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.
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?
“So, says he, if a Police Officer invites you outside, don’t go, he wants to arrest you.”
Thanks for the info. I think it has become much easier to arrest for domestic violence since that time.