OH.MY.GAWD.

Yes, I am shouting.

Hadn’t even heard about this.

Yep, yelling at the cops sure is a crime. Especially when you’re yelling while black. In your own home. Off to read more of this.

Spencer, back from reading your links — do you know the result? please tell me Prof. Gates was released the same night without being charged.

Yes, Prof. G. may have sounded a bit unruly, but he was IN HIS OWN HOME! I confess I (a white woman of much the same age as he) get a bit out-of-pocket and find it a little hard to think clearly and calmly when something utterly outrageous is happening to me.

Cops oughta be able to deal with being yelled at, even cussed at. Especially under such circumstances.

And why the F— didn’t Ms. Whalen know her own distinguished faculty member neighbor? Grrrrrrr.

Well, there were TWO black men in the house by the time the Cambridge police arrived, having been summoned by a passerby who saw TWO black men “breaking into” the house one of them lived in. Clearly, the officer felt overwhelmed by the TWO black men!

This is amateur hour. Any experienced racist would know that a old black man with a cane is probably not a burglar.

Holy hell. He basically arrested him because he was embarrassed at was was going down in full view of the neighborhood. As if he wasn’t going to get yelled at.

There’s three main views on the police. One, they’re servants. Two, they’re peers. Three, they’re strangers with guns. At any given moment everybody’s taking one of these views and acting accordingly.
History show that the first view is the only one to be expected from a male, venerable, Northeastern, coastal elite. History also shows, all too often, that the third view is the only one a police officer will accept from an African-American.

Gates followed Sgt Crowley out of his home and continued to yell at him on the sidewalk. If Gates had stayed in his home he wouldn’t (couldn’t) have been arrested.

I work in law enforcement and have responded to burglary calls. SOP is to ask whoever you see in the house for ID to make sure they live there. So Sgt Crowley asks whoever he sees in the house for ID and Gates starts screaming about racism? Obnoxious. And then instead of handing over an ID, he tries to call the chief of police? Obnoxious.

a517dogg

A couple things.

1. You are acting as if the police report is accurate which has not been established.

2. The officer in his own report said he repeatedly asked Professor Gates to step out of the home. Why did he do this?

3. Both the police report and Professor Gates account concede the point that Professor Gates provided ID proving it was his home.

4. I am not aware of the charge for being obnoxious if in fact Professor Gates was.

5. Both the police report and Professor Gates’ account concede the point that Professor Gates asked several times for the officers name and ID. Now Professor Gates’ account is different in that he says the officer did not answer his query. In reading the police report itself it is not clear in my mind if the officer is contending he ever gave Professor Gates his name and ID. Since you work in law enforcement isn’t it SOP for an officer to give that information upon request?

Yup, you give your name and badge number when people ask for it. Sgt Crowley’s first action was to identify himself as “Sgt Crowley of the Cambridge police.”

In the report the Sgt says that he wanted to leave the house because “the acoustics of the kitchen and foyer” were making it difficult for him to talk on his radio (ie, perhaps to tell other responding cars that it’s not a real burglary). Maybe there was too much echo or something.

Just as an update, now the police are recommending dropping the charges.

Do you still think the report is accurate a517dogg?

http://www.bostonherald.com/ne…..id=1186258

They probably don’t want the massive headache that Gates would cause them if they continued through with the charges. Or perhaps they’re terrified that Al Sharpton will reveal, with great courtroom drama, that Sgt Crowley is a Grand Wizard in the KKK.

I probably shouldn’t step in here – but… having had a brief career as a defense attorney, and having therefore read lots of police reports…well, it is not unusual for them to be shall we say, a bit -self-serving, not to say exaggerated in describing a participant’s responses (loud, yelling, etc., etc.)
It seems to be agreed now (not just from the latest link) that Prof. Gates had provided i.d. That should have been the end of it.

Basically, this officer arrested him because the Professor was angry and yelling.!
And there is a telling point in that Herald link – the professor was returning from the airport, (the second black man was the driver of the car who brought him from the airport and took his bags to the door, then tried to help with the stuck door).
He had just arrived at the airport from a trip to China
That flight lasts 13 hours, if direct

Hello? How do you/anybody feel after a long plane ride? Tired? Aching? Especially if you have existing pain or disability.
Maybe just a wee bit cranky?

Our law enforcement poster here seems to think it was just fine to arrest a man in (or in front of, after bringing him out) his own home for yelling at the officer and calling him some names.

Sorry, that just doesn’t cut it. How would anybody feel when they just want to go to bed, they’re already worn out, more frustrated from dealing with a stuck door, and now they’re being accused of “breaking into” their own home.
Of course he was yelling! So would I! So would most people under those circumstances.

Police should be trained to see that and cope with it, not to exacerbate it.

And tell me, if you were a person with a world-wide reputation, head of a prestigious department at a prestigious university with access to the chief of police, wouldn’t you call the chief to cut the whole sorry mess short?
Okay.