Just interested to see where people stand on this. I see both sides of the story, but lean in favor of the professor, but I don't believe anything is racially-motivated. I know police put up with a lot of crap, but IMO they can't go around arresting people in their own home because they're being disrespectful; that's assuming Gates was being rude and disrespectful. If someone's being disrespectful towards me in his/her home, I simply leave. By arresting Gates, the officer opened the entire Cambridge PD up to a lawsuit. They're not dealing with some punk in Dorchester who was shooting off his mouth, they're dealing with a Harvard professor who has powerful friends, Harvard lawyers, and a courtroom in a liberal state. Even the mayor has come out to say the PD can't do such things in the future which suggests a mistake has been made. In the end, the officer will be the fall guy.
Don't know, wasn't there.
The Police need to take command of any situations they're in, ASAP and this usually is done by being very assertive and direct, raising their voice so there's no doubt about what they say. Gates' neighbor reported a possible B&E, which the PD responded to. Gates, by his own admission, insulted Crowley's mother, refused to come out when ordered to and acted in a manner that is far from what I would expect from a college professor. However, he did
exactly what I would expect from someone who resisted any form of authority in the '60s and I fully believe he's on the far Left side of the political aisle. If Gates is such an intellectual, why didn't he have a plan in case he locked himself out? People do it all the time and he should have thought of this. His neighbors didn't know who was trying to get in? What does that say?
In case you haven't seen it, here's a link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_harvard_scholar_arresting_officer
"They're not dealing with some punk in Dorchester who was shooting off his mouth, they're dealing with a Harvard professor who has powerful friends, Harvard lawyers, and a courtroom in a liberal state."
That's right, he's a Harvard Professor who was shooting his mouth off, not cooperating with a Police investigation and it's effin' wrong for him to rely on his connections to get him out of this. Throwing the race card out as soon as this came out is bullshid and I don't care that Obama is this guy's friend, BO should never have commented without knowing anything more than a few details. This DOES NOT deserve comment from the POTUS. His connection to this case is personal, not Presidential.
Gates was breaking into a house. It happens to be his house, but the officers received a call about a B&E at
a house, by an unknown person. If the neighbors knew who was breaking in, they shouldn't have called. If they didn't, it's possible that they choose to not associate with Gates, vise-versa, one of them moved there very recently or they don't get along well. If I saw my neighbor breaking into their house, I would probably go out and try to help but it doesn't take long to find out who lives nearby.
This whole thing has been blown out of proportion by Gates, Obama, the DA who dropped the charges and I'm absolutely certain Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the NAACP will be along to crucify Crowley shortly. The fact that Crowley has volunteered for 6 years to train new officers in avoiding racial profiling and to promote diversity with a fellow officer (who is black) isn't helping his case.
Gates wasn't beaten, wasn't abused, killed and he was arrested because he was abusive, uncooperative and now, he's using his connections to have the charges dropped. I'd like to see his police record- I doubt it's spotless and that's not because he's black, it's because of how he acted.
"If someone's being disrespectful towards me in his/her home, I simply leave."
Even if you're a cop investigating a possible crime? I don't think so.
This is par for the course with Obama's appointees and friends, lately. The Fed Chairman and a few others didn't pay their taxes, others have been in other troubles. I find it really ironic that his friends and appointees didn't pay their taxes when the result of the bailout and Porkulus will be that high income people will be paying far more in taxes.
