Munich Summit 1938
Yalta Summit-1944
Potsdam Summit 1945
Kennedy-Khrushchev Summit in Vienna 1961
Nixon-Mao Summit in China 1972
The Beer Summit-Washington 2009
Biden: I tell ya, guys, we need to go to Ukraine. The babes are hot!! Hey, you heard this one? Knock-knock."
Gates: "Who's there?"
Biden: "Sgt Crowley."
The news media had a ball with this week's "beer summit" at the White House. Some cable outlets were featuring a countdown ticker until the beer was served, while another was showing viewers an aerial map of the White House grounds to show exactly where the Big Moment would take place, We even know what beers each man drank, for crying out loud. In the end, Joe Biden was invited to the party-to lighten things up I guess.
I thought that Sgt Crowley acted with with class in his post-beer interview-being careful not to fan any more flames (since he never fanned the flames to begin with) but also not backing off from his position that he acted properly in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates.
Of course, we don't know what the four gentlemen said to each other, but it is my hope that Crowley spoke up for the policemen of America who are so frequently accused of racial profiling every time they have to encounter a black person on the street. I am sure he got a lot of lecture from Gates (and Obama) about the insidiousness of racial profiling. Since he himself teaches the subject at the police academy, I am sure he is well versed on the topic and the past history of arbitrarily harassing blacks (which is what I would define racial profiling as). I have an idea that Sgt Crowley spoke just as frankly to Gates as Gates did to him on the subject of being called a racist every time a white man and black man have a disagreement. It is not fair and it has become very tiresome.
What the teachable moment is that President Obama is talking about I have no idea. Hopefully, he has learned not to jump into an issue in which, by his own admission, he has no personal knowledge, and declare that one side acted stupidly-then have to waste the next several days of his precious time trying to clean up his mess. Any "teachable moment" would have involved taping the conversation, which, in itself, would have destroyed any usefulness.
At this point, I would like to share a story from my youth. When I was 14 years old and growing up in Los Angeles, I was a punk, pure and simple. I thought I was a tough guy and liked to get into fights. One night, I was thrown out of an amusement park for some stupid thing I didn't do and escorted out by an LAPD cop. He was an older guy probably burned out and counting the days to retirement. He took me into a side room and filled out a card on my (field Identification card). I was angry because I didn't deserve to get thrown out of the park. Three times I called him a "dirty cop". The third time, he proceeded to kick my butt. After that, I started listening. In the end, perhaps realizing he had crossed the line, he became friendly let me go since my attitude had dramatically changed. So was he wrong in what he did? Sure. Did I deserve it? You bet.
None of that suggests that Professor Gates should have been roughed up for his verbal tirade. But the point is that my incident had nothing to do with race. The cop was white and so was I. (I still am.) The lesson is when you engage in a dispute-verbally or physically-with the police, only bad things will happen. Gates was out of line and engaged in disorderly conduct. A couple of days after the incident, I caught a snippet of Gates being interviewed by someone in front of an outdoor crowd (I assume it was at Harvard.) I only caught a part, but I heard Gates talk of how this white cop was obviously not prepared for a black man to "get in his face". (I am paraphrasing, but that is an accurate description of what Gates said.) So, I am now satisfied that Gates, as other witnesses have said, was being verbally abusive and acting in a disorderly manner that would have justified a charge of disorderly conduct. To say that Crowley was engaging in racial profiling is absurd. He was called to the scene of a possible home break-in and acted accordingly. He had no idea who he was going to encounter, and I have heard no witness state that Crowley was being other than professional in his behavior.
Again, teachable moment? Aside from the fact that white and black Americans view race through entirely different lens, which we know, I would like President Obama to tell us what we should learn from this.
7 comments:
Fact of the matter is, BOTH men were in the wrong here. BOTH men couldn't set aside their pride and humble themselves. You let Crowley off too easily.
Also, you incorrectly propose that racial profiling is something only of the past, implying that it is no longer a problem. Yet if that were the case, why would Crowley even be teaching a course to try and prevent it?
Make fun of it if you'd like, but I think the "Beer Summit" was an admirable gesture. I think I read the idea was first suggested by Crowley, even.
Bryan,
To me, racial profiling historically has been hassling blacks for no real good reason, and yes, it has happened many times in the past and hopefully, there are enough rules in place to prevent it from happening now. The unfortunate fact is that if cops work in high-crime neighborhoods, they are going to have numerous encounters with people under less than pleasant circumstances.
When I was a DEA agent working in LA and Pittsburgh, I worked every conceivable neighborhood
including white ones, Asian, Latin and black. I have kicked down doors, worked undercover, done surveillances in every type of racial street and residence. Why? because when it comes to drug trafficking, no ethnic group is immune. But does that mean when I have to do a raid in a black neighborhood or arrest a black dealer that I am engaging in racial profiling?
Police forces are different in that they much more often have to intervene suddenly and unexpectantly when a crime is in progress (whereas DEA operations tended to be more planned)
If I make fun of the meeting, it is largely because of the hype and the fact that Obama is trying to clean up his mess. Obama has portrayed himself as one who can bring us together, yet, his whole life story -at least in Chicago- argues otherwise. It all brings back memories of Jeremiah Wright.
I'm sorry, but the hype was 99% created by the media (including Fox News) and blogs such as your own. You can't place that blame on Obama, especially when the media weren't even allowed at the actual meeting.
Bryan,
Do you think there would have been a meeting if Obama had not made that statement? I don't.
You'll have to ask Crowley, since he's the one who suggested the meeting in the first place.
Perhaps, but I think he handled it with class.
There is one thing this incident did. It destroyed the idea of "white guilt".
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