President Barack Obama Invites Sgt. James Crowley And Henry Louis Gates Jr. To The White House For A Beer. . .

I take note of the fact that some wags have suggested that President Barack Obama engaged in some racial profiling of his own by inviting an Irish American cop to have a beer with him and his good friend Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the White House. I can't help but wonder if Gates will continue to cry wolf in his beer. . . Personally I think that some enterprising brewer should buy the rights to the arrest photo that shows Henry Louis Gates Jr. yelling like a maniac and use it to advertise their product.

Let's see now. What might some of the advertising slogans be. . .

Amstel Beer: Cause strife. Pure Unfiltered.

Bass Ale: Reach for Notoriety.

Bavaria: And now, for a tantrum.

Bud Light: Be yourself and make it a sad sight.

Budweiser: Where there's strife, there's Gates.

Busch Beer: Head for the porch.

Carlsberg: Gates. Probably the best boor from Harvard.

Coors Light: The Boldest Lambasting Boor In Cambridge.

Corona: Miles Away From Ornery?

Dos Equis Mexican beer: Sooner or later you'll regret it.

Guinness Irish Stout: Politeness is good for you.

Bad things come to those who bait.

Harp Irish Lager: Who puts out the fire?

Heineken: A bitter boor deserves a beer with Obama.

Miller: Everything you always wanted in a boor. And more.

If you've got the crime, we've got the boor.

Labatt Blue: A whole lot can happen, Out of the Blue.*

Another Labatt Blue slogan is/was -

If I wanted water, I would have asked for water.

which "translates" to -

If I wanted Crowley, I would have asked for Crowley.

Michelob Ultra: Lose the barbs. Not the face. . .

Michelob AmberBock: Rich and _______ (fill in the blank yourself)

St. Pauli Girl: Put him on a pedestal, or in an Ivory Tower

or You never forget your worst nightmare.

Schaefer: America's Boldest Harvard Boor.

Sagres: Spot the differences

Samuel Adams: Harvard's World Class Boor.

The original beer advertising slogans may be found here.



*No need to tweak the actual Labatt Blue advertising slogan at all but I like -

A "rogue cop" can happen, Out of the Blue. . .

even though I don't believe that Sgt. James Crowley is really a rogue cop.

Is Henry Louis Gates Jr. A Liar Or Delusional When He Claims That He Doesn't Go Around Calling White People Racists?

Because it pretty much has to be one or the other, although it *could* be both I suppose.

Then again maybe he's just dreaming in Technicolor or something. . .

According to this Soundbytes Of The Week audio timeline, courtesy of WBZ News Radio 1030 in Boston, on Tuesday (presumably Tuesday July 21, 2009) Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said -

"I don't go around calling white people racists, hell first of all I'm half-white myself."

Contrast this recorded public statement with the following quotes from the "interview" of professor Gates entitled 'Skip Gates Speaks' and sub-titled 'The Root's Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about his arrest and the outrage of racial profiling in America' that was published in The Root webzine on Tuesday July 21, 2009 at 5:34 PM -

"And I love that the 911 report said that two big black men were trying to break in with backpacks on. Now that is the worst racial profiling I’ve ever heard of in my life." (Laughs.)

"Now it’s clear that he had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone’s house, probably a white person’s house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me."

"And I said I want your name and your badge number because I want to file a complaint because of the way he had treated me at the front door. He didn’t say, ‘Excuse me, sir, is there a disturbance here, is this your house?’ — he demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don’t think he would have done that if I was a white person."

"And then I said, ‘You’re not responding because I’m a black man, and you’re a white officer.’ That’s what I said."

"A crowd had gathered, and as they were handcuffing me and walking me out to the car, I said, ‘Is this how you treat a black man in America?’"

In response to the following question - "How has this resonated within the academic community at Harvard? I know that Larry Bobo and Charles Ogletree, also black men, have expressed dismay. President Barack Obama has talked about how difficult it is to hail a cab, even as an elected official. Is there an irony to your notoriety and the incident?"

Henry Louis Gates replied - "There is such a level of outrage that’s been expressed to me. I’ve received thousands of e-mails and Facebook messages; the blogs are going crazy; my colleagues at Harvard are outraged. Allen Counter called me from the Nobel Institute in Stockholm to express his outrage. But really it’s not about me — it’s that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior.

He didn’t follow proper police procedure! You can’t just presume I’m guilty and arrest me. He’s supposed to ask me if I need help. He just presumed that I was guilty, and he presumed that I was guilty because I was black. There was no doubt about that."

In response to the question - "What do you make of the suspicious neighbor who called the police with an erroneous report of “two black men” trying to enter your apartment? Was this neighborhood watch gone wrong?"

Henry Louis Gates said -

"I don’t know this person, and I’m sure that she thought she was doing the right thing. If I was on Martha’s Vineyard like I am now and someone was trying to break into my house, I would hope that someone called the police and that they would respond."

but then went on to say -

"But I would hope that the police wouldn’t arrest the first black man that they saw — especially after that person gives them an ID — and not rely on some trumped-up charge, which is what this man was doing."


In response to the question - "The charges have been dropped. What are your plans for legal action against the city of Cambridge, its police department or the individual officer?"

Henri Louis Gates Jr. answers - "I’ll be meeting with my legal team, and we will be deciding what kind of legal action I should take. I haven’t made the decision yet. But I am determined that this experience, my experience, as horrendous as it was and as outrageous as it was, be used for the larger good of the black community. There are 1 million black men in the prison system, and on Thursday I became one of them. I would sooner have believed the sky was going to fall from the heavens than I would have believed this could happen to me. It shouldn’t have happened to me, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone. . . As a college professor, I want to make this a teaching experience. I am going to devote my considerable resources, intellectual and otherwise, to making sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m thinking about making a documentary film about racial profiling, and I’m in talks with PBS about that.

(Editor's note: Well now that Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley are drinking buddies, and Sgt. Crowley teaches a course on racial profiling, maybe they can work on that documentary film about racial profiling together!)

President Barack Obama's Unfortunate Public Statements About The Henry Louis Gates Controversy Are Discussed By A Panel On FOX News

I know that FOX News has a very bad reputation amongst liberals, and I have been less than impressed by what little I have seen of FOX News reporting and opinion programs, but I find that this particular FOX News panel discussion of U.S. President Barack Obama's "unfortunate" statements about the Henry Louis Gates race-baiting controversy and his subsequent non-apology is quite reasonable and balanced. There are a few funny snarky bits right at the beginning that I got a chuckle out of.

Sgt. James Crowley Speaks For Himself In Response To Henry Louis Gates' Slandering Of Him As A Racist And U.S. President Barack Obama's Stupid Remark

Here is a lengthy in-depth radio interview with Sgt. James Crowley as aired on The Dennis & Callahan Morning Show.

President Barack Obama Stopped Short Of Apologizing To Sgt. James Crowley And The Cambridge Police Force For Publicly Accusing Them Of Acting Stupidly

Hopefully he will get around to properly apologizing down the road a bit. . .

Here is my point-by-point response to President Barack Obama's back-tracking from his assertion that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. -

: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.

I guess President Obama didn't hear yet that the Nutty Professor was not pulled out of his home at all but walked out of it under his own steam as it were to continue to berate Sgt. Crowley.

:I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well.

To put it mildly. . . How about Professor Gates acted stupidly in painting Sgt. Crowley as a racist?

:My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.

I guess that's one way of putting it. . .

:The fact that it has garnered so much attention I think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America.

Of course the attention that *this* has garnered has got nothing to do with professor Henry Louis Gates crying wolf at the top of his lungs in order to gain national attention, and indeed international attention, and President Barack Obama himself pouring gasoline on the fire that the hot tempered professor Gates started by asserting that Cambridge police acted stupidly.

:So to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.

Definitely more heat than light with the 'acted stupidly' remark.

:What I'd like to do then I make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are two decent people, not extrapolate too much from the facts --

Such as publicly declaring that the Cambridge police force 'acted stupidly' for example? It seems to me that the person who is most guilty of extrapolating too much from the facts is none other than professor Henry Louis Gates.

:but as I said at the press conference, be mindful of the fact that because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, you know, African Americans are sensitive to these issues.

That is fair enough, but this national scandal arose because one Henry Louis Gates Jr. is hypersensitive to these issues, if not obsessed by them. . . as is clear from his own testimony.

:And even when you've got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.

This was not an interaction between Cambridge police officers (at least one of whom was African American) and the African American community. It was an interaction between Cambridge police officers and one single insecure hypersensitive African American Harvard professor who overcompensates with arrogance and hyberbole.

:My hope is, is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what's called a 'teachable moment,'

It's a 'teachable moment' alright.

:where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other

Hopefully Henry Louis Gates Jr. aka Mr. Pump Up The Volume Harvard is listening here. . .

:and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities,

Surely you mean try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and arrogant pumped up Harvard professors. . .

:and that instead of flinging accusations we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity.

Flinging accusations like the Cambridge police acted stupidly? Flinging accusations like Sgt. James Crowley is a racist?

:There are some who say that as President I shouldn't have stepped into this at all because it's a local issue. I have to tell you that that part of it I disagree with. The fact that this has become such a big issue I think is indicative of the fact that race is still a troubling aspect of our society. Whether I were black or white, I think that me commenting on this and hopefully contributing to constructive -- as opposed to negative -- understandings about the issue, is part of my portfolio.

May I suggest an actual formal apology to Sgt. James Crowley and the Cambridge police force for asserting that they 'acted stupidly' would be an appropriate contribution to constructive -- as opposed to negative -- understandings about the issue Mr. President?

It occurs to me now that that this (inter)national scandal would never have happened if Henry Louis Gates Jr. had simply followed the first five pool rules for this forum in his interactions with Sgt. Crowley and his subsequent crying wolf in the media. . .

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested In Cambridge Massachusetts For Making A Complete Ass Out Of Himself. . .

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested - The Police Report Of Sgt. James Crowley

The police report filed by Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley was "disappeared" from the Boston Globe website and is not all that easy to find online. I found a copy of Sgt. James Crowley's police report about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Scribd titled 'Prof. Henry Louis Gates Police Report' and have decided to make available some screens shots of the police report here so that Unitarian*Universalist U*Us, or anyone else who may be interested in the Truth about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. on disorderly conduct charges, may enter into a free and responsible search for the truth and meaning of what actually happened. Dare to compare this official police report with Henry Louis Gate's version of events which may be read in his self-serving, but none-the-less less than flattering, 'Skip Gates Speaks' "interview" in The Root webzine of which he is the editor-in-chief. . .

Click your mouse on each image to view it and read its text full size.





Apparently it is possible to embed the SCRIBD document titled 'Prof. Henry Louis Gates Police Report' so I will do so here. If you place your mouse over the enlarge screen icon at the top right of the embed and click on it it will display the police report full screen making it very easy to read. If you want to embed this copy of the police report about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. into your own blog or website here is the SCRIBD page with the advanced embed code which may be easily customized. -

Prof. Henry Louis Gates Police Report