The Barack Obama review/critique thread

[skeptik]

I must have either misread what I initially read or the story that I read misquoted him. I initially read his comment as "directed to the wrong reasoning." So I was wrong on that. But he goes on to say that Obama was implying that the officer was racially profiling, which he went out of his way to say that he did not know enough to assume such a thing, which is patently unfair. I still think that all parties in this entire affair acted stupidly, including the NEIGHBOR who called 911, Gates, the police officer, and Obama. Gates was within his right to feel that he was being targeted whether you care to acknowledge it or not, but that doesn't excuse his overreaction, nor the officer's.

 

[AchrisK]

Actually, I questioned the whole "neighbor" thing myself. If it was a neighbor, she should have known it was the owner of the house. There are so many unknowns. She could have bad vision, or too old to see straight, or she could hate blacks or even have a personal argument with Gates himself and think it was funny!

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I think this is one of those incidents we should just forget about because it was dumb on all accounts.

 

[Mentok]

I still think that all parties in this entire affair acted stupidly, including the NEIGHBOR who called 911, Gates, the police officer, and Obama. Gates was within his right to feel that he was being targeted whether you care to acknowledge it or not, but that doesn't excuse his overreaction, nor the officer's.

This. You should know what your own damn neighbors look like well enough to know they aren't breaking into their own house. Also, it sounds to me that the officer baited Gates to come outside so he could in fact arrest him. That would be the reasoning of him explaining in the report why he left the porch blaming it on the "acoustics". In the end though, I really don't have a stance on this other than Obama shouldn't have commented but even though he did the media shouldn't have blown this up as much as they did.

 

[King Richard]

I agree with V5, and I still don't even understand what Dodens is trying to say. All he is doing is playing devil's advocate here and that shit is annoying.

Truth is, the Harvard professor flipped his lid when he shouldn't have and disrespected an officer. The fact that he claimed it was "racial profiling" right off the bat before anything else tells me that he's fucking mental and deserved to get arrested to be honest. A black guy can't be arrested anymore without it being based on his race. Remember, everyone is racist except black people.

 

[King Richard]

Also, claiming that you should know what your neighbors look like is retarded. We don't know if the person who called 911 lived right next door or down the road. Don't turn the citizen WHO DID THE RIGHT THING into a scapegoat. If I lived in a neighborhood and someone saw me busting down my own door and called the cops I'd be happy knowing that my neighbors, even if I don't know them, are watching out for me and everyone else. I can't believe you people have a problem with that. wowowow

 

[Mentok]

It stated in the report that when she was describing the incident he realized he had his back to the front door which would mean Gates house was directly across the street. I don't know my neighbors across the street personally but I know them well enough that if they locked themselves out of their home and had to break in and I witnessed it, it would take me a whole 2.5 seconds to identify them and also to realize what had happened. This being said though the age of the woman is not verified in the report so if she were older I could understand the misunderstanding as due to poor eyesight. Also i'm not saying she did the wrong thing, it's just that all of this could have been avoided.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

It could have been avoided if the guy wasnt a complete idiot....

 

[Mentok]

Officer or Professor? Both seemed to be acting stupidly.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

professor

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I too think the professor was kind of acting like a moron in this situation from what I've been reading.

 

[Mentok]

He was probably a little quick to pull the race card but he probably wasn't acting as bad as the police report states he was. Probably got an attitude and a little too loud and pissed the officer off so he arrested him. Stuff like this really happens all the time. The only reason Obama was asked to comment was because this is a double-sided question in which if we was to have not commented or supported the officer he would have caught flak from the black community.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I don't really think the president should be expected to care about every situation in which a black man feels wrongfully persecuted.

 

[Mentok]

He shouldn't but most black people more than likely feel that he should. I mean theres a reason why stuff like this wasn't brought to Bush's attention, other than the fact that he probably couldn't spell racial profiling, and that is because it really has no impact whatsoever on the country. I also believe this was the only non-medicare related topic but it got more of a response than anything else covered, which is retarded.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

dont fuck with the cops and you'll be ok. People get mouthy and shit with them, good luck. You deserve that shit.

Obama needs to stay the fuck away from such petty bullshit.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I think it is a fair point (though it is sad that things have to be this way) that if he hadn't said anything he probably would have caught flak from one of his core support groups (African-Americans).

 

[skeptik]

dont fuck with the cops and you'll be ok. People get mouthy and shit with them, good luck. You deserve that shit.

Right, because police officers are untouchable demigods. Don't be rude to a police officer or you'll get arrested.

Every party involved seemed to have acted stupidly. This should not have even garnered national spotlight. We shouldn't even be talking about it any more; it's just dumb from every angle.

 

[genocide roach]

i wonder if obama likes nightwish...
~gR~

 

[Einherjar86]

Every party involved seemed to have acted stupidly. This should not have even garnered national spotlight. We shouldn't even be talking about it any more; it's just dumb from every angle.

I agree with this; regardless of whatever intentions either party held, all the racial controversy over this matter has sprung more from the public's fascination than from the actual people involved. We're assigning more weight to this whole matter than I feel is actually present.