Posted on 07/30/2009 6:36:55 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
The now-infamous Gates story has gone through the familiar media spin-cycle: incident, reaction, response, so on and so forth. Drowned out of this echo chamber has been an all-too-important (and legally controlling) aspect: the imbroglio between Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley has more to do with the limits (or breadth) of the First Amendment than with race and social class. The issue is not how nasty the discourse between the two might have been, but whether what Professor Gates said--assuming, for argument's sake, the officer's version of events as fact--could by any stretch of both law and imagination constitute a ground for arrest for "disorderly conduct" (the charge leveled) or any other crime. Whether those same words could be censored on a college campus is a somewhat different--though related--question.
First, a quick recap. Gates returned to his Cambridge residence from an overseas trip to find his door stuck shut. With his taxi driver's assistance, he forced the door open. Shortly thereafter, a police officer arrived at the home, adjacent to the Harvard University campus--in my own neighborhood, actually--responding to a reported possible burglary.
Upon arrival, the officer found Gates in his home. He asked Gates to step outside. The professor initially refused, but later opened his door to speak with the officer. Words--the precise nature of which remains in dispute--were exchanged. Gates was arrested for exhibiting "loud and tumultuous behavior." The police report, however, in Sgt. Crowley's own words, indicates that Gates' alleged tirade consisted of nothing more than harshly worded accusations hurled at the officer for being a racist. The charges were later dropped when the district attorney took charge of the case.
It is not yet entirely clear whether there was a racial element to the initial
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“Given his reputation Gates should have known that. He obviously knew better than to step outside when the cop asked him to come outside to talk. It appears he worked himself into a fit and forgot that basic rule.”
Or it was intentional...who knows?
You have the right to do those things in your own home. You can also to talk about a bomb on the sidewalk and on a public sidewalk you can tell a judge what kind of slime he is if you don't get too loud and attract a crowd.
That could be too. The point is you can do and say thigs ina private home that you can’t do out where you disturp others.
You also lose a lot of legal protection when you step outside even if you don’t disturb the peace.
I've seen this happen, and depending on the circumstances, he was bordering on trying to incite a riot.
I’d venture that the reason the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges is because they realized the difficulty of showing that there was a danger of imminent violence. I went to court three times representing people with the same charges and when the prosecutors saw that the defendant had an attorney, they just dismissed the case each time.
Just guessing, I’d bet that 90% of the time, the officer is just fed up with the defendant, and vents his frustration by arresting him, even though he knows the charges will probably be dropped later. It’s better than hitting him over the head.
“It’s better than hitting him over the head.”
Better, probably, but far less justice involved.
A friend of mine tells me this story (cooraborated by his wife) a while back;
“I was talking to a guy in line at a ball game once who was real loud and saying a bunch of what he thought was really cool shit about one of the black ballplayers and saying things like “the team is getting really DARK, you know what I mean? Night Games will be tough to see the players”...blah, blah, blah...so this guy behind him, a WHITE guy, like us, says to him why don’t you STFU you ignorant (...)....
The big mouth tells him to stick it...and the guy behind him DECKS him...I mean just lays him out...park cop (white guy, too by the way) comes over, asks what happened...I say NOTHING...silent...the guy who laid this idiot out says “he must have slipped” and the loud mouth gets walked away by an attendant, still woozy and bleeding all over himself. No one said a word. Went in and watched the Angels beat the Yankees...”
America. Funny place.
“When I lived in Cambridge, there was a shopping mall (a nice one) that I stopped going to because there was a heavy gang presence and there were occasional shootings. It is false to think of Cambridge as some sort of lush gated community for eggheads.”
I’ve only been there as a tourist, and I guess I missed that. But somehow I doubt that there was a dangerous gang presence outside Professor Gates’ house.
I don’t know what Gates was upset about, or if he was just trying to create a scene, but I can certainly imagine situations where I would be moved to yell at a police officer on my property. Suppose one came with a search warrant to take away all of my guns, and the officer proceeded to do so, even after I pointed out to him that he had misread the warrant and gone to the wrong house. I think I would give him a very noisy piece of my mind, and I wouldn’t mind if I disturbed the neighbors. I’d want them to know what was going on.
“I’d venture that the reason the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges is because they realized the difficulty of showing that there was a danger of imminent violence.”
The POtuS saying he was a good friend may have had SOMETHING to do with it...I’m just saying...and “Mumbles” Menino saying the cop should lose his job may have had an effect...
“The POtuS saying he was a good friend may have had SOMETHING to do with it.”
Ah, yeah, come to think of it...
If I was the cop, I would have told President ObamaBigot to stuff his beer where the sun don't shine.
The cop is just another useful idiot for the Libtards. Of course, being a Union Man from Taxachussets, I'm sure he voted for Obama and Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy anyway.
The attempt to make Crowley a hero here is quite amazing. Please note that Crowley teaches "sensitivity training." I have yet to meet a "trainer" who is not a leftist, brown noser to authority, or on a personal power trip. I suspect that Crowley is in the latter category and would have arrested ANYONE for disagreeing with him. I'll bet dollars to donuts that Crowley would have also tased and arrested this 72 year old grandmother and would have been universally condemend here for doing so!:
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