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Obama backtracks from “stupid” statement against a white Cambridge police officer

7/27/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Without knowing the circumstances between in the altercation between a white police officer and a black Harvard professor, Pres. Barack Obama, jumped in siding with the black professor----only to learn later he should know better. The police officer wasn’t stupid and he was just doing his job.

Sgt. James Crowley, the police officer responding to a break-in report in the home of Harvard teacher Henry Louis Gates Jr. found himself dealing with a belligerent acidic professor who didn’t want to show his identification. It boiled down to Gates’ unfounded paranoid suspicion that he is being “racially profiled’ by Crowley.

Pres. Barack Obama who is a friend of Prof. Gates reacted quick without knowing the facts:

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three -- what I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."---http://wb.tv (07/23/09,

In truth, the Cambridge police officer was there to help black teacher----but Gates probably expected that people like Crowley should first know him because he is a “Harvard professor(?)”. Call it hubris in the academe's ivory tower, a demand for respect or an overreaction, but in the police report, Gates was described as tumultuous, uncooperative, and upset.

It is disgusting that this happens in America on people who are supposedly educated. This kind of “Do you know me?” challenge by people of influence and arrogance commonly occurs on simple folks who need to deal with the “VIP’s” like fragile porcelains. Self-importance and inappropriate reaction are most likely operant here.

People like Gates are absorbed in their self-awareness and that a simple showing of identification to a police officer becomes a race issue or a contention to start an argument. The black professor is said to be an “expert” on racism---and in my opinion he has carried his expertise too far.

I am amazed, a US president went down so low to quickly comment erroneously on an issue that is parochial and least deserving of his attention. This split second decision to defend a friend by the president offers clues on what goes on the way he thinks of race relations. Is the preferential option for friends becoming common in the Obama administration?

As a consequence of Obama’s rushed response, he has to patch up,---short of an apology, admitting that he could have used a "calibrated" response. He is correct that the police disproportionately arrest blacks and hispanics more than other races. The reason is obvious--- Blacks and Hispanics have high rates of criminality than other races.

Sgt. Crowley could have over-reacted in arresting this black teacher, but the officer isn’t pleased by the president’s partisan reaction---and so are his colleagues in the police force who try to do their duty as officers. The irony of it all, Crowley, in his career, has been a resource person on avoiding "racial profiling" and in the past, tried to revive a black guy in an emergency, by mouth to mouth resuscitation. (PHoto Credit: WBZ.com) =0=

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Labels: Barack Obama, black box, Cambridge, discrimination, Harvard, Hispanic, Latino, political correctness, race, race relations, Sgt. James Crowley, Totie Mesia

Hundreds died and scores injured in ethnic Uighur riots

7/07/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

At least 156 died and 828 people were injured in a bloody clash between Uighurs and government forces as the ethnic group, predominantly Muslim, came out of the streets on Monday, July 6, 2009 in northwestern China.

“The latest protests started in the provincial capital of Urumqi on Sunday, when demonstrators gathered to demand justice for two Uighurs killed in June during a fight with their Han co-workers at a factory in southern China.

The protests turned into the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit the region in decades.
Photos and video posted on the internet showed the city in flames, as rioters went on a rampage, clashing with police and rolling over police cars.”----AP/ CBCNesw.ca (07/06/09)

The Uighurs who are concentrated in the Xinjiang region of China have a turbulent relation with the ethnic Han Chinese who predominate in the country. As a result of the discrimination, the Uighurs complain against the Chinese government, the ethnic group has established a separatist group. Aside from job discrimination, they accuse the government of trying to eradicate their religion.

On the other hand, the Chinese government claimed that the fresh riots aimed to “destabilize the country” has been incited by exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, the president of the Uighur American Association (UAA) who lives in exile since 2005 in Fairfax, Va. The exiled leader denied such a claim. (Photo Credit: AFP/ Peter Parks/ Yahoonews; AFP graphics) =0=

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Labels: China, death, discrimination, ethnic unrest, injuries, killings, Muslim, Rebiya Kadeer, riot, toll, Totie Mesia, Uighurs

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Obama backtracks from “stupid” statement against a white Cambridge police officer

Hundreds died and scores injured in ethnic Uighur riots

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