jessduntno replied:
Lousy reception on his radio? Echoing from the bullying, racist ahole that was screaming so loud it could be heard across the street? Who knows? What are you a mind reader?
marktwain replies:
I am not a mindreader. Police know the rules, and how to tweak the system to their advantage. They do not like being insulted and yelled at, and they understand that they need to use the system to their advantage if they are to retaliate.
Posting HTML
You posted;
“It seems likely to me that Crowley asked Gates to come outside specifically so that a disorderly conduct charge could be plausible. Why else ask him to come outside?”
I responded;
Lousy reception on his radio? Echoing from the bullying, racist ahole that was screaming so loud it could be heard across the street? Who knows?
Do you have an answer to that? Are the possibilities that I propose (and that Crowley reports in his statement) so completely out of the question? I am not trying to persuade you to support the guy, but why do you jump to the conclusion he was not being truthful?
The audio of the police communication is here, I suggest listening to it.
I can - at times - catch the sound of someone in the background speaking loudly, but it does not sound to me as anything that could be described as screaming. Listen at 2:16, 2:45.
Gates sounds like he was being a jerk, but that's not illegal. I know police officers have a difficult job and deserve our respect, but I don't approve of "contempt of cop" arrests. And that's what this looks like with the information I have now. Not at all racist, that's garbage, but a "contempt" arrest.