor of a possible burglary. Is everything alright?
Instead, Officer Crowley took one look at Black Professor Gates, who is 5'7", 150 pounds and uses a cane due to hip replacement surgery and ASSumed that Professor Gates might be a suspect.
Because Crowley ASSumed, his first words to Professor Gates was to ask him to step out of HIS OWN home.
Now Professor Gates had been in his home long enough to call Harvard Real Estate, to request maintenance work on his door. He was totally and completely unaware that the police were called.
Imagine his surprise when he opens the door and instead of: "Good evening sir, I'm officer Crowley with the Cambridge police department. We received a call from your neighbor of a possible burglary. Is everything alright?", he got, "Can you please step out of the house."
Sgt. Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association personal license plate: WHY-TEE must be just a nickname.
Cambridge Cop's Unfortunate Vanity Plate: WHY-TEEhere...
Why do people keep pointing out that the call was about two people breaking in? As if he's supposed to be considered a potential criminal suspect, and there's some other 60-year old burglar ransacking the upstairs or something. Are we supposed to believe that he never explained that he and his driver were the ones who broke in the door? And what indications are there that there was a hostage situation? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the police report said that Crowley saw Gates in the house before he even went up to the door. Is the theory here that Gates was wandering around while his captors were taking a nap or something? Is this bizarre explanation supposed to cover the calling of more cops, by the way?
Apparently you didn't see the title of this article.
On the other hand, he was right. Unless Gates assaulted the Policeman with his cane, handcuffing him was unjustified, and, by some standards, STUPID.
Even if Gates flew off the handle for no good reason, it should have been dealt with differently. Crowley had all the information he needed, and could have just left. If that was the case, and Gates wanted to make a federal case out of it, then he would have only made himself look like an ass. But by staying around unnecessarily, what Crowley has done is to make Gates' version of the story all the more credible. It's much easier to believe that Crowley was acting inappropriately from the start since Crowley clearly acted inappropriately later on.
There was no crime here. There's no law against being grouchy, in the middle of the night, after getting off a plane, finding yourself locked out, and having your neighbors call the cops on you. MOST cops should realize (once the facts are established) that this is going to be a tense situation, even before you bring race into it. With the race angle, they should have tread more likely - and used some discretion, especially once they found out the whole thing was bogus.
IMHO, he was looking for a reason to arrest Gates and jsutify his trip out there. He MAY have done that to a white guy as well, IDK, but it's "STUPID" none the less.
I would have to imagine that in this particular area, being a professor is sort of a big deal. There's some prestige there, surely. It strikes me as odd that this information didn't make Crowley take a step back and re-think the situation. If it was some old white priest, would the reaction be "sorry for any inconvenience" or would it be "let's see some I.D"? Certain jobs do carry more respect along with them, and should make an officer grant more benefit of the doubt and more deference. That's what really strikes me as strange, and suggests to me that there's some other factor that inspired Crowley to ignore the proper course of action.
One does have to wonder if he would have shown more discretion to a white guy. (And maybe not, but his actions were still over the top.)
Also, one might argue that a white guy might not have gotten as argumentative as Gates. But there's a REASON for that, and that's why Gates may have overreacted! So race still plays a role, even if the officer himself is not racist.
But yeah, I agree. Just a poorly handled situation all around by Crowley. So unecessary.
Good grief!!! YOU posted this crap TWICE!!!!
The officers tarnished his OWN reputation.
He knew early on that Professor Gates was the owner of the home. Once he knew that, he should have given his name and badge number, as required by law, and left.
He arrested Professor Gates because he could. He wanted to show Professor Gates that HE was the man with the power.
This guy probably arrested Gates because Gates pi$$ed him off. Police officers, like everyone else, have pride, and don't like to have their authority questioned. Gates was probably giving the officer a good tongue lashing, and maybe he decided he didn't have to take it.
Maybe there was a racial component, maybe not. The Cop should have just walked away.
However, is there a bigger racist pig than Rush Limbaugh? The guy is simply disgusting. I consider myself a moderate, proudly voted for Obama and it had nothing to do with guilt. He was the better choice of the candidates. To me, Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck are the face of the Republican party and until the Republican party widely denounces them and their tactics, I will be a proud Democrat.
Btw, never mind how Sgt. Crowley should have left Mr. Gates home once the information was provided Americans should realize too that Policemen can "arrest" people at their home if they (Policeman) feel the Homeowners "disrespected" them (Policemen) in any way. But, hey let's "ALL" debate if this is a race thing going on like good ole' Rush had yelled about. LOL
I read the arrest report; from the minute officers arrived, Gates was confrontational (not a smart thing to do when being questioned by an officer of the law). And not only was Gates confrontational, he also began engaging in angry, racist hate speech. As a white woman, God forbid if a black officer shows up at my house & I confront him with anger & race speech. I'd be in handcuffs in no time - charged not only with disorderly conduct, but also a hate crime!
Obama was wrong to get involved & even more wrong to use the word "stupid" in describing the actions by Cambridge Police Department. The only mistake I see by the Department is dropping the charges. Was the man disorderly (the crime he was arrested for)? Yes! So why drop the charges?
Shame on Professor Gates & shame on the President.
BTW, Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer in the Gates case, has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming. The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures & how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.
Nobody has claimed that Crowley shouldn't have been there. But, going into the house and seeing Gates should have been an instant signal that there was no "situation" to take control over. He had no cause by which to follow Gates inside.
When turning violent, right. Or, if Gates had no reason to follow Crowley outside, there would be a case there. The fact is that Crowley not only asked him to do so, but Gates did not have Crowley's badge number, as he had lawfully requested. I think Gates probably also wanted to know what the hell the purpose was in calling in other officers, which is understandable as a cause for agitation.
I'm not sure what the "hate crime" charge would be. I don't see where any racial slurs were fired off here, anyway. It's not illegal to yell at a cop in your own house, so that doesn't validate further presence by the officer.
Obama was asked about it. He probably should have used different language, but since nobody can honestly explain what justification the officer had for remaining on the premises, it would objectively seem a bit stupid.
Then Crowley should be quite able to handle being confronted in a professional manner instead of making an unnecessary arrest.
Help me out, because the logic is not quite clear.
Grand Prairie officers on leave after racist Obama e-mail circulated
I seriously don't think it would look good, in the media, for a black police officer (especially if it's a male to arrest an old white woman in her own home). In fact, I don't think Rush Limbaugh would like that at all. By the way, I'm not saying you're old. I don't know your age, I just wanted to make parallels.
A hate crime? There would be no hate crime for simply yelling at an officer of a different race (who is arresting you in your own home after you just had a long flight). By the way, hate crimes are two-way streets as well. Just wanted to make sure you knew.
What I find curious about the story is that the officer said he was surprised at a homeowner being upset and acting out. That is an impossible statement for me to accept. Also, Professor Gates seemed to never even imagined that a policeman would act as he did. I could believe that from a kid, but not an adult of 58. Maybe the concept of shelter in Ivory towers has some reasonance after all.
FOX needs some new bad blood. The current stuff is pretty tiresome.