The Wrong Case

AP Photo If Obama is going to wade into the national dialogue on race and criminal justice, he should forget about Skip Gates.

Read other takes on Gates' arrest from Daily Beast writers.

Hurray! Henry Louis Gates, a black Harvard professor, intends to have a beer this week with Sgt. James Crowley, the white police officer who arrested him. As racially fraught conflicts go, happier endings are rare. The Cellar is one Cambridge, Massachusetts. bar where a professor and a police officer might meet for drinks on neutral territory: "You will not find a better $10 burger and fries," Yelp.com notes.

Six months into his tenure, President Obama offered his most prominent statement on race and criminal justice on behalf of a wealthy Ivy League buddy. 

Too bad these newsmakers plan to hoist suds at the White House instead. In an impromptu press conference last week, President Obama publicized the invite, noting that "some say" he shouldn't comment on local matters, but that race and controversial policing are "part of my portfolio."

To be fair, it's been a century since Theodore Roosevelt dubbed the presidency a "bully pulpit." Oval Office occupants routinely speak on matters beyond their strict constitutional purview. What vexes is that a leader bound to address racial profiling, "stupid" arrests, and a flawed criminal justice system chose a case so undeserving of presidential comment. Presume that Prof. Gates was unjustly taken into custody. Is anyone in America better protected against wrongful prosecution than a tenured Harvard professor of any color?

"You have no idea who you're messing with," Gates reportedly said before being cuffed. He understood what it means to be Ivy in America. His inconsequential arrest provoked breathless national coverage, dominating several news cycles. Though no charges were filed, the White House press corps queried the president!

Thus six months into his tenure, President Obama offered his most prominent statement on race and criminal justice on behalf of a wealthy Ivy League buddy. Were that all, the president might have avoided burnishing his reputation for elitism. Last week, I defended him against that charge, noting that he was asked about the Gates incident. Notably "stupid" is his deliberately prolonging the controversy—beyond even a second press conference—for a round of beers and several more news cycles.

President Obama deems this "a teachable moment." In fact, Glenn Loury is correct when he notes that "the contretemps shed no relevant light on the plight of the millions of black men on society’s margins who bear the brunt of police scrutiny." Innocents among them remain jailed and without any prominent advocate in American politics. How politically conservative is a president who defends only esteemed, nationally known professors? Change on this issue requires advocacy in cases where misconduct by police or prosecutors gravely wrongs those without power.

There are literally hundreds of cases where innocent, disproportionally black prisoners would benefit from a presidential mention, never mind two press conferences and a happy hour. Admittedly, most would prove more politically fraught than defending an elderly Ivory Tower star: wrongly arrest and release a black man who happens to be a Harvard professor and the national press corps writes searching pieces on race in America; wrongly imprison for years on end a black man who happens to be working class and without celebrity, and the national press corps continues to mostly ignore a criminal justice system that routinely convicts innocent people.