The Gates Arrest: Sgt. Crowley’s Nightmare Is All Too Real

Pajamas Media ^ | July 24 | Jack Dunphy

[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. ..

[Melinda in TN]

Yep, but that’s about all we have. No red lights or anything. Shoot, we only got water two years ago. We still don’t have cable or garbage pickup. :-) We still use our well but hooked the daughter up to city water to put less pressure on the well. I have pictures of our area on my profile.

[MHGinTN]

Sounds like the kind of place I need to go to , to get away from the tax trap I’m in now. Any land for sale down there?

[Grut]

Gates behaved badly, Obama behaved badly, Crowley may have behaved badly... it's perfectly possible that it was a**holes all around. A little witholding of judgement may be in order.

[Melinda in TN]

I’ve seen a lot of land in this area for sale lately. When the old farmers die off the families sell off the land in chunks.

Our farm is 44 acres with a house, spring fed pond, and three outbuildings, one is quite large. Our yearly property taxes are only $800. The house is over 50 years old and was built from red oak cut on the farm. It’s old but solid. Even the roof is red oak. When we had the 20X30 outbuilding built we didn’t even have to get a permit. I don’t know if that’s still the case or not but this county is a good county to live in. The cost of living is reasonable here.

[Andy'smom]

“It sort of puzzles me that the “neighbor” didn’t recognize Gates considering he’s such a big shot professor as well as a neighbor.”

That’s because she isn’t really his neighbor. She’s employed by Harvard Magazine and was walking down the street. The police report says she lives in Malden.

[xzins]

That tape is on its way to Hollywood for editing/photoshopping

[opaque soul]

Ok then, so you base the reality of someone else's experience on the reality of your own experience... Have it your way... but have you learned anything new yet since then, you know, about the lady that called in the break-in?

[opaque soul]

Hey there... think about this... next time you get pulled over by a cop, or a cop mistakes you for a thief and you don’t even give the cop a chance to run through his drill and you start badmouthing him or her, and you don’t stop when they ask you to please calm down and cooperate, but you go on and on and on, let me know if you don’t get your ass hauled off to jail... go ahead, I dare ya.

[EDINVA]

I see this whole incident as more about class than even race. Dr/Prof Gates thinks he is VERY important. He said in at least one Kerryesque interview that “I thought everybody knows who I am.’

Poor Sgt Crowley, without doctoral or professorial portfolio, not only didn’t know WHO Dr/Prof Gates is, but asked for ID. Gates’s ego was crushed. On top of that, he’s black. So, naturally he would presume this ignorant cracker was merely being racist. It’s all very logical. Or not.

[JLS]

Yawn. Get a brain.

[JLS]

Yawn. Get a brain.

[JLS]

Yawn. Get a brain.

[opaque soul]

Hey JLS, nothing but a lame-brained comeback? Dude, the evidence is in, when you run out of argument with cred, insult...

[JLS]

You are the one who ran out of arguments and went with a lame inconsistent analogy.

1. I never said Gates was anything but a jerk. Read the thread. The cop was just wrong.

2. Your suggestion on public streets is far different than the situation we were discussing at someones residence.

[opaque soul]

OK now we’re back on track... The cop was investigating a possible break in, a possible crime in progress. He has a duty to run a check on the residence. Gates started badmouthing the cop from the start rather than cooperating. The cop turns to leave once he's satisfied that Gates is the owner of the home, Gates follows after the cop and continues to berate him. It doesn’t matter whether you're in your own home or your own car, you've gotta know the cop has a duty to perform and your badmouthing him A) Is a challenge to his authority to do his job, B) Can be taken as a threat to his own wellbeing, C) Is, as the cop said, a disturbance to the peace. I get your take on the matter, but my take is that the cop did the right thing and did nothing wrong... you say he was wrong, I say he was right, we disagree, that's OK... I'll bet we agree on many more things than we disagree, how about that president Obonehead acted stupidly and is continuing to act stupidly and that should be the focal point in this whole matter.

[JLS]

OK now we’re back on track...

Fair enough.

The cop was investigating a possible break in, a possible crime in progress.

Which he did.

He has a duty to run a check on the residence.

Which he did.

Gates started badmouthing the cop from the start rather than cooperating.

Which Gates did.

The cop turns to leave once he's satisfied that Gates is the owner of the home, Gates follows after the cop and continues to berate him.

It is claimed the cop asked him outside due to hearing issues in his kitchen. Since it led to a disorderly conduct arrest, that would be entrapment in my book.

It doesn’t matter whether you're in your own home or your own car,

I think it matters a great deal if you are at home or in your car. In your car you are in public. At home you are not.

you've gotta know the cop has a duty to perform and your badmouthing him A) Is a challenge to his authority to do his job, B) Can be taken as a threat to his own wellbeing, C) Is, as the cop said, a disturbance to the peace.

Nobody suggested that Gates acted like anything other than a boor. I in fact begain my original post pointing that out. As James Taranto at the WSJ Best of the Web Today said, the cop was on duty. He was representing the city. He had a greater duty to behave than Gates. The effective thing for the cop to do would have been to leave saying nothing or say I have better things to do that listen to you rant and leave. But someone let their ego get the best of them.

I get your take on the matter, but my take is that the cop did the right thing and did nothing wrong... you say he was wrong, I say he was right, we disagree, that's OK... I'll bet we agree on many more things than we disagree, how about that president Obonehead acted stupidly and is continuing to act stupidly and that should be the focal point in this whole matter.

Fair enough.

[opaque soul]

Ah, good response... We'll agree to disagree on whether Crowley should have just walked away but agree that Obonehead is an idiot du'jour. Thanks for sticking with the spar.

[wtc911]

The arrest allowed Crowley to make a full report and document everything that happened

_________________________________

Crowley would have filed an incident report with or without an arrest.

[wtc911]

The second guy was a taxi driver, nothing more than that.

[wtc911]

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.

______________________________________________

There are a million legit reasons. For one, does Logan fly non-stop to Beijing or was the non-stop leg from and to Newark? If I flew Asia to East Coast (which I've done) and then faced another connection to get to my home city I would consider getting a hotel room first.