re: Why invite him outside?
Why not? The officer has every right to assure his own personal safety. The officer has no way of knowing if anyone else is in the house or if Gates has a gun hidden in a couch and is just waiting for a chance to go for it. At this point the officer is at a distinct disadvantage. He has done this long enough, and read enough after action reports of police officers who didn’t finish their shifts and go home, to know he could be in danger. And the behavior shown by Gates served only to heighten the officer’s defense mechanisms. The officer knows for a fact only what his senses tell him at this point. He is perfectly within his rights to ask the person to step outside where the officer is more in control of the situation. The officer asked, Gates refused with an insult and the officer left the house. Confrontation over. It was Gates who chose to extend the confrontation.
At what point does the officer have a duty to leave a citizen alone once that citizen has made it clear to him that he is not welcome on the citizen's property? And to frame this properly, we're talking when it is clear that no crime has been committed. How long does the policeman get to hang around when he is clearly upsetting and agitating the citizen and it is equally clear there is no pressing need for him to be there?
Why do the police seem to have all the rights here? Does the citizen in his private residence not have any protection against unwarranted intrusion? Does the citizen not get to define what is unwarranted or is that solely the provence of the police? When is a man's castle his?