President Obama launched legislation today making it a crime to profile police officers as racist simply for being law enforcement officers, requiring instead that charges of racism be based on behavior and fact.
Appearing at Duke's lacrosse field with Jeremiah Wright, the rabidly racist pastor of the church Obama attended for twenty years, the President laid out the case for this new legislation, saying "We recognize that it is wrong to assume that a citizen is a criminal simply because of the color of their skin, which is why the Supreme Court has ruled that police officers may not stop people solely based on their race. Today we are standing up to say that no one, from the President of the United States to a Harvard professor to that professor's students to a gangbanger on the street corner should assume that a police officer is racist just because they are wearing the uniform and doing their job."
The President did not directly mention the controversy swirling around the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Gates for disorderly conduct by three Cambridge police officers and the charges of racial profiling against the one officer who happened to be white.
Obama went on to explain that "It would be wrong for the President to impune the police as stupid racists without knowing the facts of the case, because that sends the message to young people that it is acceptable to disrespect police officers and that we will treat anyone who resists the police as a hero victim."
The President concluded by saying that "I hope this situation will be a teachable moment which will help people to understand the thankless job performed by our brave law enforcement officers each and every day, so that fewer Americas will walk around with a chip on their shoulder because 'As always, whitey now sits in judgment of me, preparing to cast my fate.'"
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