What’s fishy here is that Gates as a law professor knows or should have known that when a police officer comes to your door and asks you to step outside it is for a very good reason—you lose all the constitutional protections you have while in your home if you step into the public.
Myselff, I would never answer the door to police because they can also YANK you outside, and did just that up in Portlnd Oregon on some sweep they were having there.
No, if the police persist in knocking, either call 911 and ask what the problem is, or (and I don’t recommend this) open a window and asked for i.d. Under no circumstances is it anything BUT stupid to open the door:
A little 10 year old down the street says you touched/annoyed her. Open the door and step outside into the public and you can be arrested based on the officer’s own forming of probable cause. Keep the door closed and the only way you can be arrested is with an arrest warrant and a search warrant.
So I have a hard time believing that Gates wasn’t setting up the police when he could have stayed in his house and yelled anything he wanted at them as they left. Still, the arrest was probably an over reaction.
From what I know, Gates is a Professor of African American Studies or something to that effect. Nonetheless, I imagine he’s an intelligent fellow.
If he “setup” the situation, then yeh, still guilty.
I get the feeling that he had a bad day, had a chip on his shoulder and has the ability to play the race card - plus he’s probably pumped up because his buddy is in the White House.
If I’m in his shoe’s in this situation, I’m happy the police are doing their job and I’m helping them do their job and move on..
If I’m in my garage, on the other hand, cleaning my guns and some namby pamby neighbor calls the police freaking out because they just happened to walk by and notice a firearm then we have another situation....
In the end, this race card crap has to end and “disorderly conduct” needs “reform” almost as bad as we need Tort Reform.