The POTUS Apology: One of Three Actors Plays Peacemaker

President Obama says that he regrets his language regarding the Gates arrest, in which he said that the police in Cambridge, Mass., “acted stupidly” in the arrest of Prof. henry Louis Gates Jr.

As we sit on the sidelines in this matter, obviously as concerned persons or you wouldn't be on Michelle-Style in the first place, the best we can hope for is some kind of increased understanding among all the parties.

The president spoke with Sgt. James Crowley this afternoon, inviting him to the White House for a beer. POTUS also spoke with Professor Gates, inviting him also to share a brew -- together, if I'm not mistaken.

“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,” Mr. Obama added. “I also continue to believe, based on what I heard that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well. 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 suspect POTUS is correct in his analysis, although he, too, added fuel to the fire.

The NYT reports that the Massachusetts police officer unions and Gov. Deval Patrick were demanding that President Obama apologize for using the word "stupid" in his remarks, and for introducing racial profiling into the proceedings surrounding Prof. Gates's arrest.

My jaw dropped the other night when I heard him say 'stupid'. OMG!

Sgt. Dennis O’Connor, the president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said that the Cambridge police officers “deeply resent the implication and reject any suggestion that in this case or in any other case, they allow race to direct their activities.”

An Alternate View

This is not the reality that I personally know in life, based on my own direct experience, but also the stories of friends that have come back to me this week.

A few years ago, I was a Christmas Day guest in a New Jersey home in which one of the men present -- an African American EVP of a Fortune 100 company, driving a foreign luxury car with Florida plates -- had been pulled over on the New Jersey Turpike for speeding north to Jersey City to his mother's home.

My friend's brother was driving with his wife and only child -- a 12-year-old young man. This EVP was told at gun point to get out of the car and lie along the side of the road. He did so, and the matter ended with a speeding ticket.

In sharing the details of the incident with his family, this man shared the agony -- not so much of his own humiliation, because the family is used to these matters by now -- but of his son seeing him in this situation. My friend -- a doctor --  bought a Range Rover shortly after we separated, having sold his BMW because it just wasn't worth the aggravation any more.

This vegetarian, yoga-doing, totally spiritual doctor guy (he was TOO nice for me, lol) was always pulled over in the BMW 500-series.

Forward Vision

Let us hope that some good comes of this entire matter with Professor Gates and Seargent Browley. It seems that neither party is 'giving an inch' in the blame, which is how these matters tend to go in life.

 . . . and the beat rolls on . . . but score one for POTUS.

Is this the first time a sitting president walked into a news conference in process and admitting an error in judgement. If we had a greater willingness to admit that we 'over-reacted' in life, perhaps we'd all get along better. And that works both ways, btw.

I can write the reverse tale in this discussion -- Anne would be dumping fuel on the fire -- and that's not my objective in our consideration.

Peace, Anne

Comments

[Leo]

I like the president and all but I wish he wouldn't have apologized. What the officer did was wrong plain and simple, their actions where stupid. Obama is just letting white people bully him.