According to the police, and to witnesses, this is what the policeman was _trying_ to do.
It was after the policeman left the house, after he had verified the ID and called Harvard police to come and take over, that Gates followed him out onto the street and continued to yell. (this assumes the account in the police report is correct. an assumption without enough corroboration yet, but so far sounds more believable at face-value than Gates' account) My personal feeling, and life experience, tells me that the objective truth will probably fall somewhere between these two versions. And, I admit, my own antagonism towards the police on numerous encounters, and their often stone-like ability to ignore my stupidity and keep treating my like a human, has shown me that the police CAN keep level-headed and emotionally detached, even in the face of considerable cause to "lose it". And they usually did not hold my stupidity against me, unless I made them. (Which sometimes I did) >From the limited and conflicting facts so far, here are the pieces of data that I am going by, seeming to fit most with my view of most likely to have happened. 1. Woman sees 2 men forcing a door on a house. Did she call just because they were black men? I doubt it. I presume she would have called if ANY two men were forcing a door. I would have. 2. Policeman arrives to investigate the situation. He finds a forced door, and men inside. From all the police shows I have seen, he has 3 tasks. Protect himself. Protect the civilians. Ascertain the situation. Again, according to everything I know about police procedure, his first task would have been to get the men out of the house (in case it wasn't theirs), and in a more open space (in case it WAS a breakin, and there were others, or in case there were innocents inside). Once Gates refused to comply with that, and the officer had to enter to deal with the situation, his antenna would have been going up a bit. 3. Gates felt discriminated against, and was not compliant. Was this caused by being tired after a long trip? Was it caused by a history of bad police interaction? Did the policeman's conduct TO THAT POINT justify the pushback? I don't know. Did he in fact accuse the officer of being racist? (Which is NOT a good way to establish a rapport. In fact, it is almost guaranteed to do the opposite.). And asking for a cop's name and badge number says "this is escalating", at which point a cop pretty much loses discretion, knows they are going to have to justify each and every action, and starts playing it all "by the book". 4. The cop did see ID, and called Harvard Police. My belief is at that point he was hoping to turn the whole thing over, and extracate himself. He had no intention of placing Gates under arrest. He knew there was no break in, he knew Gates was supposed to be there. Call over. He was leaving. 5. The cop was leaving. And Gates was following him, yelling at him. Gates was verbally warned, OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE, that he was being a nuisance. And he continued. So he was placed under arrest. This was in front of multiple witnesses. This was not because he was black. This was not in his home. I don't even think the policeman had discretion at that point, but needed to "follow the book" because of the threats from Mr Gates. It seems that the above facts are not in dispute. What is in dispute is WHO STARTED WHAT, and WHY THEY DID. Given the above set of facts, had I acted the same way, I would also have been arrested. So would each of us on this list. The difference? I would not have had the charges dropped. So, a black man was able to have the charges dropped, but a white man could not have. That is not a racial issue, that is a money/power issue. I think Gates WAY overreacted, regardless of imagined or real provocation. Either he truly felt discriminated against, or he decided to make a fuss in an Al Sharpton/Cindy Sheehan/Monty Python "Help Help I'm being repressed!" sort of way. If he followed the policeman outside because he wanted the policeman's name and badge number, that was stupid. He could have got it from another officer on the scene. He could have got it from the police (since every call generates a report). He is an extremely smart, educated man. But it sounds like he was acting like every story subject on an episode of the show COPS right before their segment ends. Of course, he probably had on a shirt, and didnt have to be asked 6 times to put out his cigarette before he was cuffed, so he doesn't quite match. Anyway, that's my take after watching the circus for a few days. On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 9:25 AM, Ras Tafari <[email protected]> wrote: > > its his house! > > hello. check his damn drivers license and move on... how hard can that be? > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300874 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
