A black Harvard professor got detained, and without checking facts, Barack Obama played the race card. The best summary of initial events comes from The Loft:

Police were called to the home of Gates [Obama friend and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.] by a neighbor. The neighbor saw a man trying to force his way into Gates’ home, and was concerned that there might be a burglary taking place. The police arrived, and it turned out that it was Gates and his driver who were trying to force open the door. The police asked Gates for identification at which time he became belligerent and uncooperative. Because of this, the police charged him with disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped.

Those are the facts, but here’s how it went down.

As the police report states, Sergeant James Crowley first met the caller outside of her house. The report indicates:

“She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch (of Gates’ house). She told me that her suspicions were aroused when she observed one of the men wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.“

According to the report, Crowley could see Gates in his house through the front door.

“As I stood in plain view of this man, later identified as Gates, I asked if he would step out onto the porch and speak with me. He replied, “no I will not.” He then demanded to know who I was. I told him that I was “Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police” and that I was “investigating a report of a break in progress” at the residence. While I was making this statement, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed “why, because I’m a black man in America?” I then asked Gates if there was anyone else in the residence. While yelling, he told me that it was none of my business and accused me of being a racist police officer.“

In the report, Gates told Crowley that he had “no idea who he was messing with” and continued to call him a racist police officer. Additional requests to talk with Gates outside were met with “ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Gates was repeatedly warned that he was becoming disorderly, but continued the tirade. After these warnings, Crowley placed Gates under arrest for disorderly conduct.

Asked about the arrest of his friend during his press conference last Wednesday night, Barack Obama made these three points (see video):

1. “Any of us would be pretty angry.”
2. “The Cambridge police acted stupidly.”
3. “There is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”

We beg to differ with Mr. Obama (we’ll call him president only when we see a valid birth certificate).

1. People with a perennial chip on their shoulder get angry. The rest of us would be grateful to have the police come so promptly to protect our property, and would not become abusive and profane.
2. The Cambridge police acted within the law. What would be really stupid would be to NOT enforce the law due to favoritism. The president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers said, “What we don’t need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves. The president’s alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments.”
3. Obama’s third point is really stupid and illogical. This was not a situation in which the statistics of racial profiling would apply, such as a traffic stop. It was a call to a possible burglary at a private home, and the police would have detained the person found at the location regardless of his color.

In this gratuitous attempt to stir up racial sentiment before learning the facts of the case, Obama joins the ranks of agitators like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, recalling the 1988 Tawana Brawley case and the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case. Hardly presidential.

But, as it turns out, the arrogant Obama has a history with the Cambridge police:

Obama’s Disdain for Authority
by former U.S. congressman John LeBoutillier

….As first reported in March 2007 by the Somerville Times, Harvard law student Barack Obama accumulated 17 unpaid parking tickets between 1989-1991 – and never paid the fines ad associated penalties totaling $375 until a few weeks before announcing his presidential campaign.

In other words, as a practicing lawyer in Chicago, he allowed these tickets and penalties to remain unpaid; as an Illinois State Senator he allowed these tickets and fines to remain unpaid; and as a United States Senator he allowed these almost-two-decade-old signs of his disdain for the law to remain unpaid….

Only when he was afraid that the media would dig this up as he launched his presidential campaign did he swallow his scofflaw attitude and pay what he owed to Cambridge….

But the unexpected diatribe at Wednesday evening’s press conference reveals a long-standing and perhaps deep-seeded attitude toward the Cambridge police department – and maybe toward authority in general….

As for his entirely irrelevant remark about racial profiling, Obama could hardly have chosen a target that would make him look more stupid. From Yahoo! News we learn this about the police officer:

Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert

The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley 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.

To single out a demographic because of skin color is indeed racist. Ask yourself, how does this sound to you?

The Congressional White Caucus

The National Association for the Advancement of White People

Tail wag: We are indebted for the title of this post to correspondent D. Oliver, who added that insightful wording as the title of the email with which he forwarded this news item.

…is just the same.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has a new expression for terrorism — man-caused disasters. In an interview with the German paper Der Spiegel, she stated that her job is to help prepare for risks from man-caused disasters.

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word “terrorism.” Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?

Napolitano: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word “terrorism,” I referred to “man-caused” disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

Really? Watch this video of a speech by Kuwaiti Professor Abdallah Al-Nafisi, who dreams of an Allah-inspired Muslim carrying a suitcase full of anthrax onto the White House lawn and killing 330,000 people. He sounds so polite, so reasonable.

Fox News calls this Word Play:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has an explanation about why she never mentioned the word “terrorism” during her first testimony on Capitol Hill….

James Carafano, senior research fellow at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation says: “By deliberately trying not to use the T word they run a serious political risk. If something does happen, they’ll be accused of taking their eye off the ball and no amount of explanation after the fact will suffice.”

Take their eyes off the ball? They act like they don’t even know there is a ball. I doubt the Secretary has watched that video!

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This fits in with the larger thought police action, which renames the Globar War on Terror (Bush-ism) to Overseas Contingency Operation (Obama-speak). The Washington Post reports:

‘Global War On Terror’ Is Given New Name
Bush’s Phrase Is Out, Pentagon Says
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase “global war on terror,” a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor.

In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department’s office of security review noted that “this administration prefers to avoid using the term ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror’ [GWOT.] Please use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation.’ “….

Coincidentally or not, senior administration officials had been publicly using the phrase “overseas contingency operations” in a war context for roughly a month before the e-mail was sent….