gates – The R.oB. Opinion

Will Cops And Black People Ever Get Along?

Will Cops And Black People Ever Get Along? « The Michael Eric Dyson Show:

“Are the perceptions that have been heard about the relationships between cops and black men really as tense as projected or nothing more than big misinterpretations?”

(Via The Michael Eric Dyson Show.)

I would say things have been always tense. When one has to fear for his life, that’s not a calm and cool situation. That said, it was an interesting show.

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crowley, gates, racial profiling, society, beer

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest: When Race Matters – TIME

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest: When Race Matters – TIME:

“Obama, in all likelihood, has had similar experiences with the police, exchanges in which he was left with the impression that his Ivy League pedigree could take him only so far. And so it’s unfortunate that he felt unable to continue to express what he truly felt. He was forced to revise and turn what was an objectively true statement — that it’s stupid to arrest a man in his own house for being rude — into a vague ‘teachable moment’ [emphasis mine] about nothing particular…
This is deflating. If the rest of the country is too immature for some straight talk about the relationship between blacks and the police, delivered by our most accomplished and temperate diplomats, then the prospects for a broader dialogue about race are not good.”

(Via TIME Magazine.)

Exactly. With all of the defenses I’ve heard for Crowley, not one addresses the fact that they arrested a man in his own home for essentially being rude. All those small government, losing freedom folks said nothing about this. This is the central argument for black folks accurate or not: That Gates’ race made this kind of violation sanctioned in our society. Crowley’s defenders simply prove that fear right.

Getting Our Priorities Straight

Defense chief proposes weapons cuts:

“‘It is important to remember that every defense dollar spent to over-ensure against a remote or diminishing risk — or in effect to run up the score in a capability where the United States is already dominant — is a dollar not available to take care of our people, reset the force, win the wars we are in and improve capabilities in areas where we are underinvested and potentially vulnerable,’ Gates said.”

(Via Yahoo! News.)

I’ve been saying this for years. I can’t wait to see how those “small government” conservatives react to this.
UPDATE: Good analysis on his speech.