OT: Officer Crowley

[sam_I_am]

I dont know how many people here have been following the news story of Professor Gates and the Cambridge PD but there is a pretty amazing surreal tie to the Celtics. To summarize: Professor Gates returns from vacation to China and cannot get in house so asks cab driver to help him push in door. Passerby calls police as possible break in. Officer arrives and Gates states he lives there so officer asks for ID. Gates, rather than showing gratitude for concern for his house accuses officer of racism and racial profiling and gets arrested. (There are 2 sides to this story... this is the version - given what I know about the officer in question that I believe)

Well it turns out that Officer Crowley was the first responder to Reggie Lewis cardiac arrest and provided mouth to mouth resuscitation to him. Too bad Obama didn't know that before he recklessly called the officer "stupid" yesterday.

As a democrat who voted for Obama and usually is very sympathetic to the racial profiling and "DWB's (driving while black) nonsense that goes on in the back bay.... I am appalled. Gates in my opinion is acting like a spoiled brat who cannot even appreciate the proper concern the police show for a possible break in which he actually was breaking in to his own house.

To lecture a man about racism who has put his mouth on the mouth of a dying black man to try to save his life is just disgusting. Right now I hate Obama for his irresponsible use of his office and I hate the fact that a Harvard professor cannot cooperate with a police officer just doing his duty because of arrogance and his own personal agenda. Yeah, it was his house but it was a reasonable call to the police and he should have been grateful rather than insulted. Harvard professors rarely get shot..... police officers get shot at all the time.

[Fencer reregistered]

At least one of the following happened:

An officer with a lot of high points on his record acted badly

or

A renowned scholar acted in an uncharacteristically reckless and belligerent manner.

It also is clear that at least one of them is lying (that's clear from the fact that Gates is directly and clearly accusing Crowley of lying).

It further seems that Gates' suspicion that the officer was racially profiling is inaccurate, based on Crowley's record (notably in teaching a class on racial profiling).

However, the facts still remain:

* Gates committed no crime, except maybe for making a level of noise that people rarely get arrested for in a college town

* The officer entered Gates' house without permission

* According to Crowley's own report, he didn't vacate Gates' premises immediately after obtaining compelling evidence there was no burglary in progress.

Given that -- yeah, he was stupid, at least twice. He shouldn't have given that much offense to the home owner (well, actually, renter) Gates and, having done so, he should have left without making an arrest.

[sam_I_am]

When a citizen reports a burglery an officer has a duty to respond. (note the Public Enemy song "911" - I called 911 a long time ago.....) How is it that a professor like Gates doesn't know the difference between responding to a call and profiling? Pretty scary actually.

When officer responded and Gates said he lived there officer asked for ID. A normal person would provide ID and would cooperate with officer. Gates reacted hostilely claiming officer had no right to enter his house and demanded officer leave his house.

I wasn't there. But I read the quotes from Gates and I hear an agenda. On a daily basis I see police officers doing their jobs and I see the way the public treats them. We are lucky to live in a state and a country where the police act in a restrained way.

It is really simple. If your perception of the world is that the police are the enemy and you treat them that way.... then situations like this are bound to occur. If I was returning from overseas vacation and I had to break into my own house and an officer showed up.... I would feel good because if it was an actual burglery it could have been stopped. Gates acted as if he was insulted. That is the difference between a simple easy situation and a national media storm.

Officer Crowley showed his true character 14 years ago. Gates showed his agenda and has himself to blame for what happened in my very limited opinion - I wasn't there so I really don't know.... but I can read between the lines and I think Gates acted like a doosh.

[SonicYouth34]

Good old fashion racism...

[Captain_Caveman]

Must have been an epic battle of egos. My guess is that Gates was probably a world-class jerk about the whole thing and that Crowley just got pushed past his limit and overreacted -- because as far as I know, being a jerk is not an arrestable offense.

I'm torn between saying this doesn't happen to a white professor and the knowledge that talking crap to a police Sergeant is not going to work out for just about anyone.

Either way, much ado about nothing. Just a couple of a-holes who both tried to big-time the wrong guy.

[threrf23]

Must have been an epic battle of egos. My guess is that Gates was probably a world-class jerk about the whole thing and that Crowley just got pushed past his limit and overreacted -- because as far as I know, being a jerk is not an arrestable offense.

I'm torn between saying this doesn't happen to a white professor and the knowledge that talking crap to a police Sergeant is not going to work out for just about anyone.

Either way, much ado about nothing. Just a couple of a-holes who both tried to big-time the wrong guy.

I tend to agree.

[DEEP3CL]

I agree with sam_I_am, the easiest thing to do would've been to just simply show ID for said property Anything the officer did from that point on is where you draw accusations from, barring there are any to begin with.

[Fencer reregistered]

I agree with sam_I_am, the easiest thing to do would've been to just simply show ID for said property Anything the officer did from that point on is where you draw accusations from, barring there are any to begin with.

If Crowley wasn't right to arrest Gates for what he did after showing ID, he wasn't right to arrest him at all.

[mr_sunshine]

Obama doing more worthless stuff...what a surprise. Our government, on the whole, blows.

[Cyclical]

^
Yeah, what a shame after the last 8 stellar years.

[sunshinekids99]

Good old fashion racism...

I agree, by Gates. Also Obama, who should really be ashamed in what he did.

[mr_sunshine]

^
Yeah, what a shame after the last 8 stellar years.

Bush sucked too, but this ain't much better.

[exculpatory]

Speaking as a pro stem cell, pro choice independent who is fiscally conservative and to the right when it comes to the protection of America by the police and our dedicated military, I believe that the Professor was way out of line and unappreciative of Officer Crowley's efforts to protect and serve. The President, on the one hand, ADMITS that he does not know all the facts, but then states immediately thereafter, "the cops acted stupidly" - a preposterously STUPID thing to say. The Professor owes Officer Crowley an apology, and the President needs to rescind his remarks. I am glad we have people like Officer Crowley protecting us, and god bless him for trying to revive Reggie Lewis with mouth to mouth resuscitation. Some racist, huh?

[floyd]

Gates may have been acting like a complete **** and this may have nothing to do with race, but I can tell you I'd be **** if I got arrested in my own house for the crime of being pissed off. If you wouldn't be, maybe you'd prefer to live in North Korea where there'd be no controversy over the police over-steping their authority.

[LongTimeFan]

What is Crowley thinking? He's a white cop up against a Black Harvard professor who is friends with the president.

He should have apoligised for answering the call. He's got no rights here as a practical matter.

And the Reggie Lewis thing doesn't help him. Lewis died. You can already hear the insults on that, too. If he were a white guy, Crowley would have given him mouth to mouth longer and he would have lived.

This is Alice in Wonderland. Guilty first, trial later.

[cloverleaf]

Sounds like they may have some pretty good tapes from when the officer radioed in for the HU security, with Gates hollering in the background. Would be interesting to hear.

[Red2]

great post. this all comes down to what side of the fence you're on but I think the president should have waited until he had all the facts. Don't we want our law enforcement people to protect us? I don't blame the cop- all he did was respond to the cop and follow protocol. If it was a neighbor who called they should have known it was gates house but if it was a stranger then how would they know that gates ( whether he was white or blacl) had the right to enter the house by force or other unconventional means. the "genius" professor was pretty dumb when it came to remebering his keys

[sam_I_am]

Gates may have been acting like a complete **** and this may have nothing to do with race, but I can tell you I'd be bull-**** if I got arrested in my own house for the crime of being pissed off. If you wouldn't be, maybe you'd prefer to live in North Korea where there'd be no controversy over the police over-steping their authority.

I think you make a great point and my first reaction to the story was to get pissed off at the police as well. But when you listen to Gates tell his side of story and listen to officer tell his side ..... it really seems to be more a story of a pompous intellectual behaving badly. I just wish Gates and Obama had had the class to leave race out it because he only diminishes the legitimate claims of those who were racially profiled.

[theman]

Obama owes his career to race. With a black man in the White House it is too easy to assume race is no longer an issue. This was a great opportunity to make race yet again a national issue. The simple fact is a white man acting the same way would have been arrested. The only difference is it would not have been an international incident.

For those who are interested Dennis and Callahan interviewed Crowley yesterday. Listen to it here:

http://audio.weei.com/m/25432556/stg-james-crowley-cambridge-police.htm

[floyd]

Gates may have been acting like a complete **** and this may have nothing to do with race, but I can tell you I'd be bull-**** if I got arrested in my own house for the crime of being pissed off. If you wouldn't be, maybe you'd prefer to live in North Korea where there'd be no controversy over the police over-steping their authority.

I think you make a great point and my first reaction to the story was to get pissed off at the police as well. But when you listen to Gates tell his side of story and listen to officer tell his side ..... it really seems to be more a story of a pompous intellectual behaving badly. I just wish Gates and Obama had had the class to leave race out it because he only diminishes the legitimate claims of those who were racially profiled.

It doesn't really matter if Gates is retelling the story in his favor or not. Rodney King may have been all **** up on PCP, but it still doesn't give the police the right to hit him with a batton while he's clearly subdued.

As far as Obama making race the issue, race was the issue in this before Obama answered the reporter's question. He addressed the very real problems of racism and our police force in a general way because that's what this story (whether or not race had anything to do with it) brought to the fore. If people want to pretend race is no longer an issue by quoting a couple of bigots that like to call black people monkeys, fine. But it doesn't make it so.