Krugerrand
07-29-2009, 09:28 AM
Colin Powell: Skip Gates Could Have Avoided Arrest [<---link to full story]
Gen. Colin Powell says that Harvard Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates could have avoided arrest and the ensuing controversy by just talking calmly to Cambridge, Mass., Police Sgt. James Crowley and coming outside his house.
"I'm saying Skip, perhaps in this instance, might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer and that might have been the end of it," Powell says in an interview with Larry King, airing Tuesday night on CNN.
The part that gets me is when he relates his encounter with "racial profiling"...
As an example of racial profiling in his own life, he refers to an incident at National Airport when he was President Reagan's national security adviser, which he wrote about in his autobiography, "My American Journey."
Powell recalled driving up in a limo, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, for a planned meeting. The private plane terminal staff had been alerted to meet with Reagan's NSA.
After walking around the terminal for a long time, Powell finally approached the counter and asked about the meeting, to which the airport official responded, "Oh, YOU'RE General Powell." Powell recounts to King that "it was inconceivable to him that a black guy could be the national security adviser."
Two points ... one this isn't racial profiling. Racial profiling is a law enforcement thing ... not a meeting-somebody-at-the-airport thing. Secondly, is it at all possible that the airport official expected GENERAL Powell to be wearing a uniform rather than a suit? Why must we assume it was a racial thing? This worker probably doesn't know what a National Security Adviser is ... let alone have racial presumptions for the position. (disclaimer, I didn't read his book in which he may give more information to support his racial conclusions.)
Gen. Colin Powell says that Harvard Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates could have avoided arrest and the ensuing controversy by just talking calmly to Cambridge, Mass., Police Sgt. James Crowley and coming outside his house.
"I'm saying Skip, perhaps in this instance, might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer and that might have been the end of it," Powell says in an interview with Larry King, airing Tuesday night on CNN.
The part that gets me is when he relates his encounter with "racial profiling"...
As an example of racial profiling in his own life, he refers to an incident at National Airport when he was President Reagan's national security adviser, which he wrote about in his autobiography, "My American Journey."
Powell recalled driving up in a limo, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, for a planned meeting. The private plane terminal staff had been alerted to meet with Reagan's NSA.
After walking around the terminal for a long time, Powell finally approached the counter and asked about the meeting, to which the airport official responded, "Oh, YOU'RE General Powell." Powell recounts to King that "it was inconceivable to him that a black guy could be the national security adviser."
Two points ... one this isn't racial profiling. Racial profiling is a law enforcement thing ... not a meeting-somebody-at-the-airport thing. Secondly, is it at all possible that the airport official expected GENERAL Powell to be wearing a uniform rather than a suit? Why must we assume it was a racial thing? This worker probably doesn't know what a National Security Adviser is ... let alone have racial presumptions for the position. (disclaimer, I didn't read his book in which he may give more information to support his racial conclusions.)