Why did Obama says police acted stupidly in arresting black professor?”
President Obama on Wednesday injected himself into the national debate over how law enforcement treats minorities. Responding to a question during his news conference, Obama said that the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department had acted “stupidly” in arresting his friend, prominent African American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Harvard University professor was handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct last week after police responded to a possible break-in at his home. Acknowledging that he did not know all the facts of the case or what role, if any, Gates’ race had played, Obama linked the incident to disparate treatment of minorities by police. “I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. “And number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted “stupidly” in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest. “This still haunts us,” Obama said. Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn’t know all the facts of the case. Nonetheless, Obama said, anyone would have been angry if treated the way Gates claims police in Cambridge, Mass., treated him. Gates, a Harvard University professor, claims he was arrested in his home after showing ID to police who responded to a report of a possible burglary. “Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home,” Obama said during a prime-time news conference that otherwise focused on the health care debate. Gates’ arrest followed a report of a possible burglary. A woman apparently saw Gates force the front door and called police. Police came and demanded that Gates s
