Obama scolds Cambridge police

[Forkboy]

WASHINGTON - President Obama, weighing in on the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., said last night that Cambridge police “acted stupidly’’ when they handcuffed Gates even after he showed proof that he lived in the house.

Calling Gates “a friend,’’ and acknowledging he didn’t “know all the facts,’’ Obama said during a nationally televised press conference otherwise devoted to healthcare that he didn’t know whether race played a role in the arrest of Gates, who is black and a noted authority on race relations, by a white Cambridge police officer investigating a burglary report.

But the president added that it is “just a fact’’ that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped by police - evidence “that race remains a factor in our society.’’

Obama, the first African-American commander-in-chief, won office by running a campaign that tried to transcend race. His remarks on Gates’s arrest are perhaps the most pointed comments he has made on the subject since his election.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/23/obama_scolds_cambridge_police/

[JohnnyLib2]

1. Good for him.

President sees opportunity, speaks in clear terms.

And personally, I think weighing in one time on the subject is plenty. On to health care.....

[HOLOS]

2. Yes!

[opihimoimoi]

3. Kick....:o)