Gatesgate

“But then, the guy is human.”

Keep in mind, events like this go far to refresh the fears of the recent past in the Black community – which our president is a part of.

Politicians probably shouldn’t butt into state or local matters that are beyond their authority, particularly when they admittedly don’t know all the facts.

Still, on a scale of 1 to 100, with the Terry Schiavo fiasco being 100, I’d rate this a 1.

I disagree. Obama was absolutely right to talk about this in some depth. As you admit, Gates is obviously not a criminal. And anyone would be angry about being asked for ID in their own home.

Maybe you haven’t seen the cable coverage of this incident, but some of it has been appalling. I saw John King acting like this was all about some historical “sensitivity” from African-Americans that we should try to understand (and implicitly otherize). This isn’t about African-Americans being sensitive; this is about some people wanting African-Americans to placidly accept overt police racism and be less sensitive than any average white person.

In that context, Obama needed to assure people he is not going to personally tolerate this kind of double standard. We need to see that sometimes it’s okay for black men to get angry with white people. We need to see that sometimes it’s okay for black men to call white police officers stupid.

BTW, the police had probable cause to arrest Gates on suspicion of being an illegal alien when he was unable to produce the “long form” of his birth certificate on demand.

It was an honest response to a reporter’s question – and if I recall correctly, this was a press conference; I heard nothing about restrictions on the scope of questions.

Obama’s answer was a mistake only to the extent responsible commentators choose to discuss whether it was a mistake. That is, unless the media are able to handle only one issue at a time – in which case John McCain would have suited them just fine.

For the Obama haters on FockSnooze autopilot, it doesn’t matter. They’re already salivating over the “birther” insanity and endless supplies of GOP lies. These manipulative distractions are only effective if the legitimate media wallow in them.

Sorry rose, in the 21st C., discussing racial issues is reverse racialist discrimination. Plus Obama expressly campaigned on not making White people feel uncomfortable. The least he could do is keep his thoughts to himself.

Joe, I’d say that most of your colleagues are showing themselves to be complete a$$holes who are lazy, arrogant, smug, and lack intelligence. Little wonder that Jon Stewart won the “Most Trusted Newsman” once again this year.

You appear to be reacting not to what Obama said, which was reasonable and nothing out of the ordinary, but to the morons populating the cable news chairs.

The President made it abundantly clear that he did not yet know the specifics of the case. Yes, politically it would have been better not to comment — it almost always is, isn’t it? But this time the President grabbed the moment, the question, and used it as an opportunity to speak about the ugliness of racial profiling, an issue he’s been concerned with throughout his career. It was a teaching moment as they say, and anyone who chooses to ignore that the President stated he didn’t know specifically what happened with Skip Gates missed the lesson.

Lynn Sweet gave him a pure softball high over the plate and the president took a grateful whack. No big deal…

http://www.political-buzz.com/

So the President must dumb his answers down to the LCD of the media? God help us all. That, in a nutshell, is why we can’t get decent health care in this country.

As you point out, the idiots on teevee aren’t impressed by nuanced policy discussions. It’s not like they would be delving into the policy substance today, if only Obama had dodged the Gates question.

At most, the Gates “flap” is eating up time that CNN would otherwise be spending on Michael Jackson.

The POTUS like every other elected offical should give only unwavering support for the Police. Even after they have fired 51 shots into an unarmed civilian, tazered a wheel bound grandmother, entered the wrong house and tackled unsuspecting bike riders.

This is the way seasoned pols have always handled situtations like this because we don’t want to unnecessarily scare white people. Since they are the only ones who follow the law.

Joe Klein — as much as I can agree with a lot of what you write lately, this has got to be the most bone headed, personally corrupt thing you’ve ever come up with.

While I understand your inability to understand what you are saying, this is clearly a time for you to further reflect on your own attitudes. Whether you realize it or not, you have just said the president has made a mistake in acknowledging that he’s an African American by relating to an experience that he uniquely shares with other African Americans because it reminds white members of the press that he is African American. So are you saying that being black is going to be a negative no matter how good he is or what he does?

Well I can only shake my head at the thought that you somehow believe that he succeeded in disguising this blackness somehow. Perhaps, you fail to notice that the unnecessarily, unreasonable scrutiny of everything Obama is directly related to the fact that intentionally or not the media knows that he is a black president and this level of scrutiny is typical of the way blacks are scrutinized by whites in the workplace all the time.

What Dee said. Joe.

He did keep his most salient thought to himself. If you noticed there was a pause after he said he would get shot if tried to jimmy the lock in the white house and made a kind of sly knowing smile. Well the thought that crossed his mind at the moment was, he would have probably been shot if he was doing it at his home in Chicago too.

“Obama should have said, “Skip Gates is a friend of mine. He’s not a very disorderly sort and I’m glad the charges have been dropped.”

Perhaps he was sick and tired of seeing the police “acting stupidly”, when it comes to people of color and thought he should say something about it.

I lived in Cambridge for decades — moving over the line to Somerville ten years ago — and the whole Gates episode took me back to my days at MIT. There have always been some Cambridge cops who are deeply resentful of the attitudes (and occasional heedlessness) of entitled academics. I am white, but I and others from both MIT and Harvard have plenty of stories of minor harassment.
Race may well have been a factor in the oddly high levels of suspicion shown by the police to this obviously non-threatening scholar.
But once his identity was proven, I think Gates’ status as a Harvard professor may have been a significant factor in the unwillingness of Sgt. Crowley to just step away. Prof. Gates was almost certainly tired and cranky — understandably so — and legitimately angry that he’d been mistaken for an intruder in his own house. But nothing Prof. Gates could have said could have justified an arrest in these circumstances. Clearly, the Prez’s comment that the police conduct was “stupid” is a simple statement of fact .

Don’t Republicans usually pimp the so called “Castle laws”, which say that if someone is on your property and you don’t like it you can shoot them?
So now this Gates guy tells an overly nosy cop to piss off and get off his property and gets arrested, and they aren’t defending the guy’s rights?
There are no laws stating that you have to kiss a cops @ss. That cop acted stupid and tried to abuse his authority, anyone that tries to concern troll up this situation to some political gain is going to get burned.

tchampmass comment is very similar to what I said on Tuned In.

I think the cop had a case of OMG another one of these academics (apart from whatever race feelings he may have had) and went overboard into stupid. After Gates produced his ID, the cop should have thought whatever he wanted to himself, said Thank you and good-day, and left.

Gates was black, better educated, probably lived in a better neighborhood, had a nicer house and wasn’t sufficiently defferential. It was just too much for Crowley to process all at once.

Well said.

Gates should not have been arrested. There is a right to protest official conduct in America.
.
That said, Obama’s comment was silly. First of all, Gates acted atrociously. He was rude and obnoxious. And he accused the police officer of being racist with absolutely nothing to back that accusation. Second of all, racial profiling this ain’t. The cops had to check the report out–they did. And this jerk starts screaming all sorts of things to the cops? Gates is a privileged assh __e.
.
But hey, the assault on Justin Barker was only a “schoolyard fight”.

I see fhm, you gave up on the Sotomayor thread–enjoy being pwned.

Oh…*snap!*

Fortunately, I keep my birth certificate in this here plastic bag along with my tinfoil hat…for just such an emergency!

Gatesgate?? Come on, Joe. This is barely an issue, much less a scandal.

C’mon, Art. Obama took 8 minutes…8 minutes! …to answer the first question. And no decent sound bites to boot. The notepads fill up too quickly when you’re writing with crayons. /snark

Too unfortunate that the most prominent story today from the press conference on healthcare is about the lone question on the Gates arrest.

Obama is at fault for giving it weight and soundbytes.

The press is at fault for only caring about those soundbytes.

sigh…

“I know Skip Gates, like and respect him enormously, and the idea of him being disorderly seems unlikely…until you consider the following: the frustration of not being able to get into his own house, the likelihood the he was jet-lagged out of his skull, the sudden appearance of a white police officer treating him like a criminal. My guess is, he blew up.”

Hey Joe, you don’t see anything inherently problematic about this statement:

First you imply that any tired, jet-lagged African American ill ill equipped to keep his cool under such circumstances (I assume that is because black folks tend to be overly emotional and tend to shout), Second, you imply that he was in the throes of an emotional meltdown because of his inability to get into his house — he was angry because he was in his house and a police officer continued to be suspicious that he belonged in the house despite being given multiple pieces of documentation that this was his house.

Why is it that everyone begins their sentence with I know Skip Gates and this is out of character but…?

This is the perfect example of the harmful insidious covert impact of racial attitudes that black folks talk about. It’s an unspoken respect, a kind of benefit of the doubt that white folks give to each other but reserve only for each other. In a country where police bias towards African Americans is well documented. In a state and a city that has been scrutinized in the past for this kind of police bias and in light that his kind of behavior by law enforcement has been repeatedly proven in courts of law, you would think it wouldn’t be the police officer getting the benefit of the doubt. But who are we kidding, police officers are given the benefit of the doubt even when their more egregious acts are caught on videotape.

I’m sorry, we can argue which factor contributed most to the outcome all we want, but whether it was historical sensitivity, racism, classism or any other ism is most responsible for the events — the bottom line is that at no point was one of the most renown African American professors in the world was not given a benefit of the doubt that would have been given to Joe the plumber.

By the way, the arrogance of the officer that publicly scoffed at the idea of apologizing for his own emotions perhaps spinning out of control, is quite telling s a window into his behavioral tendencies.

How will we know when racism is behind us? When African Americans of any ilk let alone the top echelons of society are considered innocent until proven otherwise automatically by the likes of liberal savvy culturally experienced whites like Joe Klein.

Other than Obama basically accused a cop of racial profiling with no evidence . . . .
.
But hey, the assault on Justin Barker was just a “schoolyard fight”.
.
Interesting to compare the agnosticism on Obama’s part when a white teen is a victim to his certainty when a black prof acts like a complete jerk.
.
I would apologize to this prick either.

Just for the record, the Republican activists are sending around pictures of Obama photoshopped to look like a witch doctor whilst they claim we are now in a “post-racial” era.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/conservative_activist_forwards_racist_pic_showing.php?ref=fpblg

I know I’m better off ignoring an idiot once he’s detected but frankly, isn’t this just a little to hypocritical even for you?

Either we have rights to be free of government intrusion into our own homes or we don’t! If we do have this right then I expect you to support Gates right to tell the police to GTF out of his house. And if we don’t have this right then I don’t want to hear jack about Democrats overstepping the constitution and taking over of the private sector pertaining to health care or anything else because you have no right against government intrusion..

I’m really happy that we have a president who isn’t afraid to call out the cops when it’s time to call out the cops. I don’t think it was a mistake, either. It’s also nice to have a president with a brain big enough that he can… gasp… handle 2 topics in a single conversation!

pafro- that’s not racist! What’s racist is (Gives example of “reverse” racism) you sure are silent about that!

Just guessing at the reaction that picture will bring.

At least Obama didn’t call the police’s actions racists.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/conservative_activist_forwards_racist_pic_showing.php?ref=fpa

“Either we have rights to be free of government intrusion into our own homes or we don’t! If we do have this right then I expect you to support Gates right to tell the police to GTF out of his house. And if we don’t have this right then I don’t want to hear jack about Democrats overstepping the constitution and taking over of the private sector pertaining to health care or anything else because you have no right against government intrusion..”
.
First of all, Dee, I have to ask you if you got dropped on your head as a child. You cannot call me an idiot and be this dense.
.
Yes, we generally have the right to be free of government intrusion in our own homes. Problem is, of course, when police receive a report of a break-in, they check it out. And yes, Gates has the right to tell a cop to GTF out (once the cop has been satisfied that it is his house), the right to do something doesn’t mean that it’s at all justified. And look upthread, I think that the arrest was unjustified. (Although the cop probably could have arrested him when Gates initially refused to show ID.)
.
It’s amazing to me. You’re a cop responding to a call, some privileged jerk starts calling you names etc., and not one of you nitwits has any bit of sympathy for the cop. As Joe said, no one’s perfect.

A quibble, but the cop should have said “Good afternoon” and left. I’m pretty sure the incident happened shortly after noon, in broad daylight, meaning the police officer had even less reason to behave the way he did.

The burden is on the cop and the police department. The phrase “peace office” should definitely be part of the job descriptions for law enforcement agents. Anyone who can legally shoot someone MUST be taught how to defuse these types of situations where it’s clear he/she is not in any physical danger from the public. Plus, it should be standard procedure for a cop to promptly give his name and badge number is a member of the public requests him/her to do so. He/she then can immediately file their own version of what happened.

I recommend everyone go to Daily Beast and read Elizabeth Gates’ interview with her father.

So destor, are you going to yap about how Obama’s playing three-level chess . . . .
.
Got news for ya, he’s not as bright as you all seem to think he is.

Joe is right. This is nothing but a distraction. If the President wants to address this type of issue (which I doubt at this point he does) he needs to do so in a broader context, rather than in response to a single incident where it is unclear if he had all the facts. Now we are talking about this rather than health care. You could argue about which is the more important issue in the long run, but right now Obama is trying to get health care done, not address issues regarding the police and race. He needs to keep focused if he wants to get health reform done.

I keep thinking about that guy who was on the BART train in Oakland and that cop just pulled his gun out and shot him in the back as he lay there getting cuffed.

I still don’t buy the premise that Tweety, Fineman, et al would be earnestly discussing healthcare even as we speak … if only Obama had not answered that one question!

Calling this a distraction is like calling a passing shadow a distraction to my cat. If the shadow doesn’t distract the cat, something else will — the sound of a truck, or a flying bug, or an imaginary dot that only the cat sees. That’s just the nature of cats.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/07/in_which_we_gather_facts_about.asp

Maybe the burden is on the cop–but that doesn’t excuse the behavior of an ass like Gates, who should also know better.

Commenters all–

Amazing! Especially the nonsense about me indulging in racial stereotypes with regard to Skip Gates. Let me be clear: I might have blown up, too, in the frustrating circumstances–especially if I were jet-lagged and having trouble getting into my house (been there, done that, by the way, cursing furiously–though without police intervention.)
Second, this was a post about how this incident has crowded out substance–really serious substance, on the President’s highest priority. I was foolish not to see that this was going to happen when I first posted on the press conference last night. If the President wants to keep the focus on health care–as I’m sure he does–he was wrong to respond as he did.
None of this denies (a) the history of racism, (b) the history of police arrogance and racism or (c) the President’s right to comment on all of the above. It’s just that this is a guy who is usually very disciplined about his message, and he wasn’t this time.

Obama thought before he said “stupidly,” and I assume he meant it.

The morning Joe white guys spent considerable time this morning defending Gates and saying they would have been belligerent if a cop demanded identification in their own home. This is not a bad outcome of the press conference.

Vernon Jordan and Carlos Watson had an intelligent conversation about this (come to think of it, that’s a given if Jordan is involved)

The one thing I’m surprised not to have heard yet today is “This is why a wise Latina would often make a better decision.” Experience matters.

A whole lot of women, blacks, and latinos have had to listen to a whole lot of crap this last few weeks about how downtrodden white guys are, and this felt positively cleansing.

So yes, I think Obama did the right thing.

Because all the Police in the country did those things, right? “The Police” for the most part are just people doing a job like you and I do everyday. Yes, there are power hungry, racist, egomaniacs among their ranks (just like there are out in the real world), but for the most part the police are just folks who do a job. And the fact that the job is to protect us from each other and to put themselves in harm’s on a regular basis should make you take a second or two to have some respect for that.

This Professor Gates debacle is a perfect example of the attitude that so many carry around towards our Law Enforcement professionals. The officer was well within his rights and established procedure dictated that he question the professor and obtain his ID to verify who he was (remember a break-in had been reported), but Prof. Gates was uncooperative and disrespectful to the officer and goaded him into arresting the professor. A little common courtesy and respect would have prevented this, and I’ll tell you a secret for use in your own life, a little common courtesy and respect will prevent most bad interactions with the police. They’re human beings! Treat them that way and they’ll treat you that way too!

You basically seem to be saying that Obama was not wrong about the substance of what he said, but wrong to let himself say something that drew attention away from his agenda.

You may be right, but I expect even he is amazed sometimes at how easily diverted the chatterers are.

Also, he knows perfectly well – and so do you – that those who didn’t want to focus on health care would have found something else to distract them. I doubt this actually kept anybody from talking about health care.

Oh – and kudos, Joe, on “Gatesgate”

The reason you’re an idiot is because you formed an opinion based on your racial assumptions, completely absent of any verifiable facts. Gates said the officer entered his home with out announcing himself and even after Gates provided multiple pieces of identification the officer refused to provide Gates with identifying information such as a badge number that by law he is required to present.

Now, I get that it doesn’t matter to you what Gates might have to say on this subject. Because while he was there, he is black and so he has no credibility.

The officer’s claim that Gates screamed epitaphs about his momma has to be true because well the officer is white and a even a supremely educated black man would only converse in ghetto vernacular — right.

Because all of us black folk belong in the ghetto, Gates is an over privileged jerk, he didn’t go to school, faced all kinds of barriers, worked impressively hard to earn everything he has — he’s black so affirmative action must have given this unqualified, undeserving black guy an advantage that a white guy, much like Sergeant Crowley really deserved.

While it is clear is that you have no experience with Professor Gates because, anyone who has ever heard him speak would know immediately that the only person who over reacted and abused his authority to put yet another uppity black man in his place was the police officer. Black men humbling themselves at the personification of white authority might be a more comfortable scenario for you — it is not a requirement of law say the 14th amendment.

spobs’ attitudes about race are like FOX’s…

Spob has learned his “Civil Rights Degree” at Rush Limbaughs’ lap.

He, of course, would NEVER consider doing something as basically commonsensical as asking anyone in the Black community. Hell no!

I rarely use caps:

THANK YOU JOE!

Even assuming Gates wanted to be arrested – an unlikely assumption at best – any police officer who can be “goaded into arresting” someone is subprofessional and in need of immediate attention. The job absolutely requires the self-control not to be goaded into anything.

We give these vital public servants the power to use deadly force with discretion, and a high level of discretion is required. What’s next – an officer “goaded” into shooting a citizen?

Joe-You know as well as I do that any answer Obama gave on this last night would have been a story. If he dodged it then that would be story. If he backed the police the story would have been he refused to back up his friend. He backed his friend up and now that’s the story.

Lynn Sweet knew this when she ask the question at a press conference dominated by and called specifically about health care. She knew this guy was Obama friend and he might have strong feelings about it. she is not responsible for Obama’s answer but if you want to lay blame some where. Because way to many questions were asked about health care last night.

gotta love the ad hominem from a twit like 53_3
.
Gates acted like a jerk, and St. Obama couldn’t even get that right.

Also, the those “chatterers” kathy referred to are definitely going to attach themselves to yet another unimportant event in the life of a President, and blow it up into a “major outrage” moment.

I can just hear Rush now…

One caveat to my thanks:

I don’t think he did a thing wrong. It won’t detract from his agenda on health care. The only thing that he did was to chum the waters for the likes of these pseudo-civil-rights-I’m-not-really-ignorant right wing complainers.

C’mon Joe, if you were president, wouldn’t your heritage and issues relating to it show?

Why can’t Obama?

spob:
Why don’t you just rub that stimulus package between your legs a little harder.

The incident in question was as much about “contempt of cop” as anything else. I’m not fan of cops. The type of personality that wants to be a cop is usually the last person who should be a cop, lots of self esteem issues and a deep need to dominate. This cop felt dissed, and while he may or may not be racist, I assure you he is a petty little man.
.
Maybe BHO was creating a little controversy so DJ Jazzy David Gregory might off him an interview on friendly territory? Oh, that’s right….that’s only on the Republican plan.
.
I wonder if this has anything to do w/ the press reaction:
.
“Print reporters in the White House press corps are seething at perceived slights against them by President Obama and his team. Many print journalists see their role being diminished as Obama and his aides seem to lavish attention on television anchors and reporters and on liberal bloggers, and this is raising the adversarial tone at the daily briefings of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/22/ignoring-watchdog-report_n_243235.html

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=8153681&page=1

This ABC article contains some pretty interesting quotes to see the context of all this:

First, on what such an incident would mean for a victim of police overreaction if he weren’t a well-connected college professor:

“They let him off the hook,” said [A high-ranking Cambridge police official, who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity]. “The mayor threw the department under the bus. She might as well open the city’s checkbook. … If Professor Gates was poor, he’d be in a jail cell.”

“Legally, the prosecution made the right call,” said [David Frank, a former prosecutor and a writer for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly]. “The issue, though, is that if Gates were an electrician from Everett and not a well-known professor from Harvard, the reality is that in all likelihood he would have to defend himself against the charges in a courtroom.

Second, a window into the arrogance and mendacity of the police:

“Mr. Gates was given plenty of opportunities to stop what he was doing. He didn’t. He acted very irrational. He controlled the outcome of that event,” [Sgt., James] Crowley told WBZ. “The apology won’t come from me. I’ve done nothing wrong”

“Obama “was dead wrong to malign this police officer specifically and the department in general,” Alan McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, told ABC News today.

“With one sentence, our president set this country back 100 years. For the president of the United States to use a prime-time news conference to push through comments in favor of his friend that cast police officer in this country as stupid is unforgiveable,” Carnell said at the headquarters of the Boston police.

“The actions of the Cambridge Police Department, and in particular, Sgt. Joseph Crowley, were 100 percent correct,” said Hugh Cameron, president of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police. “He was responding to a report of two men breaking into a home. The police cannot just drive by the house and say, ‘Looks like everything is OK.’”

Gosh, these people don’t take themselves too seriously, now do they? I don’t mind a good d*ck measuring contest now and again but its loses some of it’s fun when only one side has the guns, badges and the ability to ruin your life if they don’t like the outcome.

This is the most ignorant group of responses I have ever heard. This has nothing to do with race, period. I am white and if my white neighbor called he police out of concern because it was dark outside and I looked like I was trying to break into my house, and the police came, as they are required to by law when called, and asked me for my id just to make sure I was who I was supposed to be and not a burglar, I would have just given them my id and thanked them for coming to check on the call. I would have done this regardless of it was a black cop or a white cop or a purple cop. Instead he chose to yell and complain and claim racism and refused to show id and had to act like a child.
Playing the race card here is absolutely absurd. I, a white man, would have been arrested for acting like this man did and creating a disturbance just as this loser was. Cry me a river Obama and Jesse Jackson and everyone else complaining because the police were doing their job and trying to protect and serve. Let’s all march the streets and ignite a race riot because this guy is a Harvard educated black man and was asked to show his id.

It seems to me that the only nonsense here is your refusal to acknowledge that even your words have consequences.

” It was also probably a mistake to delve into a local police matter, even though it involved a friend of his. And we just don’t know what happened–the professor and the police officer are offering dueling accounts.”

You may be above indulging in racial stereotypes consciously, but the kind that we speak of, the kind that hurts black folks most, is rarely conscious. In your world an officer whom you don’t know, from a police force with documented racial bias problems, was given at least as much, if not more credibility than the renowned African American you claim to know. You opted to normalize Gates’ so-called bad behavior by labeling it a typical response any one would have under the same circumstances. However, at no point did you question the voracity of the police, which is white America’s default position consciously or not.

Gates, who says that he was racially profiled, disrespected and humiliated in his own home in a way that not being a black man in America you could ever understand has to prove that he wasn’t the perpetrator. And when it is pointed out, that the way you framed your comments helps to perpetuate the stereotypes, instead of trying to learn from it and do better — you dismiss it as nonsense. Gates is right about one thing, this is not about him it is about the millions of vulnerable black men in America who can’t pick up the phone and call a president.

You claim that his discussion is a distraction from health care reform, but it is the same kind of unconscious adherence to racial biases that are responsible for health disparities in minority health outcomes. Moreover, African Americans expanded the electorate by three points in order to give Obama a victory and this is an issue that is very important to them.

Yes, Obama can’t be the black president, but that doesn’t mean he ought to just act like we don’t exist either.

“The actions of the Cambridge Police Department, and in particular, Sgt. Joseph Crowley, were 100 percent correct,” said Hugh Cameron, president of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police

“Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested after forcing his way into his own house in what he and other blacks say was an outrageous but all-too-common example of how police treat them.

The city of Cambridge called the arrest “regrettable and unfortunate,” and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution ”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly

So they were 100 percent correct to charge him and dropping the charges was a just resolution?

I don’t know PNNTO, but here’s a bit of corruption involving 100% participation by Republicans:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/23/new.jersey.arrests/index.html

OT, I agree, but given the amount of urine-slinging…

the brain — really?

Unlike the CIA – Police officers, Republicans, right wing radio hosts and media commentators never lie.

I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind if they arrested you for trying to get into your own home because you lost your keys.

Lots of white…white…white…white in your statement, there, brainy. Are you trying to broadcast your “impartiality” or what?

thebrain3
July 23, 2009
at 2:18 pm
Reply to this comment

Largely, what you said.

I don’t think the cop should have arrested him, but Gates’ behavior was wrong.

That’s quite a story Fifty. That’s a lot of money moving around.

Binge and purge, folks. Let’s get back on the “no feeding” wagon.

Cincy –

I agree with the print reporters’ contention that too much time is spent on teevee “reporters,” but not because there’s not enough deference to the print folks. Too much time is spent on teevee “reporters” because they aren’t very good at covering news. If the print folks want more time to satisfy their egos, screw ‘em – go to the bloggers more.

You people are a bunch of fools. Or tools.
A woman saw two men trying to force their way into a neighbor’s house. She naturally called the police. This is a house that has been broken into before, according to Professor Gates.
When Officer Crowley arrived, he attempted to establish two things: (1) Did Gates belong inside the house or was he maybe one of the two men reportedly trying to break in? and (2) Was Gates reluctant to come outside because there was someone else inside possibly holding a gun on him ?
Officer Crowley acted with courtesy and caution in trying to determine the seriousness of the situation. Gates acted like the racist fool that he is.
There were dozens of witnesses, including other police officers, who saw Gates being loud and disorderly. They have corroborated Crowley’s story. He was warned more than once to calm down, but pursued the officer outside and down the sidewalk to berate him loudly.
The police can, and frequently do, make arrests for disorderly conduct. It is a legitimate charge. Obama knew not one damn thing about the incident, yet did not hesitate to voice his opinion that the police acted “stupidly,” and then went on to strongly imply that the police are “racist.” Good role modeling there, Mr. Prez.
Personally, I think if the Cambridge Police Department ever gets another call concerning a break-in at Gates’ house, they should take their sweet time responding. The only way a white police officer can avoid being called a racist when dealing with a black racist is by not having contact with him in the first place.

25 years ago when I was living in Albany, NY I returned home from a weekend away to find I didn’t have my keys.

My apartment building bordered a park, but was seedy to the extent that several times someone had set fires in the exterior stairwell down to the basement, perhaps just for warmth, perhaps with malicious intent.

At any rate, I knew my first floor front bay window, only a few feet off the ground, was unlocked. I went and got a male friend – who brought a chair – and he got on the chair, pushed open the window, went in the apartment and let me in. (my keys were in my apartment door. ouch. I locked the windows from thence). My front window was a sidewalk width from the street. A tall apartment building with lots of windows overlooking the street was right across from me.

No one stopped, no one called the police. If the police had come I wouldn’t have expected to be arrested for breaking into my own house. I don’t have to deal with living while black.

The Pres doesn’t know what really happened and neither do we. I also noticed a black police officer in one of the pictures. Was he being stupid, too, or only the white officer. It sounds like there was plenty of stupidity to go around on this one. The Pres only made it news worthy with his stupid comment. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, black, white, sounds like they both need some sensitivity training and a time out. The Pres should have kept his opinion to himself. He shouldn’t have given an answer, period.

No time to hang out ‘n chat but I do want to note that it seems to me that JK’s concern has a lot more to do with process than substance and attributes a lot more importance to Cable gasbags and other assorted peers and collegues than it does to anything the President may have to say on a topic that clearly interests him.

Like Jake Tapper and company whining about a HuffPo blogger getting a question, this strikes me as being more about Cablevision trying to control your world and Obama being uninterested in playing along.

Note that I’m currently someone out of touch. Everthing I know about the incident AND the Presser comes from this one comment thread. Some things are clear nevertheless……

shepherdwong, I think it is hilarious tat you refer to the “arrogance” of the police! How about the “arrogance” of the President of the United States in declaring a rather ordinary arrest of someone being disorderly a “racist” incident and a “stupid” one, as well?
His four years have just begun. Get used to cringing whenever he opens his mouth (which is pretty much all the time) because I am positive he still has a lot more ignorant, racist, un-American, meaningless things to say and won’t hesitate to say them. I say, keep talkin’, Big O!

I was foolish not to see that this was going to happen when I first posted on the press conference last night. If the President wants to keep the focus on health care–as I’m sure he does–he was wrong to respond as he did.

The problem with this statement, Joe, is that it implicitly blames Obama for the media’s deficiencies. It’s not Obama’s fault that the mainstream media is obsessed with phony controversy, especially where race is involved.

In any case, the media wasn’t going to seriously discuss the substance of Obama health care remarks, no matter what he said about Gates. When was the last time you heard a serious conversation about the specifics of health care policy in the mainstream media?

Would Mr. Gates have the same “attitude” if these same police saved his house from being robbed? No. Everyone’s psyche is combative when confronted by authority. Mr. Gates position in society was personally challenged and he behaved childishly… as did our president. It appears our president showed a side of racism that we haven’t seen in his presidency up until now. I hope for the president’s sake that he recognizes this and stops it before he bites his nose to spite his face. There, now the problem is all better.

Am I missing something here? Gates is arrested AFTER he has presented proof the house he entered is his. Why is the cop still there? His reason for being there had concluded and he should have left immediately. He had no legitimate purpose nor right to stay any longer. But he apparently did.

It really looks like Gates was arrested for Contempt of Cop. Suppose (for argument’s sake) Gates really was loud inside his own home and made rude comments about the cop’s mother. So what? If the cop can’t handle rudeness without arresting someone then he should find a more suitable line of work.

Gates was creating a public disturbance, was he not? Per the report of the officer who has not been found to have done anything wrong he warned Gates to calm down, and Gates intentionally refused. Gates committed a misdemeanor crime and at that point it is at the officer’s discretion to arrest him. Calling the behavior of the office “sub-professional” is again besmirching an officer who reacted from all accounts in a professional and courteous manner to an unreasonable citizen who refused to comply with a perfectly lawful and reasonable request to identify himself and verbally assaulted the officer by calling him a racist. That behavior is NOT ACCEPTABLE. There is no excuse for refusing to obey the lawful order of a peace officer who is attempting to ensure the safety of himself and the citizens around him INCLUDING GATES by attempting to ensure that his property was secure after a reported break-in. It’s really not that tough folks. We can argue semantics or look to the real heart of the matter which is the throwing of the race card. That’s what happened here and it was intentional and calculated on the part of Gates. There was no racism on the part of the officer and we all know it! But political correctness dictates that we all get spun up about it because the media loves nothing better than to paint white folks as closet bigots.

OVERLY NOSEY!!???!! There was a REPORTED BREAK-IN. The cop has EVERY right in America to question AND ID anyone in the home suspected of being broken into.

What if it was a break-in at your home and the criminal just pretended to be you and the cops didn’t push for ID and proof of residence!?!?

The cop had a RESPONSIBILITY to respond to this call and acted accordingly. Gates had no right to belittle the cop and just be plain rude. If he should be mad at anyone, go find the neighbor and ask them to not watch out for your home anymore. Maybe gates would rather have his home broken into than flash his ID to a cop doing his public duty!

Gates can’t be too bright if he won’t get his own front door in his supposedly ‘nicer home’ fixed after a previous burglary attempt. He’s obviously not too bright if instead of saying, “I’m the homeowner. Here’s my ID.” he accused the cop of being a racist. This is NORMAL for a cop to ask for ID & for the homeowner to answer the officer’s questions.It is UGLY for a black man to scream insults of racism at a white officer without cause! —- Of course, the Usurper-in-chief claims he doesn’t see Gates as being disorderly. He sat in front of the hateful anti-white, anti-American ranting Rev. Wright for 20 yrs & claimed he didn’t know where Rev. Wright stood on those issues! You’re gonna trust him on issues of the character of others? Not if you actually use that brain in your head to think, you won’t.

‘Gates was creating a public disturbance, was he not?’

In his own house??

The officer was there for one purpose only – to investigate a possible robbery report, nothing else. Once he found out that the “robber” was actually the homeowner, he had absolutely no business there. Police aren’t allowed to enter a building without reason, and that includes Gates’s house. Once it was clear there was no robbery, there was no reason for the cop to keep questioning Gates. It’s that simple, regardless of what Gates may (or may not) have said.

All the people complaining that Gates should’ve been more respectful to the officer, remember that Crowley was essentially trespassing at this point. He had absolutely no legal reason to be within “verbal abuse” range, and even if he was, he should’ve shown at least an ounce of professionalism and just walked away, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do that I guess.

As always, I just love the wingnut reaction:

1) Obama shouldn’t have said anything because we don’t know the facts of what happened.

Also:

2) Gates was creating a public disturbance (in his own home).

3) Gates “verbally assaulted the officer”.

4) Gates (and Obama) are “besmirching an officer who reacted from all [police] accounts in a professional and courteous manner to an unreasonable citizen.”

5) “There was no racism on the part of the officer and we all know it!”

6) Gates deserved to be arrested in his own home, even after officers knew it was his home, because he “verbally assaulted the officer by calling him a racist.”

I wonder what the wingnuts would say if the homeowner were white and the officers were black federal agents. (actually I don’t wonder at all, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan’s heads would explode simultaneously).

Gates had provided identification. The cop arrested him anyway. Stupid.

President Obama was right to call out Sgt. James Crowley. If Crowley can’t man up and take responsibility for his misconcduct and feels he can still tell the President to “butt out”, he needs a new career in loss prevention at the local Walmart.

What he doesn’t need is a peace officer’s license and a commission.

My goodness Joe, you really stirred the troops today!

Go easy on this guy….it must have been tough growing up in America white and Christian, and that was before President Scary Black Guy.

you are so right.

In fact, it’s not clear how he got in the house. Did he enter the house without a warrant assuming there were burglars inside? Did he knock on the door and was he admitted by Gates?

Congratulations swamplanders, you have illustrated Klein’s point: Obama’s comment was a “mistake” because now his healthcare message is on the backburner. You can’t blame this on the right — 80+ comments and counting on this very left of center blog. And you can’t blame it on the MSM — they’re just giving the public what they want.

Kathy, here is the police report.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html

Gates was in the foyer of the house and saw the officer before he came in.

bobcn1, Gates and the officer were outside with a number of onlookers in the final minutes of the confrontation. Doesn’t necessarily justify the arrest, but those are the facts.

Why didn’t the cop simply leave after it was clear that no robbery was being committed? Has a reason for his staying been given?

Gates followed the cop outside after he established identification. The arrest took place not long afterward.

I thought I’d post this here, a comment I posted earlier today on a NY Times article. Just a personal perspective about all of this….

I rarely publicly discuss this personal incident, but reading so many of the comments, I have to post it, and hope some who assume that Gates was clearly in the error rather than the officer should realize how easily the police can abuse their authority.

I was a Harvard student living in Boston during the 90s, and in that time I had a car that allowed me to drive all across Boston, the outer suburbs, up to Vermont and Maine. One such evening, I drove a friend to a small town in southern Vermont late one evening. After dropping her off at the house and while parked out front and watching her to be sure she entered allright, I attempted to start the engine of my car and leave. Unfortunately, the engine had flooded and I was stuck.

Within a few minutes a patrol care of the local PD came up to the car, the officer came out and came up to my window to ask about my situation. I proceeded to explain what happened and the problem with my car. Very simply he acknowledged the situation, kindly asked for my idea simply to write up a report to properly indicate why he had stopped. I willingly gave him my identification and waited for its return.

Within 20 minutes, several other patrol cars appeared, each blocking my vehicle in on the side of the road. They all exited their cars and came up to mine asking me to once again repeat my story. I did so, becoming increasingly worried and nervous. here I was, a Latino on a dark street with very few homes surrounded by 5 officers.

Within another few minutes, another police cruiser pulled up, the car clearly marked with sergeant on the door. The officers, after asking me to exit my vehicle and proceeding to inspect the inside of my car – naturally asking me and I nervously agreeing – then stepped to the sergeants car. In a few minutes they returned.

They began to describe that after running my identification they had returned a warrant in Pennsylvania for an individual with the same common last name as I. A last name similar to Smith for American last names, mine is extremely common for Latinos. This warrant for an individual with a similar last name, similar physical description – as you can imagine for a Latino, brown hair, brown skin, brown eyes, and the truly one unfortunately similarity, the same birthdate.

I know had two options, I could be taken back with them to their precinct while they reviewed and determined my identity and whether or not I was in fact this individual in the warrant. Or because the description also noted that the individual in the warrant had a tattoo on his left leg, I could disrobe out of my pants there in the street in front of them, and verify I did not have a tattoo.

What would you have done? What could you imagine a 21 year old would do? Would I know enough about my rights? Would I know enough to speak up about the failed logic of assuming that a Latino in a country of millions of Latinos with similar physical descriptions and common names and the unfortunate similarity of the same birthdate would still some how be in Vermont of all places? Would I stand up for myself and tell them what they were asking was degrading and humiliating?

No, in fear, I complied. I disrobed. Never in my life have I ever been more humiliated, degraded, and made to feel less than human. And unfortunately, I have had several similar experiences happen to me – this being the most offensive.

Its easy for individuals to say that Gates should have kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately, our country was built by men and women who never kept their mouths shut, who risked arrest, who risked physical violence in order to speak up for the respect of their legal rights as citizens of this country and to be respected as humans. Anyone could be and would be angry to have been treated as Gates was, and he deserves credit to be so angered. Because to often, those of us who have similar and worse experiences, are cowed to servility and ashamed to speak up.

I was humiliated that day, in ways very few can understand. but today I am further humiliated, that I wasn’t man enough to stand up for myself, stand up for my rights, to speak out when I knew they were wrong, simply to avoid arrest, or God-forbid worse, because it was the easiest thing to do. I give credit to those who stand up, even at the risk of public outcry that says you were wrong. Well today, I am one who says he was right, because to many like me, never said a word, and the status quo continues. I hope my son will have greater strength of character not to give in the way I did that night. I hope and I hope for so many young men of color, they never have to make the choice I did that night and look down on themselves the rest of their lives.

yoshi, thanks for the police report link but it is meaningless, as it is nothing but a CYA attempt to justify a poor decision made by the police.

…and a gun.

…so many comments, whew. Some irony here with Crowley (if this was already posted earlier, my bad)
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186708

Looks like your mind is made up.

dee, you should know racism when you see. After all, black americans are the worlds greatest perpetrators and perpetuaters of RACISM. Everything is racial with you people.

This is a cop doing his duty, case closed.

You want to talk about rights, the police have EVERY right to question gates for his ID in their effort to INVESTIGATE A REPORTED BREAK-IN.

Maybe you should put your home on the cops “do not call list” so they won’t make the mistake of investigating breaking and entering reports at your residence.

Mine is. Arresting a man in his own home for insulting you is an act of pure ego, not police work. I don’t care what the cops wrote down after the fact to justify what they did. BTW, you do know that cops lie all the time in those things, right?

Obama said he didn’t know all the facts…but then went on to delve into the dispute anyway.

And the officer in question is an expert on racial profling, he taught a class at a police academy for five years on racial profling, after being picked by a police commisioner who is black.

I don’t think this should be about the president in the grand scheme of this, and I think it’s an honest mistake. But still…he’s wrong on this one.

….Joe didn’t *intentionally* plan to rile us up? nah….

Excellent, let’s take the racial profiling out of the equation.

What we have left is an incompetent officer who is too arrogant and/or stupid not to arrest a citizen standing in his home where no crime has taken place.

Race is only skin-deep, but stupid goes right down to the bone.

That is the greatest internal national security threat to the citizens and residents of this nation.

From Andrew Sullivan’s blog:
.

‘My last trial as a public defender involved a client who was pulled over and asked to produce his license. Before doing so he repeatedly asked the officer why he was being stopped. The officer forcefully yanked the man out of his car, threatened to taser him and arrested him in front of his 9 year old boy. It should be noted the officer was white and my client Mexican/Hispanic. While he was getting loaded into the police cruiser the client asked why he was being arrested. “Because you’re an @sshole,” the cop replied.’
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/07/when-is-conduct-disorderly.html#more.

.
Pretty typical of petty police behavior. In the end they are much like our corporate press….it’s always about them, and if you don’t grovel for them, they get their little egos bruised. I mean imagine Dana Milbank as a cop.
.
*edited so as not to cause Time’s pearl clutching bot to keel over and die.

I think if Joe Klein or Obama actually read the police report…which is noticeably absent in Time …They’d be singing a different tune.

Henry Gates was not arrested for being black. He was arrested for being a pompous ass. The only person that appears to be a “rascist” is Mr. Gates. The arresting officer is being backed up by his fellow officers..Black and White.

I hope Obama wasn’t counting on law enforcement for future votes. His comment was “stupid” and poorly conceived.

I read the police report the day of the incident. Somehow I didn’t expect the officer to say “I lost my cool and didn’t just walk away when he showed his ID. He was acting like a jerk so I cuffed him – he might have taken his cane and hit me in the shins!” I expected him to write the kind of CYA report he did. “I was cool, calm and collected and he was out of control and a danger to his neighborhood.”

As far as I know, there is no law against being a pompous ass. Particularly on one’s own property. But I live in PA, not MA and the laws may be different there.

Well if being a ” pompous ass.” is a crime, they really would be rounding up and arresting white Christian conservatives now wouldn’t they….don’t you feel silly?

Not that I disagree with your opinion of the arrest, but they were outside in the middle of a gathering crowd.

Being a “pompous ass” isn’t a justifiable reason for arresting someone. It’s an excuse. A very, very lame excuse. The cop should have just walked away after ID was verified. He didn’t just walk away. Bad cop. Bad pompous ass cop.

Yoshi, you’re the one with your mind made up.

Gates was not creating a public disturbance. He has a bronchial infection and certainly can’t scream. He was on his own front porch.

The police overeacted.

Not to denigrate what happened to you, ymmartin, but the cops catch a lot of people running checks like this. It happens to all.
.
Running background checks has gotten a lot of murderers etc. off the streets. And has saved lives. Obviously, the police were nervous too in your situation.

And so did Gates. What an ass. And Obama showed his worldview by not acknowledging Gates’ outrageous conduct.

The cop overeacted. Gates overeacted. Voices were raised. BFD. An arrest or cuffing never should have taken place. The cop is supposedly trained for situations like this. Where was his training?

I’m not sure how fair it is to pick apart the story and insult tiny pieces of what the journalist said, but if you’re going to do it, do it right. When he wrote “…until you consider the following: the frustration of not being able to get into his own house, the likelihood the he was jet-lagged out of his skull,” I didn’t feel that he was speaking of only black men. Instead, my understanding was that ANYONE, whether they be white, black, orange or purple, would be frustrated. I certainly would not be happy with the situation, let alone with officers bothering me about getting into my home.

I’m not sure how racial I think this is, however, I do think it to be another example of the cops abusing their power. As soon as Gates showed them proof that he was the owner, they should have left. There is no need to stay in a place where it is obvious you are not needed. Serve and protect, don’t bother for the sake of it. As far as the comments Gates made about racism and “Why, because I’m a black man?” I think it made him look ignorant. He’s obviously a well established, intelligent man and I think for anyone, of any race, to throw race into the picture in a situation where the cops were responding to a possible robbery call, is ignorant. For someone of that intelligence, I’m sure he could have come up with something meaningful, that had nothing to do with race, that would have been more effective.

The scene that the cops made was un-called for. Bringing it to the porch for the neighborhood to see was also un-called for. Most cops in general, are un-called for. I am no fan of the police, however, to immediately assume the cops are there due to race, is un-called for in itself. I do not agree with the police continuing their questioning. I have personal experiences of the same sort and I was never treated unfairly; as soon as I proved my ownership, they left.

Pushing the racism piece aside, I think one could infer that this is a situation similiar to a lot of situations with local police, where they’re just waiting for someone to mess up in order to arrest them. They put their efforts into arresting a man who would soon be let go, charge free. I’ve had personal experiences that remind me of this. They seem to have a way of always being where they don’t need to be, but never being there when you need them to. It’s a classic example of a power-hungry police officer, trying to make an example out of someone.

This isn’t to say that I don’t think racial profiling occurs. Coming from a community where I, being white, was the minority, I can truthfully attest to the fact that it does happen. I don’t think this is a situation of race, I think it’s more a situation of two people with that couldn’t handle their tempers. One being a very prominant professor and the other being a cop, who is used to people standing down. I can only hope that someone will stand up to a cop, with a valid point and make a headline that pulls half the influence and velocity of this one.

I commend the President for speaking his mind in this issue. This is the kind of commander-in-chief that we need. What he said was explicit in what what he stands for.

Studies have shown that both Blacks and Whites have an unconscious preference for whites than blacks – in
school, in the workplace or anywhere.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617142120.htm

Functional MRI’s have shown among Black and White subjects fear (greater activity in the Amygdala)when shown Black faces compared to white faces.

We are all wired and programmed in our upbringing to be biased against Blacks.

The President is well aware of this. It is not a mistake for the President speak his mind and state his opinion on sensitive issues.

Once it was established that there was no burglary, the officer should have left even if a black man was screaming and cussing.

Remember that I’m with you regarding the arrest being wrong.

However, this should not raise racial sentiments. Gates’ behavior was a matter of class. He treated the officer hysterically and disrespectfully with a torrent of hyperbolic platitudes.

Instead, he should have produced his ID without complaint and been a little more grateful to the officer for responding.

Remember, when an officer responds to a break-in report like this one, to paraphrase a poster in a different thread, HE HAS NO CLUE WHO ANYBODY IS.

The post you’re arguing with agrees with you. He wasn’t calling the cop a pompus ass. Instead, he was saying that Gates has every right to be a jerk, especially on his own property.

Just a thought.

Certainly the profiling part is confusing. How does an officer trained in racial profiling AND TEACHES IT to the academy fail to see the disconnect? An elder man with a cane trying to enter his own home is probably NOT a burglar or jewel thief, and certainly not a copycat of the Phantom trying to steal the Pink Panther.

I wasn’t arguing with the post. Just making a comment. I’m not anti-cop by any stretch of the imagination. I’m personally friends with a good half dozen and go to their homes as well as have them over to mine. All of the ones I know would have walked away. That would have been the end of it.

I hear stories from them all the time and they are trained to calm people down and avoid unnecessary confrontations. Not letting a situation escalate is a primary goal. That cop failed miserably.

I don’t think Obama planned to go off script and I don’t fault him for it. Considering the racist BS that he endures on a daily basis, it’s a wonder Obama has been so even up to now. Even Gene Robinson was practically shaking with poorly concealed rage last night on Hardball.

I could totally believe that Officer Crowley is not consciously racist but having an “uppity” black dude challenge your authority can touch a deep nerve in the white male consciousness. Remember Michael Richards who had no known history of racism and how he reacted when he was challenged in that comedy club.

Skip Gates had a natural reaction to an injustice and so did Obama. It hit a nerve for all of them, including the officer. All of this unresolved racial stuff that lurks below the surface and poisons our society has to come out. Maybe this is just as important as healthcare. Maybe more so.

re #12 mark0117
July 23, 2009
at 4:59 pm
So much parochialism, so much pollyanna-ish ignorance

Henry Gates was not arrested for being black. He was arrested for being a pompous ass…

This is generally considered false arrest, I would imagine; because, alas, stupidity is not illegal (granted, it should be, but it’s not).

The arresting officer is being backed up by his fellow officers..Black and White.

I’m guessing the whole “thin blue line” meme is foreign to your life’s experiences. I grew up in DC; through the period of my time there, the “tone” of the Metro police as well as the surrounding counties (MD and VA) become increasingly, umm, “dark”. Didn’t matter. The darker your skin color, the less relevent was the phrase “the police are your friends”. The police, regardless of color, had loyality to their fellow officers, first. Arguments to the contrary may be placed right up there next to the contrary experiences and learned attitudes of whole communities.

And, unfortunately, I don’t remember where I just yesterday say the report of police amusement at the arrest; considered, by the police, to be something along the lines of “arrested while being disrespectful” to the police. Pure d!ck-waving abuse of authority, and both widely known and practiced.

Joe says: “Let me be clear: I might have blown up, too, in the frustrating circumstances–especially if I were jet-lagged and having trouble getting into my house (been there, done that, by the way, cursing furiously–though without police intervention.)”

Of course, you “might have” but you can admit that for you this will always be a hypothetical, that if a gimpy white bloke like you were in the same situation the cops would have never been called in the first place, or if they were they’d have struck an entirely different tone upon arrival to the scene. So your would-be outrage is of no consequence–it’s not a relevant comparison.

And if it was such a distraction to his message, what of your post, top dog today at the Swamp while KT’s H-C threads have far more modest comment counts?

In the end, white Americans will always by and large underest. the outrage blacks feel in an America that still profiles them (and I don’t merely mean the police, I also mean the granny eyeing you as you pass down her street). I mean the WASPy pricks on my barrier island in Florida who would call the cops for just that offense, making no distinction between the wealthy tourist from DC and the Haitian boatperson washed ashore.

I’m a bleeding heart liberal from birth, but no experience helped me to appreciate Ralph Ellison or Richard Wright or Toni Morrison or Amy Tan like living in a rural town of an Asian country, as an exoticized other, refused service at local businesses, deemed a Russian mobster, eyed in shops, thought to be more likely to carry HIV. Voluntary, as a 1st world visitor, I could/can leave anytime, so I don’t say it’s of parallel significance, but it’s a wonderful experience (albeit annoying at times), until you’ve been an other….

Maybe I’m blind, but where in Obama’s answer did he claim racism? He said the arrest was stupid – which is sounds to be, no matter who is arrested. From the reports I’d use stronger words like incompetence to describe the cop’s actions. Whether they were prompted by racial profiling is of course relevant and interesting in the broader debate, but has nothing to do with what the President said.

If we used moderation points on this site, I’d give you +5 insightful for that. That cat analogy is so bloody spot-on.

There was no racism on the part of the officer and we all know it!

If, by that, you mean that the cop didn’t specifically come out and call him a n!gger, then, no, I guess you could say you’re right.

But, then, if this were any white person – short of a homeless vagabond, another easy target – we wouldn’t be talking about this, now, would we? The cop would’ve gone on his way and the situation would’ve evaporated. And doesn’t that, by itself, indicate that, yep, racism was involved?

I’ll bet your attitude would change if the shoe were on the other foot, and white people were the perennial victims of black oppression and racial profiling.

(actually I don’t wonder at all, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan’s heads would explode simultaneously)

Literally? Oh, goodness, one could pray for such a thing…

Health care has had a blog entry almost every day for the past two weeks, at least. It’s not like we can talk about only one thing at a time. We’re MSM reporters…

Oops: “we’re _not_ MSM reporters”…

Certainly, spob. Why, just last week, I saw three white guys pulled over in separate incidents, and each one had to disrobe, right there, in public. Oh, wait – that doesn’t happen to white guys.

Stfu, you douche bag.

yoshiattack,

Thanks for the policeman’s report. I still don’t think it absolves him of (at least) poor judgment, however.

The report clearly states that the policeman told Gates to follow him outside while Gates was demanding that the officer identify himself. He then used Gates alleged shouting in public as the pretext to arrest him.

The cop should have just given his ID and left. That would have been the end of it. No crime was committed here.

It’s good to know that driving while Black is now in second place to entering your own home when Black!

There seems to be a pattern of Black men returning to their homes after work, a night out, or after going to the supermarket or shopping mall. They come home to their homes expecting to enter normally as the white folks do but thanks to their scared to death good White neighbors who call the police they are handcuffed, arrested and prevented from entering. Whatever made Black men think they had a right to enter their own homes without being harassed by the police?

The good news is that they are eventually released so the same police can stop them when they are in the cars for driving while Black. Thankfully, the cops are able to prevent Black men from entering their own homes now too. What a color blind society we live in! Makes you feel glad these same brilliant folks are our front line in the war against terrorism, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure I’d actually pray for such a thing to happen…but I would be interested to see if they really had sh!t for for brains.

Yes, I have heard it suggested before that the Asian experience you speak of is as close as it ever comes for white Americans, I wish more would avail themselves of the opportunity..

Though I’d add that there’s a two-tiered xenophobic ideology here. White folks, largely expats like me, are (with rural exceptions) generally the “model minority.” It’s their fellow “inferior” Asians who really get the short end of the stick here.

And again, whatever forms of discrimination I’ve faced, in a land where “becoming Japanese” is wholly impossible (nor my goal), none of my discomfort or wounded pride can possibly rival the far more egregious injustices practiced upon blacks in their own freakin’ country, often enough by ignorant white folks with shorter American family trees.

Let’s just say it’s easier to be bemused by ignorance when it’s someone else’s country. Now, when some of these fools start raving about how cute my 1/2 child later this year…

Obama knows that you have a police force that is way way out of line. Many black Americans have suffered at the hands of these policemen and women who seem to think they are some kind of autonomous military force. Then again you Americans have been deluded into thinking you actually live in the land of the free and the brave. Neither free, nor brave as the rest of the world now knows having witnessed your appalling behaviour in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and every other nation you have been at war with constantly since the birth of your state. So it comes as no surprise that you treat your fellow citizens just as badly.

Ronan, mate! Please qualify your attacks on my nation (of my nation, what ish my nation?) There are 300 million of us Yanks, and not all of us, as you’d surely agree, are “deluded” rubes. Nor keen on the wars of this or that president. So, please, there’s much we can likely agree on, but spare us the condescending 2nd person generalizations, mate.

And if you’re from that beloved emerald isle, couldn’t the same be said of “your” history, or “your” ill treatment of browns and yellows at home/abroad.

As a Cambridge resident i can tell you that if you dis a local cop he will arrest you. Most have a God complex and Gates freaked out. The Boston globe had a quote “I’m outraged …this is really about justice for the least amongst us” Thats hilarious. He is far from “the least amongst us” being a tenured professor at Harvard and probably having an income of 100K ++. I can understand his anger because blacks do get hassled by cops but if I insulted a cops mother and was arrested there is not way in hell the charges would be dropped. Being a Harvard professor has its privileges.

Maybe I’m blind, but where in Obama’s answer did he claim racism?

I guess you missed his addendum.

Ronan Gallagher
July 23, 2009
at 8:34 pm

Are you trying to live up to a European caricature?

What is most amazing considering how political commenters generally scrutinize every aspect of every side of any issue presented, that so many readily accept the police report as unassailable. For Africans Americans the ultimate insult is that no matter how hard we work, how well we lead our lives and what stations in life we reach we remain unable to ever receive the benefit of the doubt. In a year where we’ve discussed whether an American vice president has lied, whether the cia has lied or whether the speaker of the house has lied it never occurs to anyone in the media to even pose the question on whether the police may lie?

Dee – you’re right. This is the nub of the issue, and I haven’t seen anyone else express it this way, but I’ve noticed that now that the police report has been put out lots of people have been behaving as if now we know the facts. (I’m interested that we haven’t heard from the other officers).

Also, after agreeing that the matter should be dropped, the Cambridge police have violated that agreement by campaigning. Though I do think Obama helped that along.

As time goes on Joe looks more prescient though, as this is getting out of hand.

Man, I am so glad the media is obsessing over this.

It’s not like we have any really important stuff to discuss.

Kathy– on one level I agree with you, primarily because of my recent entry into the realm of the uninsured, but on the other hand this is an important issue to minority communities. It is especially important to a new generation of African American men who voted for the first time just to support President Obama. We already know the impact of Obama on their perceptions of what is possible for them in this country and for some its the first time they have looked at themselves and found value. They have bought into the President’s vision of hope so it is equally important if this belief is to continue that the President remains a credible voice in the community. While some may look at this as a distraction, and my personal prescription drug bills at the end of the month will probably put me in that category, the value of having the President take this opportunity to validate the reality of a group of citizens, who too often are accused of fabricating their experiences (playing the race card) when they speak of their daily humiliations, is immeasurable.

Geewhiz, even NPR had to do another story. This morning, the police officer. Whose defense is basically Gates was rude. My response, get over it. You claim to be so professional – what about defusing situations?

And Dee, thank you for expressing your point of view so well. I agree with you.

Let’s not lose sight of one of the facts. The reason the Police were there is that some vigilant neighbors thought it was someone breaking in. What happened from there only the officer and Mr. Gates know what happened. Yes I believe the officer should have took the high road and yes I believe Mr. Gates should have been a little more respectful. I do side with your comments Joe. And all of the “I know Skip Gates” comments brings me back to the 70′s when there was a guy terrorizing the states of Texas and New Mexico known as the “Pantsless Rapist”. When they finally caught him he was and eighth grade science teacher that would drive up to 250 miles at night claim a victim. I bet there were a lot of folks that thought ‘I Know.

Ivy B- thanks for your appreciation. I just wish Joe Klein would have understood what I was trying to say instead of labeling it nonsense. As the story is unfolding this morning, exploration of the incident is falling along racial lines. It is being left up to primarily black members of the media to explain the nuance perspectives of the racial component while whites are deferring to the police record and opting for the possibility that race is not a factor.

This is a moment when we need more of the liberal white media, who know in their hearts that they are not racists, to trust blacks when they say that racially motivated behaviors is not the same thing as racism. Only then can we talk about the unintentional consequences of unconscious racial bias. We all have this kind of bias, regardless of what race we are. Blacks have internalized many of the same biases against other blacks that whites have (I can recall Jesse Jackson’s statement about his more likely to fear blacks than whites walking behind him down the streets of DC). And until we have an honest dialogue about the little every day things that are taken for granted, the little daily slights that we are told to get over, the little dings that do immeasurable harm to the black psyche, we are never going to get passed our racial barriers no matter how many African American Presidents we elect.

I invite you Joe Klein to have this dialogue. If the loud mouthed, Dylan Ratigan can see this as an important issue with the potential for a more nuanced discussion, certainly you can as well. If the President of the United States can think this issue so important that he is willing to risk what he knows could be a racial backlash, then why would you not act as if the issue is important as well. Moreover, as a political reporter, it behooves you to seek a greater understanding of this incident, otherwise you will fail to ever truly understand the impact of this President on minorities in this country or understand this historic president as a man.

From the outset I was trying to tell you that your comments showed a fundamental misunderstanding about the President Obama despite your numerous interviews. Your reporting missed a critical component, partially, because of the racial perceptions we all possess to one degree or another. Clearly, your statements demonstrated that you did not understand the real importance of this issue to the President. Frankly, exploring issues that may possibly be a barrier to gaining a critical insight about a subject you are covering seems like a path to becoming a better reporter. And failure to engage on those grounds says that as much as you would strive to perfect your craft, you fear the subject of race more. Obviously, that would be sad, but I suspect it speaks to the crux of the problem when it comes to what prevents America from having the honest conversations needed to finally put race to rest.

jam, I was talking about after they had established that Gates lived there. At the point they established that Gates lived there, anything else was the cop being nosy.

Was it necessary to handcuff a 68 year old (he is 68 not 58) year old man who needs a cane to walk AFTER he showed his id and was clearly in his own home?

Forget race -
It was stupid

I loved a term I read yesterday about Gate’s offense…he was guilty of POP…Pissing Off Police!

How many people, black, hispanic and white get arrested around this country every day because they don’t kiss the officer’s @$$ and don’t show him the deference he expects…

This officer should have know better than to arrest a man on his own poarch after he’d identified himself as the owner!

This is an open and shut case of police abuse…and we’re only hearing about this constantly today because of Gate’s prominence and O’s remark!

I see fhm, you gave up on the Sotomayor thread–enjoy being pwned.

I don’t know why I should even grace this ridiculous statement with a response, but some of us have other things to do other than sit in front of a keyboard all day. In fact, you did not notice I responded to your snark comment about being “pwned” whatever that means.

What I will say is that Gates probably went overboard in his reaction to the police asking for ID. And he went overboard by making a comment about “yo mama” (I guess you can take the man from the ‘hood, but you can’t take the ‘hood from the man), but the fact that he was arrested for his inappropriate behavior is STUPID.

You know, Barack Obama really ought to ask his Drug Czar about hypersensitivity to race on the part of cops (which Obama is fomenting with his irresponsible statements). He also may want to ask the family of Kristopher Kime . . . .
.
I think he’d get a different perspective.

Mr “Brain”,

You seem to have missed the point. Professor Gates DID show the officer his ID and asked the officer to give his name and ID number. No matter how bad Mr. Gates may have acted, the officer could have at least given this information (In the times I have been stopped, I have asked for this information and it has been given). Second, even if I believe the officers version of the events, nothing Gates did constituted a crime deserving of arrest.

With all due respect, you are not a Black man and therefore, I doubt you are familiar with racial profiling. Black folks react because many of us have had experience when police follow us in neighborhoods where we don’t belong. Many of us experienced that on a constant basis.

In the news, it was reported that the police officer taught courses against racial profiling. If that was the case, he should have understood Gates reaction and left the scene.

As far as other people’s experence, a good White friend told me years ago of an experience, very similar to that of Professor Gates, and that he reacted the same way Gates did. However, in that case (and my friend was a young White male, much more likely to be an intruder than an old Black guy) the police left without incident.

Pont two makes absolutely no sense. Given that Gates just got into the house, and given that he was talking to an officer, how could anyone be holding a gun against him?

The real question is why did the police officer not give the information requested by Gates?

BTW, no one is saying the officer was wrong for going into the home and asking for ID. The problem was he did not properly identify himself and he blew his cool when Gates berated him and arrested Gates.

First I’d like to point out what a bunch of self-important, arrogant, whiny-@ss-titty-babies the police associations seem to be.

Second, I’d like to compliment Time for not furthering this complete non-story.

What is clear is that Sgt. Crowley did not use his better judgment. Even if I were to believe everything in his police report, he should have had enough sense to get Gates to calm down and then to leave.

Officers all the time use their discretion in whether to make an arrest or not. As an officer who supposively TEACHES on racial profiling, Gates reaction, no matter how irrational should have not caught him by surprise.

This is not to justify Gates’ behavior, but if the officer is suppose to be the one with the clear head (and the gun), he could have used better judgment.

Isn’t the issue Obama’s behavior, not Gates’ or the officer’s?
.
By the way, fhm, I notice your silence about Sotomayor botching Ginsburg’s dissent. Don’t worry, I know you know I am right, but it’s interesting how you fold up tent after engaging without admitting defeat.

So what do you think, sw, about the issues raised by Kristopher Kime’s death?

“Isn’t the issue Obama’s behavior, not Gates’ or the officer’s?”

Only for you, Limbaugh, Hannity and your fellow perpetually-aggrieved white guys. If not for Gates’ ego-driven overreaction, nothing would have happened. Now “the issue” is the media-generated frenzy over race relations and the arrogant, thin-skinned behavior of police everywhere. Kind of tends to prove the original problem Obama pointed to, doesn’t it?

Given that Obama opened his yap without knowing all the facts and then riffed on race, it’s interesting that to you the cops are the issue.

Obama commented on the facts that have never been in dispute: Cambridge police arrested a distinguished, old university professor in his own home after responding to a call about a possible break-in and discovering that it was, in fact, his own home. The justification they offered was essentially that Gates mouthed-off to Crowley – no threats, no violence – in other words, no justification at all.

The cops have further made themselves the issue by doubling-down and acting like a bunch of WATBs who can do no wrong even after this obvious case of cops abusing their power and acting stupidly.

First of all, spob, I notice you have been commenting on Gates’ behavior, in fact that has been your focus. As far as Obama’s behavior, I don’t have a problem with his comments. First of all he acknowledged he did not have all the facts. Second, he stated the arrest was stupid. Considering the charges were dropped, nothing refutes Obama’s statement, other than the officer graciously told the President to butt out. It is amazing how many have commented regarding the behavior of Gates and the officer without knowing the facts. After all, you claim Gates acted as an jerk without knowing the facts. I don’t claim to know all the facts, but even accepting what the officer stated happened (which I don’t accept either account without a grain of salt) there was nothing which justified an arrest.

Second, I have not commented on Sotomayor’s statement regarding Ginsberg’s opinion, because first of all, I did not read Ginsberg’s opinion and second, other than your postings, I have not followed Sotomayor’s response. Clearly the only person who is so fixated is you because I have seen no one else even comment on it.

As far as admitting you are “right” and accepting “defeat”, I am not interested in pissing contests.

This entire incident appears to me to be nothing less than an excuse to garner attention for Gate’s own agenda. Let me first say that anyone would rightly be annoyed by being asked by police to identify themselves in their own home. However, here are the facts. A neighbor views two black males attempting to force open the front door. They subsequently go around to the back yard. She calls the police. The police show up and a black male answers the door. It is standard operating procedure for them to ask for identification to ensure the individual is who he says he is. Mr. Gates, rather than simple being annoyed, yet cooperate nonetheless, lashes into a diatribe about being profiled. He, without any substantiation, accuses the officer of being a racist. He acted like a complete fool and he behaved in a manner that shames the legitimacy of those who actually are subject to racial inequities and targeted profiling. His theatrical and baseless antics were nothing short of contemptible. The officer was doing everything he was required to do to ensure that the alleged break-in was properly vetted. By all accounts of his fellow officers, including a black officer, he at no point overstepped his authority nor did he behave in any manner which would suggest a racist mentality. Mr. Gates, in an apparent belief of entitlement, chose to obstruct a perfectly benign inspect of the situation. When finally handing over his ID, he did so with more invective at the office, haranguing the officer onto the front porch. His actions were disorderly, nothing less. While the actual arrest could be construed as unnecessary, I find it wholly lacking in conviction for anyone to suggest they would not have done the same when faced with such verbal abuse and irrational behavior. Mr. Gates’ conduct is entirely indefensible. You can question the arrest and its effectiveness. But you cannot rationally excuse Mr. Gates’ behavior, nor can you reasonably suggest that his claim of racial profiling is grounded in anything other than delusion. President Obama’s decision to weigh in on such a matter and make unsubstantiated allegations against the police force, especially without knowledge of the facts, reeks of nepotism. The Cambridge Police Department is to be applauded in its demand for an apology.
~
I am genuinely curious as to the reaction were this event to have involved a white anti-affirmative action professor and a black arresting officer.

Sergeant Crowley is wrong for assuming that he is free of the taint of Racism. NO American has that luxury, and as long as he psychological effects of Racism still haunt us, we won’t be free of that taint. One way that will speed us towards the day when we grow out of the psychological effects of Racism is for Sgt. Crowley to remember that most African Americans, especially those with a very long memory of life in America, have a very deep distrust of the Police because of their history of collaboration with Racist elements in the government.
One of the reasons why Gates reacted the way he did – which is generally known throughout the African-American community – is because of the fear that if you “go quietly,” you will simply disappear from the face of the earth, or else show up the next day on a slab at the Morgue. No, you make as much noise as possible, so that Neighbors can document the exact time you were taken, and by whom. If you are lucky, a neighbor can even take pictures of the arrest that can be produced as evidence as necessary.
What SGT Crowley should have done is this case is simply this: Once Gates produced his identification, and Crowley was satisfied with the identification, Crowley – no matter the attitude displayed by Gates – should have acknowledged the error of identification, apologized for the inconvenience, say “Good Night”, make a note in his Memobook, and then moved on smartly. When he next saw his Superior, he should have given the facts to the Superior, and left it at that.
One reason why this should have been Sergeant Crowley’s course of action is the fact that this is exactly what he would have done if the person he was investigating was the President of Harvard, or the Mayor of Cambridge. Just as there is no positive political capital in stirring the pot with the President of Harvard or the Mayor of Cambridge, likewise there is no positive political capital in stirring the pot with Professor Gates. The African American Community won’t believe you (the Governor of Massachusetts – who is African American – has said as much), and the exposure of the entire incident in the Press hasn’t done positive things for the reputation that Cambridge has with the rest of the world.

People have come to assume that enough time has passed for the psychological effects of Racism to recede from the public consciousness. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

First, I would agree that racism is still very much a presence in the United States. But this goes for all Americans, not simply whites. Nearly everyone harbors some form of racial stereotype of other ethnics groups. It’s nearly an unavoidable reaction based on years of media and cinema depiction as well as real-life experience. People are prone to viewing difference with a slight air of ethnocentricity.

With that said, though, this incident did not occur in 1962 Mississippi. It happened in 2009 in Massachusetts, one of the first states to openly embrace homosexuality and a state with a sitting governor who is black. If your contention is that Mr. Gates behaved in the manner he did out of fear of being driven away by the cops to never again be heard from, then either you or Mr. Gates is utterly delusional. If this was Mr Gates reaction to a routine interaction with a cop then he has no business as a Harvard Professor. The mere idea that he should fear physical harm at the hands of a white cop, given his age, condition, and social status, would illustrate his blind racial bias and his complete detachment from reality. I find it laughable that this was the case.

Realistically, Mr Gates likely behaved the way he did out of some misguided sense of entitlement due to historical grievances, long nullified by exponential social progress, and seized the opportunity to further his own radical agenda of systemic racism in America.

Exiled_At_Home:

To quote the current Governor of Massachusetts, who is African American, what happened to Gates is “Every African American’s Nightmare.” Your remark about Massachusetts not being Mississippi tells me that you don’t know Massachusetts history. In that case, a little history lesson is in order. You will remember that I said that Vermont was the only original State that never had Slavery. Massachusetts emancipated theirs by the 1830s, and the last vestiges of official Racism did not pass away until the 1960s, when LBJ’s Civil Rights Act made Segregated Schools, Segregated Employment, and Segregated Communities illegal. At that time, Cambridge had a history of White-only residence, with the African American Employees of Harvard riding in and out on a daily basis from Boston by Streetcar, Bus or Subway. The Boston area in general had a version of Busing that resulted in some very violent anti-Busing protests, and the Riots that plagued the rest of Urban America didn’t miss Boston. Gates represents the First Generation of African American Professors at Harvard, and he came at a time when the rest of the African American community learned to respect him not only because of his scholarship, but also because he always stood his ground when disrespected by otheres.

You know it’s funny that our short term memory has already discarded entry of the black policeman shot by a white officer just a few months ago in NYC. They’ve forgotten the TV movie based on a case in Massachusetts when a white husband blamed a black guy for shooting the wife he killed and what followed, the civil rights of black citizens going out of the window as every young black man was rounded up and detained until he could prove his innocence and in some cases not even then. They forgot when the same situation repeated itself with Susan Smith in South Carolina who claimed fat albert took her children.

And if you think going back to Rodney King is unfair I think the African immigrant who was shot 45 times in the doorway of his home in NYC, having nothing but his identification to protect him, is clearly fair game. Why is it that blacks are supposed to forget every misdeed that happens to them but are supposed to understand what the police face everyday. How long ago was it that a Latino man was sexually assaulted with a broom handle, in a police station, by cops?

It is not unreasonable for any black man whether in his own home, in a van on the NJ turnpike, leaving his bachelor party, or the campus of Howard University to have any reason to believe that he will survive an encounter with the police, in any state in this country. Only a fool would ignore the constant stream of misunderstandings that result in death for blacks and Latinos including those who are members of police officers, which by the way, never seems to happen in reverse.

We so often talk about conservatives ignoring the facts, well that kind of delusion is not solely their province. I see plenty of so-called liberals acting the facts of life for minorities in America.

Thanks for the history lesson. But we’re not talking about 1960s Massachusetts either. It’s 2009 and the man is a Harvard Professor and friend of the President of the United States. The President, the Governor of MA and the Cambridge Police Chief are all black. It’s a tired agenda that Mr. Gates is pushing, and one that holds no water.

Exiled_At_Home:

His “Agenda” may be tired to you, but it is one that will have currency for several more generations before it becomes unnecessary. You won’t be aware that its time has passed until you wake up to the fact that there hasn’t been an “incident” in at least a Generation. African Americans have learned to have a long memory because justice and equality has been promised many times, but the reality is taking a very long time to come along. The laws of Slavery and Citizenship officially changed in 1865, but it took another 100 years to achieve the reality behind the promise, and even then the loose ends are still flapping in the breeze.

Ask yourself why in the same sentence that you acknowledge Gates to be an intelligent man and that to react in the manner described in the police report would be ignorant, you fail to question the voracity of the police report? Gates claims its a work of fiction, yet he obviously has no credibility with you or anyone else, not at least skeptical of the police report. A friend of mine suggests is because the report uses black vernacular. In other words, because the report claimed that Gates said “your momma” and from a pop-culture perspective that sounds black, everyone assumes he must have said it. Conversely, we assume Crowley would have acted better because he teaches diversity classes, yet teaching these classes would make him even more aware of alleged black vernacular than most cops. Although Crowley makes the mistake of not understanding that in Gates age group, a momma reference in the form of the dozens, which is a comedic communication tool and not one that stems from anger.

History lessons, what a crock. Ask the black college kids that were killed in their van on the turnpike a year ago, the Latino officer shot by white fellow officers in May 2009 and the black groom shot leaving his bachelor party a the day before his wedding only a few months ago in Maryland about the historical aspect to this problem.

Being a minority in a predominantly white police department has consequences. It doesn’t matter who is at the top, real policy is made by the actions of the rank and file. Not backing your fellow officers now might mean they respond slowly to a call that officer needs assistance, when a black officer’s life is on the line. I noticed the major black police union was not at that press conference. Finding two faces of color to put on the stage doesn’t mean support.

Dee

First let me offer the disclaimer that I do not subscribe to the position I am about to present. However, it is an unavoidable consequence of the position which you advocate.

Your position is that the black community is justified in its skepticism and fear of law enforecement. You cite several incidents whereby overzealous officers took the lives of innocent minorities as proof of the disproportionate use of unwarranted force against minorities. You offer these actions as the basis for African American contempt of the law enforcement rank-and-file.

By this rationale, let me contend that the law enforcement community is justied in its skepticism and fear of the black community. On average approximately 50 law enforcement officers are feloniously killed each year. In 2007, for example, 57 said officers were slain. Of the offenders, 35 were white, while 24 were black. Thus 56% of the offenders were white, 39% black. A disproportionate ratio when compared to the general population of the US. Approximately 75% of Americans are white, with at most 18% black. The precise numbers are unclear. So, while 18% of Americans are black, in 2007 39% of officers slain where by black offenders. By these numbers and your justification of black mistrust of law enforcement, you must also rationalize any alleged law enforcement bias or fear of the black community.

Your justifications are unjustifiable. And if you support your assertions, you must agree that law enforcement is understandably leery of the black community’s disporportionate propensity for violence against law enforcement.

I do not subscribe to either of the justifications, I am merely pointing out that by using your own argument, but in defense of law enforcement, we arrive at a suituation where a needless cycle of mistrust, violence, and prejudice is rationalized,. justified and continued.

Dee,

I’m simply stating that immediately reacting by making race the issue is not the way to go about things. There are things that make one look ignorant, such as not being able to come up with anything other than a personal insult. Hence, most of the posts you see on this article.

Would you be upset with officers who were called to your home to investigate a break-in? Would you appreciate their checking on your property or would you immediately assume they were only present because of your race?

As far as the “your momma” comment is concerned, I read over the police report and did not read that part. What I read in multiple articles, republican and liberal, was that Gates started the confrontation out with, “Why, because I am a black man?” This, to me, is an ignorant argument. It’s just as ignorant as a person using the “n” word. Like I said before, I understand the mis-treatment of minorities by the police. I have grown up and seen this my entire life. To this day, I see a car pulled over with one black man in it, with five police vehicles behind it, and I know exactly what is going on. It makes me sick. Growing up white, as the minority in a black community, I can truly attest that it is possible to be a white person driving in the “wrong” neighborhood and to be stopped and questioned as if you were doing something wrong by driving on an inner city street. I’ve never returned a, “Why, because I’m white?” remark to a police officer. I’ve only proved my innocence and been let go. But also, standing on the other side of the spectrum and being the minority who is white, I faced a lot of racism from black people as well. It goes both ways. Black, hispanic and asian people may face the most of it, but it does happen to white people as well. Until the people of my community got to know me for what I was, I was stereotyped as the “rich little white girl” who was a “crazy white b****” anytime I stood my ground. I’ve also had a black police officer come to my home and assume that “my parents probably wouldn’t appreciate a party in the house that they pay rent for.” Again, I did not respond with, “What, you think because I am white, my parents pay my rent?” Is this not the same type of stereotyping? In general, I think that in order to stop racism, we must quit attributing every little thing that happens to someone of a minority race to the color of their skin and quit teaching the idea that because one is a minority, they will face these challenges. True that it happens, I understand this, but the fact remains that regardless of what the police report says, in THIS situation, the police were called for a break in. It is their job to appear, ask for ID and leave as soon as they’ve established with the home owner, that it is, indeed, his own house. I do not agree with the police officers. I believe that they, like Obama said, acted stupidly. Once Gates showed them ID, they should have left, and they didn’t…which is what the issue really is. Gates did nothing illegal, and the police officers stayed and pursued ridiculous charges, most likely because they are used to people stepping down and Gates did not. I have experience with this as well and trust me, the cops do not like it when you stand up for yourself. Gates could have argued all day and night long that they did not need to be there, he could have said multiple things to them to get them out of his house. He could have made intelligent comments about the validity of the police officers threats. He could have remained as cool and calm and collected as possible. If he were, and the police officers kept insisting, then he’d have a credible race issue. The fact that he started it out with implying that the police officers were only there due to the color of his skin made it completely different. It is not fair to assume the police were only there because Gates is a black man.

Dee,

Also, in response to your saying that I am not challenging the police report, are you not challenging Gates at all? Would I be safe to assume that the police report is of no credibility to you simply because Gates stated that it was false? There are two sides to every story, correct? It would only be fair to analyze both with a grain of salt.

Watch your tounge, love. You live in America and to disrespect someone who is on the front line, is a little further than I think you need to go. If you disagree, move. Also, what makes you think “these same brilliant folks” you speak of are all white men? Are you unaware that black men are also on the front lines, risking their own lives? Is your post not racist in itself?

Before you start claiming that these “all too good white neighbors” are calling the police on a black man, get the facts straight. For one, the caller was NOT a neighbor, but a person who worked close by. The caller did not identify that ANY PERSON trying to force the door was black. In fact, she did not say anything to the police dispatcher until the dispatcher pushed a, “Is the man white, black or hispanic” question on her, in which she replied, “One looks hispanic, I can’t tell what the other one is, his back is turned” The man she was describing as hispanic was not Gates, but the other man who was with Gates.

You can read my previous entries on this article, if you like. I am in no way a racist, and I side with the fact that minorities are mistreated by the system, but you clearly don’t have any idea what you’re talking in this case. If you did, you’d say what you need to say with a little bit of dignity and respect. You’re not going to get anywhere with anyone being childish and bashing the very people who are overseas, away from their families, risking their lives who obviously have a lot more on the line than you do. They have absolutely NOTHING to do with it.

So that we can turn this into an intelligent discussion, here are the legal dictionary listings for Disorderly Conduct and Public Disturbance

The first is from http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/disorderly_conduct.html

The second is from http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/public-disturbance/

Please remember that Professor Gates was on his own property when this incident took place.

Disorderly Conduct
________________________________________

Almost every state has a disorderly conduct law that makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to “disturb the peace”, or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of obnoxious or unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such statutes are often used as “catch-all” crimes. Police may use a disorderly conduct charge to keep the peace when a person is behaving in a disruptive manner, but presents no serious public danger.

Public Disturbance
————————————————————————

The offense of public disturbance is usually defined as a misdemeanor. State and local laws governing public disturbances vary, so local laws should be consulted for specific requirements in your area. Some of the activities which may constitute a public disurbance include:
a. Loud noise; or
b. Offensive language addressed in a face-to-face manner to a specific individual and uttered under circumstances which are likely to produce an immediate violent response from a reasonable recipient; or
c. Threatening to commit a felonious act against any person under circumstances which are likely to cause a reasonable person to fear that such threat may be carried out; or
d. Fighting; or
e. Creating a noxious and offensive odor;
f. Being in a public place or on private property of another without consent and purposely causes inconvenience to another person or persons by unreasonably and physically obstructing:
g. Vehicular or pedestrian traffic; or
h. The free ingress or egress to or from a public or private place.
Some things which may be excluded from the definition of a public disturbance include:
a. Sounds caused by natural phenomena;
b. Sounds originating from aircraft in flight;
c. Sounds that originate at airports which are directly related to flight operations;
d. Sounds created by the discharge of firearms in the course of lawful hunting activities;
e. Sounds created by surface carriers engaged in commerce by railroad;
f. Sounds created by safety and protective devices where noise suppression would defeat the intent of the device, or is not economically feasible;
g. Sounds created by fire alarms and warning devices, bells, chimes, and carillons not operating continuously for more than five minutes;
h. Sounds originating from officially sanctioned parades and other such officially sanctioned public events;
i. Sounds created by motor vehicles, licensed or unlicensed, when operated off public highways, except when received in residential districts;
j. Sounds created by equipment used for highway maintenance;
k. Sounds created by emergency equipment and work necessary in the interest of law enforcement or for the health, safety, or welfare of the community.
l. Sounds originating from existing natural gas transmission and distribution facilities.
m. Unamplified sounds originating from public parks, playgrounds, and recreational areas during times they are open for public use.
The following is an example of a local law dealing with public disturbances:
” A. It is unlawful for any person to cause, or for any person in possession of property to allow to originate from the property, sound that is a public disturbance noise.
B. The following sounds are public disturbance noises:
1. The frequent, repetitive or continuous sounding of any horn or siren attached to a motor vehicle, except as a warning of danger or as specifically permitted or required by law;
2. The creation of frequent, repetitive or continuous sounds in connection with the starting, operation, repair, rebuilding or testing of any motor vehicle, motorcycle, off-highway vehicle or internal combustion engine within a residential district, so as to unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace and comfort of owners or possessors of real property;
3. Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing on or near the public streets, particularly between the hours of eleven p.m. and seven a.m. or at any time and place as to unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace and comfort of owners or possessors of real property;
4. The creation of frequent, repetitive or continuous sounds which emanate from any building, structure, apartment or condominium, which unreasonably disturbs or interferes with the peace and comfort of owners or possessors of real property, such as sounds from musical instruments, audio sound systems, band sessions or social gatherings;
5. Sound from motor vehicle audio sound systems, such as tape players, radios and compact disc players, operated at a volume so as to be audible greater than fifty feet from the vehicle itself;
6. Sound from portable audio equipment such as tape players, radios, and compact disc players, operated at a volume so as to be audible greater than fifty feet from the source, and if not operated upon the property of the operator;
7. Sound from outside public address systems, voice amplification and any other form of loud speaker operated at a volume audible beyond the boundaries of the property from which the sound originates. This provision shall not apply only to licensed community activities.
This section shall not apply to regularly scheduled events at parks, such as public address systems for baseball games or park concerts. (Ord. 97-33 § 1 (part), 1997) “

Although I don’t completely agree with exiled_at_home, I do agree with what he/she’s said about Gates. There is no reason for someone of that position and intelligence to act like a child and lash out at a police officer who was called to investigate a possible robbery.

The police officers were never informed that the two people attempting to get into the house were black. Period. The caller was NOT a neighbor and she did not identify ANYONE as a black male. I’m not exactly sure why Gate’s would act the way he did when approached by the policemen, but it is almost agreeable that he would do it for his own agenda. Look how much coverage this story has received.

With that said, the cops were not justified in arresting him. Although he may have acted irrationally, there is no justification of an arrest. Gates did nothing illegal. Clearly, they both lost their tempers and made an ordeal out of something that should have been nothing.

No. I am just exposing the American nightmare!

Well argued piece with which I entirely agree.

The issue that no one has really touched on here – even the President – is that everyone expects that just because the Race game was called on account of rain, the proper attitude to take is: “OK, that’s that, Move On, it’s another day.”

Sorry, guys, but it will take a couple of generations with no incidents before we can adopt that attitude. In the meantime, there will be lots of hurt feelings, and lots of “smart” remarks, and lots of people who will take advantage of both situations. It has taken us more than 200 years to get where we are, and things won’t balance out just with a fingersnap. As the poet said, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”