Entering your own house with a key while Black

[NCVol]

Interesting. 

http://www.theroot.com/views/lawyers-statement-arrest-henry-louis-gates-jr

As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest.  He was handcuffed on his own front porch.
Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours

I'm sure the professor wasn't exactly thrilled or a nice guy about the cops showing up on his front porch asking whether the Prof had a right to be entering his OWN house.  But even if he was a first class jerk, and called the cops every name under the sun, what is the damn point about arresting a guy.  Whether with the best intentions or not, the cops made a MISTAKE and should have just walked away. 

The point is the cops are full of themselves and you cross them at your own peril.  It's a good thing the cops didn't use a taser to take down this dangerous and combative 57 year old man.  Surprised actually, since tasering old people is a really quick way to get them to cooperate. 

[plumbervol]

I don't understand why he was arrested, but then again I don't understand why he asked for the officer's badge and names. They sounded like they followed protocal until they arrested Gates. I have had the same thing happen to me at my Dad's house when I trip the alarm going in to feed his dog. They hassled the hell out of me until they contacted the alarm company and found out I was a contact.

[Dementia_Madness]

BOSTON (AP) — Police responding to a call about "two black males" breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there — Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar.

Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.

Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.

"Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him," the officer wrote.

Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com

He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

So let's see, police respond to a suspected crime scene, and find a black man in a house, where a woman had reported two black men attempting to break in. When asked to come out side the black man refused. Rather than simply identifying himself, and allowing the officers to move on to another location, where they might actually be needed, he was verbally abusive and combative and refused to comply. When he finally did comply, he was arrested. Yet somehow, the people who came to protect his property, is the guilty ones, and the woman who called the police should probably mind her own business. I guess the next time, if someone is really breaking in, the woman should ignore it, and the police should hold the door and help the criminals load their vehicles with all the bling.

Of course we can assume that the black man is innocent of ANY wrong doing and the evil brown shirted police are the REAL criminals as usual. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will be standing on that porch in a matter of hours giving press conferences and calling for justice.

[NCVol]

You do realize by the time the cops arrested him, they KNEW it was his house.  They had seen his drivers license and his university ID, inside the man's home, and that he was arrested for being mean to the poor police officers. 

Boo frickin hoo, the jack booted police officers don't like it when their authority is questioned.  Gosh, we'll show the asshole homeowner who is boss, we'll run his to jail for four hours on a BS disturbing the peace or some such charge, when they KNEW the man was not a criminal.  It was spite, and we all know it. 

I get it that the guy WAS likely a huge jerk.  Fine.  He had a chip the size of a small house on his shoulder.  That happens.  I imagine 1000 other incidences of subtle and overt discrimination over a lifetime could do that to a person.  Does that mean the police can arrest anyone who is a jerk with a chip on their shoulder who happens to be IN THE RIGHT? 

BTW, do you think if the guy was white that the officers would have reacted the same way to the situation?  I doubt it, honestly.  The reaction to treat two black men trying to unstick the front door was RATIONAL since most crimes in that area might have been by black men, but the reaction would have been different, almost 100% chance of it. 

[Jeremy Roenick]

My father always taught me to say "yes sir" and "no sir" when dealing with the police and to always be respectful and cooperative.  That usually gets the desired results.

Policemen are human, thus fallable, thus subject to huge egos.  Don't think otherwise.

If you watch the TV show Cops enough, you soon realize that the smart who mouths off to the policeman during the traffic stop ends up with a knee in his back and cuffs on his wrist, no matter what he was doing.

End of transmission.

[xander]

Look on the bright side! He could have lived in Roane County! There he would have been shot dead by the police and they would have claimed self-defense!

[Shimmy]

You do realize by the time the cops arrested him, they KNEW it was his house.  They had seen his drivers license and his university ID, inside the man's home, and that he was arrested for being mean to the poor police officers. 

Boo frickin hoo,....

Is that kinda like getting in trouble for being mean to the poor terrorists?

[Dementia_Madness]

NC, if during the course of an investigation you fail to comply with an officers request, or act in a way that makes it difficult for them to do their jobs, you could be guilty of at best failure to comply, at worst guilty of impeding an investigation. So, even though they may have eventually ascertained his identity, he still can be arrested for not complying with their orders.

What is amusing is that you ASSUME the police acted the way they did because of race, when Dr. Gates actions were obviously just that. He assumed they were acting they way they were because he was black.

[NCVol]

Well, I always knew "conservatives" believed in a police state, but I though there might be some objection to arresting a man on his own front porch because he has a sticky front door and didn't kiss their rear ends when they came and questioned his right to enter his own home....

Seriously, I do understand the cops behavior, but it's out of line to arrest the guy, particularly after they found out he WAS in the right.  At least this time they didn't taser the old guy, like they did this grandma, for having a smart mouth.... 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/09/police-taser-great-grandm_n_213218.html

[Dementia_Madness]

Yes NC you are so right, they arrested him because he did not pay true honor and praise to them. And I do support a police state, I think freedom is over rated and truth is a matter of who happens to be holding the biggest stick.

BTW those were different police that tazed the old lady, unless you believe we are living in the matrix.

[LTC]

Yes NC you are so right, they arrested him because he did not pay true honor and praise to them. And I do support a police state, I think freedom is over rated and truth is a matter of who happens to be holding the biggest stick.
 

Damn! Such honesty from a wingnut!

[Dementia_Madness]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186567

Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis
Denies he’s a racist, won’t apologize

 

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics [team stats] superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

Crowley, 42, said he’s not a racist, despite how some have cast his actions in the Gates case. “Those who know me know I’m not,” he said.

Yesterday, Lewis’ widow, Donna Lewis, was floored to learn the embattled father of three on the thin blue line of a national debate on racism in America was the same man so determined to rescue her husband.

“That’s incredible,” Lewis, 44, exclaimed. “It’s an unfortunate situation. Hopefully, it can resolve itself. The most important thing is peace.”

Gates, 58, an acclaimed scholar on black history and a PBS documentarian, went on the attack against Crowley on Tuesday, demanding he apologize for arresting him for disorderly conduct last Thursday while investigating a reported break-in at his home. Gates, returning from a trip, was seen by a Malden woman trying to force his front door open. Police alleged he initially refused to identify himself.

Though he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor,” a calm, resolute Crowley said no mea culpa will be forthcoming.

“I just have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “It will never happen.”

Attorney Charles Ogletree, Gates’ close friend and fellow Harvard savant, told the Herald, “It’s regrettable and unfortunate that the officer feels that way, and I do hope that some progress will be made in healing this wound.”

Gates, who upon his arrest allegedly bellowed to a gathering crowd on Ware Street, “This is what happens to black men in America!” believes he was targeted by Crowley - whom he called a “rogue” cop - because of his race.

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, with Gates attorney Walter Prince’s consent, agreed Tuesday to drop the charge of disorderly conduct, calling the incident “an unfortunate set of circumstances.”

Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the force, oversees the evidence room, paid details and records unit. He also coaches youth basketball, baseball and softball.

Joseph McDonald, a former director of public safety at Brandeis, said Crowley was “a real pro,” calling Gates’ racial profiling charge “strange.”

“You just do the job as a cop. You don’t look at the color of skin. You’re just trying to help people,” said McDonald, 57.

In a statement expressing its “full and unqualified support” for Crowley, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association called its brother a “highly respected veteran supervisor with a distinguished record.

“His 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.”

 

Looks like a case of an angry bitter ole racially minded man biting the hand of the people who were trying to actually protect his property and rights. If you ask me Gates and now Obama are the one's who should be doing the apologizing.