Former City Councilman Oliver Thomas, serving a 37-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to accepting bribes, won't be eligible for release until September 2010, but he's still following the news.
The latest issue of the New Orleans Tribune features a letter from Thomas commenting on the incident in which Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested by a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., leading to a national debate on racial profiling and a beer-sharing White House visit by both Gates and the arresting officer.
In his letter, Thomas discusses the role played by President Barack Obama, who initially said the police had "acted stupidly" and then had to backtrack.
Thomas writes that Obama found "he cannot take sides or stand up for a friend in a racial dispute, especially one where his black friend is pitted against a law enforcement official. The liberal, moderate and conservative media that tolerate you will bail on you in a minute and remind you that by taking up for your friend you acted 'stupidly.' "
But Thomas also urges the Tribune's mostly black readership not to blame Sgt. James Crowley for arresting Gates. He calls Crowley "a good guy who's been influenced by stereotypes and images he's seen his whole life" -- negative images of African-Americans that Thomas says many black people share.
Thomas sent his letter from the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in southwest Louisiana, where he was moved in June after serving the first part of his sentence at a federal prison near Atlanta.
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