Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. & The Cambridge Police
 

I imagine with this blowing up the way it has there will be a thread on it.

What side have you currently found yourself on?

They arrested him for "disorderly conduct". I just think the lead (arresting) officer did not like getting yelled at in front of his men. Since when is it against the law to get pissed off, and yell at someone that is on your property. He did not have a "weapon", or threaten the police officers. I would be pissed too. There is a profiling "problem", but they are taking the whole incident too far. The President has more important things that need to be addressed. What I found interesting is that it seems the neighbors did not recognise that the man lived there. Don't people know who their neighbors are?

I know I don't.

Where do you live?

My part of town is sorta sketchy anyhow.

Suburban Maryland. We have lots of police here, high taxes too. But I'm o.k. with that.

lawl. Where Chevy Chase? Because in MA they send a gun to your door with a gun to take your first born if you can't afford the 50% tax rate here. (kidding but seriously)

A little bit more patience and tact on both sides and the whole incident would had a different outcome. If the professor had complied to the officier's request and didn't become belligerent and made a slight at the police officier's mother he wouldn't had been arrested.

The real crime here is slander, having Sgt. James Crowley labeled as a racist.

I don't think he's a racist, just a typical ******* cop. Does that mean he was in the right? NO. But what he did wrong had nothing to do with racism and everything to do with not knowing the limits of his authority and not recognizing the rights of an American home owner. This cop arrested this guy in his own home, for saying something about his momma. I would be pissed too, but that doesn't mean you can arrest some guy when you're in HIS HOME, with no warrant, and after your probable cause has been dismissed. They didn't have the right to be there at the time, they had already established that no laws had been broken, yet insisted on hassling the guy. But instead of standing there spouting "yes, sir." over and over again, he stood up for himself and told them to get out, he hadn't done anything wrong. The officer didn't take kindly to that, and obviously felt the need to flex his police muscle.

Like I said, I don't think it's a case of racism, just very very very bad police work. Not unlike what we see in the media, and in our everyday lives. Not that cops are bad, they do a great service, but the certain bad seeds ruin the image, and the police departments not making an example out of these sort of cases is not helping the situation.

He actually arrested him outside his home after Gates followed him outside and continued his verbal crusade.

Only because the police asked him to "continue the conversation on the porch." It's not like the guy chased them into the street screaming. They persuaded him onto the porch, still his own property.

Wow you really had to weasel your way into having it say that. The officer stated he was leaving and that if Gates had anymore questions he would continue the conversation with him outside the residence. Then was warned twice to calm down before being arrested on the third.

This is a case of an upper crust elitist having to respond to a middle class working person, going tilt and then reaching into the grab bag and pulling out the race card. As an esteemed professor of African history and a PhD in African American Studies, he knew this was a sure fire way to garner Pavlovian support by people who would not be interested in the facts of a case, but would react predictably given the correct stimulus. Even a man as politically astute and smart as our President was lured down that road, until he learned the facts and quickly backed away.

You'd be best to follow the President's lead.