I think the ultimate judgement of Sgt. Crowley will be...

[Bicoastal]

...what he does with his newfound notoriety.

I haven't yet made up my mind on this guy--mostly because I haven't been paying much attention to the particulars of this issue ever since Obama walked back his statements on the Gates arrest a few days ago. In the end, the only two people who know exactly what happened on that day are Crowley and Gates. It's somewhat reassuring, frankly, that all three major players in this event are going to clink bottles together at the White House...

But other unknowns, such as Joe Wurzelbacher and Caroline Prejean, have whored themselves out to Fox News and other Republican outlets under far less newsworthy circumstances. If he was so inclined, Sgt. Crowley could become THE conservative spokesman for "White Rights" in America, crisscrossing the nation and giving speeches at GOP events about how Obama and Gates "ruined" his life, and how urgent the need to Take Our Country Back from the angry black man in the White House. I bet you the majority of calls Crowley has received in the last few days have been from the representatives of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, of Boehner and Steele. "Hey Sgt. Crowley--wanna become Officer James?"

So if he truly IS an racist pig with an axe to grind, he's set for life--or at least for the next few years. If, on the other hand, he simply disappears after this incident dies down and quietly continues his career in law enforcement, chances are the man has a conscience after all, that he recognizes that he made a mistake, or simply wants to attone for his wrong-headed arrest. But at this point in time, the guy's life could clearly go one of two ways: serve in Blue State heaven, or reign in Red State hell.

We are talking about Cambridge, MA--it's possible this guy may even be a Democrat...

[Mz Pip]

1. Given the first thing

out of Crowley's mouth during an interview was, "Obama? I didn't vote for him." I, too, suspect Fox news was immediately on the phone trying to round this guy up for a series of interviews with Orally, Hannity and Glenn.

We shall see if he cashes in as another Obama hater.

[Hamlette]

21. yes, but shortly thereafter he said "I support the president 110%"

[cleveramerican]

2. He won't be used like that.

recent history notwithstanding, He is nobody's fool.

I think you will be surprised how well he does.

[JTFrog]

3. Boomarking.

:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:

[Bicoastal]

5. What makes you say that?

...almost sounds like you know the guy.

[angee_is_mad]

7. So you know him?

As him why he didn't handle the situation better, considering he is a veteran police officer.

[cleveramerican]

9. I know him a little

from the neighborhood

[Bicoastal]

11. Just saw your blog...this is excellent news...

...if for no other reason than it well confound the right wing gasbags who are already chanting "One of us...one of us..."

[cleveramerican]

15. DU is my only blog

[AllieB]

20. I grew up in Cambridge, my sister went to school with the Crowley boys

We may know one another. Where did you go to school?

[dogtag]

8. This person does know Sgt. Crowley

and some might find her take on him rather interesting.


http://feministx.blogspot.com/2009/07/henry-louis-gates-jr.html

[PurityOfEssence]

16. Unlike many, I don't want this to blow up into something to "prove" anything,

but like many, I hope there's some awareness that comes out of it.

Things don't happen in a vacuum, and usually there are a few different influences at play. Those who IMMEDIATELY conclude that he's a racist, that Gates didn't provoke anything, that this is just another heinous act of police ugliness don't do their cause any good, especially if the facts unfold differently.

If Gates is shown as a combative, pompous professor who expects better treatment than peons, has no compunction about claiming racism when asked to obey a law officer, and people leap to his aid with invectives flying and then are unable due to egos and bigotries to see ANY mitigation to the situation, it will do the cause of togetherness just another body blow. REAL racism DOES exist, but if ANY nuisance by a cop can be shouted down with this claim, then many people will ignore reality and just see it as an opportunistic trick. That's not good for anyone.

This could be a very good learning episode here, and I hope it doesn't just get swept under the carpet. I don't think Gates is a sociopath, but he's DEFINITELY got a few chips on his shoulder. I don't think Crowley is totally virtuous, but he's hardly Bull Connor either.

The class issue deserves some mention, too: just because one is an exalted, TENURED, celebrity professor, one still has to heed the annoying orders of the police when in a possible crime situation. I don't like privilege; it's anti-democratic. Academics and celebrities are far too often expecting more than just somewhat special treatment.

I'd like to hear a reconstruction of what REALLY happened, especially the confrontation outside that led to the actual (and lawful) arrest. In the interview I read, Gates makes it sound like the only thing he did was ask for identification, yet both police officers quote the word "racist", and this is about as highly charged word as exists in situations like this. Gates has a responsibility to not fan the flames himself.

It will be interesting to see how these two men acquit themselves.

Incidentally, this deserves a thread of its own, but please do so in a gentle and pleasant way, although I have every confidence you would if doing so. That doesn't mean that it'll not be met with derision, accusations of deception, ad hominem attacks and other flak, but it's an interesting bit of information.

[Uzybone]

17. what an embarrassing post for a "liberal"

glad folks with your mindset are in the minority here.

Chips on his shoulder eh? I heard Limbaugh using the same racist shit to smear Obama.

[Raineyb]

22. Still going on with the uppity negro theory are you?

Stop digging already.

[Drunken Irishman]

19. That link cracks me up...

You don't have to be David Duke to have racist tendencies. I think that's what people are forgetting here. There just isn't one type of racist out there. You might not hate black people. You might not use the word nigger. You might not make racist jokes. However, that doesn't mean you're not at least somewhat racist.

You might do none of that, yet maybe you don't offer the job to a black person because he's black. Maybe you're preconditioned to think like that. You might not be a blatant racist or someone who hates blacks, but if you're doing that, if you're doing something solely based on race, then you've got some racist problems.

I don't think Crowley is a foaming at the mouth, KKK lovin', black hating racist. But I do think he did this because Gates was black and if that's the case, then what he did was racist. Whether this woman wants to believe it or not.

[Raineyb]

23. You'd think that they'd get tired of that old

"drag out a person of color who doesn't think x is racist" ploy.

No one buys it and it's really annoying.

You are right, one doesn't have to be wearing a pointy sheet with eye holes cut out of it in order to do something racist.

[Cha]

25. This "person" upthread is a

male.

[Raineyb]

14. He showed he's a fool with the first words that came out of his mouth on camera

You must have a very forgiving definition of the word "fool"

[Leo The Cleo]

4. Just a Mention to correct the record

Crowley and Gates aren't the only ones who know the deal. Gates had a friend in the home and that friend has corroborated Gates' statements.

[seaglass]

6. Can you provide a link? I haven't seen that info yet and I'm interested. n/t

[Leo The Cleo]

10. During the first days it was on the news

I'd have to look for it, but the person who was with him provided a statement to the Media.

[Honeycombe8]

12. Actually, more than 2 people know what happened. There were others present.

The neighbor who reported the possible break-in was in the area and could see and hear certain things. And of course you know that there were THREE officers at the scene, right? If you didn't know that, you don't really know much of anything.

[Bicoastal]

13. Much of anything about this particular event, or much of anything in general?

:hi:

[Uzybone]

18. I don't think he is a racist, he was clearly an asshole that day

I think he will slink quietly from view and back to his normal life now that this has been defused.

[frazzled]

24. That he was an officer who thought he was due some respect, from a professor who ...

thought he, also, was due some respect. It was a bit of a pissing match between members of two distinct professions and classes. I think the racial sensitivities exacerbated a situation that was already fraught with tension.

I doubt seriously that Officer Crowley is an out and out racist. I know Skip Gates is not an out and out racist. I do know something about town-gown relations between the City of Cambridge and Harvard. They aren't good. Residents (including cops) don't care at all for the university and it's haughty, privileged denizens, sometimes with reason. Black men, even if they are professors, have equal reason to be suspicious of cops. There you have it.

On the one hand, professor Gates was exhausted from an extremely long trip, from which he returned, ill with a bronchial infection, to find his door jammed. Having a cop show up and question your identity when you open the door (hey, robbers don't usually come to the door when they are in the midst of a burglary) certainly only could have been the straw that broke the camel's back. On the other hand, Officer Crowley felt he was just doing his job and got some lip (whether his hackles were risen because the "perp" was a Harvard elite or a black man, I don't know: perhaps it was a bit of both).

Let's not extrapolate any further from this particular incident. But let's not forget either the serious problem of racial profiling and police "overreach," either. We don't have to pass judgment on either of these fellows to have that discussion. Let's assume, as President Obama said, that these are two good people who both overreacted. Of course, overreacting by putting someone in handcuffs and carting them off to jail to be fingerprinted and photographed is what I'd call really stupid. You don't arrest the most famous black intellectual in the country and expect it not to become a problem.

[EFerrari]

26. I wrote in another thread that the Berkeley police came to my house

on a similar call. The officer said straight up, lady, I don't want to go in there because I don't know if you have company. Please come to the door so we can ID you.

End of story. Of course, I look white.

[Fire1]

27. When and where did this "walk back" take place??? I have not

heard of such nonsense. What exactly was there to fuckin "walk back?"

[Cha]

28. I don't think Pres Obama did..

that's the way the OP likes to frame it.

[JTFrog]

29. He's Lawyered up and bringing the Blue Wall of Silence to start an "honest dialogue" over beers.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090729union_brass_lawyer_to_accompany_sgt_crowley_to_white_house/srvc=home&position=recent


:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:


What a buffoon this guy is.