Gee Powell sounds way more presidential than OBama and he was in the service too.
Powell might be our president right now if he didn't have the bad judgment to trust Dick Cheney who lied his ass off to Powell about Iraqi WMDs. Then Powell put his entire life's reputation down the toilet by repeating those fictions to the whole world with a live report from the United Nations.
3 dozen specific points of "fact" presented to the world community, not one of which was even close to the truth.
Poor Colin, he probably would have made a good president. I would have voted for him.
I just find it amusing that this gates fellow is feeling so victimized, I'd imagine that a helluva lot of American Citizens have had worse encounters with the police with no national attention or apology....
Anybody remember this?
"I think in this case the situation was made much more difficult on the part of the Cambridge Police Department," Powell said. "Once they felt they had to bring Dr. Gates out of the house and to handcuff him, I would've thought at that point, some adult supervision would have stepped in and said 'OK look, it is his house. Let's not take this any further, take the handcuffs off, good night Dr. Gates.'"
While I certainly understand the sentiment, the problem is "give an inch, take a mile". Quite simply, Gates was rude and offensive to the officer when he just didn't have to be. When I moved into my home a year and a half ago, I locked my keys inside. I had a locksmith friend come over to help me pop my lock, but we made damn sure we did it as subtly as possible, and if the officer who lived next door saw me, I would have been quite polite with him, because I know what I'm doing looks bad (despite the fact that it wasn't illegal). Gates could have just as easily said, sure, here's my license, my proof of ownership, and we'll go talk to the neighbor who spotted me to show everything is on the up-and-up. Instead, he mouthed off like an asshole and got what he deserved.
"There is no African-American in this county who has not been exposed to this kind of situation," Powell said.
I'm sorry, but he is implying that every black person in America has been harassed by police? That is an insane statement. Even if I agreed that the majority were harassed (I don't), logistically speaking it is impossible for every black person in America to be harassed. Simply math would tell you that every police officer would have to be guilty of it, including the black police officers.
It is statements like this that promote the continued idea that there is vast amounts of racism in America, and it is just not true. Colin Powell should be ashamed of himself.
Maude_Lynne
Give him a beer, too.