And yet the fact of the matter is, is that this still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that's why I think the more that we're working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody is going to be.
Maybe, the President should have said something like this.* Note how a major problem is that the system is poisoned so that various people don't trust other people, resulting in incidents even when the other side appears to be nothing wrong. Misunderstandings poison racial relations, particularly when they affect how someone acts when they have broad discretion to act. This is so, for instance, in the "driving while black" area. A black might be driving fast & stopped for just that reason. S/he might be very upset, thinking "they are just doing it because I'm black!!!!" They are not irrational for thinking this. The fact that there is a black President does not change this.
[To address it upfront, "honest misunderstandings" also probably were involved in respect to the other people involved. These also have been looked at simplistic, thus the woman who reported it very well might have just saw a possible break-in (not the first in the area, apparently) and had no way of knowing that Gates actually lived there. Likewise, though class, race or authority might have factored into how the officer(s) involved handled things, particularly after the id was shown, asking for id and such were in various respects not as unreasonable as some make it out to be. This does not mean each side are in an equal position, but focus on how confusion arises in every which way is an important thing to keep in mind.]
People, particularly those with guns and the power of arrest, have to take this into consideration when they act. This is so even if the person on the other side is an asshole. It is not "racist" to realize this. In fact, pardon me, it is "stupid" to not do so, particularly if you arrest the person. Some who admit the arrest was probably unnecessary don't like that word. They rather say "unfortunate" or some other pablum. But, when you are talking about hurting race relations, or rather the basic issue of arresting someone at their own home (Obama noted "any one" would likely be upset here -- he didn't make it just about race), it's okay to be blunt sometimes. In fact, "unfortunate" is a bit to namby-pamby.
It is also not "racist" that civil rights laws take special concern for certain types of discrimination, in fact putting in place safeguards that pull in some seemingly neutral behavior. We should treat everyone fairly, but we take special care -- with good reason -- to be fair in certain respects. Thus, a voting law change in certain areas of the country has to get the approval of the federal government because historical practice was that discretion had discriminatory results. Requiring a lawsuit to guard against this is a complicated mechanism that would allow discrimination to go on as it carried out. But, yes, not every change involved has some racist motive or effect. The same might be said about use of force and the authority of the state in general. Taking special care to not arrest people at their home -- even if you technically can -- is generally a good policy.
C-SPAN aired an old appearance of Prof. Gates, promoting some book or something. It made me recall that he is not a caricature, which the picture out there of him in handcuffs suggests. He is a person. He can be someone's older parent who might be stressed out or act a bit irrationally under periods of stress. They might have a big sense of honor. And, as one Slate frayster noted:
Gates had every reason to be angry he had just come off a long flight, probably tired and irritable, finding himself locked out of his house would the last thing he probably needed and this intrusion into his own space would be the last straw, no matter who called the cops.
So, it is perfectly understandable on a human level what he did. This doesn't make the officer into a monster. There seems to be an either/or nature to many people's responses. On this front, it's good to hear from the officer too. There are people behind these debates, who act in flawed ways, given that is how institutions and humans work in the real world. And, the people with the power of the state behind them do have more responsibility. The fact it can be hard work to do so is granted and respected, but that doesn't change their duty to do so.
Still, the human factor is what strikes me the most in the end. The fact so many wish to ignore it underlines how problems will continue. They deal with types, not flesh and blood reality.
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* Obama did say this.