Nothing that a cold beer can’t solve

By now you must have heard about the incident where Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (an African American) was arrested by a white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley. Gates is a professor at Cambridge University, Mass. and stays in a house that belongs to the University. He went on a trip to China for making his documentary for PBS – “Faces of America” and returned home from his trip with his luggage, only to find out that his lock is jammed. So he asked the help of his driver of the cab, who is also a black man to push it open. Gates called the University at the same time to get his lock fixed and while he was in the process of making that call, a police officer was outside his door asking him to step outside of the house. The police had arrived there as a result of a 911 call from Gates neighbor, Whalen, who had mentioned that two black men were breaking in into the Professor’s house. With enough misunderstandings, the police officer arrested Gates and Gates passed on a remark about how a black man is treated in America. That is the gist of what had happened but you can Google it for more detailed information.


When this racially charged controversy was developing further, Our President had passed on a remark in a conference as to how Cambridge Police acted stupidly and if they acted smartly, this whole incident could have been avoided. Now the black racism event is compounded with President being anti-police. I don’t see what is wrong in what Obama said. Whether he is black or white, the incident calls for a statement from anyone who hears it and that statement would be ‘How stupid can a police act in that situation?’. When a police officer reaches a scene, does he not make enquiries to find out what is going on? In this case, Crowley did ask Gates of his identification which proved that he is a Professor in Cambridge University and his drivers license showed that the address is same as the address that he is in. If Crowley needed more information, he could have called Gates’ neighbors and have them testify that that man was Gates and he does reside in that house.


Crowley did not do any of that and he just arrested the man and put him in jail for four hours? Based on what? The 911 call? Whalen, who made the call, did what she did with good intentions, but did she not know that Gates was a black man and that he might have come back from the trip? All this happened in the middle of the day and not at night, where she would have poor lighting and a bad call. This reminds me of the old lady who said that she witnessed the robbery and attack in the movie, ‘My cousin Vinny’. Does Whalen in this event, need a visit to the eye Doctor?


Anyhow, Obama’s statement of ‘stupidity’ had caused some furor in the police community and in order to quell the situation and to address the racial differences, Obama had invited Gates and Crowley to discuss the matter over a beer. Now there is nothing that a drink can’t do. These guys will have beer and all of a sudden racism would disappear from the face of this earth. This beer drinking is more for photo ops and for Obama to cool the situation in the police community as a result of his remark. If things were to be solved by a beer, I would have cases of it stacked up in my garage. Oh, by the way, I do have it stacked up not for this reason though.