HighAboveCourtside wrote:
Don't hide from the facts of the case with your assumptions. I have stated all along that Gates overreacted to being suspected for robbing his own home, and at the same time the officer overreacted to being called a racist. But only one man was imprisoned.sully00 wrote:Conversely, if a police officer knocked on your door and asked you to step outside and you asked why and he said because we got a call that a two Celtics fan were robbing the house and obviously a Celtics fan couldn't own a house on the Cape so put your hands against the wall and spread 'em.
The cop said "you can't be the rightful owner of this house because you're black"? Is that in the police report?? Please provide a link, I would love to see that.
This is Gates account:
All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And I thought, ‘This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.’
My lawyers later told me that that was a good move and had I walked out onto the porch he could have arrested me for breaking and entering. He said ‘I’m here to investigate a 911 call for breaking and entering into this house.’ And I said ‘That’s ridiculous because this happens to be my house. And I’m a Harvard professor.’ He says ‘Can you prove that you’re a Harvard professor?’ I said yes, I turned and closed the front door to the kitchen where I’d left my wallet, and I got out my Harvard ID and my Massachusetts driver’s license which includes my address and I handed them to him. And he’s sitting there looking at them.
Now it’s clear that he had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone’s house, probably a white person’s house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me.
So he’s looking at my ID, he asked me another question, which I refused to answer. And I said I want your name and your badge number because I want to file a complaint because of the way he had treated me at the front door. He didn’t say, ‘Excuse me, sir, is there a disturbance here, is this your house?’—he demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don’t think he would have done that if I was a white person.
But at that point, I realized that I was in danger. And so I said to him that I want your name, and I want your badge number and I said it repeatedly.
I cannot cut and paste Crowley's version but it is here
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images ... 98.001.pdf
I think both men leave out the parts that make them look bad, we all would.
But it is also pretty clear that Gates was a scared, if abusive old man, who was neither a threat or a criminal. Once that was determined the experienced and decorated officer did not apologize for the mix up or do anything to calm him down. Crowley instead perceived Gates' allegations of racism as a threat and either in panic or anger reacted to that by threatening and following through with arresting Gates.
Both men were wrong, both felt disrespected, but only one of them arrested a man not because of something he did but because he could.
