Posted on 08/02/2009 6:07:38 AM PDT by Billg64
There is not much question about Gate's attitude regarding race. I doubt that Officer Crowley considered Gate's race when confronting him.
The question remains, does one have the right to act badly in their home and on their property, without fear of arrest? Does an anonymous 911 call allow police to violate the fourth amendment of the Constitution? Since when does speaking rudely to a police officer constitute a crime?
I heard judge Napalitona asking and answering these questions yesterday. His guest was the sheriff from Arizona, he agreed that the arrest was illegal.
What are your thoughts?
Remember, two men, one with a crowbar, were involved!
I personally don't believe Gates is worth protecting, but that's definitely the cop's job.
How else could he determine if the gates was real or a breakin artist with gates billfold.
Hell, gates could have been tird up in the basement.
Are you stating that if you rent your home, you give up your constitutional rights? That is ridiculous!
“He was trying to incite the crowd.”
How so? You’re saying he told the crowd to attack the police officers or something of that nature? Nothing in Crowley’s report said Gates was inciting the crowd to do anything illegal, or at all. You’re just making stuff up.
agreed GAtes should have presented his ID at teh door and said thanx for checking on my home
So the officer indeed did gather first hand information on the B&E before talking to Gates.
Smarter people than me have stated that the cop had no right to enter his home.
Of that I have no doubt, but they are wrong as well.
Nice liberal reasoning. The state should be allowed to predict things a person MIGHT do down the road and then provide incentives or punishments on that basis? The answer is simple: if Gates did something against the law, he should be punished; if he didn’t, he shouldn’t. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?
Bottom line: yelling at a cop on your porch is not a crime. This state-as-God mentality is the problem here.
Your contempt of the Constitution and ignorance of the law is rather disturbing. Yelling at a cop on one’s porch is not prima facia evidence that a crime is about to take place. You concocted a fantastical scenario about how Gates was going to start shooting into the assembled crowd and then justified his arrest on that basis. To paraphrase what you said, Thank God our Constitution wasn’t written by folks with your intellect.
Please detail the threat and the nature of the assault. I haven’t heard about this yet. You must have some original reporting to break.
“I think I learned long ago that bad mouthing a cop is assault of some kind...and a crime.”
That’s precisely the problem here. We have this assumption in this country that the state is God and cannot be questioned in any way. What you “learned long ago” is wrong.
This supposed “threat” you cite is not against the law.
Ever been through a divorce and custody battle? They get calls for much worse all the time, which are by law anonymous.
I have; but I do not understand the point you are making. Are you saying they have the right to enter one’s home on an anonymous call or no?
Well explained.
Further, in most jurisdictions there is an additional or incorporated crime of “Obstruction of a Public Servant (police officer)”. Gates was also ‘obstructing’ and could have been arrested for that too. Sometimes “obstructing” is incorporated within the definition of “Disorderly Conduct”.
Crowley had probable cause to believe Gates had committed a crime, and although he didn’t have to act on the PC, Gates actions pushed the situation to a point where the arrest was reasonable.
The Judge on Fox is wrong, just as he often is..
“The cop never should have entered his home to begin with.”
Not so. LEO has an obligation and responsibility to enter to protect the owner, who might be coerced or in danger. the 911 reported TWO people. Crowley had no knowledge that one had left.
“The cop invited him outside his own testimony states that.”
Crowley also said that he “was leaving now.” At least once.
Had this issue occurred to any person without ‘connections’ or poor, this would have resulted in an arrest at least.
This is more about ego than anything else. “Who Do You Think You Are?”
There is a legendary story that is true. It’s about a plane ride.
A man gets on a plane to fly home and sits down next to a woman. They get to chatting and come to find out that they both work for the same major bank. The woman’s a secretary and the man an Exec VP.
The man calls over the flight attendant and says that he needs to be moved. The attendant presses him for a reason. He becomes agitated.
At some point, the man says, “Do you know who I am?”
The attendant goes to the in-cabin mike and asks, “Does anyone know who the man is in seat #xy (don’t remember the seat now)? He does not know who he is.”
That, as they say, was the end of that. The man stayed right where he was and flew home.
This story is well-known in certain circles.
____________________________________________________________
For any of us who have heard the phrase used in our lives, “Who do you think you are?” or “Do you know who I am?”, you know EXACTLY how this occurrence played.
And yes, that includes me.
Furthermore, anyone who knows or is related to people who are or have been poor know exactly how the response time and actions, often of both parties, is not pleasant. At all.
Just don't SPIN the facts like a Marxist.
It’s assault, and it’s terrorist threats...Check with a lawyer. People get arrested and prosecuted for them on a daily basis.
A charge of assault need not require physical contact.
And people who threaten cops or their neighbor or spouses etc.. in front of the police, get charged with making ‘terrorist threats’. Both actionable criminal charges.
At one point, as detailed by the MSM, Gates got on the phone, to an as yet unknown person, and said ;get me the cheif!” as to indicate that he was using his political connections, to bring about wrath upon the officer. At another point, he said :You havent heard the last of me!” Or something to that effect, implying his intent to seek revengr for his imagined slights. He accused the officer of harrassment based on skin color, and he was going to make sure that it would become a Cause De Jour in his “Whitey is the Devil” screeds and thereby raise racial emnity in the community, to use as a personal weapon.
Putting Gates bigotry and stupidity aside,the Sargent could still be in real trouble for making an unlawful arrest, also there were conflicting accounts in the official police report, although the caller could be lying, No crime was committed and it should have been left at that, Officer Crowley’s case in court would have been weak constitutionally speaking IMHO the reason why the charges were dropped, no harm no foul.
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