Posted on 07/23/2009 4:46:52 PM PDT by parsifal
After dropping her young daughter with a baby sitter, Taquana Harris rushed to her hostess job at the fashionable Bowery Bar one night last February, her leopard-print evening gown sweeping elegantly through the dark, icy streets of the East Village. Then a strange woman crudely grabbed her by the arm and demanded to know what she had done with the drugs.
Within seconds, Ms. Harris recalled, she found herself pinned to the steel grating of a bodega by two plainclothes officers engaged in a neighborhood drug sweep.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He didn’t abuse his power and he didn’t make a false arrest.
I thought Gates was on the sidewalk because that was how a neighbor described it (I guess he had come down the steps at some point in his rant), but he was on the porch. However, people who are acting like lunatics can be arrested even in their own homes. Gates was clearly acting in an unhinged manner, he had been told to calm down, and disorderly conduct was a perfectly legitimate charge.
Police often arrest people like that just to get them out of a situation; sometimes it is to get them to professional help, sometimes to prevent them from then going on to do harm to somebody else.
This is not like a political demonstration (although how long you think we’d get away with screaming “I hate Obama,” I don’t know!).
It was a high conflict personal situation where Gates, somebody who should have known better, was uncooperative from the start, abusive, and finally so disruptive a crowd had gathered in front of his house. What the police often do in situations like that is simply remove the person (and the charges are frequently dropped and the person is released after he calms down).
And if you think there’s no danger to the police in situations like this, you’re wrong. As one police officer I know said, whenever he goes out, he thinks that there could be a situation that day where only one person goes home: and he wants to be that one. There have been many cases where a person acting like Gates is genuinely crazy and dangerous to himself or others, and arresting them is one way of controlling the situation.
Was when —> until
So far Gates hasn't refuted one bit of Crowley's report. And, the department canvassed all the witnesses to the incident, civilian and otherwise, and found there was no wrong-doing on Crowley's part. Where's your proof that he filed a false report? The report was approved by his supervising Lieutenant. If he'd any problems with the Sgt's. credibility, I doubt he would have signed it.
I agree with you parsy, the cop should have had the professionalism and humility to just walk away and let Gates continue to engage his free speech while unimpressing his neighbors with his manners and eloquence.
Did Gates apologize?
Just wondering
I’m sure he’s sorry that various unflattering photos have hit the web.
I think Gates made it a race issue. Obama just called it stupidity, which it was. Once assured that Gates was the homeowner, the cops should have left.
parsy.
Can alleging that someone is a racist, cause them great harm, ruin their careers and get them black balled and even cause harm to them and their families?
The “simple” arrest brings the machinery of gov’t in the matter.
What if the President of the United States backed up these false allegations of racism without even knowing the facts, in front of millions on television?
What about the machinery of the generated from the President of the United States against one cop?
What about that?
Obama suggested and implied this was racism. Was this not clear to you?
Would you like to see the transcript?
True. But the police sergeant's supervisor decided to drop the charges. Probably because nobody wanted the headache of taking this before a District Justice (who would probably have dropped the charges & let Gates off with a warning). That doesn't change the fact that the sergeant handled the situation within acceptable parameters.
What really frosts me about today's society is that Police Officers, and to a certain extent teachers, are not allowed to exercise their own judgement. There's a dozen rules for the application of each law or regulation. Everybody is frozen for fear of screwing up.
Here we see a street cop exercising his judgment, followed by his boss doing the same. The final result was acceptable. Nobody got hurt. And Gates gets to make some noise, which he was going to do in any case.
I'd say that all's well that ends well except that I know that by Obama speaking out, his Acorn toadies are going to make this cop's life a living Hell. Before you know it, Sergeant Crowley will be likened to Det. Mark Fuhrman.
I heard that Crowley went back inside the house to get Gates' cane because he said he couldn't walk down the stairs without it. He also made sure that the Harvard Campus police secured the house since the door wouldn't lock from having been broken into previously. I'd like to know more about that break-in. Was Gates living there at the time, or was it done while he was in China? We haven't been given info on that.
One other thing I heard from Crowley's radio interview. When Gates was taken to the station, he wasn't put in a cell because he said he was claustrophobic. He was taken to a room where he was allowed to be with his family. So the guy got special treatment that others who are arrested don't get. Since when are you allowed to be with your family after you've just been arrested? One other thing I'd like to know, if the guy is claustrophobic like he says he is, how can he fly back and forth to China, confined in an airplane, without freaking out?
Not really. Some of us know how to maintain our composure and not act like total jackasses.
Sorry for delay. Computer is acting weird.
A man’s home is his castle. This is true for idiots like Gates, just like it is for us. Read the link to the arrest report. Cop admits early on he knew Gates was homeowner and not burglar. Cop still invites Gates outside.
HERES THE LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT:
A cop can not arrest someone within their home, at night, without an arrest warrant (unless an immediate danger of some sort)
The cop should have walked away once he knew Gates was not burglar. The black cop on O’Reilly tonite nailed it dead on.
If this was a good arrest, the charges would not have been dropped like a hot potato.
I gave you a multi page story in NYT about this very thing. Did you read it? This is the kind of thing that happens when cops think they have been dissed.
Do you watch TV? Did yo see the Oklahoma nutso cop who choked the EMT? Why? he thought someone gave him the finger.
So do you think this was about the cop being racist? I don’t. Gates is probably a lot more bigoted than the cop. But Gates has a right to be a bigot in his own home and spout off any sort of nonsense he wants.
The cop just didn’t like it when Gates insulted him and his mother so he made up some crap to arrest him. This happens all the time in the real world.
parsy.
Sorry for delay. Usually come to FR thru Drudge to help keep nos up on the link but I think the site has added a gazillion ad things and slowed me down.
Anyway, here is link again to the arrest report:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html
It looks like Gates was in the house when cop invited him out. Why didn’t cop just say to him, call my chief if you have a problem, then get in his car and leave. The cop let his temper get the best of him.
parsy.
I appreciate your reply…but you didn’t really respond to what I said…you started this thread saying this was about the constitution and I said, basically, you’re full of it…
Then you reply to me with a bunch of gibberish…O’reilly, charges dropped, NYT article, Oklahoma “nutso” cop, cop being racist…basically straw man arguments…
When you say, “A cop can not (sic) arrest someone within their home, at night, without an arrest warrant (unless an immediate danger of some sort),” you are showing your, politely, lack of knowledge…beyond that, again polite statement, WTF does it have to do with the situation at hand…
You said it is a constitutional issue and it’s clearly not…I’m not going to debate straw men (btw…Obama is very good at straw men…) but I’ll be very happy to debate your original construct...
Not about race? That is exactly what it is about. Bout time white people start waking up.
Stolen from another board...
LOL! a case that i was gonna ignore is simply getting better all the time!
the half black president says the police officer acted stupidly! the governor, who also appears to be half black, says he is troubled and upset! the mayor, WHO ALSO IS BLACK (?!), has apologized on behalf of the city!
every single one of these people is african or part african, has attained the highest political office in a european majority nation, yet quickly goes on the offensive against a white police officer, who, it now appears, is perhaps the worst possible target they could have picked to attack:
it turns out this james crowly is an expert on racial profiling! he was hand picked by a former police commissioner, ALSO BLACK (wtf?!), to teach at a police academy for 5 YEARS about how to not racially profile people!
the former police comissionner is standing fully behind crowly, as are the police. crowly himself responds exactly as steve has responded. that the president wasn’t there, doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and shouldn’t have interjected himself into the situation. and hey, look at that—the police officer is an obama supporter! LOL! of course. he immediately comes out as an obama supporter, like all liberal whites attacked by blacks now.
look at how many africans are in positions of authority here. the president, the governor, the mayor, a former police commissioner, a professor. the white police officer is the only european in the entire story.
when are white liberals going to learn that spending even a large chunk of their time helping black americans is not going to earn them one iota of credit with that group?
Again sorry for delays. If i end up not answering at some point, my computer is to blame.
First, try this link on arrest warrant law:
http://www.criminal-law-lawyer-source.com/terms/arrest-warrant.html
Note what I said about arrest in your home without warrant. This is why the tricky cop wanted Gates to come outside to discuss it. It is like a vampire asking your permission to come inside. Sure, so they can fang you. Same with cops who know these tricks, and use them.
parsy
So you agree with me that this cop did not arrest Gates because he was a racist. Great.
Now why did the cop arrest him?????
Hmmmmmmm, Gates dis-respected a cop.
Gates wants it to be about race. Cop wants it to be about race because he can beat that rap. But what it is really about is just what I said.
parsy.
I’ll address the merits of your argument tomorrow...noting however that you’ve never addressed the constitutional issues you started with...
Again...you go with your straw men...”tricky cop”...but I’ll play this time (shouldn’t but I will)...according to the police report, “I told Gates that I was leaving his residence and that if he had any other questions regarding the matter, I would speak with him outside his residence.”
I’ll ask you one simple question...what could Gates have done...given this statement...to not be arrested? My gosh, a lowly police officer “tricked” an educated man to “come outside”...This straw man doesn’t work...because the “educated man” came outside, to witnesses, and was disorderly...some trick...again, as I posted before, who truly was in control of this situation?
Re#5 ‘Morning. It would. ACORN thugs wouldn’t take to kindly to it though.
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