Listening to the news conference tonight, I stopped what I was doing and cheered out loud as the Barack Obama I voted for spoke the truth, in a direct way.
Obama characterized the arrest of Skip Gates, even though all the facts are not clear in the case as a stupid act. Indeed if there is ONE thing that is certain, it's that this arrest was clearly stupid.
And clearly arrogant.
It remains to be seen if the actions of the Cambridge Police Department were driven by racial profiling, but as a [public] member of the local Boston Metro news environment, I can tell you that this has been percolating for a nearly a week here, and it's a discussion that is long overdue for all law enforcement in this country.
There's not much doubt in my mind that racism had a direct effect on this scenario, how it played out.
What better place to start the discussion in a neighborhood that voted for Obama 9 to 1 in the General Election.
This is a long overdue conversation, one that Skip Gates himself is clearly not willing to drop: I am proud that the President is willing to take this on, and take it on exactly at the right level.
Racism and racial profiling is stupid.
There really isn't any other word for it.
It's counterproductive.
It damages the effectiveness of law enforcement.
It encourages an attitude of fear and suspicion in the populace.
It instills a sense of lawlessness in our society, and endangers the police themselves.
As noted in another diary, the words of Skip Gates speak for the facts here.
It is time we had this discussion at a national level.
I'm proud that the President has spoken up, and you can be sure Lynne Sweet's question was ready to go - The President called on her specifically at the end of the news conference for this reason.