I personally would side with the cops on this one and think our president should STFU about local issues instead of flaming the fire.

What'd yall think?



The white cop under fire for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. blasted President Obama Thursday, saying he was "way off base" for accusing police of stupidity.

A defiant Cambridge, Mass., Sgt. James Crowley refused to apologize for the collar a day after Obama defended his Harvard professor pal in a prime-time news conference.

"I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts," Crowley, 42, who teaches a course on racial profiling to police academy students, told Boston radio station WBZ-AM.

"I acted appropriately. I've done nothing wrong."

Later in the day, Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs tried to walk back the President's comments that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting" Gates.

Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One, "Let me be clear; he was not calling the officer stupid."

Gibbs said Obama felt that when it became clear that Gates was not a burglary suspect, "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed."

Gates said he understands why Obama used the word.

"I think that the circumstances are so egregious that it was the adjective that ... logically popped into his head," Gates said Thursday on "The Gayle King Show" on Sirius radio.

"People ... are looking for something that I could have done to justify Sgt. Crowley's actions. There's nothing that I could have done to justify Sgt. Crowley's action," he said.

Speaking for the first time since the ugly incident, Cambridge Police Chief Robert Haas said he was "deeply pained" by the President's comments.

"We take deep personal pride in this agency," Haas said. "We don't have the reputation that we have been painted with."

Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the Cambridge Police Department, responded to a reported break-in at the renowned scholar's home last Thursday.

A neighbor reported seeing two black men break into the professor's home. She was unaware the man forcing his way inside was Gates, who had locked himself out.

When Crowley arrived, he told an incensed Gates he was investigating a report of a break-in and asked for his identification

"Why? Because I'm a black man in America," Gates responded, the police report says.

Gates initially refused to hand over his ID, instead angrily accusing the officer of being a racist and "leveling threats that he wasn't someone to mess with," the report says.

After Gates produced his Harvard University ID, he repeatedly demanded Crowley state his name, which the officer claims he had already done.

Crowley said Gates continued hurling insults at him as he left the home. Crowley arrested the scholar for disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped.

"He was arrested after following me outside the house, continuing the tirade even after being warned multiple times - probably a few more times than the average person would," Crowley told the radio station.

Gates demanded Crowley apologize.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world...l#ixzz0MCNZsDQW

Not a race driven event at all. The officers were acting exactly as they were trained. You are responding to a burglary in progress, you stay on your toes. When you are verbally assaulted by a person on scene, you detain them to ensure overall scene safety.

A few months ago, I reported a break in where I live. 3 county mounties showed up very quickly, and acted in basically the same way as what happened to Mr. Gates. In fact, I was quite worried I was going to be tazed by the 2 officers grilling me for ID, etc., and thankfully, the 3rd officer kept the very unhappy german shephard on the lead until after they were satisfied I was in fact in my own front yard.

I'm white, all the officers were white, the dog however, was all black... racism?

The cops were there to protect his property, and the Gates guy let the chip on his shoulder get the better of him.

Dogfish read that one right. There's more to this incident than is revealed to the public eye. The Prez shoulda' kept his nose, or mouth, out of it. Why the hell didn't the woman who called the police realize it was her neighbor "breaking" into his own house? Do cat burglars break in front doors in the middle of the afternoon wearing orange polo shirts? There was more than enough stupidity to go around: stupid neighbor lady; stupid Gates who's spent a career studying how blacks are treated differently by cops - what the hell did he expect?, blacks always lose and cops always win; stupid officer Crowley for going so far as to make an arrest; he had to know this wouldn't end well; stupid Prez, just because he knows Gates, he doesn't know enough facts to comment publicly on the topic, and that's what he should have said.

Sg

I locked myself out of my car one time when fishing. I was trying to jimmy open the rear slider when the cops pulled up. They gave me a pretty hard time right off the bat, but eventually we got squared away and I thanked them for their vigilance. It was, in fact, my asset they were protecting, same as Mr. Gates case.

When your career is victimology . . .

How come no one is calling "the neighbor" a racist? They are the ones who originally called the police.

Guy must be real popular to have his neighbors call the police on him.

The cop was in the right and did what he was suppose to do when someone mouths off to him. The scholar was in the wrong. Dude has a huge chip on his shoulder and thinks he's more important than he really is.

I see it all the time with faculty (and most of you. ). Big inflated heads on little tiny shoulders.

No doubt.

My neighbors just moved near me from the greater Humptulips area. They almost called the cops when they saw me watching Steve Pool tell me the weather.

Funny [censored] ! Steve Pool is a great guy, met and talked with him twice. Obama is the one looking like a fool..kudos to 99% of LE.

There have been 9 daylight residential burglaries in that area in the last couple of weeks. The police could have arrested Gates when he refused to produce his I.D. when first asked. Not really sure what the term neighbor means in this instance? Next door neighbor or someone from the neighborhood driving by?

I think Salmo outlined what I believe. Plenty of stupidity to go around on this one. However, there is one area that I have not heard mentioned. It appears that Gates was arrested on his own property for verbally harassing the officer. Now it was called disorderly conduct, but why aren't more people talking about the obvious property rights issue here. Let me pose a hypothetical. A cop walks by your home, you lean out the window and call him or her a racist pig. Is that an arrestable offense? If Dogfish (just picking a name out of the thread, not trying to state or imply anything) walks by your home, you lean out the window and call hima racist pig, is that an arrestable offense? I would submit that both are not which is precisely the reason that the charges have been dropped. However, Gates, the cop, the neighbor, and the President all look bad in this one.

I agree about Herr Doktor Proffesor being a prick. But it's not uncommon among academics to have an over-inflated sense of self-worth. I think Herr Doktor got a reality check.


LOL@Rocket Red

I'd probably say yes. I'm almost 100% positive that nothing good will come out of someone yelling a racial slur out of a window at a uniformed police officer. If the officer deems you to be a "threat to society", he's going to arrest you. Anyone who yells racial slurs out their window at uniformed officer is probably a good candidate for someone who is "a threat to society".




Probably not, as Dogfish is not a uniformed officer, but rather a civilian just walking down the street. But if Dogfish calls the police, and says that he felt "threatened" from the person yelling from the window, I'm 100% positive that they would show up and have a talk with the person in the house. Where it goes from there probably depends on what the accused person does or doesn't do. IE, mouth off to the cops and you are probably going to get arrested much like Gates did.

In reality, Dogfish would probably just bust a cap in yo ass, so I wouldn't be calling Dogfish Homey, or [censored] like dat! Wurd!

Don't know the real facts so can't comment on that.

However, when I was 20 years old, near dusk, had my headlights on because back then cops loved pulling people that age over for any reason. Well I had a bulb out. Got pulled over. Had a half rack in back. Being a few months under age the lady cop, which was rare in those days, made me pour each beer out. Afterwards I asked "what should I do with the empties?" she said "take them with you" I asked "isn't it illegal to have empties in the car?" she said if I wanted to get smart with her she'll arrest me and hall me off to jail. OK OK I'll take the empties. A week later I read in the paper she had been placed on leave, eventually fired, for kicking a handcuffed prisoner in the nuts at the jail and he lost a testicle.

Moral of the story: don't piss off a cop because they can and sometimes do overreact and you may pay dearly.

Neither is an arrestable offense.

For once, I'm in complete agreement with Hank: "Cooler heads should have prevailed on both sides and Obama made a mistake in commenting in the manner he did."

The Professor was a prick.

The cops were on a high horse.

Basically, both should be slapped in the head and told to screw their heads on straight.

And Obama should have witheld commentary until all the facts of the case were known.

Parker, you posted -
Originally Posted By: eddie
\Let me pose a hypothetical. A cop walks by your home, you lean out the window and call him or her a racist pig. Is that an arrestable offense?


I'd probably say yes. I'm almost 100% positive that nothing good will come out of someone yelling a racial slur out of a window at a uniformed police officer. If the officer deems you to be a "threat to society", he's going to arrest you. Anyone who yells racial slurs out their window at uniformed officer is probably a good candidate for someone who is "a threat to society".
Looking at the rest of your post, you indicate that the civilian (Dogfish in this case) must feel threatened in order to file a complaint. Can a police officer make the complaint that he or she is threatened by words? And what makes a police officer a different kind of citizen when we are talking about someone yelling from their private property? I would agree that the person yelling is stupid, stupidity is not an arrestable offense - for better or for worse.

Crap, I was a uniformed officer for 2 years, so what does that make me?


Gates set a series of events in motion. Had his initial conversation with the police been different, this would have had a different outcome.

From what I understand there may be audio, or video, of this event. That could prove us all wrong.

I read both police reports, and based on the other eyewitness statements, this really isn't a case of racisim, but of reverse racism on the part of Gates.

Appears you were an "uninformed" officer for 2 years.

I thought it was interesting that the Officer teaches Racial profiling classes at the academy. Sounds like Gates is a Louis Farakan level Dickwad who should have just STFU instead of running his mouth and he wouldn't have had this problem. I've been pulled over a bunch of times, had cops at the house in my earlier years etc.. Most cops aren't assholes until your a dick to them. Act politely, get treated decent.. Appearantly that Dumfuk professor is so worried that something racially motivated might happen to him, he created his own problem.

Well... since you ain't black or latino and haven't experienced racial profiling or institutional racism first-hand WRO... I'd venture to say that you don't really know what the f*#k you're yappin' about now do ya?