On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 4:12 AM, Scott Stroz<[email protected]> wrote: > Asking a cop for his badge number is about as threatening as it is > racist for a cop to ask a minority for ID...especially when the police > officer is investigating a reported crime. Oh, and I am sorry, saying > you would 'rain down hell' on someone is most definitely a threat.
Yes, the power in that situation is so obviously identical. Those poor, poor cops. > But Gates was not arrested for threatening the police officer, nor for > being in his own house, he was arrested for being 'disorderly'. He > could have been singing the Hokey-Pokey, but if he was doing it loud > enough, he would still have been disorderly. I have not read anything > that states Gates asked the officer for ID to determine if he was a > police officer, only that he wanted > > The more that comes out about this story, the more I think the > majority of the blame for this incident falls on Gates' shoulders. > "Disorderly" is a totally bullshit charge most of the time, in my experience. It is what the cops whip out when they don't have anything real and just want to do something to someone that has pissed them off. Because "loud enough" Hokey-Pokey is at the discretion of the officer and it doesn't matter if it will be upheld in court or not, the point has been made. The police, as I mentioned before, have a very strong set of institutions backing them up and the risk to them professionally by arresting someone on a bogus charge is minimal. Sure, a judge will probably toss the charge or reprimand the guy, but "order" has been established and they showed people who's the boss. And its not like they are going to lose a false arrest claim on something as nebulous as "disorderly conduct". As for this particular situation with Gates, I honestly have no clue. I haven't read anything about the case so I don't have an opinion. My reaction was to Jerry saying that asking an officer for his badge number constituted a threat. Gates may be totally in the wrong on this one, I really couldn't say. But telling me that asking a police officer (when there is no imminent threat of harm) constitutes a threat riles my inner libertarian. Police do an extraordinarily difficult job. And for them to do that, we have to give them a great deal of power. However, principles of civil liberty dictate that we when you give a great deal of power you also need to provide a great deal of checks and balances to prevent abuse of that power. We've lost sight of that and I find pointed criticism of those who do exercise what minimal checks and balances remain to be odious in the extreme. Juda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:300908 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
