Barack Obama Insults Innocent Police Officer

Picture this: Your neighbor's house has been broken into in the past. Today, you look out your window, and you see someone breaking into it again. You call 911. The police arrive, go into the house, and confront the man who was breaking and entering. The man claims he lives there and his front door was "jammed"; when the officer asks for his identification, the man (who is African-American) begins screaming at the officer (who is White) and accusing him of being a "racist" for questioning him. The officer tells him to calm down, and when the man doesn't, the officer arrests him -- not for breaking and entering, but for disorderly conduct.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Case closed...

...Unless the man is a friend of President Barack Obama.

This incident, as you've probably heard, actually happened. The place was Cambridge, MA. The man was Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent scholar at Harvard University known for past radical and racially-charged speeches -- and a long-time friend of President Obama. And the arresting officer was Sgt. James Crowley, a decorated police officer who has even taught other policemen how to avoid any sort of racial profiling.

Obama could have stayed completely out of this incident... but instead, he chose to INSULT this police officer and inject accusations of RACISM into what should have been a local matter -- just because Gates was his friend. And now, Obama refuses to apologize!

This is OUTRAGEOUS!

Here are the facts: Prof. Gates had returned from China on Thursday to the Cambridge home that Gates rents from Harvard, and discovered his front door jammed. He opened his back door with his key and tried unsuccessfully from inside his home to open the front door. Eventually, Gates and his driver forced the door open from the outside.

A neighbor called 911 and reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Sgt. Crowley was first to respond to the home, and asked Gates to step outside. Gates refused to step outside to speak with the officer, and when Sgt. Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, "Why, because I"m a black man in America?" Sgt. Crowley, understandably, was quite surprised and confused with the behavior Gates exhibited toward him.

Gates eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police. Gates followed the officer outside and continued to accuse him of racial bias. Amongst other egregious acts, Prof. Gates told Sgt. Crowley "I'll speak with your mama outside;" after Crowley warned the professor twice that he was becoming disorderly, the officer finally arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space." He was released from police custody Thursday evening after spending four hours at the police station, and the charges were dropped.

So what happened next? President Obama decided to "come to the rescue" of his old friend, at a prime-time press conference on Wednesday evening. After stating that, "Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here -- I don't know all of the facts involved in this local police response incident," he went on to say that "the Cambridge Police acted stupidly" when they arrested Gates. Then, he linked the arrest to racial profiling, saying that "there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately… race remains a factor in this society."

WHAT??? This incident had NOTHING to do with race or racial profiling -- it had EVERYTHING to do with a cop doing his duty, and a liberal professor with a racial chip on his shoulder disrespecting the very people he ought to be thanking for stepping up to protect his property!

This shouldn't be a surprise, though -- this is the same Prof. Gates who once gave a speech in which he used the N-word, railed against "racist historically white institutions in America" and accused Newt Gingrich of attempting to block blacks from entering the middle class.

And Barack Obama had the audacity to defend Gates, and attack Sgt. Crowley!

Barack Obama has had a chance to apologize; but instead, he gave one of his typical weasel-word statements: "in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically and I could have calibrated those words differently." Then his White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, announced that "the president regrets that the media have gotten all worked up over the controversy and been distracted from other more substantive issues such as health care."

What? "I could have calibrated those words differently"? It's somehow everyone else's fault, and not Obama's? How "calibrating" words like these: "I acted stupidly when I insulted the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. Crowley, and I apologize for doing so."

Is that so hard?

It's not like Barack Obama doesn't know HOW to apologize -- he recently spent quite a who lot of time apologizing for the United States itself, all over the world! Niles Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, even put together a "Top 10 Obama Apologies" list recently:

Apology to Europe: Speech in Strasbourg, France, April 3
Apology to the Muslim world: Interview with Al Arabiya, January 27.
Apology to the Summit of the Americas: Address to the Summit of the Americas, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, April 17.
Apology at the G-20 Summit of World Leaders: News conference in London, April 2.
Apology for the War on Terror: Speech in Washington, D.C., May 21.
Apology for Guantanamo in France: Speech in Strasbourg, France, April 3.
Apology for America before the Turkish Parliament: Speech to the Turkish Parliament, Ankara, Turkey, April 6.
Apology for U.S. Policy toward the Americas: Editorial "Choosing a Better Future in the Americas," April 16.
Apology for the Mistakes of the CIA: Remarks to CIA employees at Langley, Va., April 29.
Apology for Guantanamo: Speech in Washington, D.C., May 21.

Apparently, Barack Obama can apologize to everyone in the world... except the decorated police sergeant he deliberately insulted last week.

Barack Obama obviously needs a little "help" in being reminded how to apologize -- and we've got a GREAT way to get that "help" going!

Barack Obama should not be given some sort of "free pass" for his outrageous remarks against a decorated police officer, just because it was his friend who was arrested for his own stupid remarks and behavior. Thankfully, there are Members of Congress who agree.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) has introduced a House resolution demanding Obama retract and apologize for the remarks he made about Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley. The draft of the resolution reads:

Whereas on July 16, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James M. Crowley responded to a 911 call from a neighbor of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis ("Skip") Gates, Jr. about a suspected break-in in progress at his residence, which had been broken into on a prior occasion;
Whereas on July 22, 2009, in responding to a question during a White House press conference President Barack Obama stated: "Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all of the facts involved in this local police response incident";
Whereas President Obama proceeded to state Sergeant Crowley "acted stupidly" for arresting Professor Gates on charges of disorderly conduct;
Whereas, as a former Constitutional Law Professor, President Obama well understands that all Americans are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and their actions should not be prejudged prior to being fully and fairly judged by an appropriate and objective authority after due process;
Whereas, President Obama's nationally televised remarks may likely detrimentally influence the full and fair judgment by an appropriate and objective authority after due process regarding this local police response incident and, thereby, impair Sergeant Crowley's legal and professional standing in relation to said incident; and
Whereas, President Obama appeared at a daily White House Press briefing on July 24, 2009 to address his denouncement of Sergeant Crowley and stated: "I could have calibrated those words differently" but "I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station."
Whereas, President Obama's refusal to retract his initial public remarks and apologize to Sergeant Crowley and, instead, reiterate his accusation impugning Sergeant Crowley's professional conduct in the performance of his duties; Now therefore be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
Calls upon President Obama to retract his initial public remarks and apologize to Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James M. Crowley for having unfairly impugned and prejudged his professional conduct in this local police response incident.

This is exactly the "kick in the pants" that Barack Obama needs right now to show him that the American people are watching him, and that he can't get away with these kinds of lies and racially-charged insults.

This whole incident isn't about "racial profiling." This is about working Americans versus Harvard educated elites; post racial Americans versus race baiters; and law abiding citizens and law enforcement officials versus those who think they are above the law. 

Comedian Bill Cosby, asked about President Obama"s statement on a Boston radio interview, summed up the situation succinctly, saying, "If I'm the president of the United States, I don't care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I'm keeping my mouth shut."

President Obama needs to apologize for impugning the professional conduct of Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James M. Crowley.