Or is it??? Bob Herbert seems to think it is all innocent "yelling"... He ignores the common perception that calling someone racist or sexist IS DEFAMATION... But then again one must have official deny ability to remain Ideologically pure... Gates was arrested for something worse than public swearing, public defamation and insulting --- it is called public disorder...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion >>> If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home >>> uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for >>> long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, >>> as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be >>> led off to jail by 12:51. The charge: angry while black. The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill. I have nothing but contempt for that message. Mr. Gates is a friend, and I was selected some months ago to receive an award from an institute that he runs at Harvard. I made no attempt to speak to him while researching this column. The very first lesson that should be drawn from the encounter between Mr. Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, is that Professor Gates did absolutely nothing wrong. He did not swear at the officer or threaten him. He was never a danger to anyone. At worst, if you believe the police report, he yelled at Sergeant Crowley. He demanded to know if he was being treated the way he was being treated because he was black. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
