Has any news story in the last decade or so led to more people getting the wrong message from a situation than has this Henry Louis Gates thing? Everybody is pushing the wrong angle -- that it's about how a black man in America can't catch a break, or an elitist professor trying to pull rank on a regular guy cop, or Barack Obama meddling in a local issue.
I've seen very few people note the real issue, which is the abuse of police authority. You can arrest a guy for being a mouthy jerk? How is that reasonable? And how should we consider addressing this problem? Would reforms in training, or hiring, or discipline work?
I guess the race angle is better for ratings, and it's a more familiar, more easily discussed topic. I wish someone besides the barely-marginal libertarians would be pointing out that it's not why Gates was arrested that's such a big deal; it's the fact that he could be arrested at all that should make us concerned.
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