I don't think it's necessary to take nine cops along to arrest some students on a misdemeanor noise violation. I don't think it's necessary to show up at 3AM and put them all in handcuffs and drag one out of bed and down the stairs either. That sounds excessive to me. Especially since this same cop just gave a citation to a non-Duke student who was carrying a concealed gun and had some pot. No arrest and no handcuffs for that person.
I should also say, as the daughter of a non-US citizen, that I think his threats to have someone deported are really offensive. Since I've had Immigration Law, I can tell you that generally, to be deported, you have to commit a crime involving "moral turpitude". This is sort of a hazy term but generally it means an act of baseness, vileness and depravity and is generally restricted to felonies and offenses that are "malum in se". I don't think making noise qualifies for this. Gottlieb strikes me as someone who likes to use his authority to threaten and scare students and that sounds like an abuse of authority to me.
"I don't think it's necessary to take nine cops along to arrest some students on a misdemeanor noise violation."
Durham crime is so bad that according to an article in USA today, some black pastors buy tickets out of Durham for their youth. Durham has about ten times as many gang members as Raleigh. Durham has, in fact, a "crime emergency" (and an absent police chief) whether they declared one or not.
And to put this much effort into quieting some noisy college kids is ridiculous. They could have left that to Duke, and been doing some real police work.
There will be other stories; there always is when a renegade like Gottlieb is involved -- he can't help himself. The September 22 hearing will be fascinating since Gottlieb conducted the line up. There may be a suppression hearing on the photo ID and, if so, Gottlieb will be forced to testify. I find it interesting that the dossiers mentioned in the article were collected before the LAX case broke, meaning that people knew he was out of control and did nothing to reign him in. Because some students chose to go to trial to fight bogus charges, the Duke administration cannot claim ignorance of this situation. As an aside, I'd love to ask Brodhead what did he know and when did he know it.
The ironic part is this is nothing new. When we went to Duke twenty years ago, students knew not to roam into Durham after dark because we did not know the dangerous areas and even then the local police had a reputation for roughing up Duke students. In my humble opinion, Gottlieb and Nifong had been pulling these stunts of treating Duke students like yesterday's garbage for years with impunity, only this time they took it way over the top.
And what is it that Gottlieb reported said?
He separates one and threatens him with deportation in order to apply pressure to one in order for him to make incriminating statements against the others at the party.
The incident that I'm aware of is the DPD showing up a Duke house with a reputation for parties with the Large Swat team truck and a Paddy wagon. The enormous blinding lights from the Swat team truck were turned onto the house and seconds later they broke through the front door.
They only found underage drinking (by 19-20 year olds) and they charged those over 21 with noise violations and some with open container violations. But, several students were pulled aside individually and told of how long they'd be in jail - and what other things they had on them; however, they could extricate themselves from the arrest and the ensuing suspension and expulsion from Duke - if they incriminated some other students in illegal drug use at the party - so they were told.
Where's the sense of appropriateness compared to the wrong-doing (underage drinking) ? Compared to the daily shooting and gang activities in Durham?
And Nifong sounds like he echoed this feeling against the Duke Students in that public statement where he said something like for too long, there's been a feeling that the Duke students could escape Justice and their Rich Daddies would get them off???
It almost sounds like powerful parts of the DPD and the DA were content to leave most of Durham under seige while they exacted revenge on a tiny portion of the population - due to inherent biases they harbor to this day!
I agree on his assumption that someone is not a US citizen based on their name or how they look. And I agree on you generally about him. I only pointing out that if you are going to arrest a party full of people, taking a bunch of officers is not a stretch. And they were under pressure from the neighbors who wanted the partying cut down.