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1. Gates did play the race card
2. Gates was acting elitist by saying over and over, dont you know who I am, and telling the officer he has not heard the last of this. Producing a Harvard Id instead of a drivers license was a clear attempt to pull rank on the officer.
Pretty weak charge (which of course was dropped)
Did he take a swing at the police officers?
If he was white they wouldn't have arrested him.
They wouldn't have doubt that he owned the house.
I would love to see any of these elitist get harassed the way that African Americans get harassed and see how they react... I'm sure, "Do you know who I am" would be one of the first things that come out of his mouth.
Unless, in some cases, you want to get beaten up and/or arrested. If you are sitting in your own home and a policeman orders you to let him in to search the place are you saying you have to do it? You know, there's that pesky little thing called the Constitution...
As far as the cop being praised by his fellow officers, etc. Of course he was, they always stand up for each other, even when they shouldn't.
An exigent circumstance, in the American law of criminal procedure, allows law enforcement to enter a structure without a warrant, or if they have a "knock and announce" warrant, without knocking and waiting for refusal under certain circumstances. It must be a situation where people are in imminent danger, evidence faces imminent destruction or a suspect will escape.
Generally, an emergency, a pressing necessity, or a set of circumstances requiring immediate attention or swift action. In the criminal procedure context, exigent circumstances means:
An emergency situation requiring swift action to prevent imminent danger to life or serious damage to property, or to forestall the imminent escape of a suspect, or destruction of evidence. There is no ready litmus test for determining whether such circumstances exist, and in each case the extraordinary situation must be measured by the facts known by officials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exigent_circumstance
I know its bad form to quote Wiki but that all the effort i m got to put it to this.
Sorry, but the mayor is woman.
The mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, said she is going to meet with the city's police chief to make sure the scenario that caused the arrest of a prominent black Harvard University professor does not happen again.
"This suggests that something happened that should not have happened," Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons said on CNN's "American Morning." "The situation is certainly unfortunate. This can't happen again in Cambridge."
Gates said the mayor called him to apologize.
Simmons, Cambridge's first black female mayor, confirmed that she apologized to Gates.
Cambridge mayor: Gates' arrest shouldn't have happened...
"I am very pleased that the charges of disorderly conduct levied against Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been dropped. The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates have released a joint statement that acknowledges “….the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate.” As the parties involved have placed this matter behind them, it seems appropriate for our community to do the same."
The mayor did NOT blame the officer, nor apologize to Gates.
POV, still a pathetic juvenile.
No one NEVER said that the mayor blamed the police, just that she called Professor Gates and apologized.
Once again YOU have ZERO, NA DA, NO PROOF that Professor Gates said ANYTHING!!!
And if you really want to see pathetic? LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!
Now, because of race and politics the right is even able to overlook a man's home is his castle? Unbelievably sad for the Republican party. Anything in the name of politics, right? This is why I am no longer a Republican, you lack even the courage of your convictions.
What does the right stand for anymore if they are defending arresting a man in his own HOME on trumped up charges that are later dropped because the man was indignant about a police officer accusing him of burglarizing his OWN HOME?! Your home is your property - NOT the STATES'.
Why are you trolling around here anyway? Take to Free republic, many of those idiots share your sentiment.
Not giving proper respect in this case was not a criminal offense on Gates' part. The cop should have let it go. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Gates...just doing my job." The police work for us...
So if you were a police officer, and when investigating a B&E you're met at the door by an older man with a cane who provides proof that he is a professor at one of the country's most prestigious schools, that wouldn't indicate to you that the man probably isn't breaking into the house in question?
That really seems to be the assertion here.
I think what happened is that the cop wasn't showing any signs of accommodating the obvious indications that there was no crime here. I think I'd be inclined to say something like "you're not thinking straight here...look at me and tell me I look like a burglar" myself. Both of them got overheated, but the cop is supposed to be trained to prevent exactly that type of situation.
I agree. Why was it somehow hard to believe that a black man was actually a Harvard professor? Or, if that was accepted, why would anyone believe that a professor would be breaking into someone else's house? Once that identification is presented, the whole thing should be dropped.
you have absolutely no way to back that statement up. That is pure conjecture on your part.
Police officers are among the most highly respected people in our society and they deserve all the credit in the world for protecting us. But they are not infallible, which I've witnessed first-hand. In this case, my brother never played the race card, but he admitted being very close to doing so, because it wasn't the first time he'd had such an experience.
Why do you think all cops abuse minorities? That is such an ignorant view.
Where did he say that? The fact is that there are some cops who do abuse minorities. They do it quite regularly and enjoy it.
"By showing the cop that he was actually a Harvard professor, the cop would know not to try the normal shake down routine they use on minority suspects. This was a warning the cop should have heeded."
There comes a point during an investigation where the assertion of authority by an officer can exceed the seriousness of a situation. Police officers even have a cute little nickname for it.
When the man's identity had been established (the Harvard i.d. card) and his authority over the household (easily accomplished in multiple ways) was determined and the reported crime is shown to be false(the B&E) the presence of the officer in this situation was a catalyst for behavior that may not have otherwise have taken place resulting in the man's arrest (the disorderly conduct charge).
The police officer may have been right, in that his authority was not recognized by the home owner, but at the same time he is guilty of asserting his authority in a situation that it was not called for. His best option was to have apologized for the obvious intrusion and moved on. Instead he chose this course events.
Except that the police officer invited Gates outside which is an important distinction.
"not to try the normal shake down routine they use on minority suspects."
Next lie you want to address??
Honestly, I know empathy has become a bad word in reich-wing circles, but surely anyone can see where a person would get huffy at being treated like a criminal under such circumstances? He was on his own friggin' property, for pete's sake; I thought property ownership was almost as sacred as the right to pack massive heat to right-wingers.
Except that Harvard owns and maintains the house Gates was living in. Also, it may have just been more handy to grab the Harvard ID. There many reasons Gates could have chosen to show his Harvard ID, but leave it to the wingnut to exclude every other equally (or even more) plausible possibility.
Also, he was driven from the airport to his house. Maybe he doesn't have drivers liscence, a lot of people don't.
Lol.
Some cops are like that.
First thing you have to remember is that cops are people too. They have good days and bad days but; we need to hold them to a higher standard, because they are cops. I really doubt that race was the cause, in this case (at least consciously) but; I do feel the cop could have stopped this early on just by changing the way he approached the whole situation.
"Yes, sir. I understand that you are upset. I would probably feel the same way if someone called the police on me but; understand, I am just doing my job and making sure that you and your neighbors are safe. Here is my name and badge number, as well as the phone number of the station I work out of. etc"
Case closed. As others have said before me, the police work for us, not the other way around. You should respect the police but; not out of fear of being arrested. The best police officers defuse tense situations with reason, not force.
Read the police report. The officer gave him that info multiple times.
The police report is only one side of the story. More accurately you should have stated "The officer claimed to have given him that info multiple times"
Actually he claims he gave the information twice. Once at the very beginning of the confrontation, the second time he says that Gates was talking to him while he was making his statement containing his identification.
It is quite possible that Gates simply did not catch the officer's name on the initial introduction as often happens in my experience. During the second identification the officer mentions that Gates was talking to him at the same time, so it is quite possible he did not hear the identification that time either.
When Gates asked for the identification again, the officer decided to argue that he already gave it twice and that they could talk outside.
So the officer by his own account only really gave his identification in a clear and understandible way one time.
Imagine that, disorderly in his OWN home.
The officer wrote he arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space."
Guess you can't be loud on your own porch.
I know this is a foreign concept for you, but READ the report. He was not on his porch. Get the facts for once.
Of course, why didn't I think of that!
Shucks, I should have just read the police officers account, trust and believe that police officers NEVER LIE and totally ignore Professor Gates account of what happened.
That's what YOU did, right?
You read BOTH reports?
by highliter (1 hour and 14 minutes ago)
2 I'm also going to throw this out there. I was Military Police it the Army for 3 years and I would not of arrested gates for this reason. I believe that Gates was intentionally trying to provoke the officer into some sort of action so he could use the incident to promote his view that Americas is a racist country. I'm sure he will be paid nicely for speeches interview and such. I would of just left because obviously Gates has a huge chip on his shoulder and is not worth the time.
You're full of it!!
From reading BOTH reports, YOU came to the conclusion that:
I believe that Gates was intentionally trying to provoke the officer into some sort of action so he could use the incident to promote his view that Americas is a racist country
Henry Louis Gates, a educator, scholar, writer, editor, who also serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, RETURNED from a trip to CHINA and PURPOSELY tried to break into HIS OWN home so that his neighbor would call the police and Professor Gates could show that America is racist??????
And YOU wonder why I said you were full of it????
The officer asked Gates to leave the house. He cannot then use that as a basis to arrest him. It is textbook entrapment.
We need to start being real on these issues. We have to admit racial profiling exists. It does not even necessarily mean the cop is a "bad cop". A lot of these things happen out of ignorance and fear. This might be an officer who risks his life for others every day, but he can still have prejudice and make a mistake.
If we sweep things under the rug and pretend they don't exist, we just further the racial divide in our country. We have to be open, understand it, and try to prevent it.
What Beck or others see as "elitist", I see as a man who SHOULD have our respect angry that he has to beg for the basic human dignity of not being cuffed and arrested in his own home.
Beck is an idiot and his guest is ridiculous.
The anger, distrust, and feeling of total betrayal that white America feels regarding OJ's murder acquittal is how Black America has felt for 100+ years whenever the white man has been acquitted for crimes against an African-American.
I think what some folks noticed is that they seemed to be more mad than usual about it for some unknown reason.
Dont you realize, only the libs can provide examples of an injustice
Scott,
Highliter isn't the brightest bulb on this topic of Gates but that was out of line.
You obviously don't know what a straw man argument is.
Reginald Oliver Denny, at the time, was a 33 year old white construction truck driver. On the first day of the rioting, Denny was attacked, pulled from his truck and brutally beaten, sustaining serious head and other injuries.
Bobby Green (a truck driver), Titus Murphy, Terri Barnett (boyfriend and girlfriend), and Lei Yuille (a dietitian), who had been watching the events on TV, came to Denny's aid. All four are black.
After a few jury changes, a hung jury nullified all charges except a felony count of mayhem for Williams, and one misdemeanor assault charge for both Williams and Watson on October 18. Watson was then given credit for time served and was released. As the families of the defendants celebrated the lesser sentences, Denny surprisingly approached Damian Williams' mother Georgina and hugged her. Other family members then exchanged warm embraces and words of reconciliation with him.
WHAT??
Although Black men attacked Denny, it was BLACK FOLKS, WHO DIDN'T KNOW DENNY, WHO DROVE FROM THEIR OWN HOMES TO ASSIST DENNY!!
And all YOU got was White victim crap?
You're pathetic!
You mean the cops, right?
Here's the definition of a straw man, since you cons don't seem to know what it means:
A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.
To say Gates was wrong for getting upset is his own home is a more 'stupidly act' than the first. Maybe a little training would be nice...
Rule 1..if a man proves it is his home, he IS NOT an intruder.
Any other rule should refer to number 1.
The cop did his job to a point...but probably didn't like this guy usurping his authority, TOO BAD, the guy lived there.
P.S. The woman that called in the report didn't know her neighbor was black? did she live there?
Crowley claims:
but Figueroa's account acts as if Crowley never got the Harvard ID while Figueroa was in the house????
Figueroa's story does not match Crowley's account. Crowley had already radioed in Gates information from the ID he had in his hand before Figueroa had left, yet Figueroa does not mention that Gates complied with the request for ID at all. He only noted the initial refusal. Very strange. It's like Figueroa is intentionally leaving out information that might paint Gates in even a marginally more favorable light.
Are you saying the accounts of both officers match up? How exactly?
By the way, have you ever been arrested?
Can you even admit that Gates didn't exactly handle the situation very well either.
Even the validity is called into question. Gates was being loud, angry and disrespectful of the officer in his own home, which is not a crime. The law cannot lure Gates outside in order to set him up for a trumped up disturbing the peace charge. No jury would convict on that. It looks like railroading.
Why? He already said that he was led to believe that the man was in his own home. What was the purpose of requesting Harvard University Police at that point?
It's also pretty obvious that the exchange lasted a while. Crowley calls Harvard Police, he argues with Gates, and when they walk outside the police are there. Were they responding to an emergency? Again, Crowley was led to believe that Gates was in his own home, so what was the purpose for this extended discussion?
If Crowley is asked for his identification, he shouldn't be able to leave without providing it. If he left the residence without doing that, then that is essentially forcing Gates to follow him, since he was making a lawful request for that information.
The officer was the one who moved the conversation outside where Gates would then be in a position to be arrested. I stand by my description.
I have yet to hear a police defender explain what exactly justifies the continued presence of the officer after that point. If there's a confrontation, he should get out of it as diplomatically as possible, and then leave. What is there to argue otherwise, exactly?
Obviously you did not read the report nor my response above where I quote the report.
Maybe you should read both.
I can only imagine some punk kid spray-painting an officer's shoes, so the cop takes the can and spray-paints the kid's shirt and pants. "Hey, he started it!" That sounds like the way the police apologists here think it's supposed to work.
I read Somerby today and I think he had a good take on the issue. We’ve read the accounts by Officer Crowley and the other policeman. We don’t know how accurate these accounts are. Nor do we know if Crowley’s “actions at the scene of this matter were consistent with his training, with the informed policies and practices of the department and with applicable legal standards,” ....And alone among American observers, we don’t know what actually happened.
Which I suspect is largely true here, as well.
It really shouldn't matter. They had his identification. There was no indication of a crime. There was no need to continue the confrontation, especially not by ordering Gates outside.
We do know this, I think.
And why were other cops called? After Crowley believed that Gates was in his own home, what was the purpose in calling anyone else there? If you were in Gates' shoes, I have to imagine you'd be pretty damn mad if you made it clear there was no crime going on, and then an officer brought in other cops.
Why were the police still there after they knew that Gates was the legal resident of his own house? They should have just said "sorry about any inconvenience" and scooted on out.
The Policeman's first bad move was to tell gates if he wanted to talk to him, he needed to come outside. In doing that, the policeman (probably inadvertantly) escalated the situation by making Gates' private harranguing public.
There is no law against being rude to the police. The Policeman was apparently using his authority unwisely just to save face in public. The situation was resolved and there is no excuse for the arrest. PERIOD.
I know what the officer said. I quoted it above:
At no time in the report did the police officer claim that he felt physically threatened. I imagine that would be a pretty big thing to leave out. Don't you think? Especially in the light that charges were already made when the report was written.
Besides, if Crowley was worried about physical violence (besides not mentining it anywhere), why didn't he ask Officer Figueroa to stay in the house? Figueroa obviously thought it wasn't a big deal as he left while Gates was shouting at Crowley. Didn't you read the report?
These are excellent points. There clearly was no concern about physical violence, so the only thing here was an argument. There's no justification for sticking around for an argument while there's no evidence of any crime.
Clearly this statement could apply to Gates as well.
And, I have to say as someone who knows alot of guys who grew up to be policemen, if the the best thing you can say about a cop is that he "didn't do anything wrong legally" it is time to look for a new line of work. This cop thing just ain't for you.
GOOD FREAKING GRIEF!!!!
That theory is as crazy as those of the loony birthers.
Professor Gates has just return from a trip to China where he was filming a new documentary series for PBS called "Faces of Americans" .
You can't comprehend that there is ALWAYS another side to any story, and YOU were a military police?
Seriously, what planet are you from? How on earth would this be okay to you? An armed police officer SHOULD punch an old man for a mama insult?
Sweet Christmas, dude.
So the police officer actually arrested Professor Gates for insulting his mother?
When a police officer can't deal with a 5'7", 150 pound African American man who walks with a cane due to hip replacement surgery, HE NEEDS TO GET ANOTHER JOB!!!
Wow. Just, wow. That is truly, startingly, un-American. I cannot believe any American would suggest such a thing. It is just amazing to me. A trained police officer should deck a private citizen in his own home because the citizen is rude to the officer. Unbelievable. Maybe you should stick to secession or birth certificate conspiracise - something that makes sense.
I think whether you take the attitude that Gates was looking for a fight or there was no reason for the officer to hang around after he knew there was not a B&E going on. I think we can all agree the officer was therefore unwise.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950)
The man is nearly 60 years old! He uses a cane to get around! Seriously, he was some kind of threat to the police officer? He was on the phone with the property manager when the officer got there. How many criminals are going to sit on the phone in the house they are robbing when the cops show up? There is also the problem of this 60 yr old man having a bronchial infection which makes it very hard for him to yell at all. While Mr. Gates may have overreacted (MAY), the officer clearly did. A 60 yr old ill man in his own home posed no threat.
On another note I have to give the benefit of the doubt to Dr. Gates because I have been in similar situations where an officer was hell bent on putting me in my place. When it came down to it in each case the officers changed their stories. Hopefully this incident will bring things to light that need to be explored more in depth.
As to the incident, the Harvard Prof could have handled it better. If the reports are true, and there were witnesses so we should hear more, I think the cop would have treated a white man, being that obnoxious, the same way.
At some point you have to calm down and talk to the cop. If he had, he wouldn't have been arrested.