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 ...
Thanks for posting this article.
And those big Magna-lite flashlights were known as "hippie bashers".
I have read at least one report that stated that the officer asked Professor Gates to step outside of the house, and that it was stated in the police report that this was due to “poor acoustics” in the kitchen. If true, it puts a completely different spin on the issue.
In Arkansas, you can give him the finger.
“In Nichols v. Chacon (W.D. Ark. 2000), a federal district court in Arkansas ruled that law enforcement officials violated the First Amendment rights of a man when they retaliated against him for flipping them the bird. “While we agree the gesture utilized by Nichols was crude, insensitive, offensive, and disturbing to Chacon’s sensibilities, it was not obscene under the relevant Supreme Court precedent, did not constitute ‘fighting words,’ and was protected as ‘free speech’ under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the opinion said.”
Of course, if you do you will probably be arrested for disorderly conduct. Whomped upside the head with a phone book. (it doesn’t leave marks) Maybe tasered.
parsy.
He “lured” him outside?
Please explain, how is he was “lured” outside. Crowley clearly says that Gates originally DECLINED to leave his home. So clearly, he knew he did not have to “step outside” at Crowley’s request.
After some back & forth inside the home, Crowley told Gates he was leaving & IF HE (Gates) HAD ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, Crowley would speak to him outside.
Gates could have decided, at that point, to end the confrontation. He could have decided he had made his point.
HE DID NOT.
Gates followed Crowley out of the house & continued his tirade. He was not “lured” anywhere. He made a decision to leave the privacy of his home to continue his rant in public.
Please do not twist the facts to make your point.
The biggest bullies and liars of our time are “liberals”...
Does a person have a civil duty to be polite to a judge? Try acting the fool like Gates in front of a judge and see what happens. I think a person DOES have the duty to be respectful of the police, no matter how wrong you think they are. You have a recourse if you feel you were wronged, it is called filing a complaint with the police dept after the incident is over. I think each police dept has a department called INTERNAL AFFAIRS which investigates this all the time.
Imagine if EVERYBODY acted towards the police the way Gates did in EVERY encounter with the police, from traffic stops, to house breakins, to domestic disputes, to murder investigations. I could care less if Gates was in his house or not, he should be happy the police are there to investigate a breakin when in point of fact the house had actually been BROKEN into before and there had been breakins in the neighborhood recently.
It is pathetic that people choose to prove their ‘manhood’ by getting in the face of police officers who risk their life every day to protect them. That kind of behavior is not manly, it is disgusting.
***First amendment rights? Gates and then Obamanation made this about something else completely***
Exactly.
TOTUS is MORE culpable in this.
He is SUPPOSED to be the CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER...
Yet he airs his judgment without (his admission) knowing the facts.
He did indeed ask the man to step outside, and Gates refused. Harvard police then arrived, and Crowley turned the situation over to them and stepped outside to talk to his dispatcher. That’s when Gates followed him, yelling, and earned himself an arrest, as far as I’m concerned.
i especially like all his tireless efforts to help "enemy combatants" (his use of parentheses) fight against the evil US gov't.
this guy makes the ACLU look like rush limbaugh!
He didn't need a warrant. He was investigating a break-in.
re: The cop lured Gates outside
Gates is a pretty weak fellow if all it takes to lure him outside is walking away, and off his porch.
It doesn’t matter where Gates was as long as he was on his property. There is no difference between being in his house, on his porch or in his yard. But his protection stops at his property line and when he started raising such a ruckus that it left his property and began to affect those on public property or their own property he lost his protection.
re: he could not arrest Gates inside the house without a warrant
Urban myth. It’s a misdemeanor, and the cop can’t arrest a person for a misdemeanor without a warrant UNLESS the cop witnesses it being committed. Which he, and other cops, witnessed.
Simple truth of the matter is Gates could have avoided arrest at any point during the encounter and chose not to do so. It’s almost as if he was determined to get arrested.
“Let me get this right. You think it is good that Gates was “given his wish”
I’m saying that Gates wanted to get arrested and got his wish. Maybe the cop should have just gotten in his cruiser and left the guy ranting on his porch - but I’m not losing any sleep over it.
I’d be more concerned about true police abuse of power - like speed traps (and most traffic incidents), warrant-less searches, harassment, etc.
Jessduntno
Your comments through out are right on. In fact,underlying the whole Obama mindset, along with his cronies is anarchy? Is that not what his mentor Bill Ayres was trying to do and still brags today, to take down society? To be disorderly as if it is honorable?
My husband is older, I was a child during the changes in the 60 & 70s, Dom explained what Ayres, Dorn and all those folks had in mind. These types especially take so much of the goodness of society for granted.
When their daughters are being raped by their own community members then don’t they cry out for the police?!?!?
Down to flushing the toilet society takes so much for granted. If we could not flush the toilet, for example, folks would start to get sick real fast. Anarchy my hinnie. Faith, Will, Goodness, Beauty, Duty THE AMREICAN WAY! Brotherhood at its best!
With no law enforcement officer, you effectively dismiss all laws.
With no ability to enforce laws, there’s really very little need for courts.
With very little need for criminal courts, there’s very little need for jails or prisons.
It seems you have found a solution to the problem of crime.
I’m sure the crime statistics would drop precipitously.
God help the public citizen, because nobody else would be around to.
Actually the officer had even more reason to arrest Gates when Gates made it impossible for him to communicate on his radio. The officer has rights too, and one of those is to be able to conduct a proper investigation without interference from those at the scene. The officer had every right to be in the house and every right to communicate with his dispatcher. Gates behavior was preventing him from carrying out his lawful duties. Gates could have been arrested for interfering with an office or whatever the charge is.
“First amendment rights have always stopped at yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre, and they stop at fomenting a race riot.”
This wasn’t Harlem, or East L.A. It was Cambridge, where the intellectual elite have deigned to live. Not likely to have a race riot amongst that crowd of eggheads.
The professor showed a typical egghead response—his offended intellect demanded respect and subservience from the vastly undereducated and inferior police officer, and so he was spewing hostility, albeit while balancing himself on a cane. I’m sure it was a bit comical, and not the least threatening to two much larger and well armed police officers. I’m sure also that this was not the first time that the police officer had been talked down to by the local intelligencia, and he quite understandably had had enough.
It’s not illegal to insult a police officer. But most of the time it will get you arrested, even if typically the charge is later dropped as it was here. It may not be a legal arrest, but that’s what’s going to happen in the real world, if not something even worse.
marktwain replies:
I think you are mistaken. Officer Crowley asked Professor Gates to continue the conversation outside. The police report states:
“when asked by Crowley to speak with him outside the residence, Gates replied, “ya, I'll speak with your mama outside.”
It seems likely to me that Crowley asked Gates to come outside specifically so that a disorderly conduct charge could be plausible. Why else ask him to come outside?
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