Stupid is as Stupid Does: Gates, Harvard Professor, Police, Obama, Limbaugh Et Al

What actually happened? On Monday, July 20, Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black Harvard professor, was returning home, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the door of his house was stuck and he and his driver had to force it open. A neighbor of Gates called the police because they mistakenly assumed that someone was breaking into Gates' house. Police arrived to investigate and Gates was already inside his home. Police knocked on Gates' door and he was belligerent towards them, trying to turn it into a racial thing. After several minutes of bickering, the police arrested Gates for disorderly conduct. The Cambridge Police Department dropped the charges on Tuesday.

President Obama is a friend of Gates and he defended him publicly before he actually knew the situation. He said that he did not know what exactly happened but he went on to say that the police department "acted stupidly".

Republican poster boy, Rush Limbaugh, spoke about Obama's reaction on Fox news. He claimed that it shows that Obama has a chip on his shoulder against America and its racism.

Here is my opinion now. I think everyone involved with the situation, from the neighbor to Obama and Rush, acted stupidly.

The neighbor, who thought that Gates was breaking into his own house, was stupid for not knowing or recognizing Gates as the owner of the house. The neighbor is also stupid for thinking that a burglar would break in through the front door.

Gates was stupid for overreacting and acting like it was racial profiling for the cops to investigate a burglary. I thought it was the job of the police to investigate crimes, even just the rumor of a crime? The cops were just doing their job. Instead of thanking the police for their concern, he tried to turn it into a racial issue. Being a smart guy, maybe he was looking to cause a scene in order to make it look like a racial issue and sue the city for millions of dollars, like I often see done. He deserved to be arrested for acting so stupidly! Maybe the neighbor knows that Gates is a troublemaker and called the police on purpose.

The police officers, including Officer Crowley, were stupid for turning a simple misunderstanding into an unnecessary and overblown fiasco. Even if Gates was yelling at them unnecessarily, they should have just left the property. Instead, the officers stayed there, making the situation escalate into what it became. Gates lived there and proved it, so everything was good and the cops could have just left. End of story. Now the police are asking for an apology from Obama. I don't think they deserve one because they made a mountain out of a molehill for no good reason.

Obama was stupid for commenting on a situation in which he did not know all of the details. Instead, he defended his friend before hearing all sides of the story. It is not up to the President to take sides in local issues, especially ones involving friends, in which he does not know all the details. Many people took his comments as showing that they take sides with the minority over and above the rest of his duties. I disagree but Obama created the situation when he commented unnecessarily about dates and the Police Department.

Rush Limbaugh is stupid for attacking the President over the situation. He was saying that Obama was not very energized in his latest speech about health care reform but that he became very energized over the Gates case and a racial ramifications that it shows. Rush is trying to say that Obama has a chip on his shoulder in America over the racial issues with the minorities of which he belongs. I really do not understand how such a simple comment by Obama can mean all of these things to Rush. He, like the Fox network, is trying to attack Obama and the Democrats whenever possible in order to make the Republican Party look better. Rush only adds fuel to the fire whenever it is advantageous to him and the Republicans. Rush said that Obama called the police department stupid but Obama's exact words were "acted stupidly", a totally different thing than making it a personal attack and calling them stupid. Just as Fox is famous for it, Rush also tries to twist words around to suit his own purposes.

Last but not least, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had to stick their noses in where they don't belong. Most of the time, I find their actions out of place, uninformed and ready to seek action whenever possible. I like to make the analogy that Sharpton and Jackson are like superheroes but nothing important to do, so they sent by their communicator and wait for any little crumb of controversy to jump all over hungrily. This was not a case of racial profiling, so get over it you two!

In conclusion, I reiterate that everyone involved with this situation acted stupidly! As if the world does not have enough serious problems, why do we need to make serious problems out of nothing?

Source: Yahoo news