Black Harvard Professor arrested after breaking into his own home?

9/10 seems way excessive to me too.

A couple times I've been caught going 30+ over the speed limit and the cops could have cited me for reckless driving. Technically, I was reckless according to the law, but they let it slide and put on the ticket that I was speeding less.

One time a cop was kinda rude, he didn't believe I was just dropping off a movie late at night, but whatever.

 

I think if a white ivy league professor who has to use a cane to get around shows the police officer an ID verifying it's his home but is upset about it, there is never an arrest made.

 

How about a black man with a cane?

Sounds to me the like all the stereotyping being done is stereotyping the cops. People are automatically assuming they are racist, that they racially profile, and that they were just looking to start ****.

It's wrong to stereotype somone for their race and for whatever job they do (unless they are pimps or something).

 

Exactly. Cops always give white people the benefit of the doubt. I mean it's not like we have a recent example of a cop tazing a white grandmother for being an idiot on the side of the road...oh wait.

As I said before, it was a stupid thing but if you act like a jerk to the cops you are consciously taking the risk that they will make things rough for you regardless of what race you are.

 

I hated the fact that he said he wasn't there and doesn't know all the facts, but what he does know is the cop acted stupidly and act like the police report didn't exist. It bothered me regardless of his friendship with Gates.

 

They do not have to be. I have had great interactions with police officers, one was when I got pulled over just 2 weeks ago. It's those a-hole cops that give the entire profession a bad name.

 

I will be straight up with you when it comes to procedures the officer seem to have lost his cool thats why the President says he cop acted stupidly. We also don't know what was said to Gates by the officer in his home. I know this by personal expecience because of people I know who have been arrested. I have been pulled over by an officer who mention that he could kill me years back. I immediatly showed him my military ID he backed off. Some of these guys use intimidation as to getting you to do what you want.

 

Why do people bring up the police report like it is absolute fact? Can the police officer not put whatever he wants in that report, especially if it makes them sound like they were doing the right thing? I'm not saying that is or is not what happened here but the police report is just one person's point of view of the events that happened, it does not mean they are necessarily true.

 

I'm not trying to show it as fact, but rather that the President treated it as if it was an outright lie, when he wasn't there. He says that Gates showed him his ID, and then just gets arrested. That gives no regard to what happened. If you listen to the President it sounds purely racist, when in fact it may not have been, and by all other accounts the officer in question is very well respected and even teaches a class on race relations for police officers. He should have stopped after he said that he didn't know all the facts, and said he couldn't comment since he was not there. The officer was insulted by the President and I don't appreciate that when it isn't his place to judge.

If he was going to go into it, he should have shed some light on both sides.

 

Now the black mayor apologizes to the professor. What a joke! She said she would investigate further into the matter. This means she doesn't know exactly who is right and who is wrong. But then she apologizes to the professor, assuming he's a victim. So the next time someone is arrested, say a white person this time, and makes a big deal out of it, will she apologize to that person to? To anyone who's arrested by a cop from now on who thinks they are innocent?

So now the professor has the President, Governor, and Mayor all on his side when things are still under investigation.

This is clear as day it is becoming a white vs. black matter. The police captian is white and the former police chief who appointed the white cop to instruct racial profiling is too afraid to back him up in public. This is just sad.

 

If there was any real merit to what the cop did why did they just drop the case?

Cops have a hard job they could use all the support they can get. Pissing people is something they can't afford to do.

 

poor oppressed white people


*this is in repsonse to tre-mac's post*

 

He was the victim in this instance. He was at his own home, had proper identification, and was still arrested. The charges he was arrested for have been dropped and no further prosecution will occur, meaning he is innocent and thus deserving of an apology. He could probably sue for wrongful arrest, hopefully the apology from the mayor will defuse the situation and the city will not have to pony up $ in a lawsuit settlement.

I would say the next person of any race who is arrested on their own property with proper ID, with a subsequent dropping of the charges that led to the arrest, deserves an apology, wouldn't you?

 

I just hope every AA that's arrested doesn't feel like they are entitled to act like this Gates clown. Apparently Obama green-lighted this childish behavior and disrespect for the police.

 

Where is the video where you saw the "childish behavior" you are referring to?

 

I really hate stuff like this. The problem is that it really sets off more tension within the community and between blacks and whites. White people gets pissed because they feel a black man can just scream racism whenever he feels like it, and black people will just think all police officers are out to get them.

Regardless of how the professor felt he was treated, he really should've known better. Especially given his occupation. As many white people can attest, you don't exactly have to be black to get the short end of the stick in front of the police officer. And this is even assuming that the police officer really was an ass, which is still uncertain at this point.

Seems to me to be a classic case of him pulling the "Do you know who I am?" card. And got called out on it.

 

Maybe they don't want to piss the black community off and start protests? I don't know, just thinking of controversies. From the cops' side, they said that this guy is a model cop, good and all. So it seems to me the case is dropped just to settle the matter to extinguish any possibility of making matters worse.

 

If the cop himself believes he is right and he has the support of his boss and his colleagues, then it seems that the police department is really having the short end on this case.

Would it seem right if the police was a racial profiling instructor to screw up that badly against an old black professor? Maybe if the professor was young and looks like a thug, then you could picture this happening. But has anyone ever assume an old black man is a crook? So it is likely the professor started the mess.

 

The cops didn't want to take you jail because the process is a pain in the ass and it ain't worth it to them. If they wrote down the speed you were actually going, the would almost have to arrest you and deal with all the paper work. Cops hate paperwork.

My wife's aunt was married to an Austin cop. He told me before the cameras were on the car, that if anyone swung at a cop, they would end up in the hospital. They would just take them to field and beat the crap out of them. They even had a saying for it.

 

Do you think the cop really walked into the professor's house and said, "Hey old black man, I'm going to arrest you because you don't look like you own this house"?

Do you think that if the cop asks, "Let me see your ID", that after the professor gave him his ID then the cop feels in a good mood to arrest an old black man?

You don't think anything came out of the professor that led him to his arrest? The fact that he was in his own house doesn't mean anything. Who said you can never be arrested in your own house?