This won’t be the last media word on the notorious Gates/racial profiling/audacity-of-hops matter. Somebody still has to reference “Gatesgate.” But it will be the last word here.
This was not — repeat not — a preachable moment with all the familiar assignations of blame and historical guilt. No, this was a race-neutral 911 call that went wacko. It was not a variation on a racial-profile theme that conjures up the image of a bling-bedecked, 20-something African-American male who can’t hail a cab as he runs late for his Oxford interview.
This was only about race after the fact. It was otherwise about common sense – and Sgt. James Crowley’s failure to apply some. Recall the context: Crowley realizes he’s on the scene by mistake. The “suspect” has proven that he is the resident – as well as a Harvard professor. But the homeowner, who had just de-planed from China, is outraged. Obnoxious even. Probably plays the race card. Frankly, it’s understandable. Crowley’s options: Play the empathy and common sense cards and walk away from the loud homeowner. Or snap on the cuffs for disorderly conduct.
And this guy teaches a course in profiling? And yet knows so little about defusing an eminently defuseable situation that has turned racial?
The president’s damage-control rephrasing notwithstanding, Sgt. Crowley, indeed, acted “stupidly.”