I was talking to my mom yesterday saying if she or I acted like this in front of officers we would have been arrested, charged, and incarcerated.... But if you are a high-falutin Negro Harvard professor you get media attention, the president standing up for you, and charged dropped... This is BLACK RACISM at its worst...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/police_unions_c.htmlCAMBRIDGE -- Police unions today called on President Obama and Governor Deval Patrick to apologize to "all law enforcement personnel," saying they "deeply resent the implication" of their comments about racial profiling and the arrest of an African-American scholar last week at his home near Harvard Square.
Speaking at a press conference at the Hotel Marlowe packed with local and national media, the union officials also said that the disorderly conduct charge should not have been dropped against professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The move earlier this week to drop the charges, "was a decision made without our input," said Alan J. McDonald, a lawyer for one of the unions.
The harshest words came from Steve Killian, who identified himself as a third generation Cambridge police officer and president of the city's police patrol officers association.
"As far as the president's comments, the governor's comments, and comments that I did not hear that our mayor made, I think when the time is right they should make an apology to us," Killian said. "I think the president should make an apology to all law enforcement personnel throughout the entire country, [they] took offense to this."
Killian continued, "Cambridge police are not stupid. I am proud to represent the officer of the Cambridge Police Department."
During a nationally televised press conference on Tuesday night, Obama said that Cambridge police "acted stupidly." The president defended the remark the next day, telling ABC News, “I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don’t need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who is in his own home."
Governor Patrick described the arrest as "troubling" and drew on his own experiences with law enforcement and racial profiling as black teenager at Milton Academy in the 1970s. “In some ways, this is every black man’s nightmare and a reality for black men, "Patrick told a crush of reporters on Thursday at the State House.
The firestorm began on July 16, when Cambridge police responded to a report of a break-in at Gates's home on Ware Street near Harvard University. A passerby called police when she spotted Gates and another man pushing on his front door, which was jammed. A confrontation ensued and police led Gates away in handcuffs only to drop the charges four days later.
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