Patterico's Pontifications

7/30/2009

No Apologies at Beer Summit

Filed under: Race — Patterico @ 5:36 pm



Sgt. Crowley met today with a guy who accused him of falsifying a police report and racially profiling him. Also present was another guy who told the world that he didn’t know the facts, but said that Crowley had acted stupidly.

Oh, and Slow Joe Biden attended as well.

Apparently there were no apologies.

Obama has said the controversy should become a “teachable moment” for Americans. But the meeting was closed to the press.

How can we learn if you keep the lesson a secret?

59 Responses to “No Apologies at Beer Summit”

  1. Did Gates or Obama learn anything?

    Joe, well, I wrote him off long ago.

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  2. From the comments from our president, apparently the teachable moment applied to everyone else but himself. Which would account for the lack of apology. The lessons needed are for Crowley and Gates – Obama looks on in tone deaf approval.

    “Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them,” the president’s statement said.

    Perhaps the most the most pressing teachable moment was provided in a simple and heartfelt letter to the president by the black officer on the scene that day and supporter of Crowley, who wrote,

    “I’m forced to ponder the notion that as a result of speaking the truth and coming to the defense of a friend and colleague, who just happens to be white, that I have somehow betrayed my heritage,” Sgt. Leon Lashley wrote. “Please convey my concerns to the president that Mr. Gates’ actions may have caused grave and potentially irreparable harm to the struggle for racial harmony in this country and perhaps throughout the world.”

    Lashley wrote in the letter he would like Gates to reflect on the incident and ask himself what responsibility he bears, what he can do to heal the rift and what he can do to mitigate the damage done to the officers’ reputations.

    Dana (57e332)

  3. Why didn’t Crowley wear his police uniform? Too confrontational?
    He could have brought his handcuffs. Remember those, Professor Gates? He could have brought his weapon, then allowing himself to be disarmed by the presidential secret service. And what of the lawyer for his police union, who was going to come with him?

    dchamil (529832)

  4. “Lashley wrote in the letter he would like Gates to reflect on the incident and ask himself what responsibility he bears, what he can do to heal the rift and what he can do to mitigate the damage done to the officers’ reputations.”

    (quote)

    Dana (57e332)

  5. […] Patterico has an interesting take on the “teachable moment” that was closed to the press! […]

    Gazzer’s Gabfest » He warnt as uppity as I thought… (b98ad6)

  6. Are we still infected with libertarians? I’m just happy that the sergeant got out of there intact. I don’t trust those two angry black men for a minute.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  7. gack. Crowley is a pathetic little patsy. He got played. I’ll respect what little dignity he may have left by not reproducing any quotes of his from that UPI article. Embarrassing.

    happyfeet (42470c)

  8. When you can snatch the pebble from my hand…

    mojo (74ba73)

  9. Maybe the press wasn’t invited because they were afraid Crowley might tell the two bigots that they could kiss his lily white non-racist ass and that it would be a cold day in hell before he risked his life for a race baiting shyster that just happens to reside at professor Gates address.

    Naw, I agree happyfeet, he did act and sound like a pathetic pansy by saying that such a learned professor could maybe teach him something. Like what, how to cower and grovel for protecting a black bigots house from being broken into?

    peedoffamerican (2ba2a6)

  10. Crowley teaches recognition of nuance and neutral observation.
    Obviously he does not suffer fools gladly when in uniform, but is willing to suffer them… at length… in the interest of the greater good out in the Rose Garden.

    As for Gates, everyone is a great guy when their butt is being kissed by the President and the cop the President has summoned.

    Gates is the winner
    Obama gets first loser
    Crowley gets hind tit

    That was how the script was written from the minute the invite went out

    SteveG (97b6b9)

  11. Barcky used that quote about that what brings us together that he always uses. Not exactly sure what he and Gates did to promote any kind of unity.

    JD (2e1461)

  12. He’s a policeman in Cambridge, for crying out loud. Which is what made the whole story so ridiculous in the first place. His career and his political correctness go hand in hand.

    nk (32c481)

  13. Cops should never allow themselves to be used as props for any reason. By anybody.
    Crowley should have showed up, talked privately and respectfully, and then left without crowing to the media.
    No upside for the police.

    Andrew (312419)

  14. I think Barack deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Elizabeth (0c2aa8)

  15. Look at the photos of the event. I _told_ you that Blue Moon is cloudy shit.

    gp (2502a8)

  16. Barcky fixed a problem that Gates started, and Barcky made worse, so he could then be seen as being the gracious healing person. He is teh One we have been waiting for, and teh One that stopped the oceans from rising.

    JD (2e1461)

  17. well, ok. I don’t know if that’s exactly the direction I’d go in Mr. peed but, maybe. I’d have to think on it. It seems to me that he was played so completely that it’s almost independent of any particular issue.

    The teachable moment showed that if you thought Barack Obama a very cold, ruthless and viciously pragmatic and shallow little man you were off by several degrees of shallow.

    happyfeet (42470c)

  18. If I was Crowley, as a joke I would have brought my cuffs and taken a photo with Gates cuffed up like “The Defiant Ones”. These two will forever be linked together, figuratively at least.

    Secondly, I would have also asked for a 40oz., worn a Santa hat, and sent out the picture as my XMAS card.

    Times Disliker (d77c94)

  19. Burn Notice was very good tonite. Did Biden tell stories about Hirohito?

    JD (2e1461)

  20. I propose a national conversation on how to have an effective teaching moment… the time is now!

    voiceofreason2 (ec9078)

  21. If it was me, I would have insisted on a 40 oz bottle of Old English or Cobra Malt Liquor served in in the bottle in a plain brown paper sack to make Gates feel at home.

    Tug Speedman (b2907a)

  22. Damnit, I missed Burn Notice… Son of a…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  23. Sheesh, this is so typical of the Empty Suit(tm).

    SPQR (26be8b)

  24. “Mr Crowley-what went on in your head?”

    Pinandpuller (a0bc64)

  25. “Secondly, I would have also asked for a 40oz., worn a Santa hat, and sent out the picture as my XMAS card.”

    Comment by Times Disliker — 7/30/2009 @ 7:21 pm

    Teeeheeeheeee Santa hat! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA XMAS CARD!!!!!!! ROFLMAO

    peedoffamerican (2ba2a6)

  26. “Please convey my concerns to the president that Mr. Gates’ actions may have caused grave and potentially irreparable harm to the struggle for racial harmony

    I hope the one and only “teachable” thing this incident conveys to most people throughout America has nothing to do with or about race. What really is the lesson of the day — and beyond — is that “leftys” like the guy in the Oval Office and a professor from Harvard aren’t worth a damn when it comes to sound judgment and common sense.

    In terms of irony, the one “teachable” aspect of this story is that the incident took place in a leftist community like Cambridge, Massachusetts, involving a cop who apparently — since he says he’s a firm supporter of Obama — not much less liberal than either Barry or Gates.

    Mark (411533)

  27. I think you captured the ‘event’ succinctly.

    FWIW I always spell it ‘Sloe’ Joe Biden.

    EBJ (0f9f5a)

  28. “Certainly (the Harvard professor) has the credentials to enlighten me a little bit,” said Crowley — adding that Gates was receptive to the idea of learning from Crowley.

    Oh, brother. If Crowley considered himself a political moderate or certainly conservative, then he’d be a very, very, very squishy one. But since he probably labels himself as a “progressive,” he makes the perfect tool and fool for used-car salemen like Obama and Gates.

    Mark (411533)

  29. Gates said in a statement on theroot.com that after tonight’s meeting, “There’s reason to hope that many people have emerged with greater sympathy for the daily perils of policing, on the one hand, and for the genuine fears about racial profiling, on the other hand.

    ‘I think that he is probably trying to protect himself,’ Gates said of Crowley in an interview with Gayle King on Sirius Radio. ‘I think he feels very vulnerable. I think he knows that A, what he did was wrong and B, that he falsified his report.’

    Un-efin’-beievable…

    This hack is still sticking to the racial profiling canard…

    Yeah, Gates has made a career of race peddling, grievence mongering and minority exceptionalism. And I guarantee he’s looking ahead to his next PBS special when he can wax on about the slings and arrows of being a highly paid black professor at one of America’s premiere white guilt, affirmative action, Universities…

    I can see it all now, Gate’s next PBS special called, “From the Selma bridge to Cambridge; racist mutha-f*@ckin’ cops in America, and how at least this time they were denounced by brother President!”…

    It ought to be good for a few hundred grand…

    And yet again, another professional grievance monger shows how profitable it is to be racially oppressed in modern AmeriKKKa!

    Bob (99fc1b)

  30. Glad you folks enjoy “Burn Notice.”. Michael Westin is fine (“…fight your battles with duct tape: guns make you stupid; duct tape makes you smart.”). Of course, he said that while carrying at least one firearm.

    But Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell salute!) rocks; he makes that show. And Fiona is scary. In a good way.

    Eric Blair (da8b51)

  31. ‘It’s a teachable moment if it’s larger than the cop and the professor,’ [object]. ‘The president isn’t some civilian dispute mediator. He’s got the biggest soapbox in the world and he’s an African American man whose been [racially] profiled himself, so if he doesn’t cave in to the politics and doesn’t like he took back his comment about the police — if he keeps it real, there’s the opportunity for real change.’

    ‘Professor Gates should’ve been nicer but it’s not against the law to say bad things to the police. Police hear much worse things,’ Butler, who authored a book about race and the justice system, told ABC News. ‘The concern is that when the police were messing with a 58-year-old man with a cane, they weren’t out catching the real bad guys and ultimately that’s the problem with racial profiling. It doesn’t help the police do their job effectively.’

    So once again the goalposts have shifted. Racial profiling is no longer about arbitrarily and capriciously detaining people of color; it’s definition is morphing before our very eyes into arresting minorities for disorderly conduct in public! So I guess if I’m a minority in America, there is no such thing as disorderly behavior; whatever I do? It’s all good baby!

    This bilge, coming from a law professor at George Washington University. This is prima facia evidence of how far our once prestigious academic institutions have fallen! And how any minority can engage in truly racist and racialist behavior, and there can be no repurcussions; they truly have achieved absolute moral authority…

    Yep…There’s an excuse for everything…We ought to just start referring to the Democrats, and all the identity politics crowd, as the party of ill-behaved little boys and girls grown up…

    Because they’re all about finding excuses for behavior that, as children, most were taught would lead to no good; but it’s always someone else’s fault…

    This victim mentality is leading to ruin in this nation…

    Obama…Keepin’ it real!…At least, by Jerimiah Rights yardsticKKK…

    [note: fished from spam filter]

    Bob (99fc1b)

  32. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8208602&page=1

    ‘It’s a teachable moment if it’s larger than the cop and the professor,’ said Paul Butler, former federal prosecutor and law professor at George Washington University. ‘The president isn’t some civilian dispute mediator. He’s got the biggest soapbox in the world and he’s an African American man whose been [racially] profiled himself, so if he doesn’t cave in to the politics and doesn’t like he took back his comment about the police — if he keeps it real, there’s the opportunity for real change.’

    ‘Professor Gates should’ve been nicer but it’s not against the law to say bad things to the police. Police hear much worse things,’ Butler, who authored a book about race and the justice system, told ABC News. ‘The concern is that when the police were messing with a 58-year-old man with a cane, they weren’t out catching the real bad guys and ultimately that’s the problem with racial profiling. It doesn’t help the police do their job effectively.’

    So once again the goalposts have shifted. Racial profiling is no longer about arbitrarily and capriciously detaining people of color; it’s definition is morphing before our very eyes into arresting minorities for disorderly conduct in public! So I guess if I’m a minority in America, there is no such thing as disorderly behavior; whatever I do? It’s all good baby!

    This bilge, coming from a law professor at George Washington University. This is prima facia evidence of how far our once prestigious academic institutions have fallen! And how any minority can engage in truly racist and racialist behavior, and there can be no repurcussions; they truly have achieved absolute moral authority…

    Yep…There’s an excuse for everything…We ought to just start referring to the Democrats, and all the identity politics crowd, as the party of ill-behaved little boys and girls grown up…

    Because they’re all about finding excuses for behavior that, as children, most were taught would lead to no good; but it’s always someone else’s fault…

    This victim mentality is leading to ruin in this nation…

    Obama…Keepin’ it real!…At least, by Jerimiah Rights yardsticKKK…

    Bob (99fc1b)

  33. I can’t enjoy Burn Notice because I have a Sharon Gless phobia. It’s almost disabling. I thought it was getting better for awhile there but once I went off the Zyban after I quit smoking it came roaring back.

    happyfeet (42470c)

  34. Gabrielle Anwar should be enough to overcome said phobia, happyfeet. They could have demonic midget Oompa Loompa’s dressed as clowns and I would still watch it.

    JD (7bdd7f)

  35. I tried. I see what you’re saying, but God… she’s frightening. Her eyes. Good God her eyes. So much for sleeping tonight.

    happyfeet (42470c)

  36. And we all watched the Kabuki as the palace burned.

    “Burn Notice” was good tonight. But I can’t shake the feeling that they’re going to kill off Fiona.

    Ag80 (99168f)

  37. Ag80…I think that Gabrielle Anwar is not all that different in persona from Fiona. She might be getting tired of the role.

    But Fiona? I would hate to be the person who tried to kill her. Remember the advice she gave the kid who wanted to whack his stepfather?

    Bruce Campbell must be loving this gig. He’s actually a good actor, but you would never get that from things like “Army of Darkness” (much as I enjoyed it—“Good. Bad. I’m the one with the gun.”). “The Adventures of Brisco County Junior” hinted that he could act. Then he started doing those odd SciFi Channel movies. Alimony money, maybe? “Bubba Ho-Tep” is funny, but it’s not exactly acting.

    But this says it all about Bruce Campbell.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18

    Eric Blair (204104)

  38. This bilge, coming from a law professor at George Washington University.

    Well, he’s already got two strikes against him, if you will. He’s a professor and he also happens to be black. And since a very, very high percentage of people in those two camps are of the left — where logic generally is in short supply or non-existent — the odds that Butler also is of the left is….

    Do birds fly, is the South Pole cold, is the Pope Catholic?

    Mark (411533)

  39. Eric:

    I don’t know his politics, but Bruce Campbell is one of the most entertaining actors in the world.

    “Brisco” was good. “Bubba Ho-Tep” was good. The “Evil Dead” movies were good. And I really enjoyed “Jack of All Trades.” And, we can discuss his bit parts in all of Raimi’s movies.

    But, he never got his chance as Bruce Willis did.

    If I had my chance to have beer with someone, it would be with Bruce, not the President.

    Not because he tried, and failed, but because he tried and maintained his dignity.

    However, I’ve never been a big fan of Gabrielle except in Burn Notice. But, she has to be a goner.

    Ag80 (99168f)

  40. Brisco County was a great show

    JEA (1eb0e1)

  41. #

    Why didn’t Crowley wear his police uniform? Too confrontational?
    He could have brought his handcuffs. Remember those, Professor Gates? He could have brought his weapon, then allowing himself to be disarmed by the presidential secret service. And what of the lawyer for his police union, who was going to come with him?

    Comment by dchamil — 7/30/2009 @ 6:13 pm

    simpler than that, probablt prohibited from drinking in uniform.

    Thatguy (eb09ed)

  42. If I hear the words “teachable moment” one more time from this creep, I believe that I will puke.

    DaveinPhoenix (8c6b07)

  43. Sgt. Crowley met today with a guy who accused him of falsifying a police report and racially profiling him. Also present was another guy who told the world that he didn’t know the facts, but said that Crowley had acted stupidly.

    If Crowley arrested a man without legitimate ground — as you have conceded he did — and Crowley’s police report contains several factual errors — which it does — it seems that the only person who should consider apologizing is Crowley.

    von (3962f2)

  44. I can’t decide if that last comment by von is from a leftist or a libertarian. They seem to be blending into an irresponsible muddle.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  45. They should have smoked a joint instead and saved their livers. Don’t we all wish it were 1850 again?

    Thank the Passer (810241)

  46. I can’t decide if that last comment by von is from a leftist or a libertarian.

    Why should it matter? My assertins are either correct or incorrect.

    von (3962f2)

  47. If Crowley had learned his lesson from the Gates encounter, he would have attended wearing a live mike.

    jim2 (a9ab88)

  48. Guess if you are invited to the Whitehouse for a
    beer and sensitivity training session you are supposed to wear a coat and tie? Someone did’t
    re-calibrate their wardrobe. better have another
    meeting.

    Gene M (20d5b0)

  49. Von – Please outline what you believe to be the factual errors in your assertins above.

    JD (95dba1)

  50. My Burn Notice doesn’t TiVo until 11PM, so I spent last night with my fingers in my ears “la la la la” so I didn’t spoil anything. Bruce Campbell is excellent in a manly type of way, where men proudly wear Old Spice and hawaiian shirts and exhibit skills with weaponry and Fiona is more hot now that she looks less anorexic and I can’t believe she’s old like me.

    Sox beat Yanks in 9th, though 🙂

    carlitos (b0a11b)

  51. Von – Please outline what you believe to be the factual errors in your asserti[o]ns above.

    That’s not a very clear request (I appreciate your duplicating my typographic error, however). I assume that you’re asking for support for my assertion that there were factual errors in Crowley’s police report. There are at least two in the following sentence alone: “[Whalen] told me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of [] Ware Street.”

    We know, of course, that Whalen denies making any such statement to Crowley; Whalen says that she simply told Crowley that she was the one who dialed 9-11, without mentioning further details. That, in itself, is sufficient to raise questions regarding Crowley’s accuracy. Crowley’s report is also contrary to Whalen’s 9-11 call. In the 9-11 call, Whalen states that (1) she could not identify the race of either person entering the home (‘tho she thought one might be Hispanic – not black) and (2) she stated that the two individuals had suitcases, consistent with returning from a trip, not “backpacks” (which is generally not).

    Consequently, Crowley filed a police report that contained factual errors.

    Now, I wouldn’t say that Crowley filed a “false” police report. That suggests intent on his part. It’s possible that Crowley knew he was filing a report with falsehoods in it, but it’s also possible that Crowley was simply in error.

    Yet, these additional errors by Crowley — on top of, of course, his most significant error (a faulty arrest, which no one here is defending) — aren’t consistent with Patterico’s indignation at Gates.

    von (3962f2)

  52. Yeah, Brisco County was a great show, Of course, Fox buried this steampunk/western on a Friday, and it subsequently died of neglect. Burn Notice is unfortunately ending the season too soon, and our nearly useless state legislature is likely going to make it difficult for it to return. Now someone is still not insisting that Crowley filed
    a false report after Gates’s statement in the Root, right,

    narciso (996c34)

  53. Let’s see, an arrogant Hahvahd professor shoots his mouth off to a cop and gets arrested. Obama shoots his mouth off to the press, embarrasses himself and undermines his signature program. But America needs to learn the lesson.

    Yes we do, we need to learn to take presidential elections more seriously than we did last time.

    tim maguire (4a98f0)

  54. I just would have not gone if I was Sgt Crowley. The President showed just how superficial he is with his original comments. He also showed a flash of racism. By attending, Crowley allows the President to escape from his comments and appear to be the great conciliator.

    Earle Blackwell (b669e9)

  55. Good God, this Gates jerk never stops with the meaningless pomo-speak: “Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no control. Narratives about race are as old as the founding of this great Republic itself, blah blah.”

    Is that all it takes to be considered an Ivy League scholar, to incessantly mouth this pap about metaphors and narratives? How can any normal person stand to be around these guys?

    gp (72be5d)

  56. “A flash of racism,” Earle?

    Is “stupidly” code for “I’ll smash your jellywhite face!” ?

    David Ehrenstein (2550d9)

  57. Bruce Campbell was also in Xena: Warrior Princess.

    Pinandpuller (a0bc64)

  58. I’m a big reader, and must say I really enjoyed Bruce Campbell’s autobiography. Someone in this thread asked his personal politics, and he discusses them briefly in this book. For me to reveal them would be a spoiler, in more ways than one. Anyway, maybe some of you would enjoy the book, too.

    Times Disliker (3d3f96)


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