Gates: 'Thank God' for Cops

But prez should get the facts on Gates bust first

(NEWSER) - Asked if he blamed President Obama for saying he’d “acted stupidly” in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley took the high road, the Boston Globe reports. He told a radio show today it was “regrettable” that anyone would speak without knowing the “whole story,” but declined to criticize Obama directly, even when the host declared, “the president of the United States owes you an apology.” More»

Officer calls for more cars; 911 caller unsure on men's race

(NEWSER) - In audio from the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, released today by Cambridge police, the arresting officer tells the dispatcher to “keep the cars coming” as he faces an “uncooperative” suspect, the Boston Herald reports. An earlier tape reveals the 911 call in the case, in which a Harvard magazine employee says another woman “had noticed two gentlemen” who “kind of had to barge in.” She notes, "They have suitcases." More»

(NEWSER) - Massachusetts police unions today called on President Obama, Gov. Deval Patrick, and others to apologize for criticizing the cops who arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, the Boston Globe reports. “The president should make an apology to all law-enforcement personnel throughout the entire country,” said one Cambridge policeman. “Cambridge police are not stupid.” More»

Gates incident, rise of birthers indicate issue's persistence

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama’s election was supposed to be a healing moment, proof that we’re in a post-racial America. “Didn’t last very long,” writes Roger Simon of Politico. Today America seems as racially divided as ever. Exhibit A: the birthers, who say Obama’s “an alien who successfully hid himself for years.” Exhibit B: The Henry Louis Gates incident, which culminated in Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist. More»

White elites too often succumb to 'Village People populism'

(NEWSER) - A nation bored by dreary, knotty debates about health care found relief in another National Conversation on Race. “This one,” as Frank Rich writes in the New York Times of last week’s ballyhooed Beer Summit, “ended with a burp,” but the hangover could last well over 30 years. Census counters say the US will become a white-minority country by 2042—a prospect fueling hysteria among the Lou Dobbs and Glenn Becks of the world. More»