The way it reads (purposefully, i’m sure) makes it seem as if Sharpton himself is saying blacks need to support Pres. Obama simply because he is black too.

I understand this is a blog and media accountability need not apply, but tell the truth.

Then imagine that you are the officer.

You arrive alone at the address of a possible attempted break in by two suspects after responding to an “all cars in the vicinity” police radio dispatch. Your heart beat is elevated, adrenalin pumping, the fear of being shot suppressed by years of training. The owner of the home welcomes you with a personal racially charged in-your-face tirade. You contemplate the irony of how you have been welcomed to the home of this owner, whose life, limb, and property you have come to protect.

The owner increases the decibel level of his attack. With great difficulty, given his loud rantings inside the small foyer, you finally determine the stranger’s identity. His rants continue. “You don’t know who I am! You don’t know who I am!” He yells.

You tell him that if wants to continue the conversation that he must follow you outside so that you can understand him better.

As he begins to folllow you outside, tenured Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates; Ware Street; Cambridge, Mass; the now identified owner, his next remark sounding nothing like the erudite classroom lectures he routinely gives, stoops in character to diss you and your momma with his urban styled, “I’ll follow ya momma outside.”

As you walk onto the porch, you notice that a crowd has begun to gather outside, as tensions mount. The Harvard University police have shown up. Instead of defending yourself against the charge of racism, your years of police training has instilled in you with a discipline to keep quiet and follow procedure. You refrain from telling this screaming homeowner about the time when you administered mouth-to-mouth to the dying black basketball player years before, and that you have taught anti-racial profiling classes in Cambridge.

Concerned that the situation could further escalate, you warn Mr. Gates to restrain from creating such a commotion. He refuses to calm down and continues his commotion. You follow extablished protocol and procedure, and slap the cuffs on him and read him his rights.

A few days later, as you listen to the national broadcast of the president, after admitting that he didn’t know all the facts in the case, accuse your department and thereby you of acting “stupidly”. You wander if you could have handled the situation differently?

As we peacefully sit inside our comfortable apartments or homes, sipping our morning coffee or evening wine and reading the blogs, many, including President Obama forget that this peace and freedom to enjoy our surroundings is provided by the protection that is just a 911 call away to a law enforcement officer provides, a law enforcement officer, who will come when called, and risk everything he has to protect you and your possessions.

So, instead of joining the president in second guessing the reactions of the police, let’s wait until all the facts are out. Consider the question, “WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE IN THAT SITUATION?

Time will tell if there was any racial injustice administered to this black tenured Harvard professor, who lives in a city with a black mayor, a state with a black governor, and a country with a black president. Racism? Are you sure?

Just my thoughts on the subject.