Yeah...I did and one article says he did...another said he didn't...thank you for pointing that out..and I think what we all came to the conclusion to is that being belligerent with cops almost guarantees a lil time in the pokey. And regardless...ID or no ID, he got arrested for being disorderly not for B and E. We will just never ever know because we weren't there, so I have to really disagree with race being a strong issue here...now if he was breaking into a certain pool in Philly, however..........;)

From the picture I saw on the news the arresting officers hooked him up in the front. I find that pretty interesting.

Because if he's nonthreatening enough to allow a front cuff, why is he being arrested in the first place?

The police report or the article I read last night explained that Gates uses a cane and the officer went and got the cane for him. The front cuff was to facilitate that I think. But on some level, that makes it weirder because it would mean he was armed with a cane, but maybe they didn't give it to him until he was released?

1. if the house is owned by harvard, then yes, he would need to show that as well.

2. Apparently it wasn't enough because the cops continued to haggle him about it.

And yes, a different light would be thinking that maybe, just maybe, this isn't such a simple case of being belligerent towards a police officer.

This whole debate kind of reminds me of what I was trying to tell my ex-husband once when he was griping about traffic tickets. When he gets pulled over, he gets really grouchy sounding, curt, gruff and everything he says has sort of an argumentative tone. When I get pulled over, I get timid, near tears, passive. Guess who gets more actual tickets?

...nor a simple case of racial profiling and racism towards a Black male Harvard professor.

HAHA. He does.

Part of that is also a gender effect.

Yep, but I'm betting if he was really passive and apologetic instead of annoyed and agitated, he'd get different results at least some of the time.

I will not deny that there may have been some bias involved. Some cops are also more gruff than others. But, part of me thinks about the situations they walk into every day and I think they kind of have to walk into it with a confident, even aggressive attitude much of the time.

I just don't see this as cut and dry as some here apparently do. There is some responsibility on all their parts. Charges were dropped so the police realized their overreaction. It would be nice to see some personal responsibility modeled on Gates' part too. They should all apologize for the situation getting out of hand and move on.

ETA: My ex also then gripes about how awful the cops are for giving him tickets. I ask "were you really speeding?" and he'd say "well yeah" and I say "ok then, you earned that ticket fair and square" LOL. "I hate Taylor (local city here) cops, they always give me speeding tickets" . So, "Don't speed in Taylor"

dang..how often do you two get pulled over??? LOL !!!!

I guess enough times to conduct their own study. LOL.

Right?? lol

I wonder what the average speed is that they do to cause them to get pulled over and if it's the same highways....heh!

Pretty much my line of thought.

However, I'm not sure of the Dr. Gates' age. In some departments age comes into consideration on how suspects are transported.

He is 58.

So if he was nonthreatening enough to cuff in the front (due to age, the situation had calmed enough to avoid a struggle, or because he has a cane), why is he being arrested? LOL.

hey don't sleep on 58 year old belligerent men with canes...they will put up a fight!