I like this quote by Paul Mirengoff:
"The conversation that Obama intends to have with Gates and Crowley over a beer could get a little tense if Gates (and Obama?) think they are working on the issue of racial profiling, while Crowley thinks they are working on the issue of privileged people with connections in high places acting abusively toward police officers who are trying to do their jobs."
Everyone seems to believe that this incident is all about racial profiling when it really might be more about an angry old guy being abusive toward the police. If people want to have a discussion about race, that's fine; but please don't use this particular incident as the catalyst for the discussion. In doing so you will malign a police officer who appears to have been just doing his job. Gates attitude seems to be absent in how people on the left see this. All they see is a white cop and they assume racial profiling. It begs the question: can a white cop perform any of his or her duties when dealing with people of another color, or are they automatically going to be dealt the race card? It seems like Gates brought this up right away when asked for identification. Is the white cop supposed to back off at that point, fearful of a lawsuit or of being placed on suspension for allegedly racial profiling? What if instead of Gates at the house it was a black man actually trying to break into the house? When asked for identification, the burglar cries out that the cop is only asking for that because he is black, so the cop backs off and leaves. Is that what people want?
I am not at all denying that racial profiling takes place . . it just doesn't appear in this case to be something brought on by the cop. Maybe by Gates, but not the cop.
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