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  #1  
Old 07-23-2009, 07:57 AM
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Who was right?

Cambridge police arrested a black Harvard professor in his home the other day for disorderly conduct. Racial profiling or cops just doing their job?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly;_ylt=AjGLOsgRIriU1s5Is88KMSVvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTMybXNuaHZiBGFzc2V0A2FwLzI wMDkwNzIzL3VzX2hhcnZhcmRfc2Nob2xhcl9kaXNvcmRlcmx5BGNwb3MDNARwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGs DYXJyZXN0b2ZibGFj

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Old 07-23-2009, 08:16 AM
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Well let's see. Two men are spotted by a witness breaking into a home. Police show up and ask questions. Gates, the homeowner, gets defensive and refuses to show police ID. He calls the cops "racist". Once ID is confirmed, the cops are leaving the home, walking onto the porch, and Gates is following them, calling them racists, and demanding the cops badge number. Gates gets arrested.

Same old crap, huh, Rodney King? How come when I get stopped or questioned by the police, I never get arrested? BECAUSE I'M NOT A BILIGERANT A-HOLE WHO PICKS FIGHTS WITH COPS. Turns out, Gates is buddies with Obama; I figure Gates was using the old "Do you know I'm friends with?" routine.

If a suspect shows lack of respect for a police officer, and on top of that, he also has the boldness to berate and follow the officer while the officer is leaving, then that suspect is now subject to arrest.

What I don't know is what was said by the officer in the home - he could have said some racist remark, but Gates isn't claiming that, and he's being very vocal. This is how it should have gone down: the cops show up, ask for ID, Gates says "it's my house, I lost my keys. Here's my ID that proves this is my house. No big deal, officer." Officer verifies information, then says "Okay, just doing our job." Gates says, "Yeah, I know. Thanks for checking on the house." The officer leaves, Gates goes to bed.
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Old 07-23-2009, 08:35 AM
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I agree, he shouldn't have hounded the cops. He was probably really grouchy though - he had just returned from flight from China and came home to find his house locked. I'd be pretty grumpy too. I think the reality lies in the middle here, he was probably pissed off to begin with, and the cops were dumb enough to arrest the guy in his own house. Regardless of any racist comments, the guy was on his own property, and the cops are trained to deal with irate individuals. I think Obama hit it on the mark with his comments last night at his press conference.
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Old 07-23-2009, 08:44 AM
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This probably sums it up nicely.
Mano a Mano. Bruised Egos.
The Perfesser wasn't used to being treated without the customary and (maybe expected) academic Ivory Tower adulation.
Obama shouldn't have waded into this pissing contest of egos, imo.
Hmmm, I wonder if this was another news conference staged question?
Give it up. Move on.

Machismo and the Gates incident

By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist / July 23, 2009

THE ARREST of Henry Louis Gates Jr. by a Cambridge police officer is playing out along racial lines. But it’s also about power and machismo - on both sides.

Gates, a noted Harvard scholar who is African-American, was busted for a bad attitude. That isn’t grounds for a mug shot. But, black or white, sometimes it leads to one.

Earlier this year, a Wellesley businesswoman was arrested after a run-in with a state trooper at Logan International Airport. The trooper asked Margaret Greer, a 57-year-old portfolio manager, to move her Mercedes because it was obstructing a bus lane. She refused and sped off, hitting him with her car’s side mirror. Greer was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. She ultimately apologized and agreed to perform 200 hours of community service to resolve the charges.

Then there was the case of Randi Goldklank, the now ex-general manager of Channel 7, who went on an alcohol-and-prescription-drug-fueled tirade at Logan. As she was taken into custody, threatened to call a news crew and put the arresting trooper on TV and “ruin his life.’’ She, too, apologized.

In the Gates incident, there was no physical contact, drugs, or alcohol. All Gates did was allegedly shout at a police officer.

Gates was in his own home when a Cambridge police officer responded to a call about a possible break-in at that address. The professor had just returned home from filming a documentary in China. His front door was stuck shut and his taxi driver helped him pry it open. Then, Sergeant James Crowley appeared at his door and demanded to see identification. Gates provided it, although some facts about how and when are in dispute.

The police report states that Gates was arrested after exhibiting “loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place, directed at a uniformed police officer who was investigating a report of a crime in progress.’’ Gates disputes some information provided in the police report, but does acknowledge that he responded with anger.

In anger, Gates brought up race, according to the police report. When Crowley told him he was investigating a report of a break-in, the professor said, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?’’

The report also states, “Gates then turned to me and told me that I had no idea who I was ‘messing’ with and that I had not heard the last of it.’’

If a white person displays an attitude like that, it is OK to call him arrogant. If a black person is called arrogant, it is considered code for “uppity’’ and an invitation to be labeled as a racist. So let’s just say that according to the police report, Gates sounds like what he is: a renowned Harvard academic who is used to deferential treatment. In this case, he didn’t get it, he didn’t like it, and he let it show.

Crowley didn’t like what he heard. He arrested Gates on a disorderly conduct charge, which has since been dropped.

Human beings of all races have a tendency to react as Gates did, especially when they are tired, frustrated, and privileged. Police officers usually don’t like it. The question is whether this police officer responded more harshly because of skin color.

The answer isn’t obvious, but both men could use some sensitivity training. Gates shouldn’t have yelled at the police officer; still, what he did was irritating, not criminal. Once the officer determined Gates did live in the house, he should have left, no matter what the professor was shouting.

Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense lawyer, civil liberties defender, and Harvard Law School graduate, believes Gates’s arrest should be investigated, but not only because of its racial implications: Was Gates arrested and held as a way to teach him a lesson? If so, asks Silverglate, “Is this acceptable, regardless of whether the citizen is white or black?’’

In an ideal world, no. When it happens to a black man, racism may be the easy explanation, but that doesn’t make it the only explanation. Life and power in 21st-century America are more complicated than that.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.
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Old 07-23-2009, 08:50 AM
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It's called contempt of cop.
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Old 07-23-2009, 08:58 AM
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Story on Sgt. Crowley, the arresting officer.

Sergeant at eye of storm says he won't apologize
“I am not a racist,’’ said police Sergeant James Crowley .

Globe Staff / July 23, 2009
When Sergeant James M. Crowley climbed the front steps of Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s house last week and unexpectedly placed himself in international headlines, it was not the first time he had a memorable encounter in the line of duty with a prominent black man. Nearly 16 years ago, as a Brandeis University police officer, Crowley desperately tried to save the life of Reggie Lewis after the Boston Celtics star collapsed while practicing in the school gym.

“It bothers him terribly that he couldn’t save him,’’ Crowley’s 74-year-old mother, Verina Crowley, said yesterday, speaking of her son and the famous basketball player.

Yesterday, as President Obama condemned the Cambridge Police Department during a prime-time White House news conference and Crowley steadfastly refused to issue the apol ogy that Gates has sought, a fuller picture began to emerge of the 42-year-old sergeant who arrested the Harvard scholar last week on a charge of disorderly conduct on the porch of Gates’s Cambridge house.

Crowley was a certified emergency medical technician when he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Lewis, to no avail, after the player’s heart stopped on July 27, 1993. In a Globe interview later that day, Crowley said he rushed to the university’s Shapiro Gymnasium, confirmed that Lewis had no pulse, and frantically tried to revive him.

“I just kept on going,’’ he said. “I just kept thinking, ‘Don’t let him die - just don’t die.’ ’’

Now, 16 years later, he stands accused of racism by Gates, one of the foremost scholars on race in America. Gates had just arrived home to his Cambridge house from a trip abroad to find his front door stuck shut. As he and the driver who brought him from the airport tried to push it open, a passerby called police with a report of a possible break-in. Crowley arrived and demanded that Gates, now inside, show him identification. Crowley’s police report said Gates behaved belligerently when he questioned him, which Gates denied. Authorities dropped the charge Tuesday after it ignited accusations of racism.

But people who know Crowley were skeptical or outright dismissive of allegations of racism. A prominent defense lawyer, a neighbor of Crowley’s, his union, and fellow officers described him yesterday as a respected, and respectful, officer who performs his job well and has led his colleagues in diversity training.
“He’s evenhanded and, in the cases I’ve had with him, he’s been very much in control and very professional,’’ said Joseph W. Monahan III, a criminal defense lawyer in Cambridge and former Middlesex County prosecutor. Monahan has represented several defendants arrested by Crowley for domestic assaults and ...............
more......
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/23/officer_at_eye_of_storm_says_he_wont_apologize/
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Old 07-23-2009, 09:05 AM
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Did anyone notice the TV interviews with neighbors? While they were polite and had sympathy for Gates they also had smirks - sort of tongue and cheek. I am thinking Gates has a special reputation in the hood.
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Old 07-23-2009, 09:27 AM
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I think Cambridge police should sue the president for slandering their reputation!

This has the potential to be a new Rodney King. Although I don't think a Harvard professor will end up on b-list celebrity rehab shows.
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Old 07-23-2009, 09:30 AM
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I have a very close friend who is a cop and to be honest he has seen stuff like this before. Cops doing their jobs dealing with someone who happens to be black. The black person gets an attitude and well the same thing happens, they get arrested. If the cop is legitimately a racist that is one thing but if the cop is just doing their job that is something else. Seems to me the cop was just doing his job.
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Old 07-23-2009, 09:41 AM
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Originally Posted by POS View Post
Well let's see. Two men are spotted by a witness breaking into a home. Police show up and ask questions. Gates, the homeowner, gets defensive and refuses to show police ID. He calls the cops "racist". Once ID is confirmed, the cops are leaving the home, walking onto the porch, and Gates is following them, calling them racists, and demanding the cops badge number. Gates gets arrested...
Do you have a link? Those are not the facts I've heard or read. Even if they are the true facts, your interpretation of them is contrary to my understanding of what it means to live in America. Since when does an American have a duty to identify himself in his own home? And since when is demanding a badge number or calling the police racist grounds for arrest?

I don't think Gates got defensive. He got angry, which is completely appropriate under the circumstances. Are the officers so thin-skinned that they can't deal with an angry homeowner who did nothing of a threatening nature toward them?

The cop said he was following procedure. If so, then those procedures should be amended to permit the officer to exercise judgment. It should not have been hard for the officer to understand that a black man in his own home might be offended by the officer's demands to identify himself. That is not to say that the officer should have abandoned his investigation, but he also shouldn't have barged into the house without at least explaining why it was necessary for him to do so.

And Gates did not follow the police onto the porch. He complied with their repeated requests to step out of his house. The cops concede that by that point in the process Gates had satisfied them that he was in his own home. They jailed him for being rude.

I wasn't there, so maybe the cop had justification, but based on the reporting so far, this looks like an outrageous abuse of police power. I would say that what the officer did was anti-American, but I must admit that America has a long history of this sort of thing. So it's not really anti-American, but it is anti to what America should be.
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Old 07-23-2009, 10:03 AM
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Originally Posted by dculkin View Post
Do you have a link? Those are not the facts I've heard or read. Even if they are the true facts, your interpretation of them is contrary to my understanding of what it means to live in America. Since when does an American have a duty to identify himself in his own home? And since when is demanding a badge number or calling the police racist grounds for arrest?

I don't think Gates got defensive. He got angry, which is completely appropriate under the circumstances. Are the officers so thin-skinned that they can't deal with an angry homeowner who did nothing of a threatening nature toward them?

The cop said he was following procedure. If so, then those procedures should be amended to permit the officer to exercise judgment. It should not have been hard for the officer to understand that a black man in his own home might be offended by the officer's demands to identify himself. That is not to say that the officer should have abandoned his investigation, but he also shouldn't have barged into the house without at least explaining why it was necessary for him to do so.

And Gates did not follow the police onto the porch. He complied with their repeated requests to step out of his house. The cops concede that by that point in the process Gates had satisfied them that he was in his own home. They jailed him for being rude.

I wasn't there, so maybe the cop had justification, but based on the reporting so far, this looks like an outrageous abuse of police power. I would say that what the officer did was anti-American, but I must admit that America has a long history of this sort of thing. So it's not really anti-American, but it is anti to what America should be.
"Outrageous abuse?"
"Anti-American"


Maybe, just maybe, the cop might have thought there was a teensy weensy chance the man was really involved in a B&E, like the caller suggsted might be the case.

I think asking for his ID is perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

"May I see some identification"..(presumably to establish that the man was who he said he was and that he was not a burglar.)

"No, officer, it's ok. I live here"

Oh, ok then. I'll take your word. Have a nice day"

Is that how it should play out?

"May I see your license and registration please"
"Why? Cause I'm a Black Man"
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Old 07-23-2009, 10:19 AM
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...Maybe, just maybe, the cop might have thought there was a teensy weensy chance the man was really involved in a B&E, like the caller suggsted might be the case...
I'd say it was more than a teensy weensy chance. The officer would have been negligent had he not taken steps to verify Gates' identity. Once they had accomplished that, they should have left him alone. That's what we do in America. We leave law abiding citizens alone, especially when they are in their own homes. We even do that for rude people.
Quote:
I think asking for his ID is perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.
I agree. I also agree that the officer should have anticipated that Gates would be offended by the request.
Quote:
"May I see some identification"..(presumably to establish that the man was who he said he was and that he was not a burglar.)

"No, officer, it's ok. I live here"

Oh, ok then. I'll take your word. Have a nice day"

Is that how it should play out?
No. Why do you ask? Did anyone suggest that it should play out that way?
Quote:
"May I see your license and registration please"
"Why? Cause I'm a Black Man"
And that's cause to send the man to jail? That's the the part that is outrageous and un-American, IMHO. I say this based on the facts I've read and heard. I'm sure there is more to the story, on both sides.
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Old 07-23-2009, 10:32 AM
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I think Cambridge police should sue the president for slandering their reputation!

This has the potential to be a new Rodney King...
Talk about slandering the Cambridge police. I don't think they would appreciate being compared to the goons who beat Rodney King. Those cops were convicted of serious crimes for what they did. As the excellent federal prosecutor said in his closing argument, the cops who beat Rodney King were "bullies with badges." In America, if you wear a badge, you can't be a bully. It's one reason being a police officer is such a difficult job.
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Old 07-23-2009, 10:33 AM
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All white people are assumed to be racists in this Brave New World. White cops are only hired because they are racists.

Please, lets give it a rest.
The President pandering to this was a low point. Maybe he is trying to reverse his ratings slide.
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Old 07-23-2009, 10:37 AM
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...Please, lets give it a rest...
I don't think that is going to happen. Maybe the Gates thing was a misunderstanding that went too far. That sort of thing can happen. The reason I don't think people are going to give it a rest is that there is a widespread belief that what Gates says happened to him happens to minorities in this country all the time. There are reasons why so many black people do not trust police. To me, that issue is more important than whether this Cambridge officer gets his feelings hurt.

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