New twist on beer summit

Paul K. writes:

This is an interesting development: Crowley is bringing back-up to his White House meeting:

Crowley will be joined at the White House by Dennis O’Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, and Alan McDonald, the attorney for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association and the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition.

We’ll see how the meeting turns out, but I am not so concerned about it as are others. With his original reaction, Obama gave America a glimpse of the real Obama, not the image he wishes to present, and it disturbed most of us. There’s really nothing that he can say now that will undo that. “You can’t unring a bell,” as they say.

LA replies:

This is much better. With the inclusion of the president and the lawyer of the Officers Association, the meeting loses the aura of a silly and demeaning social get together (demeaning to Crowley, that is) in which Crowley implies by his very presence (1) that he has forgiven Gates’s outrageous smears of him, and (2) that he accepts Obama’s statements (a) that he, Crowley, “overreacted” along with Gates, and (b) that such overreaction is typical of racist white police and the reason there are so many more blacks in prison than other groups. Instead, the get together becomes more of a substantive discussion among people with very different views, and a harmonious outcome is not assured, which is even better.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 30, 2009 11:38 AM | Send