GOV/MIL The Henry Louis Gates "teaching moment"

[Fred]

As is usually the case with Balko's articles, the source material is loaded with supporting links, which are not duplicated here due to my innate laziness. Please check the original story to see them.

========================================
http://www.reason.com/news/show/135039.html

The Henry Louis Gates "Teaching Moment"
Put the race talk aside: the issue here is abuse of police power, and misplaced deference to authority

The arrest of Harvard African-American Studies Professor Henry Louis Gates has certainly got everyone talking. Unfortunately, everyone's talking about the wrong issue.

Responding to a 911 call from a woman who observed Gates prying open the door to his own home, Cambridge, Massachusetts police Sgt. James Crowley confronted Gates, and asked him to prove his residency. What happened next is disputed, but it now seems clear that Gates mistakenly presumed that Crowley had racially profiled him, and hurled a barrage of invective at Crowley in response. Crowey has since been backed up by other officers, some of them black, and it turns out he was appointed to teach a clinic on profiling by a black former Boston police commissioner.

This has given law-and-order conservatives cause to crow: A liberal academic and friend of President Barack Obama wrongly accuses a cop of racial prejudice. None of this means racial profiling doesn't exist (law-and-order types seem torn between arguing that profiling is a myth, and arguing that it works). It just means that the story in Cambridge was about something else.

The conversation we ought to be having in response to the July 16 incident and its heated aftermath isn't about race, it's about police arrest powers, and the right to criticize armed agents of the government.

By any account of what happened—Gates', Crowleys', or some version in between—Gates should never have been arrested. "Contempt of cop," as it's sometimes called, isn't a crime. Or at least it shouldn't be. It may be impolite, but mouthing off to police is protected speech, all the more so if your anger and insults are related to a perceived violation of your rights. The "disorderly conduct" charge for which Gates was arrested was intended to prevent riots, not to prevent cops from enduring insults. Crowley is owed an apology for being portrayed as a racist, but he ought to be disciplined for making a wrongful arrest.

He won't be, of course. And that's ultimately the scandal that will endure long after the political furor dies down. The power to forcibly detain a citizen is an extraordinary one. It's taken far too lightly, and is too often abused. And that abuse certainly occurs against black people, but not only against black people. American cops seem to have increasingly little tolerance for people who talk back, even merely to inquire about their rights.

In a locally prominent case from April 2008, a friend of mine named Brooke Oberwetter was arrested at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. for, essentially, dancing. Oberwetter and other libertarians had gathered at the memorial to quirkily celebrate Jefferson's birthday by silently dancing to their iPods. When National Park Police asked the group to leave, Oberwetter hesitated, stopping to ask one officer to explain what laws or rules they had violated. He arrested her, on the charge of "interfering with an agency function," a vague charge similar to Gates' alleged public disturbance. Oberwetter was never tried, though she was handcuffed and detained for several hours. She has since filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officer and the Park Police. Oberwetter wasn't profiled: She's white, female, and the daughter of a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

In the wake of both Gates and Obama escalating the arrest into a national debate about race, too many conservatives took the instinctively authoritarian tack represented here by Washington Post staff writer Neely Tucker:

One of the common-sense rules of life can be summed up this way: Don't Mess With Cops.

It doesn't matter if you are right, wrong, at home or on the street, or if you are white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim or whatever. When an armed law enforcement officer tells you to cease and desist, the wise person (a) ceases and (b) desists.

The End.

Perhaps on an individual level, this is sound advice. As a general rule, you ought not provoke someone carrying a gun, whether your criticism is justified or not. As a broader sentiment, however, it shows a dangerous level of deference to the government agents in whom we entrust a massive amount of power. And it comes awfully close to writing a blank check for police misconduct.

If there's a teachable moment to extract from Gates' arrest, it's that arrest powers should be limited to actual crimes. Instead, the emerging lesson seems to be that you should capitulate to police, all the time, right or wrong. That's unfortunate, because there are plenty of instances where you shouldn't.

The most obvious case where deference to authority can be counter-productive—both in practice and in principle—is when police attempt an unlawful search or seizure of your person and property. But there are plenty of other instances as well, particularly with the spread of information technology.

Photographing or videotaping police ought to be a protected form of expression under any reasonable interpretation of the Constitution. Yet at the website Photography Is Not a Crime, photographer Carlos Miller has tracked dozens of cases in which police have unlawfully demanded someone cease photographing on-duty cops. Typically, police demand photographers hand over their cameras, and those who refuse are often arrested. In some of the cases, the preserved video or photographs have vindicated a defendant, or revealed police misconduct. Miller started the site after he himself was wrongly arrested for photographing police officers in Miami.

A week before the Gates incident, the NAACP launched a new website where users can upload video, photos, and text accounts of police misconduct from their cell phones. Just days before Gates was arrested, Philadelphia newspapers reported on a local cop who was captured by a convenience store's security video brutally assaulting a woman who had been in a car accident with his son. He then arrested her and charged her with assaulting him. The officer then demanded the store clerk turn over surveillance video of his attack. The clerk says other officers made subsequent demands to turn over or destroy the video. To his credit, the clerk refused. The video vindicated the woman. The officer has since been suspended.

After Oakland police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed subway passenger Oscar Grant at point blank range last New Year's Day, police attempted to confiscate cell phone photos and videos of the shooting. Fortunately, not everyone complied. Mehserle will now be tried for murder.

In the last few years we've seen numerous other incidents where cell phone videos and photographs, surveillance video, or handheld video cameras have both exposed police misconduct and shown officers to have falsified police reports. In most of these cases, the police at various points attempted to confiscate, alter, or destroy the photographic evidence.

Still, sentiment like Tucker's is common. Commenting on Gates' arrest, National Review's Jonah Goldberg wrote that he counts himself among those who are "deferential to police," and willing to "give cops the benefit of the doubt for a host of reasons." That's a common position among conservatives. At a Federalist Society luncheon a few years ago, Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson praised the Supreme Court for "putting more trust in our police officers" in recent rulings. Los Angeles Police Department officer Jack Dunphy (a pseudonym) oddly concluded at National Review Online that the lesson from the Gates/Crowley affair is that anyone who asserts his constitutional rights when confronted by a police officer risks getting shot.

This deference to police at the expense of the policed is misplaced. Put a government worker behind a desk and give him the power to regulate, and conservatives will wax at length about public choice theory, bureaucratic pettiness, and the trappings of power. And rightly so. But put a government worker behind a badge, strap a gun to his waist, and give him the power to detain, use force, and kill, and those lessons somehow no longer apply.

Police officers deserve the same courtesy we afford anyone else we encounter in public life—basic respect and civility. If they're investigating a crime, they deserve cooperation as required by law, and beyond that only to the extent to which the person with whom they're speaking is comfortable. Verbally disrespecting a cop may well be rude, but in a free society we can't allow it to become a crime, any more than we can criminalize criticism of the president, a senator, or the city council. There's no excuse for the harassment or arrest of those who merely inquire about their rights, who ask for an explanation of what laws they're breaking, or who photograph or otherwise document police officers on the job.

What we owe law enforcement is vigilant oversight and accountability, not mindless deference and capitulation. Whether or not Henry Louis Gates was racially profiled last week doesn't change any of that.

[MtnGal]

Take a lesson from Obama's book Dreams of My Father

From Dreams of My Father :'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'

From Dreams of My Father:'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

[BigBadBossyDog]

WARNING: Language. Don't click if easily offended...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...the+cops&hl=en

[summerthyme]

You know... I thought of that myself when this story first came out... but I'm not sure what the cops were supposed to do...

What I'd LOVE to know is if, at any time, Gates said "please leave my home now", especially after he supposedly provided ID (there still seems to be some controversy over whether the "ID" he showed had his address on it).

If he did that, I doubt the cuffs would have ever left the cop's belt. What seems to have been happening was Gates was verbally assaulting the cop (assault does NOT mean actual physical contact, something many people don't seem to understand) and was, in fact, "violating the cop's space" by *following him* as the cop tried to retreat.

I could be wrong about that, as the story is confused, but Gates was clearly out of control.

At that point, if I was the cop involved, I'd probably have cuffed him too... why? Because of the all-too-real possibilty that the totally enraged Gates might take one step farther and grab a gun (it's Gates' house... presumably it wouldn't be unreasonable to think he MIGHT have a gun for protection stashed somewhere close to the main entrance, no?) and take this whole confused mess to another level.

This whole mess can be laid SQUARELY at the feet of "Professor" Gates... even the slightest reasonable response from him would have changed a fustercluck of massive proportions into a 3 minute inconvenience. IOW, he's a moron.

Summerthyme

[The Freeholder]

I've always been told, both by cops and lawyers, that you never argue with a cop "on the side of the road". Be polite and courteous and do your best to remember every detail. As soon as the police are out of sight, write it all down.

Argue the case in court.

I'm not sure if I agree that both sides in this were wrong--I wasn't there, and every article seems to have it's own agenda. If Gates "played the race card", as he he widely portrayed as doing, then he's not much better than an opportunistic huckster.

I'm far less sure of Crowley's culpability in the issue. I understand the "contempt of cop" thing, and this sounds like it went beyond that. If we can believe half of what we're being told, he bent over backwards to be accommodating. I don't think there's anything in his job description that says he has to bend over forwards as well.

I do know one thing, though--if I were him, I'd be dipped in s#%t if I would give the Big O a chance to score some BS points off me (by attending the "beer summit" as I've heard is called) after what he said. He's no better than Gates on the subject.

[BigBadBossyDog]

Originally Posted by The Freeholder

I do know one thing, though--if I were him, I'd be dipped in s#%t if I would give the Big O a chance to score some BS points off me (by attending the "beer summit" as I've heard is called) after what he said. He's no better than Gates on the subject.

I will be extremely disappointed in Crowley if he goes for that beer. Sickened, in fact.

Crowley needs to keep his flap shut and go about his business. The facts don't need to be muddled with bogus teaching moments.

[Wardogs]

Cambridge city officials, including the Mayor, Police Commssioner and City attorney among others, Just held a news conference to release the 911 tapes and radio calls between the the responding officers and the dispatcher. They also announced that they were forming a commission to study "relations between police and the diverse community" in Cambridge. They didn't play the tapes, but during questioning the Commissioner stated that they would "speak for themselves".

Fox has been playing them and the Commissioner was correct. They do speak for themselves. In the original call, the woman who made it never mentioned "two black men" as had been reported. When pressed by the 911 operator for details she said that one "looked possibly Hispanic" but she never saw the first one as he had entered the house already. The press seems to have made that up.

Officer Crowley can be heard several times and he was calm and informed dispatch that Gates had stated that he was the resident there but refused to cooperate. This confirms the initial report that Gates had at first refused the request to show ID. Crowley then asked for Harvard Campus police to be sent (presumably to ID Gates as an employee and resident). They were, and it seems to have gotten worse after they arrived.

Gates was NOT arrested for not showing ID, Burglary or for being mouthy to the cops. He was arrested for disorderly conduct, and causing a scene that eventually drew a crowd.

The OP is pure speculation and tries to make a point from a false perspective. While it's true that "Verbally disrespecting a cop may well be rude, but in a free society we can't allow it to become a crime." That's not what Gates was arrested for. He was arrested for what IS a crime, although a minor one; disorderly conduct. Not for being rude, not for "asserting his rights" not for asking for ID, (he's a professor, I assume he could read the badge number and name tags on the officers), and not for "being "a black man in America". He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Something that happens every single day.

It only became an issue when the one being arrested was a professional race baiting, elitist moron with friends in high places.

wardogs

[Joe]

THANK YOU for that rather well thought out and timely essay.

I think Barack the man at least acknowledged that "mistakes were made on both sides."

And maybe (pardon me while I swallow my tongue) he was right in this.

We give WAY too much deference to police simply because they are police and they carry a gun.

Joe

[BigBadBossyDog]

Originally Posted by Joe

THANK YOU for that rather well thought out and timely essay.

I think Barack the man at least acknowledged that "mistakes were made on both sides."

And maybe (pardon me while I swallow my tongue) he was right in this.

We give WAY too much deference to police simply because they are police and they carry a gun.

Joe

Barack should have kept his mouth shut. And for the last time, how were mistakes made on both sides? So far, nobody has been able to point to a single thing Crowley did wrong.

[Joe]

Not to belabor the point since our estimation of what happened obviously differs.

Perhaps you missed it?

By any account of what happened—Gates', Crowleys', or some version in between—Gates should never have been arrested. "Contempt of cop," as it's sometimes called, isn't a crime. Or at least it shouldn't be. It may be impolite, but mouthing off to police is protected speech, all the more so if your anger and insults are related to a perceived violation of your rights. The "disorderly conduct" charge for which Gates was arrested was intended to prevent riots, not to prevent cops from enduring insults. Crowley is owed an apology for being portrayed as a racist, but he ought to be disciplined for making a wrongful arrest.

Joe

[BigBadBossyDog]

But he was outside his house and a crowd was gathering. Shouldn't Crowley's first order be to protect the public from someone who appeared to be out of control?

If you just happened to witness someone you didn't know having a public meltdown, would you want the cops to smile and walk away? Or would you want to be protected from possible further insanity? A least cuffing the man prevented him from pulling a weapon. Nobody knew if he was armed or where he was going with his outrage.

TO SERVE AND PROTECT!

Seems simple enough.

He didn't get cuffed for dissing the cop. He got cuffed for making a scene in public, "public" being the key word.

[Copter Doctor]

Originally Posted by MtnGal

Take a lesson from Obama's book Dreams of My Father

From Dreams of My Father :'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'

From Dreams of My Father:'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

Obama never knew his father. So how did he know what the dreams were? We get a good picture of the impostor's views on race when Obama can say: sic 'I don't know much about the event." and then say the officer was 'stupid' for arresting Obama's buddy Prof. Gates. Prof. Gates was acting stupid. that isn't a crime, but, I thought it interesting Officer Crowley to ask Gates outside where a charge of disturbing the peace could be used. BWAHAHAHAHA

Crowley is owed an apology! Gates and Obama should attend diversity training. Take Al and Jessie with them!

[dimensiondancer]

Obama is an amateur and Gates entire life focus is on his skin color and anger towards feeling put upon by white people.

Crowley is caught up in their nasty spin of web. I bet from now on he lets his black partner step first foot in on situations of this kind.

[Hfcomms]

Wouldn't the average person or even most people be greatful when the police showed up and instantly provided appropriate I.D. to prove that they were the homeowner? The whole incident could of been defused instantly if Gate's wasn't a pompous ass looking to make a racial issue out of a proverbial molehill. I would be thankful that one of my neighbors noticed that someone might be breaking into my home and that the cops showed up so quickly.

[conundrum]

Originally Posted by Hfcomms

Wouldn't the average person or even most people be greatful when the police showed up and instantly provided appropriate I.D. to prove that they were the homeowner? The whole incident could of been defused instantly if Gate's wasn't a pompous ass looking to make a racial issue out of a proverbial molehill. I would be thankful that one of my neighbors noticed that someone might be breaking into my home and that the cops showed up so quickly.

+100


But we aren't a rich professor. Man if the cops ever came the mile down my dirt road that would be something. LOL.

[Wardogs]

Some good thoughts on police matters from Casey Lartigue -- a light-skinned black man (like Gates), who doesn't seem to be overcome with a victim mentality...

His basic point is that politeness pays.

How not to get your a$$ beat by the police
http://caseylartigue.blogspot.com/20...-crazy_25.html

The black president of the United States stupidly commented on the arrest of a black Harvard professor in his own home by a white police officer. Some random thoughts and memories:

* I'm sure most people are still trying to figure out who Prof. Gates is. As G.K. Chesterton once wrote: "Journalism consists largely in saying 'Lord Jones is dead' to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive."

* Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Gates' arrest was "every black man's nightmare." Perhaps. But having a criminal in my house is even more of a nightmare. Also, having the president of the United States talk off the cuff about me about something he doesn't know is pretty bad. And getting shot by a cop after I escalated a situation would also be worse than getting arrested.

Anyway, I have had my own dealings with the police over the years:

* Back when I was a college student many many moons ago, one of my brothers and I got stopped by police in Brookline, MA. I remember it clearly: we were returning from a meeting with other students. Less than an hour later we were waiting for a police officer to get a description of armed suspects. We were let go without incident after the officer heard on his radio that they were looking for two dark-skinned blacks. The cop even waved to us a few minutes later when he saw us. I wrote about it in the Harvard Crimson, generating several angry calls from other black Harvard students. I remember one woman in particular was distressed by the article, telling me repeatedly that my article "wasn't helpful."

* Shortly after my family arrived in Massachusetts back in 1985, one day we stopped at a bookstore so my father could check on a book. We were parked on the street....a few minutes later, a cop walked up to the car, talking to my mother... The cop said that someone had called 911 reporting that some black people were parked in front of the bank. As I recall, he said it was his duty to check it out, that he would say he had, and that was the end of it. I suppose we could have gone Gates-crazy on him, saying we had every right to be parked there, etc., that as black people we shouldn't be questioned about where we park legally (or not, I really don't recall that).

* I wrote a few years ago about helping to stop a white guy from beating up his white girlfriend or wife. I remember at one moment hoping the police would show up so they could do their duty...but also being scared to death they would show up at another moment as we (five, maybe six black men) were manhandling that one skinny white guy with his white girlfriend bruised, beaten and crying a short distance away. We would have been shot on sight, then asked questions if we had survived. What bothered us the most that night is that the cop initially treated us like we had done something wrong and the folks at the hotel weren't much better.

* Parenthetically, a Washington Post columnist (inaccurately) wrote about the rescue in front of the Mayflower Hotel a short time later. Every time I've been part of an organization or activity that has been written about in the newspaper I've wondered how they could get so many facts wrong. As Erwin Knol wrote: "Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for that rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge."

* A few years ago I had to rush home when the alarm system went off at my home in Centreville, VA. As I approached my home, I called the police and ADT (the alarm system) to let them know I was almost home and would be going inside to check on the alarm...I didn't want to get shot while I was turning off the alarm in my home... I really should not have had to call to make sure I would not get shot in my own home, I know. But I did call. I'm more concerned with my safety than I am with making a political or public policy point.

* Two days before I left America earlier this month I was pulled over by a cop in Falls Church, VA. I had gone through a stop-sign trap leading off the main road onto a service road. I guess I should have gone Gates-crazy on him. But it wasn't a good situation for me. Driving a rental. Didn't have the rental car info. I asked for a warning, told him I was leaving the country soon. The cop issued me a warning, wished me well.

* One night when I was out with some other members of the Harvard Crimson, one top editor (who is now somewhat prominent) had a bright idea that we should trash the Harvard Lampoon. Which we did. Very long story kept short, we got caught by some members of the Lampoon. The Cambridge police were called (every Harvard student, regardless of race, prefers dealing with the Harvard rather than Cambridge police), we argued in front of the cops for an hour or so before the business manager of the Crimson agreed to pay for the damages. The cops let us all go after a short lecture.

* I still take my cue from Richard Pryor when it comes to cops..."I'M REACHING INTO MY POCKET FOR MY LICENSE. BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO BE NO MUTHAF***ING ACCIDENT."

[Joe]

"Politeness is the lubricant that oils the wheels of human interaction."

And as I say to my kids "If you can't BE nice, ACT nice."

Sometimes I'm still challenged with the latter.

Joe

[Ender]

Originally Posted by Hfcomms

Wouldn't the average person or even most people be greatful when the police showed up and instantly provided appropriate I.D. to prove that they were the homeowner? The whole incident could of been defused instantly if Gate's wasn't a pompous ass looking to make a racial issue out of a proverbial molehill. I would be thankful that one of my neighbors noticed that someone might be breaking into my home and that the cops showed up so quickly.

So what if you didn't have the "appropriate" ID- even if it was your residence and you were lawfully in it?

[Wardogs]

Well, it seems that Gates got his "teaching moment" after all. Not the one he expected, but valuable just the same...

An aside...

Does Obama have any friends that are NOT tax cheats, rabid hate mongers or incompetent crooks?

Lesson from this "teachable moment" for the good Dr. Gates...

STFU when you are engaged in thievery...

Henry Louis Gates Jr. the Tax Cheat (he’s PERFECT!)

Foundation Run by Harvard’s Gates Is Revising Tax Return After Questions Raised
http://www.propublica.org/article/fo...-questions-727

A charity headed by star Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is filing an amended 2007 report to the Internal Revenue Service because $11,000 it paid to foundation officers as compensation was mischaracterized as being for research grants.

Questions about Inkwell Foundation emerged over the weekend, part of a tsunami of attention Gates has received since July 16, when he was arrested at his home by a police officer responding to a report about a possible burglary in progress. The incident ignited a national debate over racial profiling, further magnified when President Obama jumped into it.

ProPublica inquired about Inkwell after receiving an e-mail from Joseph Culligan, a private investigator who makes public on his Web site documents about prominent people, from Ann Coulter to Sonia Sotomayor. The e-mail spotlighted a $10,000 grant made to Joanne Kendall, the foundation's treasurer, pointing out that she is also Gates' assistant at Harvard.

Gates, a member of ProPublica's board of directors, said Monday that the award to Kendall was actually payment for doing administrative work for Inkwell and not, as Inkwell's IRS 990 form states, a research grant.

"It should have been listed as compensation," he said in a telephone interview. In part, he added, the payment was designed to make sure she wasn't doing foundation work on Harvard's dime.

Gates also said $1,000 paid to foundation secretary Abby Wolf was for secretarial work, not research.

Inkwell was started by Gates in 2005 to support programs and research on African and African-American literature, art, history and culture.

It reported no activities until 2007, when it raised $205,543 and spent $27,600, state and federal filings show. The payments to Kendall and Wolf were among the foundation's largest — only four of 23 Inkwell grants exceeded $500.

As the foundation's president, Gates signed the report submitted to the IRS, but said he missed the inaccuracies it contained until ProPublica brought it to his attention. The foundation's accountant, David Schwartz, said he was unsure how the payments ended up being misclassified.

"If I knew why, this wouldn't have happened," he said. Schwartz said he expected the amended report to be filed in the next week or so.

As part of maintaining their tax-exempt status, foundations have to file annual reports to the IRS showing where their money goes, separating program expenses from administrative overhead.

Regulators and watchdog groups expect charities to spend more on activities that serve their core missions, but it's not unusual for administrative costs to eat up more of the budget early on.

By reclassifying the payments to Kendall and Wolf, administrative expenses will constitute almost 40 percent of Inkwell's 2007 spending instead of less than one percent.

Aside from Kendall and Wolf, others with close ties to the charity or to Gates also have received funds from Inkwell.

Gates volunteered that the foundation's second-largest grant, for $6,000, went to his fiancée, Angela DeLeon, who was also on Inkwell's board from 2005 to 2006. Gates said he recused himself from the vote on DeLeon's grant, which was for a project translating documents from Spanish and Dutch about the slave trade to Mexico.

A grant of $500 also went to Evelyn Higginbotham, chairwoman of Inkwell's board. Higginbotham is the chairwoman of Harvard’s Department of African and African-American studies and, with Gates, edited the 2004 book "African American Lives." Gates said that, as per the foundation's bylaws, she did not vote on the grant.

Inkwell has not yet filed its 990 form for 2008 and Schwartz said it has not yet been prepared.

Classic.

I'm sure that he's just trying to beat the system that whitey represses him with...

wardogs

[Utopianwar]

Call me a racest. Go ahead. Get it over with. Then I refer anyone who does to my best friend who is black and she can school you. Just sayin that in advance.

I am on the cops side. The man was being uncooperating with the police, and he wouldn't let it go. The cops were leaving he still challenged them. They were doing their job! While he was away there had been break ins for crying out loud. The man has issues with police, I am not saying that police haven't abused blacks, but in this case they didn't. Both Gates and Obama are stupid for making this a race issue. Shame on them, even if they have no shame.

[momof23goats]

both Obama, and gates, show me nothing but arrogance, and ignorance.
It is the same arrogance that jesse jackson and al sharpton display, and I am sick of seeing it.
let me just add, all of the above, are extreme when it comes to racism.

[Copter Doctor]

Originally Posted by momof23goats

both Obama, and gates, show me nothing but arrogance, and ignorance.
It is the same arrogance that jesse jackson and al sharpton display, and I am sick of seeing it.
let me just add, all of the above, are extreme when it comes to racism.

Oh, you mean, "Whitey be rasist!" attitude?

Latest I hear, unconfirmed, is that Sgt. Crowley, Prof. Gates, and da pres. Obama are to meet in Washington, D.C. to "discuss" the incident. Sgt. Crowley, you are in deep shit! Expect to be 'schooled' on racial diversity and sensitivity.

Let's see if I am correct.

[BigBadBossyDog]

Originally Posted by Ender

So what if you didn't have the "appropriate" ID- even if it was your residence and you were lawfully in it?

How can a person possibly be in their own home and not have appropriate ID? I'm not sure what "appropriate" means. Probably name and address. Even if "appropriate" ID was hiding in a closet somewhere, I'm pretty sure I would invite the cop in while I searched for it. I would be nice. I would make small talk. I would offer coffee. I would thank the guy for showing up. Cooperating just isn't that hard, imo.

[Lynn]

Two black cops defending for Sgt. James Crowley.


http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/2...e-cambridge-co

[Cabal]

Originally Posted by BigBadBossyDog

How can a person possibly be in their own home and not have appropriate ID? I'm not sure what "appropriate" means. Probably name and address. Even if "appropriate" ID was hiding in a closet somewhere, I'm pretty sure I would invite the cop in while I searched for it. I would be nice. I would make small talk. I would offer coffee. I would thank the guy for showing up. Cooperating just isn't that hard, imo.

You could always show them pictures on the wall...

[Ta-wo-di]

Now COLON Powell is weighing in on the subject that the officer went too far and that we will probably never get the real story. Why does that sh*thead feel it necessary to put in his worthless comments into this. Oh never mind he is defending the brotherhood. I lost all respect for COLON years ago.

Ta

[Copter Doctor]

SGT Crowley's 'ass woopin' ah, lunch is today in DC? Obama invited 'selected' members of the press to record the event. 'Drink' later will be 'private'. Sgt. Crowley, I don't need to tell you to: "Watch your back!", do I? Blacks in groups tend to go 'animal'. Gee, was that PC?

[Dennis Olson]

My own take on "cop ettiquette":

Cops have a miserable, thankless job. They deal with the absolute dregs of society EVERY DAY. They are pretty much REQUIRED to assume the worst just to cover their (and their departments') asses. The few times in my life where I've dealt with cops, I have ALWAYS been "business polite." That is, I speak to them as I would to others in a business meeting. I'm not rude, loud, mean-spirited or hateful. If they ask for ID, I provide it. If they want to know what's going on, I tell them (within the bounds of my own standards of privacy). I have never been hassled, beaten, or otherwise mistreated by cops. I respect and understand that they are simply the "mechanics" of the justice system. (That is, they just "turn the wrench." They don't design the cars.) If there are any issues that need to be resolved, it's a JUDGE that needs to do that, rather than the cops.

But when the time comes that TSHTF, I may not deal with cops on that basis. It will depend on exactly what has happened to our country, and how critical and systemic the breakdown.

[dimensiondancer]

Originally Posted by Ta-wo-di

Now COLON Powell is weighing in on the subject that the officer went too far and that we will probably never get the real story. Why does that sh*thead feel it necessary to put in his worthless comments into this. Oh never mind he is defending the brotherhood. I lost all respect for COLON years ago.

Ta

And we all know what Colons spew ......

Everyone must go rent the movie Lakeview Terrace with Samuel L Jackson.

He is a black cop that hates mixed couples, and he has one move in next door to him. He torments them daily. I can't figure out how the movie ever got made in Hollywierd.

[G-Man]

a cop on his beat has a lot of power, best to give him his due respect......

[night driver]

Originally Posted by Ender

So what if you didn't have the "appropriate" ID- even if it was your residence and you were lawfully in it?

*I* may know I'm lawfully here but the guy INVESTIGATING has no CLUE whether or not I'm lawfully here or some guy who claims to be me. NOR does he know for SURE that, even if I DO provide valid ID proving I'm home, that there is NOONE behind the door with a gun to my head waiting for him to leave so I can be offed....

[kozanne]

Originally Posted by night driver

*I* may know I'm lawfully here but the guy INVESTIGATING has no CLUE whether or not I'm lawfully here or some guy who claims to be me. NOR does he know for SURE that, even if I DO provide valid ID proving I'm home, that there is NOONE behind the door with a gun to my head waiting for him to leave so I can be offed....

+1,000

Until the situation is clearly understood, the LEO is in GRAVE danger. How many times has an LEO lost their life or been harmed just doing a traffic stop or a domestic? Be an LEO, or be in a family of LEO's and listen to what they have to say; you will get a totally different perspective. One of my uncles was shot in a laundromat while he was on foot patrol; father of 4; he walked into the business to see what the disturbance was all about and boom. He was laid up for a long, long time. At least he lived.

Skippy Gates is a race pimp, pure and simple. And he owes an apology to Mrs. Crowley, the Sargeant's mother. Ignorant race pimp. Insignificant.

[Christian for Israel]

Originally Posted by BigBadBossyDog

But he was outside his house and a crowd was gathering. Shouldn't Crowley's first order be to protect the public from someone who appeared to be out of control?

If you just happened to witness someone you didn't know having a public meltdown, would you want the cops to smile and walk away? Or would you want to be protected from possible further insanity? A least cuffing the man prevented him from pulling a weapon. Nobody knew if he was armed or where he was going with his outrage.

TO SERVE AND PROTECT!

Seems simple enough.

He didn't get cuffed for dissing the cop. He got cuffed for making a scene in public, "public" being the key word.

BBBD, you can not arrest someone for what he MIGHT do, only for what he has done. up to the point of his arrest, gates had only spoken insulting words to the officer. if he physically went further than that the officer would have had reason to arrest him, but insulting language is NOT enough...at least according to the constitution we all claim to love so much.

but this article isn't about gates...it's about the police being able to arrest ANY of us simply because we exercised our rights. or because we questioned them. or because we took their picture. or because we insulted them. if we as americans allow the police to make an arrest for any of these reasons we have already given away any rights we may have had and created the very police state we claim to oppose.

[BigBadBossyDog]

I realize that. My example was only to show that Crowley had every right to quiz the racist fool.

Gates was creating a disturbance; hence, he was cuffed. Nobody said he was arrested for what he might have done. As I said, when someone is having a meltdown in public and won't cooperate, cuffs happen.