Obama vs. the Cambridge Police (072809) by J. F. Kelly, Jr

A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr. President Barack Obama, more than any previous president, has dominated the media. Hardly a day passes without front page or prime time TV coverage of the president weighing in on something. The adoring media can’t get enough of this photogenic and voluble president. A friendly media is a huge advantage to a politician seeking to promote an ambitious domestic agenda. But such constant exposure carries risks as well. The more exposure to the media, the greater the chances of saying something, well, stupid. Mr. Obama’s chance came when a reporter asked him to comment on an incident involving his friend, noted black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates who was arrested by a Cambridge policeman for allegedly disturbing the peace after he forced his way into his own residence though a jammed front door. A neighbor, observing what appeared to be a break-in, called police. Mr. Gates reportedly became agitated and uncooperative when asked by responding police Sgt. James Crowley to step outside and the situation deteriorated, culminating in Gates’s arrest and detention for several hours before charges were dropped. Precisely what transpired during the incident may forever remain known only to Messrs. Gates and Crowley. In any event, Mr. Obama himself was not privy to all the facts of the case when he was asked the question. Nor was this local incident remotely worthy of a presidential comment for the record in the first place. An appropriate presidential response would have been, “You know, I don’t have any of the details on this incident. Professor Gates is a personal friend of mine and I know him to be a reasonable man. I’m sure this will get sorted out and I have no further comment.” Unfortunately, however, Mr. Obama took the bait and waded into a local incident, unaware of the details, and accused the police of acting stupidly, escalating the incident to a national debate on race relations and racial profiling. Any person granted the privileges and the burdens of authority should know that you never pronounce a judgment on an issue that you were not directly involved in, at least until all the facts are established. Restraint is a crucial characteristic in those we choose to lead. Comments by those in authority have consequences and presidential comments have huge consequences, as we have seen. Here we have the spectacle of the President of the United States of America, the most powerful man in the world, to whom the nation’s top law enforcement officer reports, saying that the Cambridge Police Department acted stupidly. Since Sgt. Crowley was the responding officer who made the arrest, he would, by inference, be the target of this unfair snap judgment. Sgt. Crowley, an experienced police veteran and an expert on racial profiling who was hand-picked to teach other law enforcement personnel on the subject, reacted calmly but with conviction. He merely followed protocol, he said, in responding to an apparent housebreaking in progress. He asked Mr. Gates to step outside and identify himself. This is for his and the officer’s own safety. For all the officer knew, an actual intruder could be in the house and Mr. Gates could have been acting under duress in trying to get the police to leave. According to Sgt Crowley, Professor Gates called him a racist and referred disrespectfully to his mother. Crowley said he gave Gates several opportunities to cease interfering with the officer’s investigation before arresting him. In contrast to Sgt Crowley’s professional response, Professor Gates publicly played the race card, referring to the officer as a rogue policeman and demanding an apology. Law enforcement personnel took immediate and understandable offense and rallied to Crowley’s defense. The story quickly became a national media feeding frenzy eclipsing even the health care debate. Aware of the effects of his ill-advised comment on a matter far beneath the realm of his responsibility, Mr. Obama, in a remarkable press appearance, acknowledged that his remarks were incendiary. But instead of the apology he owed Crowley for a snap judgment, he tried to turn the incident into a “teachable moment” in the interest of raising awareness of the sensitivity of African-Americans to racial profiling. Unless you have lived in a cave for the past three decades, you are undoubtedly already well-aware of these sensibilities. Racial profiling was indeed, an undeniable scourge. So, however, have been false and exaggerated claims of racial profiling and police brutality. Claims of racial profiling should not be lightly made lest they diminish the sensitivity of all of us to truly valid claims. Here’s a real teachable moment. We ask young men and women like Sgt. Crowley to lay their lives on the line every day to protect us and our property. It is a dangerous business; one that most of us would not be up to. They are trained to exercise restraint in the face of very real danger and uncertainty. Let them do their job. When the situation is under control and you feel that you have been poorly treated, then by all means exercise your rights to file a complaint Perhaps Professor Gates was suffering from jet lag. Sounds to me like he lost his cool, but then I wasn’t there. Neither was the president, who also appeared to lose his cool for a moment. That’s what’s really scary. Copyright 2009 by J. F. Kelly, Jr. Dr. Kelly is a retired Navy Captain and bank senior vice-president. A veteran of over thirty years of naval service, he commanded three ships and the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center in San Diego. He joined Great American Bank in 1983, serving first as Training and Development Director and later as Director of Human Resources. He retired from the bank in 1994 and has since devoted his efforts to community services. He served as foreman of the San Diego County Grand Jury in 1997-1998, president of the Lions Club of San Diego, the San Diego Council of the Navy League of the United States, the Lions Foundation, the Boys and Girls Foundation, Vice-president of the City of San Diego Salary setting commission and as chairman of the Business Council of the San Diego County Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Task Force. He currently serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Foundation and the Coronado Roundtable. He currently teaches ship handling, seamanship and navigation at the Naval Base, San Diego. A freelance writer, his weekly column on current events appears in the California Republic, the Coronado EagleJournal, eCoronado.com and other publications. Dr. Kelly has degrees in education, management and leadership including a doctor of education degree from the University of San Diego. He and his wife, the former Charlane Hughes, reside in Coronado.