The public here do not support the police on this, which is no surprise. What is amazing to me is how stupid they look when doing so. Whether it's letters or calls to radio shows, every effete Cantabridgian has some halfassed story to tell about how they have witnessed racism here (one woman who sounded like she was stoned talked on and on about how the police asked two black friends of hers if they were smoking dope, and how racist this was, but couldn't answer the simplest questions as to why the police were even talking to her friends in the first place). A local liberal radio host is outraged about this and doesn't seem to understand that his words and tone betray that he, like Gates, is just another "Do you know who I am????" lib.
I have been spoken to by police on more than one occasion and while I can criticize specific officers and specific behavior, I have the ability to get outside myself and see the difficulty of the job and the reasons for certain behavior by police I might find objectionable. Gates and the rest of these fools can't grasp that when someone calls in a report, the police cannot just appear at the scene and, when someone says "It's fine" just walk away. There was a report of a possible break-in by more than one person, and when the officer showed up, the front door was open;the officer asked the man if he was alone, and then to step outside on the chance that someone was inside, or the person he saw was under duress. Also, it isn't a case of a break-in being done by the cliche young guy--what if this break-in was the result of an older man who had a specific reason for wanting to break into this house?
These and other possibilities must enter the citizen's thoughts when dealing with a police officer in a situation where the citizen indeed knows the facts, but the officer doesn't yet. The officer is in your house because of concern for the safety of the people living there--YOU may know the facts, but HE doesn't, for if he did he wouldn't be there. So it is up to you to carefully and politely inform him, and if he requests ID and such, you give it to him.
Police aren't always right, and citizens aren't always wrong. But both are only human. When you see a policeman coming into your house, don't assume he has your particular biases, or ones similar. All you can assume is that the was a cop called to check out something which, if your brain is engaged, you KNOW would look strange to someone who doesn't have the information you have.
All of this is beyond the wussy pot-smoking peacenic backseat freedom fighters of Cambridge, who only see this as yet another opportunity for them to practice their bumper sticker politics and pretend they're fighting for civil rights.
P.S. I have a feeling some of the same Cambridge folks who are bellowing the loudest were those who signed a petition described in this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n25_v41/ai_8251987/
I have a family member who has been on a big city police force for years. Heck, even she will tell you that individual police do occasionally act like jerks...but it’s certainly not the rule. Interestingly, the most difficult people she has to deal with are generally the black welfare population - and white professionals. The latter are the ones who, if they’re stopped for a traffic infraction, immediately scream “do you know who I am?” In their tiny minds, being a city bureaucrat or an attorney apparently makes them so special they can drive 20 miles above the speed limit. Usually they have the common sense to shut up after she warns them, though, and reaching for the handcuffs (the next step) is enough to make them fall silent and start looking for their vehicle papers. Some of them won’t shut up and do end up being arrested for interfering with police business or some variation on disorderly conduct.
The police do not act on their own, but have procedures that they have been taught to follow. These are for their own protection, as well, and they follow them carefully. Every police officer knows of a case where somebody didn’t check the house carefully enough, opened a door the wrong way, was inattentive to procedure for a moment in a traffic stop, and ended up dead.
I’m sorry to hear the attitude of the folks in Cambridge. But it reminds me of something my cop family member told me: these same yuppie types who mouth off at the cops are the very ones who, after a burglary at their homes, will call the police station every day to ask if their missing possessions have been found yet, or why the police aren’t “looking harder.” Good grief. It’s all about them.
That attitude is one of the things that I find hardest to take about Obama, because he has it to the nth degree: the yuppie “it’s all about me” mantra runs in his head at every waking moment. Grievance groups, such as the various race associations, just take this attitude one step further and give themselves a permanent reason to think it’s all about them. Gates is a perfect example of this.
BTW, I lived in Cambridge once, years ago. I literally had to move after only a few months because I found the people so intolerable. And this from somebody who grew up on the Upper West Side (near Columbia) in NY!
Esp, in light of the door having been damaged by a previous burglary or attempt to burglar. Is that fact that makes his reaction all the stranger.
Conclusion: The professor is dealing with a less than a full deck or with a stacked deck.