Professor Gates vs. Officer Crowley

[rnatalli]

A person being disorderly on their front porch getting arrested is the law.

Show me the law and I'll believe you. It may exist, but I didn't see it at first glance. I do see talk about polling places, pubic areas, and county buildings, but none of those apply.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/

 

[rnatalli]

So if he was a serial killer, that brotherhood would hold water

Depends on who he was killing

 

[Nemo128]

A person being disorderly on their front porch getting arrested is the law.

The problem is, subjective laws lead to subjective punishments. Reckless driving, just like disorderly conduct, is up to the officer's judgement of the situation. Is anyone going to sit there and honestly say that every police officer to ever wear a badge is an honest and well-meaning servant of the public's safety and trust? Cuz the last time I checked, they were employed to "protect and serve", not to judge and punish.

Show me the law and I'll believe you.

It does exist, but like I said above, it's a subjective law. For example. NJ's statute:
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2C:33-2. Disorderly conduct
a. Improper behavior. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense, if with purpose to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof he

(1) Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; or
(2) Creates a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.

b. Offensive language. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense if, in a public place, and with purpose to offend the sensibilities of a hearer or in reckless disregard of the probability of so doing, he addresses unreasonably loud and offensively coarse or abusive language, given the circumstances of the person present and the setting of the utterance, to any person present.

"Public" means affecting or likely to affect persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access; among the places included are highways, transport facilities, schools, prisons, apartment houses, places of business or amusement, or any neighborhood.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

There you have it. I myself can read at least a dozen meanings from this statute. Imagine if I had 10 years wearing a badge and experiencing the things cops have to deal with.

Depends on who he was killing

In some cases, maybe he should be considered rendering good service to the public.

 

[rnatalli]

Calling gates an elder is like calling me a kid.

Elder and elderly are not the same thing. He is an elder to Crowley.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/elder

 

[rnatalli]

In some cases, maybe he should be considered rendering good service to the public.

I guess this is why I'm a big fan of the show Dexter.

 

[markw]

I don't see racism on his part or the officer's. Everyone acts like a loudmouth at one time or another.

Gates wasn't arrested for racism. He was arrested for creating a public disturbance.

 

[Matt34]

The problem is, subjective laws lead to subjective punishments. Reckless driving, just like disorderly conduct, is up to the officer's judgement of the situation. Is anyone going to sit there and honestly say that every police officer to ever wear a badge is an honest and well-meaning servant of the public's safety and trust? Cuz the last time I checked, they were employed to "protect and serve", not to judge and punish.

There will always be a certain level of officer judgment involved; it's just part of being human. The only way that will ever change is filing the streets with Robocops. Being arrested means that you are taken into custody because you are suspected of committing a crime, it is not a form of punishment.

Of course not every police officer is honest but the large majority of them are whether the folks here will believe that or not.

The only reason this case made it to the media is because of the professor’s political ties and him dropping the race card after the fact. Now this white police officer, who was doing his job and has, what seems, a very clean record which is substantiated by his superiors and colleagues, is being turned into the bad guy by all these Monday morning quarterbacks because he arrested a belligerent black man who just so happens to be buddies with the President.