1984; B&W

[Doug Millison]

President O got it right the first time, the police officer in  
question acted stupidly -- and Obama should have said  
"unconstitutionally" too -- he should have backed away and left the  
man alone in his home when it became obvious no crime was in progress.

If he needed to wait for more police to arrive in order to decide what  
to do next, he should have waited out on the sidewalk.

Stupid for him to enter Gates home and challenge him there, stupid to  
put him in handcuffs, I doubt the police would have done the same with  
a white Harvard professor, no matter how much noise he was making.

I publicly praise C. Hitchens this week for the first time, for  
reminding us in a column the other day that the issue is  
constitutional as well as civil rights.

I suspect that the police officer let some bad racial attitudes  
override a clear understanding of the Professor's rights in his own  
home - the cop seems to be the one who injected race into the police  
report, incorrectly stating that the person who called 911 reported  
that 2 black men were trying to break in, as subsequent reports have  
shown the 911 caller said no such thing - the police seem to have  
jumped to that conclusion before they got to Gates house. Couldn't be  
clearer example of police racism in action, on the face of it, and I  
expect the courts will corroborate that when Gates brings his case.

The police don't need any more defenders -- in case you haven't  
noticed, white people in this country  lionize the police only  
slightly less than they worship at the altar of the prosecutors in so  
many of the TV dramas that Americans love these days. About 30 percent  
of white people seem to be racists of the scummiest stripe, too, given  
the TV popularity of Rush L, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Pat Buchanan,  
etc., and the numbers who vote for political candidates who express  
similar views.

On another topic, I re-read 1984 a few years ago, specifically in the  
context of Pynchon's novels, GR especially, and found that a very  
satisfying experience, highly recommended.