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Obama wades into Gates race row
President Obama has said police acted stupidly in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr while trying to break into his own home
Barack Obama has waded into the race row over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, America's most prominent black scholar, after he forced his way into his own home last weekend.
Officers were called to the Harvard professor's house after a passer-by reported seeing two black males - Gates and his driver - trying to open a jammed front door. Since then the debate over whether Gates was a victim of racial profiling has dominated national headlines.
Asked at a press conference yesterday what the incident said about America's race relations, the President said police had "acted stupidly". He immediately acknowledged that Gates is a personal friend and warned that his comments might be biased.
Obama, who the New York Times noticed suddenly became animated, said: "Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; 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."
He added later that the incident was "a sign of how race remains a factor in this society".
America's first black president also joked about what would happen if he ever tried to force his way into his own home. "I'd be shot," he said, imagining the fate of a black man breaking into the White House.
The white police officer who handcuffed Gates and took him into custody has so far refused to apologise to the professor. Gates, who reportedly said during the confrontation that "this is what happens to black men in America", has said he was "outraged" by the arrest. ·
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Everytime I read this story it is different from a previous version. 'Obama wades in' is surely a misleading headline. As I understood it he was asked his views on the incident. One has to wonder if 2 'white' men were seen in a similar position whether it would have aroused the passerby's suspicion sufficiently to call the police. We shall never know unless we ask the said passerby! There is no question that the police in the US (and the UK, too) behave as if they have a different agenda where'black' males are concerned. They are more careful these days, but still so to a worrying degree. I cannot help but think, though, that if Professor Gates had put on a supercilious, professorial manner, refusing to descend to their level of ignorance, by thanking them warmly for responding so quickly when they thought that his house was being burgled, afterwards writing a piece about in the Boston Mail, if he would not have emerged a 'better' person than his captors! He would surely have sent them away with egg on their faces and their tails between their legs, I guarantee. When I suggested this at a luncheon I attended today in a country a million miles away from the US, (yes, a hot topic of discussion in the most unlikely places) I was told such tactics would only be effective in civilised countries ! America not a civilised country?