The fact that the police determined that Gates was the owner did not end the need for investigation. The police absolutely should always determine that there is not another person involved who may intend to do harm to the owner. That is why Crowley needed to get Gates out of the house. If my neighbor reports a possible problem at my house and my wife answers the door when the police arrive, I certainly want the police to make certain that she is not in danger from someone who might be in the house and telling her to keep quiet.
That’s true—but it doesn’t mean the driver has to go through the national examination that the poor original 911 caller is suffering, for example.
Also, I already read I don’t remember where that the driver was an immigrant from some African nation. Heather MacDonald has more details that’ll boil your blood, but she also reports that Gates reported he was his regular driver from his regular car service:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTU4MGE4MDkwYzhiYjY4OTk2OWRlZjcyMWY0MjFkNmE
That's exactly right. I just moved to a new house last year. In the process of plugging in a brand new land line phone with which I was unfamiliar, I somehow managed to accidentally press that little red emergency button thingy. The sheriff's office immediately called me to ask me what my emergency was, I explained my mistake to the dispatcher, but not even three minutes later a sheriff's deputy careened up to my front door. He asked me to step out onto the porch & away from the door to speak with him. It should be obvious to anybody with a room-temperature IQ he was doing so for both my protection as well as his own.
As I explained my clumsy techno-idiocy with the new phone apparatus to him he was checking my eye movements and surveying all around inside to ensure I was not merely saying I was okay under duress with a gun pointed at my head (or his) from somewhere around a dark corner of the interior of my home.
I am white. Was that black deputy racist for properly asking me to comply with safe procedure just as Crowley did with Gates in Cambridge? Of course not. He was simply a competent professional following the smart safety procedures which he was correctly trained to observe.
And our supposedly 'postracial' President is an ignorant bigoted yahoo for even thinking let alone publicly implying that cops who follow proper protocols to ensure their own safety & the public's are 'stupid'.
But I am glad this happened. Every time this President pulls ridiculously dumb stunts like this & further exposes his shockingly questionable judgement, all my idiotic relatives who voted for this foolish, arrogant boob become more & more suspicious about the very odd fact that he has heretofore refused to release even his college transcripts, and they've finally begun to question in earnest his competency to craft dogcatching legislation let alone seize unilateral control of the private economy & nationalize our health care.