Posted on 07/25/2009 8:37:19 AM PDT by AJKauf
I am in a sense fortunate in that I work in an area where I’m as likely to encounter an extraterrestrial as an Ivy League professor, but like most police officers I can nonetheless sympathize with Cambridge Police Department sergeant James Crowley, for whom there will be no waking from the nightmare for some time to come. But, except for the notoriety and lofty position of the reported “burglar” (one of America’s preeminent black scholars, and all that), the scenario presented to Sgt. Crowley is fairly typical, one that every cop has experienced many times. A well-meaning neighbor has seen something she perceives as out of the ordinary and has asked the police to investigate. If more people were disposed to act this way, America’s crime rate would plummet overnight.
The first question to be asked about Sgt. Crowley’s initial response is, was it lawful and reasonable? Clearly it was both. A cornerstone U.S. Supreme Court decision, Terry v. Ohio, held that an officer may stop and detain a person he reasonably believes to be involved in criminal activity. Here, Sgt. Crowley answered a citizen’s report of a possible burglary. Such reports are granted a presumption of reliability under the law, so Sgt. Crowley was on solid ground in approaching the home and, upon seeing a man inside who matched the description provided by the witness, asking him for his identification. A police officer responding to such a report must, for his own safety, assume the report to be accurate until he can satisfy himself that it isn’t. The cop who blithely handles every call assuming it to be a false alarm will likely not survive to handle many of them. ..
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
a white dildo?
sorry....couldn’t resist.
They said the second man was his driver but that doesn’t make a lot of sense....Does bodyguard and confidant make more sense??
Huh??? I need to get out more. LOL
When somebody new moves into this area the neighbors all take them food, help them haul in furniture and generally get in the way trying to be friendly. We take care of each other. I’ve never lived anywhere that I didn’t know and recognize almost everybody that lived within a five mile radius of me. That’s how it is in small town hicksville USA.
That's something that occurred to me, too. I'm sure Gates would have screamed racism no matter what, and the fact that the officer arrested him kept everything out in the open.
It is standard procedure to bring somebody out of their house (to the porch, in this case) in certain situations (out of control domestic call, for example), both for their protection and that of the officer. In this case, the fact that Gates was publicly visible prevents him from claiming he had been roughed up or abused in some way, and arresting him certainly makes everything very public and above board.
Otherwise, I'm sure Gates would now be claiming police brutality.
Paling around with his communist buddies? You know, birds of a feather and all that.
Did this happen at night? And how far apart are the houses?
Now that is something I hadn't heard. Interesting.
Thats because all you white folk look alike........
Harvard is a big landowner in Cambridge. A lot of faculty houses are not owned by the professors, but rented to them by the university. I think getting to live in faculty housing (they’re often pretty, older buildings) is considered a perk.
After Gates’ trip to China, he didn’t come directly from the airport home to Cambridge. IIRC, Gates came from New Jersey where he had supposedly stayed the night in a hotel. Why didn’t he just go home from the airport? Just asking.
The thing being overlooked by some is the reaction of Gates should APPROPRIATELY have been:
"Oh, officer, I can appreciate the misunderstanding. Here is my ID. I live here. The door was jammed when I returned and my (driver) helped me to open the door with a hard shove of his shoulder. Thank you for asking. I'm glad to see the Cambridge Police Department is quickly responsive and alert to the possibility of a burglary of my home. If you are satisfied, have a nice evening."
Obama had accumulated seventeen parking tickets including parking He did not pay them when he was a Lawyer in Chicago. He did not pay them when he was a Illinois State Senator. He did not pay them when he was a US Senator from Illinois. He cynically payed them two weeks before he announced for President. Obama knows a lot more about the Cambridge Police Department.
in a bus stop and parking in a restricted Handicap parking space
during his time becoming a Harvard Lawyer and as
the Editor of the Harvard Law Review..
Sorry but Melinda in TN is not the president of the US sticking his nose in a local matter. People constantly make decisions and form opinion with the facts they have at hand. Good grief.
What was wrong was the President of the US sticking his nose in a local matter and showing his prejudice. I tend to agree with Taranto:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306162620043236.html
the cop should have left. The cop had more of a duty to act civily as he was on the job. The cop should never have arrest the prof. The prof was only a racist. That is not illegal.
I think the whole thing was a setup planned by Gates, friends, and neighbor.
http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/2009/07/president-obama-and-senator-boxer-acted-stupidly/
President Obama and Senator Boxer acted stupidly
In his recent press conference, the First Gasbag in Chief waded into a racial powderkeg. After admitting that he had no idea what the facts were, he decided that a police department “acted stupidly” when a white police officer arrested a black college professor.
In another incident, Barbara “You had better call me Senator” engaged in outright bigotry, and had the temerity to express shock at being a victim of her own game.
No, the only people acting stupidly in this country are leftist race mongers, who have used political correctness, aka political McCarthyism, to destroy people. Now they are getting their racial castor oil shoved down their throats in spades, and they don’t like it.
President Obama offered social racial commentary about a conflict that may have had absolutely nothing to do with race.
I initially stayed away from this story in greater detail because unlike President Obama, we simply did not know all of the facts. My blog has a policy of avoiding stories when the facts are unknown. It saves time in corrections later on.
What is not in dispute is that a woman saw a man breaking into the back of his house. As somebody who has locked his keys in his car and lost his house keys, I have had to break into my own car, and use a ladder to climb into an open window on the roof as a youngster. Somebody witnessing this who did not know me would absolutely have a right to question this and call the cops.
Regardless of the circumstances of the burglar call by the neighbor, Gates is being a racist jerk and it looks to me like he was just looking for a fight. I expect to see a lot more of this kind of attack now with Obama at the wheel.
The officer did everything right and I hope things work out for him. Apparently his friends and co-workers, black and white, are behind him 100%.
I expect this all to backfire in Gates and Obama’s faces.
I don’t think it’s unusual. In the city, you don’t even recognize someone who lives next door ... I LIKE my anonymity. But that’s a different issue.
The problem is that Gates EXPECTED people to know him because he thought he was a hot shot racial critic. He thought he was a big wig who could crush the cop.
I don’t think it had anything to do with recognizing him because he lived in the neighborhood.
Release the 911 and police radio tapes
Barbara Boxer: My jerkish behavior is great for fund-raising!
By Michelle Malkin • July 24, 2009 06:50 AM
Getting unhinged over military officials calling her ma’am.
Getting unhinged over minority conservatives challenging the cult of global warming.
Getting unhinged over people calling her unhinged.
That’s Babs Boxer for you. And she says her moonbat constituents love her theatrics so much, it’s filling her campaign coffers. Via Politico:
Boxer says that she doesn’t regret the recent episodes — and that any attention her political opponents devote to them will help her in her 2010 reelection bid.
“That only revs up my people,” she told POLITICO. “I use that to send them letters and say, ‘Help me.’ So I get millions of dollars because these people are attacking me in the most ridiculous, unfair way. The more they do it, the more I get energized for my [reelection] race, and the more my supporters help me because they think it’s so ridiculous and unfair.”
Alas, even fellow Democrats on the Hill are embarrassed by crazy auntie Barb:
“You can’t just do this by guilting folks,” said one senior Democratic aide who, like others, would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
Read the rest.
Guilting. Hectoring. Race-baiting. Emotional-card-playing. She doesn’t know any other way to do things.
And, hey, it’s great for fund-raising.
The most racist people in America today are black liberals. Period. End of story.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.