On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:08:11 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:


Lots of blacks of Gate's age carry a chip on their shoulder.
As the details come out, he don't look too good.
That chip will always exacerbate the race issue. When these guys and
their white counterparts are gone, much of it will go away with them.
Obama surprised me, saying the cops acted stupidly, but at least
he was smarter than Gates and didn't call them racist.

Gates was in a ****y mood. Was forced to break into his own house
after a long trip home. Gets confronted by a cop doing his job after
he's already in the house. The cop is able to confirm he's the house
owner and is rightfully there.

That's where it should have ended. According to any police agency, it
doesn't matter whether the home owner tells you you're a piece of ****
and get out of the house, you do not return fire and you find a way to
gracefully disembark. There's no business to be done at this stop and
the best thing a cop can be doing is preventing crime. There's no
crime happening here.

If you're on a public street and you give a cop ****, he's got every
reason to haul your ass to jail. But not in a private residence.

The cop lost his cool, let himself get sucked into an emotional
situation and the situation got the better of him.

That's very bad juju in the world of police enforcement.

They were both assholes but the homeowner had the right, the cop had
the right to get the **** out of his house and get on with his
business.