The real issue hidden inside the Robert Gates Jr. fiasco in Cambridge is not something too many people want to talk about. In fact, President Obama, who very bravely waded into this issue and as usual called right on the issue had to bow down before political pressures and hushed it up. I agree that it was wrong of Gates to get all worked up and refuse to show his the ID initially, but after he showed the two forms of ID there was no reason for the officer to arrest him. The  police officer did what a lot of people in power do … flaunt it cause he could and abused it. He arrested Gates just to get back at him because he was mad at Gates for showing attitude and not respecting him. I don’t blame the officer for getting mad either, but people in power or with power have to realize that they cannot use it for personal means, and the consequences for doing so should be severe. Oh BTW, just chuck the whole freaking race thing out of the window, for this issue had nothing to do with race. 

Just imagine a situation where you are going at 10 miles/hour over the limit. An officer stops you to give you a ticket, and you get a little worked up and ask the officer why is he ticketing him for only 10 mph over the limit. The officer says ‘but you were over the limit’ and you retort back with something like (depending on how bad a day you’re having) ‘What the heck officer, going 10 mph over is a standard practice and if that’s the case then you should be ticketing everybody else too’. How would you feel if the officer arrests you for ‘resisting a ticket’ or whatever applicable law can be cooked up by the officer (let me not get into what trouble an immigrant can get into for speaking like that). There would still be a section of people saying that the driver had to no right to speak to a police officer in that tone and disrespect him, as our officers are our heroes and they spend their days and nights defending our freedom. In my opinion, you have every right to speak to an officer like you would to any other person in an equivalent situation not involving people of authority. It’s all good and deserving to call them heroes and keep highlighting the tough job that our police does to keep us safe, but at the end of the day that is the job they have chosen and no matter how tough and dangerous your job you do not earn the right to abuse power for personal gains.

OK, all this is obviously my viewpoint, based on the 'facts' I've read, but one strange aspect of this case is the actual lack of facts. Why haven't newspapers and channels gone into the details of when Gates showd the IDs (if at all) and why did Crowley arrest him. Somebody is obviously suppressing the facts and I have a feeling that somebody is not Gates.   

What our dear countrymen have to realize and I will gladly hammer into their brains, one by one, if required, is that abuse of power will not be tolerated and injustice of any sort will not be tolerated. Kudos to Gates and Obama for bringing this incident into focus. But bigger abuses of power have happened and keep happening, from the student strip search for ibuprofen at the lower end of the totem pole to the manipulation of facts and initiation of the Iraq war at the higher end. The worst part about abuses like the ibuprofen search or an erroneous 'terrorism' arrest are the pointed refusal to give an apology. I will get into that in a separate topic though and the decency to apologize for a wrong deed is another thing that might need to be sledge-hammered into the brains of people from ‘swaggersville’.

Finally, the key point of this blog is not to tolerate injustice and 'do something about it' aka 'take action!'. I welcome suggestions on how to 'take action' and whom to contact to make our opinions and voices heard on this case and no matter what it takes, get to the root of the matter.