The President's remark about the Cambridge police department was justifiable

Tom Shales, the television critic for The Washington Post, who's reviewed every presidential press conference for over 30 years, called President Obama's remark last night about the Cambridge Police Department's arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates "refreshingly blunt." But many in the media have railed against the president for calling the arrest "stupid." Was it? The President obviously based his remark on the fact that the policeman in question must be presumed to have been acting within what he believed was departmental policy. So the president was entitled to presume that that authorized arresting someone who had not otherwise committed a crime but who was loudly criticizing the officer. Is that "stupid"? It is, unless you believe that free speech about police officers to their face should be illegal. I would submit to you that any policeman who believes it is appropriate to arrest someone who is criticizing them too harshly had better opt for a line of work in a more sensitive setting, like a hair salon or a toy store.

Let's not forget that conservatives have been brow-beating us for decades about the sacrosanct status of anyone who wears a uniform -- that they can do no wrong, are the shining emblems of our national honor, and all the rest. Of the great majority of police officers, this may well be true. But we should not forget the fact that police brutality is a worldwide reality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cases_of_police_brutality. Policemen have the capacity to overreact, just as those they encounter.

I once dated a woman who had been a police officer in a major American city for ten years, until she resigned because of physical harassment from male officers. She once told me: "Do not ever argue with a male police officer. Half the men on any police force are in that line of work because they enjoy physical confrontations. They are just waiting to be challenged." Was it stupid for Gates to yell at the officer? Yes. Was it stupid to arrest him? Yes. The President was right.