What Obama Should Have Said About the Gates Arrest

by Liberty and Power

Instead of racializing the Gates arrest (without any specific evidence that race played a role) at his earlier press conference, Obama should have simply condemned it as wrong to arrest anyone for the act of arguing with a policeman even if it is part of official "protocol." Any search on youtube will reveal countless videos showing both blacks and whites arrested or tased for nothing more than questioning an officer. Now, with Obama's non-apology apology, a great opportunity has been lost to challenge the growing trend of police abuse against people of all races.

Of course, had Obama done this, it might also interfere with the discretion of federal law enforcement officers under his authority to do the same thing.

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David T. Beito - 7/26/2009

Thank you!

dg lesvic - 7/26/2009

Congratulations. That's the first intelligent commentary I have seen on this whole disgusting incident.

David T. Beito - 7/25/2009

Good point...but it would have made more sense not to bring up the second part at all. By doing so, he shifted the focus from where it should have been: the general issue of police abuse.

Jonathan Dresner - 7/24/2009

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."