I have purposely stayed out of this thread until now. I hope there are those who may learn a lesson from rushing to judgement, mob rule, lynch mobs, agendas, pre-conceived notions, the notion of "Presumed innocent until proven guilty" etc etc and finally, how certain outlets (All of them) can spin things without knowing all the facts, which results in the viewership-readership-followship what have you, including several here, stirred into a frenzy.
Things are not always exactly what they may seem at first, face value, intial reports and so on. I hope anyone reading this keeps it in mind should they be innocent and one day charged with a crime they did not commit.
The Duke lacrosse incident was named as an example already. I figured I'd point out that this isn't the first time someone who went to Harvard (Now our CINC) lost all recollection of what was taught.
Remember this? Henry Gates and Sergeant Crowley. Lots of similarities between this incident and the current one in discussion.
There were basically 4 things wrong here.
Henry Louis Gates. Should have said "Thank you for checking on the welfare of my home, I appreciate what you guys do....instead of taking the Cynthia Mckinney high road attitude of "Do you have any idea who I am???"
Our President. Jumped to conclusions before having all the facts. After being asked about Gates' arrest that Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts. Should have stopped right then and there.
The Governor: Didn't know all the facts involved, but he too, doesn't stop there and goes on record as stating "every black mans worst nightmare" Saying he was “Very aware I was not there,” Patrick called the incident “troubling and upsetting,” and said it called for an examination of the country’s racial climate. This before knowing all the facts. Notice any similarities yet?
The Mayor: Didn't even acknowledge in her first statement on the 21st of July that she was also not aware of all the facts involved, but goes on to state: "I am very pleased that the charges of disorderly conduct levied against Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been dropped. The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates have released a joint statement that acknowledges “….the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate.” "As the parties involved have placed this matter behind them, it seems appropriate for our community to do the same."
Then there was this rhetoric from the mayor after the above (who has already thrown her own police department and the officer involved under the bus) on the 23rd of July: "Mayor E. Denise Simmons told NewsCenter 5's Todd Kazakiewich that she wants to sit down with Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, to talk about the Harvard scholar's arrest at his Cambridge home last week." "Do you feel that the police department acted stupidly?" Kazakiewich said. "As I continue to have conversations and figure out what happened, I'll be able to make a determination about what happened," Simmons said.
Which is what she should have stated to begin with if she is expected to lead without prejudice to all of her community. The very same applies to the president and the governor as well. Or should anyway, but obviously, it doesn't. Same applies here with this case.
What do all of these parties and their statements have in common? The very double standard when it comes to justice for all most of them have preached for years. The very ones that have allowed EACH OF THEM to reach the pinnacles of success they now enjoy in public office.
-Do not be in a hurry to rush to judgement.
-Remain unbiased in your decsion making
-Let's get all the facts together and examine them before making a decision.
And yet, because this officer was white, who was handling a call for service by concerned neighbors who called 911, thinking his house (Gates) was being broken into and through the course of his investigation, arrested a man, who was acting disorderly, who was warned REPEATEDLY, just happened to be black and happened to be a very prominent person, he was automatically guilty of racism, racial profiling, etc etc. and was not let off the hook because of his unrecognized celebrity status and immunity qualifications of being above the law because of such.
The officer in question got screwed by the DA when the charge was dropped. He does more than enough in his incident report to clearly articulate the totality of the circumstances involved. The very fact that this DA played favorites by quickly sweeping it away has made gates feeling all the more invincible and above the law. He should have sued the shit out of the town council, settles and takes millions from their budget. Spineless idiots. And by doing so, it gave more ammo to the dozens of ambulance chasers beating down the door and chomping at the bit to represent gates.
The most absurd thing to come out of all this was gates, wanting to use this incident as a teaching tool as to what was wrong "WITH EVERYONE ELSE BUT HIMSELF" Obviously, being on the rolls at Harvard does not equate with your basic load of common sense or possession of intelligence for that matter.
I hope no one ever has to endure what this man, along with Sergeant Crowley, the lacrosse players at Duke had to contend with, nor anyone else in this country, regardless of background, color, creed, choice of weaponry or hardware, nor what you drink, wear or think.
My .02 and change FWIW.
YMMV.
Things are not always exactly what they may seem at first, face value, intial reports and so on. I hope anyone reading this keeps it in mind should they be innocent and one day charged with a crime they did not commit.
The Duke lacrosse incident was named as an example already. I figured I'd point out that this isn't the first time someone who went to Harvard (Now our CINC) lost all recollection of what was taught.
Remember this? Henry Gates and Sergeant Crowley. Lots of similarities between this incident and the current one in discussion.
There were basically 4 things wrong here.
Henry Louis Gates. Should have said "Thank you for checking on the welfare of my home, I appreciate what you guys do....instead of taking the Cynthia Mckinney high road attitude of "Do you have any idea who I am???"
Our President. Jumped to conclusions before having all the facts. After being asked about Gates' arrest that Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts. Should have stopped right then and there.
The Governor: Didn't know all the facts involved, but he too, doesn't stop there and goes on record as stating "every black mans worst nightmare" Saying he was “Very aware I was not there,” Patrick called the incident “troubling and upsetting,” and said it called for an examination of the country’s racial climate. This before knowing all the facts. Notice any similarities yet?
The Mayor: Didn't even acknowledge in her first statement on the 21st of July that she was also not aware of all the facts involved, but goes on to state: "I am very pleased that the charges of disorderly conduct levied against Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been dropped. The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates have released a joint statement that acknowledges “….the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate.” "As the parties involved have placed this matter behind them, it seems appropriate for our community to do the same."
Then there was this rhetoric from the mayor after the above (who has already thrown her own police department and the officer involved under the bus) on the 23rd of July: "Mayor E. Denise Simmons told NewsCenter 5's Todd Kazakiewich that she wants to sit down with Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, to talk about the Harvard scholar's arrest at his Cambridge home last week." "Do you feel that the police department acted stupidly?" Kazakiewich said. "As I continue to have conversations and figure out what happened, I'll be able to make a determination about what happened," Simmons said.
Which is what she should have stated to begin with if she is expected to lead without prejudice to all of her community. The very same applies to the president and the governor as well. Or should anyway, but obviously, it doesn't. Same applies here with this case.
What do all of these parties and their statements have in common? The very double standard when it comes to justice for all most of them have preached for years. The very ones that have allowed EACH OF THEM to reach the pinnacles of success they now enjoy in public office.
-Do not be in a hurry to rush to judgement.
-Remain unbiased in your decsion making
-Let's get all the facts together and examine them before making a decision.
And yet, because this officer was white, who was handling a call for service by concerned neighbors who called 911, thinking his house (Gates) was being broken into and through the course of his investigation, arrested a man, who was acting disorderly, who was warned REPEATEDLY, just happened to be black and happened to be a very prominent person, he was automatically guilty of racism, racial profiling, etc etc. and was not let off the hook because of his unrecognized celebrity status and immunity qualifications of being above the law because of such.
The officer in question got screwed by the DA when the charge was dropped. He does more than enough in his incident report to clearly articulate the totality of the circumstances involved. The very fact that this DA played favorites by quickly sweeping it away has made gates feeling all the more invincible and above the law. He should have sued the shit out of the town council, settles and takes millions from their budget. Spineless idiots. And by doing so, it gave more ammo to the dozens of ambulance chasers beating down the door and chomping at the bit to represent gates.
The most absurd thing to come out of all this was gates, wanting to use this incident as a teaching tool as to what was wrong "WITH EVERYONE ELSE BUT HIMSELF" Obviously, being on the rolls at Harvard does not equate with your basic load of common sense or possession of intelligence for that matter.
I hope no one ever has to endure what this man, along with Sergeant Crowley, the lacrosse players at Duke had to contend with, nor anyone else in this country, regardless of background, color, creed, choice of weaponry or hardware, nor what you drink, wear or think.
My .02 and change FWIW.
YMMV.
