Gates 911 call: Witness not sure she sees crime
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS (AP) – 1 hour ago

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not describe their race, acknowledged they might just be having a hard time with the door and said she saw two suitcases on the porch.

Cambridge police on Monday released the 911 recording and radio transmissions from the scene in an effort to show they had nothing to hide, but the tapes raised new questions about how and why the situation escalated.

Gates' July 16 arrest on a disorderly conduct charge sparked a national debate about whether the professor was a victim of racial profiling. Gates, returning from a trip to China, and his driver had forced their way through the front door because it was jammed, and the charge was later dropped.
In her 911 call, Lucia Whalen, who works at the Harvard alumni magazine, repeatedly tells the operator she is not sure what is happening.

Speaking calmly, she tells the operator that she was stopped by an elderly woman who told her she noticed two men trying to get into a house. Whalen initially says she saw two men pushing on the door, but later says one of the men entered the home and she didn't get a good look at him. She says she noticed two suitcases.

"I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key. But I did notice they used their shoulder to try to barge in and they got in. I don't know if they had a key or not, 'cause I couldn't see from my angle," Whalen says.

She does not mention the race of the men until pressed by a dispatcher to describe them.

"Um, well, there were two larger men," Whalen says. "One looked kind of Hispanic, but I'm not really sure. And the other one entered and I didn't see what he looked like at all. I just saw it from a distance and this older woman was worried, thinking, 'Someone's been breaking in someone's house. They've been barging in.'"

The officer who arrested Gates, Sgt. James Crowley, said in his police report that he talked to Whalen soon after he arrived at Gates' home. "She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch," Crowley wrote in his report.

Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said her client never mentioned the men's race to Crowley and is upset by news reports she believes have unfairly depicted her as a racist.

"She doesn't live in the area. She is by no means the entitled white neighbor. ... That has been the theme in the blogs and the implication in some of the mainstream news media," Murphy said in a phone interview Monday.

In his written report, Crowley said Gates became angry when he told him he was investigating a report of a break-in, then yelled at him and called him a racist.

In a radio communication with a dispatcher, also released Monday, Crowley said Gates was not cooperating.

"I'm up with a gentleman, says he resides here, but was uncooperative, but keep the cars coming," Crowley said.

Another voice can be heard in the background of the transmission, but it is unintelligible and unclear if it is Gates.

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas acknowledged that the police report contains a reference to race, but said the report is merely a summary of events.

Gates did not immediately return an e-mail message, and his spokesman did not return e-mail and telephone messages.

Crowley could not be reached for comment. A message left at the police station was not returned, and no one answered the phone at his Natick home.

The professor's supporters called his arrest an outrageous act of racial profiling. Crowley's supporters say Gates was arrested because he was belligerent and that race was not a factor.

Interest in the case intensified when President Barack Obama said at a White House news conference last week that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates. He later tried to quell the uproar about his comments and invited both Gates and Crowley to the White House for a beer, a meeting that could happen this week, according to the White House.

David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said he did not think the latest revelations related to the 911 call would change many opinions on the case.

"My guess is that that adds nothing to the conviction of black Americans that the cops like to lie a lot. It's just another example of something they already thoroughly believe, and that if it affects the views of those who generally trust the police, it would affect it in a very small way at most."

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There's lots about this story that is coming out, innit?

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Bad writing in that story. It makes it sound like Gates was arrested for B&E. He was arrested for disorderly conduct because of his continued harassment of the officer.

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Per Massachusetts law, a person who berates an officer, even during an arrest, is not guilty of disorderly conduct.

The Massachusetts statute defining "disorderly conduct" used to have a provision that made it illegal to make "unreasonable noise or offensively coarse utterance, gesture or display," or to address "abusive language to any person present." But the courts determined that provision violates the Massachusetts Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech. So police cannot lawfully arrest a person for hurling abusive language at an officer, i.e:

In Commonwealth v. Lopiano (2004) an appeals court held it was not disorderly conduct for a person who angrily yelled at an officer that his civil rights were being violated.

In Commonwealth v. Mallahan (2008) an appeals court held that a person who launched into an angry, profanity-laced tirade against a police officer in front of spectators could not be convicted of disorderly conduct.

So, Crowley was the one behaving unlawfully, not Gates.

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Well, there *is* a reason for the charge against Gates being dropped. Most likely reason is Gates wasn't breaking the law. I suspect Gates is holding the "unlawful arrest" card in his pocket for now.

Now, what about (and we have seen that this did occur) Gates FOLLOWING Crowley out on the porch? And still in an agitated state?

The physical appearance of Gates and following of Crowley would cause me concern from a simple spectators' viewpoint...

If Crowley was walking out and away from Gates...and Gates decided HE could take it all the way to the cruiser and not expect any flashback at him and his behavior...he better straighten up...

As I've said before...the fact that he isn't nursing baton marks, taser-darts contact points or a non-fatal touch of lead poisoning speaks VOLUMES in how Crowley handled the situation...

Be a loud-mouth idiot...I could care less...it just gives me another reason to wonder how civil folks out on the East Coast have allowed themselves to degrade to...but follow a Peace Officer and continue with the uncalled for behavior...in the mid-west, I belief you'd be lucky to get one warning, let alone two, and you'd be wearing the bracelets...period...and whatever tatoos the LEOs wanted to decorate you with...

As some of the "ladies" like to say..."He ain't all that!" And I think that Gates needs to take a LONG sabbatical from his "teaching" position...and stay away from blogs and speaking engagments...he obviously is a bit too touchy about his own color and wouldn't exactly make the best of role models concerning the best of the black side of racism...

Hell, Bill Cosby would be better than him...even Richard Pryor, and he's dead (Man, I miss his style of comedy more than anything... ).

AAMOF, Gates should sit down and listen, carefully to any of the Pryor albums and Cosby material...even meet with Bill himself. Maybe his eyes would be opened.

But, instead, he's got his gang of admirers...and they appear to have a "gang" attitude...and he's enjoying feeding it...

So continues the beast...

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^^^^^ Exactly. This has been blown WAY OUT of proportion. I have been asked by cops to show my ID and I am white. I also acted like an idiot towards them and got a free ride to the station. And like Gates everything was dropped and there was no harm no foul, except I was nursing a broken arm from resisting the bracelets. Gates got off lucky. I still cannot play golf over a decade later

To make this an indictment of white amerikkka is ridiculous. I still think Gates acted with deliberation thinking that it could generate this kind of publicity for him.

This will not end until they do a Fuhrman on Crowley and force him off the job.

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In other words, he was arrested for no legal reason at all.

One of Officer Crowley's complaints against Gates was that Gates said something disparaging about Crowley's mother. The officer didn't provide a citation to any law prohibiting such behavior. It certainly has nothing to do with the concept of "disorderly conduct" as defined by Massachusetts law.

the arrestee is required to follow instruction, my guess is he ignored those instruction while he was "discussing" his case

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That is true, unless Crowley admits that he was motivated by race, which isn't going to happen.

It's not an indictment of white America, but it is a sad commentary on how our worthless media react to any story dealing with race. This story should not be about race. It is about a policeman stepping over the line.Even if your speculation is true, it does not exonerate Crowley.What do you mean "do a Fuhrman"? Mark Fuhrman deserved what he got.

At any rate, I doubt that Crowley will get anything but commendations from his fellow officers.

That's got the cart before the horse. Before an arrestee is required to follow instructions, there should be some basis for making him an arrestee.

Officers can detain a suspect before arrest.

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exactly.from the news article in the "who is right"thread.it says gates became enraged when asked for identification.so whats the problem.show him your ID, cop verifiys you live there says sorry for the misunderstanding just investigating a possible b&e have a nice day.but no he has to start getting in the cops face calling him a racist.i've found that being nice and courteous to police is alot easier then being an a-hole.plus my beds alot softer then in the jail.

This whole case is ridiculous. Gates could have easily remedied this situation by saying my door got stuck and I had to force it open. Here's my license I live here.

2. How did this Lucile or whatever her name was not know Gates? Goodness! I know all of my neighbors and she lived closeby to him. She should have at least known who he was.

This whole case is just another one bad tantrum and mistake after another. This is not even remotely a civil rights case and shouldn't be seen as such.

I do however agree that this is bringing out how vague "disorderly conduct" is. Being detained is a waste of time for useless charges. I don't recommend being irate with a police officer, but I also don't agree with being cuffed and later let go.

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