Wonder What Professor Henry Louis Gates Thinks About His Police Department Now?

In July, 2009, the President of the United States said that he thought the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department "acted stupidly" when Sgt. James Crowley arrested Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at his home after someone called the police to report suspicious persons there. The professor became indignant and disruptive when he was simply asked to produce some identification proving that he lived there. In light of the events last week in Boston, Watertown, and Cambridge in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Terrorist attack, I wonder if the president and Prof. Gates still think the police are stupid. Within a few hours after the FBI released their photographs captured on videotape, Tamerian Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar apparently ambushed and killed 26-year old MIT Police Officer Sean Collier after he responded to a call about some sort of disturbance. The brothers then fled on foot to a convenience store, also in Cambridge, where they carjacked a Mercedes SUV and drove around for about 30 minutes with the owner, telling him they were responsible for the Marathon bombings. After releasing the owner at a Cambridge gas station, he called the police department to report the theft. An alert patrolman spotted the stolen vehicle, still in Cambridge, and police from a variety of agencies pursued the vehicle into nearby Watertown. What happened next is something rarely, if ever, seen in the annals of urban policing. The stolen vehicle suddenly stopped and the two brothers not only exchanged gunfire with the Cambridge, Watertown, and Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority police, but the suspects began to throw homemade explosives at the officers in an attempt to not only get away, but to kill them. Recordings of the firefight sounded like something heard during the Iraq war. Unfortunately, MBTA Police Officer Richard Donohue was severely injured and is still recovering from his wounds. My prayers are with him. The younger brother, Dzhokhar, abandoned his sibling and apparently ran over him in with the SUV in his haste to get away. The vehicle was later found abandoned not far from the shootout, and another explosive device similar to one used at the Marathon, was found inside the vehicle. Reporters later asked at a press conference, "How could he have gotten away?" Obviously, they have never been in a high speed pursuit of murderers, at night, who exchanged gunfire with them, and threw explosives, in which one of the pursuing officers became severely injured. What a stupid question. The police dragnet was soon set, and by late afternoon the following day, Dzhokhar was found hiding inside a boat that was parked in the driveway of a Watertown home. Another firefight ensued, and he was finally taken into custody, amazingly still alive. As the numerous police officers, federal agents and firefighters departed the area, the neighborhood swarmed into the streets, applauding and cheering them for capturing the remaining terrorist fugitive who had placed Boston and the entire surrounding area into panic and gridlock. I wonder what was going through Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s elitist mind when he witnessed the events on television unfolding before him. Did he think that Sgt. James Crowley might have been involved in the firefight or pursuit of the terrorists? Did he care? Would he have called the police if he saw Dzhokhar hiding on his porch? I also wonder if President Obama still thinks the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly" when they confronted the two terrorists. Has his opinion about the Cambridge police changed at all? He said the nation owes a debt of gratitude to law enforcement officials and the people of Boston for their help in the search. He also urged people not to rush judgment about the suspects motivations, according to the AP. Rushing to judgment is exactly what the president did in 2009 when he said the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly." He did not wait for the facts; he just jumped to that conclusion. Perhaps now he and Prof. Gates have a better appreciation for what the men and women of the Cambridge police department have to go through and must endure when they put on their uniforms: everything from obnoxious professors to stone-cold terrorists.