Quote:
Originally Posted by UGAalum94
Having the President say on national TV that your actions were stupid does seem to me to be likely to lower the police officer's standing in the community. That's actually the only thing that would make me wonder if he could be included in the defamation. The damage likely to be done to the cop's reputation was magnified greatly, I think, by the President commenting on it.
And since it was a health care address, I think it's a little less clear that he was responding to an issue of national concern. Had "Skip" not been a personal friend, which I think is how he put it, I think he would been a lot more reticent to speak up without knowing all the facts.
But as I said before, I think it would foolish for the cop to try to sue Gates, much less Obama.
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I understand and agree with what both of you are saying...the basic problem is, and it's just not Cambridge, unfortunately police officers in general has an established history of being of wrong side of profiling. Just look at how many articles that have been written, filmed and even posted here on GC.
Some of us even have personal experiences.
However, that does NOT MEAN ALL COPS are bad.
Fact: All police officers are not bad. All citizens that have mistaken run ins with police officers are not always innocent.
But the issue is simply, when you have one that messes up, it makes all of the rest look bad. If anyone up to and including the President had commented directly to the officer in question to whose name I don't even remember or know, then the burden of blame is on him and him alone but because he was lumped into a whole group, that whole group is being stereotyped based on that officer's action.
Just like on the flipside, we are discussing this whole race thing because Gates is Black and raised holy hell in his house because he perceived that because he is part of a minority group he recieved undue action because of that. Like someone asked earlier, suppose Gates was White? Suppose the officer was Black? Would there even be a story? Probably not.
BTW...here is an update on this:
Obama calls policeman
Good move BTW.
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