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Important to Decide
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Another Perspective
Presumption of Eminence
Restoring Cambridge to its rightful place.
I could tell Uncle Pundit was on one of his “make things right again” kicks.
“Doesn’t have to be everywhere,” he was saying. “Not in rough neighborhoods, Southeast D.C. for example. But in University towns like Princeton and Cambridge. Police department there otta drill into their cops (‘scuse me, ‘Police Officers’) the concept of Presumption of Eminence. That is, every guy they accost, in the street, on campus, or in a bar, can be assumed to be a somebody. That way, the President ignores that last question at his news conference and walks back up the red carpet to brood some more about health care.”
But this sergeant guy, Crowley, insists the Gates guy was being combative, and that he warned him he was risking arrest.
“Too late. By that time Crowley had the cuffs out. A Presumption of Eminence cop, officer that is, establishes his inferiority right at the outset. In this case, it’s a cheery hello, like “Greetings Gates! What percolates?”
You’re kidding.
“Not at all. That gets the relationship off to a cheery start. Crowley should take it further, and offer to show the professor his own credentials, cop cards, maybe a photo of his kids from his wallet.
And, in the case of an African-American, he should have a serious question to ask, something about a Supreme Court case back there when the civil rights issue was just getting straightened out.
But what if the guy insisted on being obstreperous?
“Then the officer apologizes, salutes, says he is going to the store and is there anything he could fetch?”
And you figure that makes everything right again?
“Yep. Crowley doesn’t have to attend any departmental hearings. Gates can percolate another urn of coffee, and Obama can keep walking back down that red carpet.”
About the Author
Reid Collins is a former CBS and CNN news correspondent.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (45) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Reid Collins
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http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/27/presumption-of-eminence
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drudge ette obama| 7.27.09 @ 6:49AM
This beer date smells like a real setup for Crowley. He's racially outmanned 2:1.t he subject is that 3rd rail subject of race and he'll be surrounded by Secret Service. He can't refuse because he'll look like a sour puss. Personally, his only out seems to be getting Swine Flu.
I would demand certain conditions: no official White House photographer is allowed. Keep David Axelrod and Michelle in the Rose Garden. No recording of the conversation. Let him bring his Mama along to meet Gates. And don't forget the beer nuts.
Rocco| 7.27.09 @ 7:10AM
Drudge ette, those were my thoughts when this was announced. But if I were Crowley, I'd tell them to pound sand. There is ample precedent for this - there have been other refusals, including by prominent blacks, to his WH invites. I wouldn't care about looking like a sourpuss.....I wouldn't allow myself to be set up like that, and you and I know that's what it will be. At the very least, make Peebo come up to Boston to be on MY turf....
Drudge Ette Obama| 7.27.09 @ 7:22AM
Rocco, when should the 911 tapes be released? Strategically, it should be the day of the beer date, so Gates can be heard around the country being an 'arvard 'rse?
By the way, who pays for the trip up there? Does Crowley have to drive? Will the taxpayer foot the bill like date night in NY for Michelle and Obama?
You can bet that Axelrod is working his rhump off trying to squelch those 911 tapes.
Rocco, you always bring the male persective to the table. I wish I would have thought of telling them to pound sand. I love that expression. And the strategy to make them come to his turf. That's your Marine background coming through. Good work. But how will Crowley sue Gates for defamation if he shares a beer with him? Obama is protecting his pal, Gates.
Richard Baker| 7.27.09 @ 7:50AM
Why "Eminence" for Harvard? LBJ railed against the "Harvards" as the source of his problems with Vietnam. These clods are the "Best and Brightest"?
philhoey| 7.27.09 @ 7:50AM
That is rather rude to assume the Officer is a beer drinker. What if he asks for a nice domestic rose or chablis?
David Gonzalez| 7.27.09 @ 8:41AM
There's another out for Sgt. Crowley---just announce that he'll be unavailabe because he'll be teaching a class on the evils of "racial profiling" (which, as any seasoned copper can tell you, means "smart police work")! : )
SC Mike| 7.27.09 @ 8:49AM
"What if he asks for a nice domestic rose or chablis?"
That’s part of the beauty of the invite, social profiling at its best. Obama knows that cops come from the class that like brewskis and should have known that Gates is of the rose / Chablis sort.
This episode has been instructive on so many levels.
Robert Rosencrans| 7.27.09 @ 10:11AM
Lost in the shuffle is the fact that Sgt. Crowley has done more to improve race relations then either Professor Gates or President Obama.
The program I refer to is the training classe Sgt. Crowley conducted for hundreds of police officers on racial profiling.
Rocco| 7.27.09 @ 10:34AM
Drudge Ette, first off, thank you for your compliments. I think your proposed release date for the tapes is sound. Information warfare is indeed war, and the timing of the message can be as important as the content of the message itself, if not more, as we've been learning in Iraq and Afghanistan. But will the media cooperate? If not, there is always You tube and other alternatives. Lord knows, I pass a lot of stuff through Facebook and it takes off. The most recent was the cut of Obama being shunned in Russia during introductions by Medvedev.
As I recall, you are an attorney. Your comment on Crowley's ability to sue for defamation is a damn good point, and another reason to shun them both.
David Gonzalez also raises a damn good point - another scheduled commitment, i.e. teaching the profiling class!!! Great idea.
"And the strategy to make them come to his turf. That's your Marine background coming through." I don't know how many Marines you know, I think you perceive that we jarheads are EXTREMELY territorial, and are loathe to give up hard won real estate without fighting to the death. Why do you think our mascot is a bulldog?
I like your points of view overall.
Cheers!
Oldefarte| 7.27.09 @ 10:39AM
It's a good thing Gates didn't say something like I 'TEACHES' ENGLISH AT HARVARD! It's amazing that you have rick 'intellectual' [?] liberals spending $200000/year sending their kids to schools such as Harvard, to be tought this EXCREMENT by teachers that owe their existance to AFFIRMATIVE ACTION policies [the same that Sotomayor wanted to use to replace a QUALIFIED firefighter with one of COLOR for racial purposes]. When Gates told Crowley, YOU DON'T KNOW 'WHO' YOU'RE DEALING WITH, he used the same holier-than-thou declaration that Kennedy used in Palm Beach to the young woman in the Oh Bar that eventually resulted in her bing raped by his nephew Smith. Probably Kennedy told Kopeckne the same thing before the car went off that bridge in Chappaquidick, who knows?????????
SC Mike| 7.27.09 @ 10:57AM
While Gates may be a legend in his own mind, he has exhibited great compassion by establishing a charitable foundation that is, unfortunately, a little behind on its paperwork and its charitable giving.
In a sense, the man is homeless and has to rely on his employer for a place to live; Harvard owns the house that he broke into. It’s sad: he had to use Harvard’s address as his home address when setting up the charity, and use the address of the Harvard-owned house as the address for the charity.
Why can’t we just leave this man alone? Has he not suffered enough?
Nope.
Dan has the details here: http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2009/07/a-gatesgate-at-henry-gates-bogus-charity.html
Franklin Floyd| 7.27.09 @ 11:07AM
Gates,Harvard professor of multiculturalism: professional racist. Barack Obama,president: a Marxist Al Sharpton. Crowley had better watch his back and expect a state-run media attack.
Robert Rosencrans| 7.27.09 @ 11:35AM
Here's an article from the Baltimore Sun. Out of control violence in a liberal city in a liberal state. Let's see how stupid Obama believes the city leaders are in response to this.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-shooting0727,0,5516871.story
At least 17 people were shot and two killed in separate incidents Sunday night, including a shooting at a backyard cookout in East Baltimore that left 12 people injured. Among the victims in that shooting were a pregnant woman and a 2-year-old girl, police said.
The spate of violence, which occurred over a stretch of about three hours on the city's east side, was unprecedented in recent memory. Police said they didn't immediately know of a motive in the shootings, and no arrests were reported. Many of the victims were rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which became a crime scene later in the evening when a car riddled with bullet holes pulled up to the emergency room.
According to law enforcement sources, at least two of the shooting incidents appeared to be connected. One of the victims at the cookout shooting was Steven Blackwell, 25, whose younger brothers were abducted last April in what police said was part of an escalating feud between rival drug organizations. Police sources at the time told The Baltimore Sun that the abductions may have set off a wave of as many as five retaliatory homicides over the course of three months last summer.
Sunday's cookout was to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the fatal shootings of Quinton Hogan, 23, who police believe was connected with the Blackwells, and Donell Rogers, 21. They were fatally shot July 25, 2008, shortly after Hogan appeared in District Court. Blackwell showed up to pay his respects, and was among those struck Sunday night, sources said. He received a gunshot to the forearm, the sources said.
Tim| 7.27.09 @ 11:44AM
Crowley is on the bubble, if he spurns Obama he risks opening the floodgates of media hate that will make Joe the Plumber's experience look tame.
Tim| 7.27.09 @ 11:44AM
Crowley is on the bubble, if he spurns Obama he risks opening the floodgates of media hate that will make Joe the Plumber's experience look tame.
Tim| 7.27.09 @ 11:51AM
So intellectually fecund I posted a second...
WR Jonas| 7.27.09 @ 11:59AM
Will the Reverend Jeremiah Wright conduct the benediction ? Well , perhaps they will allow the condemned man a sandwich with his beer before the sentence is passed. What a crock!
juanderunner| 7.27.09 @ 12:10PM
The Best & the Brightest from Harvard/Yale convinced JFK & LBJ to enter the Vietnam Civil War. The Best & the Brightest convinced George Bush that there were weapons of mass distruction in Iraq and that it would be good "business" for Haliburton et al. to fight a war there. Notice that for both of these wars, the children of the "Best & the Brightest" were missing in action.
William| 7.27.09 @ 2:14PM
Never accept food or drink from known enemies.
Never go into their strongholds without your own people.
Never.
William| 7.27.09 @ 2:16PM
juanderunner - I think you mean AWOL not MIA.
Peter McGrath| 7.27.09 @ 6:24PM
You gotta feel for Gates. Another race hustler, being exposed to the nation as a clown, trying to look cherubic but coming off looking the complete idiot. Harvard desn't exactly come up smelling like roses, either, for having this ninny on their faculty.
The genius who exposed Gates as a fraud and Harvard as a laughingtock is none other than our own African American Chief Wahoo, President Obama.
Smoove move, Barry.
Next time, try to control your inner community organizer and remember: you now speak for a Great Nation, which continually seeks to heal racial wounds, not reopen and exploit them for political gain.
Naw, Barry would never use race for political gain, would he?
tjl| 7.27.09 @ 7:36PM
Obama is kind of stuck now that he invited crowley. The tapes were released today and show the officer to have an "active imagination" when filling out his arrest report. I always thought that the "kitchen acoustics" line smelled fishy but the real news is the timeline. The officer stated in his report that he called Harvard Police after Gates produced ID - That happens about 10 seconds into entering the house. May not be a pleasent Whitehouse beer if Crowley is under false arrest charges.
Richard Baker| 7.27.09 @ 7:56PM
TJL:
Remember, the charge was disorderly conduct for yelling loudly at 12:45 am. That happen often in your neighborhood? Call a policeman/sheriff and try it some time.
Dan Chesley| 7.27.09 @ 10:40PM
Gates one of Harvards best, and all he can come up with is ,"Yo Mama"!
RoxannaDanna | 7.27.09 @ 10:42PM
I'm afraid that if this officer does go to this beer bash, he will be used as a propaganda tool and nothing else. I agree with the guy or gal up there who said it sounds like a set up. yep
William| 7.28.09 @ 12:34AM
Commissar tjl - the game is up on primitive race whining.
It is over. You have no audience anymore.
Enjoy Obama's Turd Reich while it lasts.
Tony in Central PA| 7.28.09 @ 11:20AM
I get the feeling that the media, and by extension Obama, latched on to this story about the perfesser just to provide some sort of distraction from the health care wrangle. I can only hope it continues to be the equivalent of stepping in a public realtions cowpie for them.
Richard Baker| 7.28.09 @ 4:40PM
Gates is a prime example of the results of "Affirmative Action". As a professor he's a great race hustler.
Greg Zotta| 9.11.09 @ 2:43AM
Race Relations
Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department arrested a Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct.
The facts are, the police responded to a burglary call to Gates house from one of his neighbors. The front door had been damaged from a previous burglary attempt. Gates was in the house and was uncooperative in identifying himself. When Crowley was explaining to Gates his reason for being there, which was he was responding to a burglary in progress, Gates shouted, “why, because I am a black man in America,” interjecting race into it. He continued his tirade calling the officer a racist among other things until he was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Gates was outraged by his arrest when a white police officer entered his home without his permission. Even though the policeman was doing his job. Professor Gates teaches African studies and I wonder what is actually being taught in his class
President Obama said the Cambridge officers acted “stupidly “ regarding the incident. He went on to say that anyone of us would be pretty angry and that it is a fact that African-Americans and Latinos are being stopped disproportionately by law enforcement in this country. He made those statements without knowing the facts of the case. But what would you expect from a Community Organizer.
The next day Obama’s teleprompter told him to say I wished cooler heads would have prevailed and the officer involved was outstanding, but stood by his racial profiling comment. Race relations will not get any better in this country when President Obama gives credence and also was influenced by race baiters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, and Jeremiah Wright.
My question to Gates and Obama are, “Why the outrage? Why the anger?” The police were doing their job. Gates was the one who escalated the situation. What would they have said if it was not Gates but actually burglars in the house and the police let them go? Also I would not be angry for the police doing their job in trying to protect my property.
Statistics show that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of the crime. Therefore, what Obama should be concerned with is reducing the crimes being committed by African-Americans so they will not be “profiled.” Police may be reluctant to do their jobs because of the racial tension caused by Obama’s comments on the issue, thus causing the crime rate to rise.
Greg Zotta
Poptropica | 4.8.10 @ 9:59PM
Then, kids enter Poptropica , a virtual world dotted with individual islands. Each island has its own theme, and its own adventure for players to complete. For example, "Time-Tangled Island" is a time-traveling adventure in which players must return objects and characters to their historically accurate periods, while "Spy Island" is a comical thriller with lots of futuristic gadgets. Each has a distinct storyline that is not related to those of the other islands.
Besides the single-player adventure, each island features common rooms, in which Poptropica players can play standalone games against other people. These are primarily short, simple, reflex-based games, such as a skydiving competition in which the first person to touch the ground safely wins, or a basketball shooting competition in which the hoop is rising and falling. Players are given a star ranking based on their win-loss record.