Skip Gates vs. Sgt. Crowley

The latest in an ongoing series of political clusterfucks for the Obama Administration involves his comments about the case of Dr. Henry Louis Gates being arrested in his home for being a disorderly person. Obama described the Cambridge, MA police who arrested Dr. Gates as having "acted stupidly" for snatching up the professor once he'd established he was, indeed, legally inside his residence. The President was right -- the police acted stupidly. However, based on the limited facts anyone's been able to determine, Dr. Gates didn't show much in terms of either intellect or civility.

In America, the notion of the home being a refuge and sanctuary for the law abiding citizen is nothing less than sacrosant. Some take the broad view that, unless he had broken a law, Dr. Gates was, and is, entitled to act obnoxiously and insultingly toward anyone who enters his home. As true as that may be, I would think a college professor, even one acutely sensitive to police mistreatment based on race, would have shown better judgment and a higher level of maturity. Particularly because we know, as black people, this situation could have escalated from argumentive, to confrontational, to deadly in the blink of an eye. Was the situation upsetting? Yes, but, in my view, had the professor acted like an adult, we'd have had a more positive outcome.

The same can be said of Sgt. Crowley. Policing is a tough job, but it's since been revealed that the sergeant was once responsible for instructing other officers on matters of racial sensitivity. Part of any police officer's training is to be able to maintain their composure in the most difficult situations. Sgt. Crowley had his buttons pushed, and he didn't react well. Someone who appears from all I've seen and read to be a good cop, winds up looking like an intransigent jerk. The ridiculous press conference held today in his support didn't help, and may well further fan the flames of division.

Both parties are involved in a idiotic pissing contest, and both should show the maturity expected of professional people and apologize. Instead of going to TV to prove how right they are, how about going on and sitting down together to discuss how they've equally blown this out of proportion, and what we can do as individuals, and as a society, to bridge the racial divide. If these two people, who appear to be of good conscience and seemingly interested in bettering the way blacks and whites and others interact in our country can't do this, then they are both failures as leaders and teachers. Shame on them both if they can't see that.