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Editor's Notebook: The Monday Morning Quarterback
By Rich Grassi
Have you ever been in rollcall, listening to the briefing or on the road meeting another troop or reading the paper (online) and heard, was told, or read that an officer got into some kind of jam? What was your first response?
After a number of years on the job, you realize that taking things personally on the street leads to arrests that turn into stinky cases, leading to complaints and never turning out the way you intended. Then when someone comes along as a story between the cars, or in rollcall or in the (online) paper, you think, "You know, he coulda handled that differently."
Of course when the brass assumes the citizen is right, you respond with righteous indignation. Like I'm about to right now . . .
When you begin a sentence, "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts . . .," ending the paragraph with ". . . the Cambridge police acted stupidly . . ." shouldn't be in the cards. It was in the cards, the race cards.
The story goes like this: Professor Gates returned from a trip, found his front door was stuck. When he and his driver tried to force the door, a neighbor saw them and called police. According to a news source, the neighbor failed to report the race of the men trying to force entry into the house. Police arrived to find the professor and his driver in the house.
Quick, what do we do first? Well, as it was PD Cambridge MA, they asked for identification. In other places, residential burglaries in progress normally call for drawn guns. I digress . . .
As they tried to confirm his identity, Professor Gates - knowing who he was - allegedly became irate, incensed and vocal. The verbal barrage is said to have continued onto the porch, in front of a growing group of people. The professor was arrested for disorderly conduct.
After it was determined that he was very important, his petulance took on less relevance and the charges were dropped. The unfortunate comments made about the Cambridge MA police, referenced above, were made by the 44th President of the United States.
As one might expect, the uproar from various police officials and unions, civil rights groups and "community organizers" became deafening. Mr. Obama opened the door on a race riot. To quell this, he didn't apologize to the police. He did admit the professor had a tiny little bit to do with his own arrest, but still the cops were wrong.
He didn't admit that he didn't know that Sgt. Crowley is a racial profiling and diversity trainer, that as an emergency medical technician he attempted to save the life of an NBA player he failed to realize at the time was famous, and that a black police officer was present at the arrest. Sgt. Leon Lashley noted that Professor Gates' reaction to Sgt. Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been." He noted that he supported Crowley's arrest "100%."
It appears that Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley will enjoy a beer with President Obama, at the President's invitation. Bury the hatchet, as it were. This is apparently an effort to elevate the discussion . . . or to get Forty-four off the hot seat.
When you begin a statement with "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts . . . ," and you end that statement with, " . . . the . . . police acted stupidly . . .", well, stupid is as stupid does - especially if you are speaking as President of the United States.
So much for a Harvard education.
