by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n The Gates incident seems to have had little to do with race but a lot to do with the natural human misunderstandings that happen every day in police scenes \u2014 and its final twist has everything to do with insider privilege and aristocratic disdain.<\/p>\n Regarding the latter, here are the apparent facts: Both an African-American and a Hispanic officer were soon at the scene and seem to confirm the arresting white officer\u2019s narrative, as do disinterested witnesses in the neighborhood (Cambridge, Mass., not being known as a hotbed of racist activity); a picture tells a thousand words, as one seems to show a handcuffed Gates screaming among a calm group of multiracial police; anyone who has had law enforcement come to his residence investigating a possible break-in knows that the one thing you do not do is begin insulting armed policemen who are tense and not sure exactly what is going down as they arrive; soon the machinery of Harvard University, the African-American mayor and governor, and ultimately the president all weigh in on behalf of Professor Gates in a way not true of most \u201cI say\/he says\u201d disputes.<\/p>\n And when the president says the police acted \u201cstupidly\u201d he speaks without the facts of the case and is more right that he thinks: If someone were to call a policeman in Cambridge to investigate a possible entry by two African-American looking suspects into the home of the country\u2019s leading emblem of racial theory and grievance, the officer would be entering a cultural minefield from which he might not escape unscathed: come too late to Professor Gates\u2019s home: racist; come not at all to Professor Gates\u2019s home: racist; come to Professor Gates\u2019s home: racist.<\/p>\n When the healer President Obama casually characterizes law enforcement as acting \u201cstupidly\u201d and then blithely says we all know that African-Americans and Latinos are stopped disproportionately \u2014 without the corollary that we all know that African-American and Latino males also commit and are convicted of crimes in numbers higher than their general percentages of the population and therefore can naturally also become more likely suspects \u2014 then we simply regress on questions of race, though in frustration rather than due to the \u201ccowardice\u201d cited by the attorney general.<\/p>\n It is tragic that the officer did not say, \u201cSorry for bothering you, Professor Gates. Of course I recognize you and regret that I had to bother you while you were legitimately breaking into your own home. This won\u2019t happen again.\u201d (And of course, Professor Gates might have said, \u201cNo problem; I\u2019m relieved you\u2019re looking out for my house while I\u2019m gone.\u201d) But as the Romans said,sumus homines, non dei<\/em>.<\/p>\n Bottom line: Professor Gates probably overreacted, insulted a police officer who was trying to ensure that his home was not being broken into as was first reported, wrongly alleged racism on the part of the officer, and got arrested for his disorderly conduct amid witnesses and fellow police officers who confirm the arresting officer\u2019s narrative \u2014 and then assumed \u2014 quite rightly as it turns out \u2014 that his Harvard connections, personal friendship with the president, governor, and mayor would allow him latitudes not open to others.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, that the rest of the country is supposed to cringe and feel sorry that we are still a racist nation \u2014 as an African-American president, governor, and mayor all weigh in on the plight of an endowed African-American professor \u2014 seems odd. Sorry, but somehow I think most would tend to disagree.<\/p>\n And if the public comes away with any lasting impression, it will be that an impromptu Obama, for all the post-racial rhetoric, still sees controversies in prisms that reflect stereotyped us\/them racialism rather than looking at each incident empirically.<\/p>\n There were no winners in this comic tragedy \u2014 but one clear loser: last week, the president of the United States.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner The Gates incident seems to have had little to do with race but a lot to do with the natural human misunderstandings that happen every day in police scenes \u2014 and its final twist has everything to do with insider privilege and aristocratic disdain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[714],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-FB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2377,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lose-lose-when-you-talk-about-race\/","url_meta":{"origin":2579,"position":0},"title":"Lose, Lose When You Talk About Race","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Why the Gates Affair Bored Us President Obama and the subject of race remind me of the proverbial camel\u2019s back and straws: the American people shrugged off \u201ctypical white person\u201d, then forgave \u00a0the clingers speech. They bristled a bit about \u201cNo more disown Rev.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2009"","block_context":{"text":"August 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/august-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2373,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-end-of-post-racialism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2579,"position":1},"title":"The End of Post-Racialism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com So much for Obama striking a new tone on race. President Obama\u2019s response during his press conference to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates \u2014 that the Cambridge police officer \u201cacted stupidly,\u201d despite Obama\u2019s confession that he didn\u2019t know what really had happened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":875,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-demagoguery\/","url_meta":{"origin":2579,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s Demagoguery","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The atrocity at first seemed undeniable: A white vigilante, with a Germanic name no less, hunted down and then executed a tiny black youth \u2014 who, from his published grammar-school photos, seemed about twelve \u2014 while he was walking innocently and eating candy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Human Rights"","block_context":{"text":"Human Rights","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/human-rights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1374,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/please-no-more-teachable-moments\/","url_meta":{"origin":2579,"position":3},"title":"Please, No More Teachable Moments","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The president of the United States has it hard enough without needlessly wading into, and fanning, local controversies. The economy is battered by sluggish growth, high unemployment, record annual deficits and near unsustainable national debt. Over 50 percent of the people now disapprove\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2010"","block_context":{"text":"August 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/august-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2336,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-follies\/","url_meta":{"origin":2579,"position":4},"title":"Obama’s Follies","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner The Race Card Gets Trumped I think almost everyone expected that once President Obama embarked on a highly partisan agenda at a time of record deficits in the midst of a recession, he was going to meet resistance. 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