Black News: Sgt James Crowley Denies Being a Racist
Senne/AP
Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley says that he’s not racist for arresting Henry Louis Gates, citing the CPR he gave the Celtics star Reggie Lewis (below) as proof.
Kappock/News
Take our Poll
Racist or not?
Do you think the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was racially motivated?
Yes
No
Related News
Articles
- Police union supports arrest of Gates Jr.
- Obama: Police acted ‘stupidly’ in arrest of Harvard professor
- Charges dropped against Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Harvard prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrested outside his home, calls police ‘racist’
The cop who arrested African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates refused to apologize and denied he’s a racist, saying he once gave black basketball star Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
"I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man," Sgt. James Crowley told the Boston Herald. "I was working on another human being."
Crowley, 42, was referring to his actions after the Boston Celtics forward suffered a fatal heart attack in 1993 at Brandeis University, where he was a campus cop.
An 11-year veteran of the Cambridge Police Department, Crowley arrested Gates, a noted Harvard professor, last Thurdsay while investigating a reported break-in at Gates’ home.
I believe the Prof. is a racist, why else would he start screaming to start with? I don’t believe he was abused, the policeman was trying to protect him.
I am not surprised Mr Boyce you did not answer the question whether the officer should have arrested Mr Gates. As a 16 year police veteran, I can tell you exactly what happend at that scene and what was going on in the minds of both parties without being there because I have been there a thousand times. The officer exercised poor judgment in arresting Mr Gates but whenever race is an issue, white officers lock ranks with a white officer no matter whether he is right or wrong. The officer did what he was trained to do which is to make a black citizen a defendant to cloud their credibility once it is clear that they will be a plaintiff; to put them on defense rather than offence. Once the officer verified that Mr Gates was in his home legally, he should have left the property. Professional responsibility requires the officer to not react punitively to a citizen who has become indignant righteously. As a black police officer, just yesterday, I had to grit my teeth and walk away from a white citizen as he was hurling racial epithets because he did not believe, although he was parked illegally, that he should have received a parking ticket. As I said, these types of confrontations between citizens and police happen everyday. There are officers who react the same way Sgt Crowley did everyday. The difference is Mr Gates is a high profile black man so the world found out what happened to him whereas the average black citizen is quietly victimized. No one who commented in favor of the officer will believe that I was just doing my job in the exact same situation if I arrested their father or brother. They would be protesting and demanding that I be fired. The thing about racist people when race becomes an issue is they never want to “see” race. That is the problem right there. They don’t want to see it therefore they become unable to be reasonable or fair in their judgment.
I live in ameriKKKa, I was not there but I can imagine what happened, this pig needed to put an uppidy nigger in his place…everybody wants to believe that things have changed…the only things that have changed is the laws that was put on the books in the 60′s…the hearts of the DEVILS have not & will not change becasue they believe that God put them here to rule the world…just look at the countries around the world that have ameriKKKa base located there…just look at my brother in Texas a few years ago, dragged behind a truck until his body parts fell off!!! such a wicked race of pe…OOPS…I cannot call them that word since they are not of this world…I keep a small digital recorder with me at all times, it is to be used whenever a pig stop me for DWB…the professor was wronged but that pig “F” with the wrong man…if it was me all I would have is the tape of what happened…by the way I think that this Boyce Watkins is a bourgeois HOUSENIGGER…he do not live in the same world as most Black do…he live in the world with Condi Rice as her boss so affectedly her…when the President made his statement last night I knew that we were in for a field day from his kind of Blacks & those DEVILS.
Pebbles
This was originally posted to Mr. Sanchez’s blog at CNN, but was promptly taken off. So much for Mr. Sanchez’s self-acclaimed fair reporting. Where are those comments posted to his blog that he disagrees with? Edited out. eh? Grand suppression of freedom of expression, eh? So much for the “unedited & unfitered nonsense. Where is my comment from yesterday, Mr. Sanchez?
Well, since my comments bit you the wrong way and you took it out, I will do two thing: post it (and more stuff) to other blogs that will tolerate real fair discussion (which evidently includes praises and criticisms), and repost it herein.
I find your discussion of the gates affair from 23July2009 incredibly lopsided. You continued to reiterate that Dr. Gates refused to give his side of the story (even though there are numerous interviews out there) and you buttressed your argument by playing a clip of a question he was asked and the answer he gave, summarizing that clip by insisting that he refused to give any details. Without question, that was an attempt to disfavor Mr. Gates in the so-called ongoing dispute. Was it an attempt also to call a dog a bad name before hanging it” (metaphor, pls). I concluded my post by saying that I was ashamed of you, Mr. Sanchez and of CNN (you cannot say that, but you allow a post that exclaimed shame on Obama; see another post).
I am adding that we have seen many defenders of racists and racism. All deny that, but some are so acclaimed that we all know it. Some are subtle, trying every way they can to manipulate discussions to a predetermined outcome, one that emphasizes their secret agenda. Why has nobody at CNN (if you are not another FOX news) thought this a good opportunity to discuss “What can be done to provide racial equality in policing. After all, we all agree (on television, not minding private comments) that if Mr. Gates was white, and every other factor remained the same, the outcome of that encounter would be different. Right there, no other evidence is required to indicate that racial profiling is a fact of life in America. Even though Mr. Sanchez did not think it wise to reference any, there are numerous factual statistics that say that blacks are grossly disproportionedly disfavored in policing and are subject to harassment, intimidation, even death, when they are innocent, only because they are black. The two guests that Mr. Sanchez had, July 23, 2009, made it very clear, quoted sources and statistics to buttress this sad fact, even said that black children are thought to first survive an encounter with the police by doing everything they are told, yet Mr. Sanchez, Mr. so-called fair, unedited & unfiltered, never picked up on any of those comments. Instead, he was looking for reason to attack the president and to instigate an attack on the president. Any of the comments made by Mr. Sanchez’s guest would be a discussion worth having to resolve the race issue in America. You think they would be picked up by Mr. Sanchez, or the CNN? Well, you define who you are, defenders of a fair, just, equitable legal system, or defenders of racism. It is a sad country, in which black children are taught to first survive an encounter with the police that is supposed to serve and protect them, but whites can do anything and their rights are still guaranteed. But that is a discussion you are not willing to have.
PS: Thank you, Mr. Mansfield Frazier for what you have done with your life post the difficult times. Pls. continue to stand by the truth. In a way, I am happy that this happened to Mr. Gates. It not only rekindled the discussion on race, but it continues to prove that racial inequality in America is getting worse. Why, CNN and media like them are already discussing whether there is still need for affirmative action even though all around us is evidence of gross damage that racial inequality continues to mitigate on the black section of the population.