# Obama says cops acted stupidly in Gates incident **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 23, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995 "2009-07-23T14:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/241 "2009-07-24T19:55:28Z")
Are you kidding elucidator? Mr Gates:“Because I’m a black man in America?!?” As regards Obama’s campaign, find it out for yourself. He did try to race-bait McCain, didn’t he? And his cohorts successfully used it against Hillary. As regards the cop’s mindset, all I can point out is that he was personally picked to lecture on race profiling by african americans in the community. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/242 "2009-07-24T19:56:29Z")
I think this case is going to go down as one of the dumbest points of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/243 "2009-07-24T20:04:21Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > It’s not cowardly to admit that you don’t know enough about it to comment. It’s in fact stupid to make comments about it even when you admitted that you don’t know everything about it. And yet, here you are. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/244 "2009-07-24T20:06:09Z")
> [@Obama](#): > > I could have calibrated those words differently. Fan fucking-tastic bit of newspeak there. Not as good as “That statement is no longer operative” but even if it’s not good enough to take down the top dog, it’s still a good piece of work. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/245 "2009-07-24T20:08:48Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > What is “screaming”, anyway? Who is entitled to make that call? Did someone phone in a complaint? If not, doesn’t that mean that the cop decided, on his own authority, that the “screaming” involved reached some legal threshold? > > I really don’t like that part about “I’m going outside, so if you want to rag on me some more, you’ll have to follow me.” Sounds too much like challenging, raising the stakes. If he knew that being outside would change the situation, shouldn’t he be obligated to advise? > > “Sir, within your own home you have some rights and privileges that don’t extend out of your own home, sir. But, sir, if you follow me outside and continue ‘screaming’, I will be obliged to arrest you. Sir.” Except none of that happened. You’re using your own hatred to put words in the officer’s mouth. The President had to make a public appearance to remove his foot from his mouth and you’re still at it. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaijon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Sinaijon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaijon)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/246 "2009-07-24T20:23:03Z")
> **[Obama: I didn't mean to slight Cambridge police - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/24/officer.gates.arrest/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)** > > President Obama said Friday he spoke with the police officer who arrested a Harvard professor and told the officer he did not mean to malign the Cambridge Police Department when he said police acted stupidly. Now Gates’ lawyer is on a fishing expedition: > [@](#): > > Ogletree said Gates may bring forward people who say they’ve had similar experiences with Crowley. > > When asked for examples, Ogletree said only that they may come out in time depending on how the police department handles the situation moving forward. > > “I think you will be hearing much more complex and different perspective on him [Crowley] in the coming days and weeks,” Ogletree said, alleging that Crowley “is well-known among people, particularly young people, for some of his police practices.” He’s got nothin…But he sure is hoping some pissed of students on campus might have something! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/247 "2009-07-24T20:27:05Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > It’s not cowardly to admit that you don’t know enough about it to comment. It’s in fact stupid to make comments about it even when you admitted that you don’t know everything about it. He **did** know enough to say what he said. He _didn’t_ know enough to comment on whether the cop in this situation was acting on racist impulses, but then, he didn’t make comment on this cop’s racism, now did he? It’s really amazing. Obama made a politically bad move by carelessly using the term “stupid” to describe the cop’s behavior - so bad a move, in fact, that he has since felt compelled to go back and clarify that no, he actually didn’t intend to call a cop a moron. But is this mistake enough? No! We must pretend that Obama was spouting complete ignorance, and possibly lying, and perhaps even grinding his heel into the corpse of a white policeman that he had hidden under his podium. Because it’s not enough that Obama stuck his foot in his mouth, no! He must be wrong in all things. ALL things! Which pant leg does he put on first in the morning - THE WRONG ONE! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/248 "2009-07-24T21:04:55Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > As regards Obama’s campaign, find it out for yourself. He did try to race-bait McCain, didn’t he? And his cohorts successfully used it against Hillary. Huh? You got the actors wrong. Clinton (as in Bill) tried to play the race card against Obama. BTW, this flap has elevated to the level of needing a name. Is it Gatesgate or Stupidgate? I can’t decide… ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/249 "2009-07-24T21:27:41Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Almost. It was the cops inability to walk away from a stupid confrontation. The person who didn’t walk away from it was Gates. The police did what they were suppose to do when people refuse to stop. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/250 "2009-07-24T21:33:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Huh? You got the actors wrong. Clinton (as in Bill) tried to play the race card against Obama. > > BTW, this flap has elevated to the level of needing a name. Is it Gatesgate or Stupidgate? I can’t decide… HarvardGates? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/251 "2009-07-24T21:33:34Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > BTW, this flap has elevated to the level of needing a name. Is it Gatesgate or Stupidgate? I can’t decide… Yo momma Gate. ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/252 "2009-07-24T21:55:59Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > All the more reason to withold his comment until he learns more. Does he really have to answer at that time? And he does have every right to express himself - but it gives everyone else the right to point out how pointless and stupid the exercise was. It’s funny that the standard want to apply him: shut the fuck up until you know _every possible sooper seekret detail_ is one you yourself seem fine to disregard. You keep blathering on and on and on and you know _less_ the president knew when he spoke. Yet, you remain perfectly willing to talk out of your ass with your own biased opinion; the only difference is you aren’t admitting it, and your posts aren’t honest about it. He at least did that. Does he have to answer? No, of course not. Not anymore than you have to take the mental dump on reasoning and human interaction you’re doing in this thread. But he was asked a question and decided, if only because it’s the easiest thing to remember, to tell the truth based on what he knew. You weren’t even asked, you know less than he knew and here are you all over it like white on rice. To his credit, he was at least asked; you weren’t. Yet you want him to shut the fuck up about it while you yourself cannot. It’s curious how you don’t see the hypocrisy there. Let’s say he declined to answer. And then the next question too. At some point, one wonders _why_ even let the media near the man if they’re going to, of all things, \*ask \*questions and in response, of all things, he _answers_ them. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/253 "2009-07-24T21:56:51Z")
Obama and Officer Crowley have kissed and made up: [Crowley pleased by president’s phone call](http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/crowley_pleaded.html): > [@](#): > > Shortly after the surprise phone call, Sergeant James M. Crowley told a fellow officer that President Obama expressed regret for jumping to conclusions and commenting that Cambridge police had “acted stupidly.” > > The call pleased Crowley, according to the colleague, a veteran officer who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. Crowley told his fellow officer that he joked with the president. > > "Jimmy said, ‘I’d be happy to come to the White House and sit down with you and Gates and have a beer,’ " the veteran Cambridge officer said. “The president said he was acceptable to that.” > > [snip] > > Steve Killion, president of the Cambridge patrol officers association, praised the president for calling Crowley only a couple of hours after the news conference where union leaders demanded an apology from Obama. > > "I’m sure, knowing Sergeant Crowley, it’s mended the fence with him,‘’ said Killion, who had not spoken with Crowley but heard a transcript[li] of the president’s remarks. "It’s gone some way toward mending the fence with the patrol officers, even though I haven’t spoken with any of them yet.‘’[/li] > [snip] > > "He acknowledges he made a mistake,‘’ Killion said. "He wasn’t there. None of us have the facts. He didn’t have the facts. We don’t have the facts. We don’t know what professor Gates said, what Sergeant Crowley said. I’m absolutely pleased with [Obama’s call]. I think it was a good thing for the president to do. He’s the commander in chief, he’s in charge. Whether or not he should be involved in local politics, he runs the country. We all want to see this behind us.‘’ > > [snip] > > "If Sergeant Crowley and President Obama and Mr. Gates sit out on the White House lawn and have a beer, I’d certainly like a picture of it – and be jealous that it wasn’t me,‘’ Killion said. Not that this will quiet the people who have gleefully seized up this as a club wherewith to beat Obama and other uppity folks. - How the heck does one hear a transcript? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/254 "2009-07-24T22:00:19Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > There’s this video I’ve seen on YouTube a number of times – I’m sure some here have seen it as well – of a cop stopping a motorist and issuing him a ticket. The guy getting the ticket has an effing melt-down … Just for the sake of entertainment, I suppose … [The Video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq_RvJ7CtOw) Go to about 2:15 for the really good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/255 "2009-07-24T23:22:57Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > - How the heck does one hear a transcript? one hears a transcript when one pays a woman to read it to you in a hotel suite while wearing lingerie. (see how to bring down a member of congress/senate chapter 2) i think it will be an interesting chat on the white house lawn between the 3 of them. i did enjoy the sgt. asking if obama could get the press off his lawn, ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/256 "2009-07-24T23:25:00Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > Are you kidding elucidator? > > Mr Gates:“Because I’m a black man in America?!?”… Are you shocked shocked that he would have that reaction? Why? Because it has no foundation in facts in America? Or that in this instance he was wrong? Which may well be, I don’t know. But what I don’t see is how you derive that Mr. Gates is a “professional victim”. Which is what you said, and apparently cannot substantiate with anything more meaningful that your own assertion. So, no, I’m not kidding. If you can back it up, do so, failing that, back down. Or simply ignore the question and permit us to draw our own conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/257 "2009-07-24T23:31:51Z")
How do we have like six of these threads and none of them are in the Pit? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/258 "2009-07-24T23:41:10Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > How do we have like six of these threads and none of them are in the Pit? I don’t think anybody really cares enough about this to make it pitworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/259 "2009-07-24T23:46:50Z")
So, can we move on now? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995/260 "2009-07-24T23:47:41Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > one hears a transcript when one pays a woman to read it to you in a hotel suite while wearing lingerie… Sounds expensive. How much for an oral deposition in a Motel 6? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-cops-acted-stupidly-in-gates-incident/503995.md?page=14)