Well if you havnt heard the news about President Obama describing a police officer from the state of Cambridge as acting "stupidly" earlier this week, then let me tell you in brief what really happened. It all started when a black scholar professor from Harvard, Henry Louis Gates Jr., was arrested for disorderly behavior when he refused to co-operate with the white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley. Sgt. Crowley came to Gates' house, wanting to know if there was anybody else in the house and he wanted to ensure his safety as he was investigating a case of a possible break-in in that area. According to the officer, Gates was uncooperative and he started to shout loudly and started act disorderly, which prompt the officer to arrest him. The charges was then dropped.
When asked to give his comments on the arrest in a primetime news conference on Thursday, President Obama said that Sgt. Crowley "acted stupidly" in enforcing the arrest and he also said that during the point he made those comments, he wasnt really sure what were the exact details for the arrest. This has then caused further uproar understandably from Sgt. Crowley and the Cambridge Police Department. They are disappointed by President Obama's comments and they want him to apologise because they believe that President Obama shouldn't have said those things when he himself wasn't sure what was really happening. Now, what is my take on this story? Being an Obama supporter myself, I have always supported him in everything he said or does, but there are bound to be time when I will disagree with him and this would be one of them. I thought that President Obama was a little bit harsh when he described the officer's action in those words. I mean nobody like to be called stupid and Sgt. Crowley is no exception. President Obama could have chose better words to describe it, as he has always done in the past on issues that he is not really sure yet. I think in this case though, he was too emotionally attached to think rationally firstly because, Gates is a friend of his and Gates is an African-American too.
Being the man that he is, I know that Obama will come out again to diffuse all the tension and uproar that has been caused by everything that has happened, and that was what he did today. He made a surprise appearance at the White House weekly briefing with the press, in which he said that his words had been ill-chosen and that he had called both Sgt. Crowley and Professor Gates to talk about the issue. He described Sgt. Crowley as a good man and has also even invited the both of them to the White House for a beer, yeah you heard, a beer. Im not sure if both men have accepted the offer but I hope they will. President Obama though had stopped short of a public apology. I dont think he really need to do so, for all we know, he could have probably done so to Sgt. Crowley privately on the phone. Mr Obama also hoped the controversy surrounding Gates' arrest provides Americans with "a teachable moment" on how they can improve "relations between police officers and minority communities." I think you should know what he is trying to refer to by that. Mr Obama admits that the race issue is still a sensitive topic in America, as evident by this event, and I completely agree with him.
Being the man that he is, I know that Obama will come out again to diffuse all the tension and uproar that has been caused by everything that has happened, and that was what he did today. He made a surprise appearance at the White House weekly briefing with the press, in which he said that his words had been ill-chosen and that he had called both Sgt. Crowley and Professor Gates to talk about the issue. He described Sgt. Crowley as a good man and has also even invited the both of them to the White House for a beer, yeah you heard, a beer. Im not sure if both men have accepted the offer but I hope they will. President Obama though had stopped short of a public apology. I dont think he really need to do so, for all we know, he could have probably done so to Sgt. Crowley privately on the phone. Mr Obama also hoped the controversy surrounding Gates' arrest provides Americans with "a teachable moment" on how they can improve "relations between police officers and minority communities." I think you should know what he is trying to refer to by that. Mr Obama admits that the race issue is still a sensitive topic in America, as evident by this event, and I completely agree with him.
Nevertheless, I believe this matter has been blown up out of proportion by certain section of the people and the media too as well. We all need to realise that as great of a man President Obama is, he is still a human being like all of us, and is prone to making mistake, so we should all forgive him if he has offended you indirectly by saying those things. I hope the issue will come to a close now that everything has been clarified by Mr Obama and that we can now turn back our focus on the real issue at hand, which is the economy and health care reform.
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