Gates and Obama

Drunk with the memory of the ghetto
Drunk with the lure of the looting
And the memory of the uniforms shoving with their sticks
Asking, "Are you looking for trouble?"
-Phil Ochs, "In the Heat of the Summer"

Patrolman Carlos Figueroa said in a police report that he heard Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, ask for Gates' identification and heard Gates say, "No, I will not!" He also said Gates was shouting at Crowley, calling him a racist and saying, "This is what happens to black men in America!"

Yeah, and guess what? It is what happens to black men in America. Gates reacted in a way we now know was wrong, but he had no way of knowing that at the time. What he did know was that he was a black man being accosted by the cops in his own home, which was in a city with a long history of racial tensions. I'll bet not too many of the people who are wagging their fingers at him now have any firsthand knowledge of what that's like. (I have heard of at least one black cop who came to his colleague's defense, but I've always suspected the blue wall is quite a bit higher than the black one.) Obama probably should have kept his mouth shut until he knew both sides of the story, but give him this: he knows what it's like to be a black man in America, and specifically in Cambridge. He made a mistake, but it was an extremely easy mistake to make. Let's get off their backs already.