Dr. Henry Louis Gates Arrested

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by deepimpact2

Obama's overall message from the beginning has been about change. One area that needs change is the way minorities, particularly blacks, are treated in this country. A President, particularly one that is popular, has the ability to affect change. If incidents like this don't receive attention from the right people, it will be swept under the rug and will continue to take place. I don't know why anyone would see anything wrong with a President speaking out on an issue that represents a problem in this country. What I don't want to see happen is for people to expect Obama to keep his mouth shut about anything involving race. Yes, he is a President for ALL the people, but you can't expect or demand him to turn off his feelings about race relations and never address them.

Making a public statement about this incident has little to do with change. We don't care what Obama's feelings are. We're talking about the fact that he publicly spoke on this situation.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Making a public statement about this incident has little to do with change. We don't care what Obama's feelings are. We're talking about the fact that he publicly spoke on this situation.

A couple of issues I had with it:

1) Stuff like this legitimately happens around the country on a number of occasions. Beyond the Professor Gates' fame, what makes this a "special" case, so to speak, to the level that it bears mentioning by the President?

2) I don't know why, but something strikes me wrong about the President criticizing a local police department (except for some rare instances). That's especially so in this case, where I'm guessing that he hasn't had the time or inclination to look too deeply into the situation.

He's entitled to his opinion, but I don't understand why he would make a public statement on it.