Dem Pundit Powers: Crowley 'Lured' Gates Outside To Arrest Him

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

As Dem pundits go, I normally find Kirsten Powers among the more reasonable. But on this afternoon's Fox News Watch, Powers propounded perhaps the most despicable theory yet of the Gates/Crowley incident: that the sergeant "lured" and "tricked" Gates into coming outside so he could arrest him.

Panelist Jim Pinkerton had just made the point that it was only the conservative media, by focusing attention on the matter, that saved Sgt. Crowley from a "miserable life in Cambridge" at the hands of Prof. Gates, Harvard, the NAACP et. al, when Powers jumped in . . .

View video here.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

if I was tasered, which I consider deadley force for some BS, I'd come back with my gun.

A street ful of cops and you're coming after them all with your gun. I saw a movie like that, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Nice ending.

[parsifal]

Oops. let me try again. Fourth paragraph from the bottom.

http://www.lawcollective.org/article.php?id=126

parsy, the clumsy

[DejaJude]

He lured him outside so he could arrest him for disorderly conduct? Wasn’t it nice of Gates to be disorderly in public rather than just inside his house? There were many witnesses to this.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Scratch a Dem, find a person willing to destroy innocent people for their political advancement. Even Kirsten Powers, sadly.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Marc Lamont Hill

http://seeingblack.com/2005/x110405/bball.shtml

a lil dab’ll dooya, LOL

[Plutarch]

I have a friend who is a former police officer. He says it was standard procedure during, for example, a domestic dispute, to say to on of the belligerants, "Lets go outside and discuss this." As soon as one of them is outside, you arrest (usually him) for something like disorderly conduct, and take him downtown for processing. From the Police perspective, that "solves" the problem for his shift, by separating the two, and putting it into a Police template. You have to lure one of them outside the front door, because of the Castle Doctrine notion that pervade jurisprudence.

So, says he, if a Police Officer invites you outside, don't go, he wants to arrest you.

[jessduntno]

Marc Lamont Hill...a lil dab’ll dooya, LOL

Oooof...a total moron...should not be allowed out in public...

[jessduntno]

“Gates has the wrong nickname. Chip would be much more appropriate.”

“Skippy”...definitely...

[Plutarch]

Plus she's cute (for a Lib).

True, but she really shouldn't be taking her official publicity portrait with her roots showing.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

But it sounds like in the situation you described, the police officer was already inside the house. Here, Crowley, alone, invited Gates outside rather than going in by himself. Sounds eminently reasonable to me, no?

[srmorton]

I was not disputing the fact that you were highlighting in your post. I was merely making the point that, IN THIS CASE, he was following departmental procedure. If you look at the behavior - then and now - of the principles in this case, the one who has behaved in the most believable manner is Sgt. Crowley. Kirsten was doing what the left often does - using a statement which may be true on its face in a situation in which it does not apply in order to be critical of conservative priniciples.

[guitarplayer1953]

Did the officer get Gates to go onto public property before he arrested him? If not and Gates was on his own property whether it was inside or out it make no difference.

[Plutarch]

Here, Crowley, alone, invited Gates outside rather than going in by himself. Sounds eminently reasonable to me, no?

Sure, if any one of us was a Police Officer in a dicey situation like this, we'd want the person who is accosting you outside, because your scope of action is so much wider.

We could probably find this technique in an introductory Police textbook.

[Darren McCarty]

Inciting a riot? I'd love to be the defense council for that one. There's a big difference between being a jackass and inciting a riot.

I don't know Massachusetts Law for that, but under federal law.

A public disturbance involving (1) an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an assemblage of three or more persons, which act or acts shall constitute a clear and present danger of, or shall result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the person of any other individual or (2) a threat or threats of the commission of an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an assemblage of three or more persons having, individually or collectively, the ability of immediate execution of such threat or threats, where the performance of the threatened act or acts of violence would constitute a clear and present danger of, or would result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the person of any other individual.

[Political Junkie Too]

How come nobody suggests that maybe, since Crowley was responding to a breaking and entering, that he wanted to make sure that there wasn't a burglar hiding behind the door with a gun pointed at Gates, so he was being cautious? Maybe Crowley wanted to lure Gates outside and away from a burglar in a way that would seem natural?

-PJ

[Raycpa]

I assumed the need to have him leave the house was to insure he wasn’t held hostage.

[Cicero]

I think it needs to be emphasized that when a break-in is suspected, as it was in this case, then it is Standard Operating Procedure to ask a homeowner to step outside and ID himself.

The reason for this is that if he stands in the hallway and speaks through the door, there’s no way of telling whether the housebreaker may be somewhere behind him holding a gun on him and forcing him to lie to the police.

In other words, it’s a safety measure to protect homeowners. A policeman who didn’t follow this procedure would be neglecting his duty and endangering the homeowner.

[y6162]

Why don’t you run over to Huff Po and impress them. I’m sure they’ll all clap their flippers for you.

Here, you’re just full of crap.

[supremedoctrine]

Yeah, M L Hill.....yet another thing I will never forgive Bill O Reilly for is giving this doofus some kind of intellectual cache by having him on his show to pontificate three times a week. This guy is a moron.

[Darren McCarty]

If not and Gates was on his own property whether it was inside or out it make no difference.

I wish I could agree with you on that because that should be the case, but there is very limited rights once you step outside. You have many rights in your home, but outside is another story.