The professor the police officer and the president.

So we have an educated Harvard professor who is hot under the collar when a police officer has the audacity to ask for an ID because someone reported that it looked like there might be a break in. Immediately started yelling race and would not calm down.

We have a police officer who has had nothing but an exemplary record, and teaches a class about avoiding racial profiling.

We have other witnesses saying the police officer was right and the professor was loud, insulting, and would not calm down.

And we have a president willing to assume that it is the police officer who acted stupidly... oh wait maybe both were hot heads... oh wait my words were not carefully chosen...

And we also have many people stating that "if it had been a white man..." well white men have been taken into custody for not cooperating with the police, and the charges have been dropped just as in this case... and it was because they - Just like Gates - decided to let their mouth out run their brains. Also, my son was pulled over recently - a clean cut white boy - for nothing more than he was out late (coming home from a midnight movie). This was not a normal pull over. Tensions were high - he could tell by the way the officers approached the car that something was odd, they had him and his gf get out of the car even... Now, if he would have popped off at the mouth or started yelling that he was pulled over because he was young or some such nonsense - I've not doubt those officers would have taken them both in. Turns out there was trouble in the next town and the police were looking for trouble makers. My son was polite, did what he was told - from putting his hands where they could be seen, to getting out of the car, to letting his girlfriend be taken out of the car and to the side walk, to handing over license, registration and proof of insurance, and answering quite a few questions BEFORE the officer let him know what was going on.

Then we have the "well the important thing here is that it has sparked a racial discussion in this country"...

Right because we are not tired of having racial discussions sparked by false accusations. If you want a racial discussion at least use one of the many legitimate claims of racial profiling that are out there instead of forever linking a good officers name to something he did not do.

Keep on playing that race card, if it makes you feel better - but it isn't doing your cause any good at all.