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President Obama's Criticism re: Comments After Professor Gates' Arrest
Jul 30, 2009
"If you criticize how we treat blacks, we'll call you racist, President Obama!"

President Obama is strongly criticized for calling Professor Gate’s arrest “stupid.”  Are the president’s critics trying to ensure that he says and does nothing significant during his presidency to address inequities by the justice system toward African Americans for fear of being labeled a “racist”? 

It would be preferable if President Obama had not relaxed his stance against Sgt. Crawley's reaction to Prof. Gates.  Too many Americans of every race are suffering from retaliatory arrests in the absence of any crime.  Personal offense at citizens not have a conciliatory tone with law officers is not a punishable offense, therefore people are arrested on charges like "resisting arrest," and "disorderly conduct."  Those charges should be reserved for real incidents and not used when the issue is a citizen did not quake with fear in the presence of police officers and may have responded to officers in a disrespectful tone.  Retaliatory arrests like this sometimes result in wrongful convictions and prison sentences for people who lack powerful friends and resources to help combat the charges offended police officers use to justify their arrests of citizens who simply p**sed them off.  Occasionally, police actually kill citizens who offend them, in the complete absence of any crime.

Retaliatory arrests happen most often to those perceived as being least likely to have a means of defending themselves against same.  Therefore, it is true that police aggression is usually directed at minority members in society, especially young black males - "profiling."  However, the 72-year-old great grandmother who was Tasered for talking back to a police officer was white; the Idaho man who police sodomized with a Taser weapon for not willingly admitting them into his home was white; and so was the Phoenix blogger whose home was raided by police and his female roommate handcuffed while they ramsacked the home for three hours because the blogger wrote negative news about them.  Therefore, police aggression and retaliation are not limited to citizens of a particular race, age, or sex.  See specifs about these incidents at this link: 

Arresting Harvard Professors . . .
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1203750

President Obama condemned such retaliatory arrests strongly, and doing so does not make him racist.  He thinks such arrests are "stupid,” and they are.  Police officers are adults who deal with the public in stressful circumstances every day.  They should have thicker skins, especially since they are armed and have police power over the citizenry.  Furthermore, retaliatory arrests and trials are a stupid waste of taxpayer resources.  Arrests, trials, and incarceration are costly.  Taxpayers pay around $50,000 per year per inmate in many states, and triple that if the inmates are sick and require mental or physical treatment and special provisions while incarcerated.    The judicial process is too expensive to be used by police officers to soothe wounded egos or to prove a point.

President Obama’s immediate family members whom he grew up loving are white, including his mother.  To assert that he criticized the officer's overreaction because the president is racist is itself a racist accusation.  The criticism in effect tells our president that if he stands against overuse of force or other injustice against any African American, he will be criticized fiercely.  He is to stand by mute while America's long history of police abuse and other inequities against at black citizens continues.  President Obama is being told by critics that he must pretend to think racism ended with his election, lest he be labeled a racist for decrying inequities and injustice against a people who comprise a large percentage of the electorate.  One way to ensure President Obama’s easy defeat in 2012 would be to alienate him from black constituents by having him ignore issues peculiar to our American experience.  It would be unacceptable for any president, black or white, to deliberately ignore areas of concern affecting a class of constituents he vowed to represent. 

I noticed some years ago that when I interviewed with white human resource directors, I had more success in my job search than when I was interviewed by black HR personnel.  This is because the black ones were afraid that hiring me might cast them as racists in the minds of their superiors, and it was "safer" for them to hire someone white.  Allegations such as those being hurled at President Obama sometimes lead to reverse discrimination amongst people within the same racial group.  Those in positions of power refrain from using their ability to help people who look like themselves, seeking to avoid being accused of racial favoritism.  Perhaps making minorities in power defensive about what they say or do to promote the cause of other minorities is intentional on the part people who really are racists.

To learn more about this phenomenon, I recommend a book called "Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States," by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

        
President Obama Inauguation
Photo:  President Obama Inauguation
Presidents take an oath of office to serve ALL Americans - not excluding blacks for fear of false accusations of being prejudice

President Obama is an educated man in his mid-40's who has common sense.  It is ridiculous to think that he believes racism is dead in America or that police don't frequently engage in overuse of force and racial profiling.  When the president took his oath of office, he vowed to do his best to represent ALL of the people and to uphold the Constitution of the United States.  Those who criticize President Obama seemingly hope to silence him on this issue and other issues of unequal treatment to black citizens by making false accusations against him. 

            Photo:  OBAMA'S MOTHER AND GRANDPARENTS

                                    


Sgt. Crawley apparently fabricated his police report by falsely alleging that the woman who called 911 said two "black men with backpacks" may be breaking into a house.  She never mentioned race except to say that one of the men may be Hispanic when she was prompted for a description, and she did not mention backpacks at all.  Now who is prejudice?

In view of the revelation regarding Sgt. Crawley’s inaccurate account, I believe even more strongly that President Obama's original stance against Sgt. Crawley's conduct was appropriate.  Regarding a black officer who spoke in Sgt. Crawley's favor, the "brotherhood" among police officers frequently supercedes racial unity and even their oaths of office to serve and protect.  Ask Sean Bell's relatives, or just read the website below.  


Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Articles - http://NowPublic.com/duo


NOTE:  The Care2 cyberstalker who already disconnected my RSS feed to my sharebook has placed a table around President Obama's inauguation photo.  Generally, there is a fight posting anything about President Obama.  Ordinarily, when the Care2 cyberstalker outlines text and photographs in a table, the content is later deleted or it deletes when I hit "submit."  He may not do it since I am telling about it now, but you will see examples on my videos I already captured.  The censorship I encounter on Care2 is more fierce than anyplace else on the Internet, everyplace except Care2 News Network.  Since what I write about is anti-death penalty, news to promote social justice and decriminalize mental illness, pieces that speak against police violence to promote better relations between police officers and the communities they serve, it surprised me to encounter such censorship on this site.  I used to wonder if the owners know, but I write so much about it that I cannot see how the owners would miss knowing about it.   

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Posted: Jul 30, 2009 3:08am

 
 
 
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Author

Mary Neal
female, age 57, divorced, 2 children
Stone Mountain, GA, USA
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