Dr. Henry Louis Gates Arrested

[deepimpact2]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Reading the police report, [yeah, I know, police reports don't tend to always be completely accurate] there were certain statements, e.g. "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside" that would be hard for the officer to just invent. If even a portion of Dr. Gates' antics are true, it was Gates, not the police who initiated the racial aspect of this case.

That is, unless anyone actually thinks that a burglary report of two white men with backpacks trying to force their way into a home would have been ignored by the Cambridge P.D.

Why would that be hard for an officer to invent?

I'm certainly not surprised at the reactions on here. I figured most of you would try to make Gates out to be the bad guy or a liar. However, based on what I have read from a copy of the report that I saw online, the cop has told a few lies. The cop originally said he was alone, yet now we know there were more cops on the scene.

Also, getting loud and asking for ID, again, is not disorderly conduct. Using common sense, with all the attention this has garnered, I don't necessarily think the charges would have been dropped if they were legitimate in the first place. They didn't just drop those charges because of who Gates is. They dropped them because they couldn't convict him. They didn't have enough. Furthermore, they had a slight problem...the cop refused to give his identifying information to Gates. Legally he can't do that.

For what it is worth, Massachusetts courts have limited the definition of disorderly conduct to: fighting or threatening, violent or tumultuous behavior, or creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition for no legitimate purpose other than to cause public annoyance or alarm. Dr. Gates was not causing public annoyance or alarm. He wasn't fighting or threatening. He wasn't violent. He did not create a hazardous or physically offensive condition. He was also not in public. The officer only arrested him once he stepped onto the porch. I don't think the porch qualifies as a public place.


Oh and Kevin, I don't know if you have realized it by now or not, but according to Gates and the cop, the cop asked if Gates had proof that he was a Harvard professor. Hence, Gates would have shown his Harvard ID for that purpose, and not as an asshole move.



The responses to this incident are further evidence of why race relations in this country will remain somewhat stagnant. if every single time an incident happens, people blow it off, no one will ever take a stance against racial profiling or the bigotry of the police. and for the record, I'm not saying that anyone should believe that EVERY incident involves racism.