Black Harvard Professor arrested after breaking into his own home?

Once the officer knew it was Gate's house -- he should have left. Sure Gates was being an ass, but it was the officer's presence that was escalating the conflict. Defuse the situation by walking away.

But I don't know why Obama's bringing racial profiling into this discussion. Gates was in the house that was reportedly being broken into. It's not like he was stopped in the neighbbourhood because he was black.

 

Actually the questioner is the one who asked about what it said about the nation's state of race relations. It isn't Obama that just brought it up out of the blue.

 

The unreported but very funny part of the press conference was Obama's follow up to the question where he imagined himself loosing his keys to the whitehouse and trying to get in a window.

But yeah, going into racial profiling there was just not needed.

 

I don't think it is that simple to walk away once Gates verified proof that he lived there. I can see some type of paperwork or procedure that must be followed through for these circumstances before the officer can walk away. I believe that's why he walked outside. Gates' yelling inside the house obstructed the radio calls and procedure.

Maybe someone in the police service can enlighten us on the procedure to follow.

 

but this is exactly the opposite of what happened. He spent the other 58 minutes on the Healthcare reform he intended to pass and its effects on the economy and less than 2 mins addressing this issue.

 

Of course, and I applaud him for it. My point wasn't obama's attention span, but the citizenry and the "news" media that feeds them sound bites. Make sense? 58 minutes of healthcare discussion are backpage news, while the careless 2-minute bit is front page. Oy veh.

 

Doesn't mean that Gates has to comply. He was pissed and justifiably so. The cop was on private property and knew there was no crime being commited once he verified proof.

Instead, the cop got his wee little panties in a wad because his giant ego was hurt when he was called a racist. All he had to do was walk away.

The initial phone call was about race. What really happened is a short fuse vs a giant ego (which is a good % of cops). Now the Sgt gets to enjoy all the negative publicity.

 

What's it like living in 1998?

Obama not only improved his standing with blacks, which was already sky-high, but he also improved his standing with Hispanics when he mentioned Hispanics/Latinos twice in that answer. Far from being something that will have serious repercussions for Obama, his answer (and your response) further solidify the minority status of your party.

 

Yes because just mentioning our race makes someone a better leader in our eyes.

 

I am not sure about the negative publicity part, 90% of the local opinion is on the side of the cop. He gave an interview on a local radio station, came off sounding a lot more level headed than Gates or Obama.

If you want to be angry and belligerent towards a cop, that's the risk you take. Which leads me to believe Gates' got a sizable ego of his own.

 

A more intriguing question is why the professor's door gets jammed while he was on a trip in China.

 

Heat? Humidity?

 

Because it had recently had a BREAK IN. Thus the reason anyone blaming the neighbor is a fool.

 

There's no question Gates' has a substantial ego but the anger would be, I think, typical of anyone being questioned in there on home. You'll of course have to take the support of rightwing radio with a grain of salt, it is the last strand of media they do still control.

Also, it wasn't the mentioning of minorities that will garner higher support yet the empathy/sympathy that was conveyed towards us.

 

Possible. But heat and/or humidity only occurred when he took a trip to China?

Is that right? Didn't see it reported in the news, though.

 

My problem with all of it....besides Obama saying he didn't have the facts but still said the cops acted "stupidly"...is that if Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct and there was merit for arresting him for this violation....that he got off the hook for it by playing the race card. Or, he got off from it because he is the President's friend. If the cop was so adamant about arresting him for a perceived violation of the law, then the charges should have stuck. The cops were responding to a call by a neighbor who made the call. I don't think racism would have really played a role at all...as the cops were trying to get the facts. It wasn't until Gates went off on the cop that race became the issue...because Gates felt he was being targeted due to race when, in actuality, the cops were obligated to respond to a call about a potential burglary. Gates basically shot his mouth off.

I think the charge should have stuck. He may have proved he lived at the house...but he was obviously being a real prick to the cop involved...especially if he brought the cop's mom into it. Is the cop supposed to just overlook all that because the guy is black? Cops make the call on whether a person is being disorderly or not. It was in his interest to be more cooperative with the cop in clearing up the situation. This doesn't seem like racial profiling at all. I know Obama threw that out there and...I agree...it's true it happens all the time. But, I don't think that led to this guy being arrested. Gates went off and got called on it. Now, it's being made out to be a race issue.

 

No; the cop should overlook that cause it isn't illegal. If I were cursing someone out on my property and the police were called, they wouldn't give me a citation - they would remove the person who didn't reside at that address.

So for this situation the cop should have everything in his power to confirm that professor Gates was actually the owner of that address despite his feelings for him or his love for his momma!

 

I don't know, if it happened to me, I would probably just laugh the whole thing off.

Last fall, I opened a window in my house and set off the alarm. I thought the fact that I put my code in and shut it off meant that they wouldn't be calling me to make sure everything was OK, so I got in the shower.

When I got out, I heard someone banging on my door. Looked through the peephole and didn't see anyone, so I opened the door - thinking it was UPS dropping off a package or something - to see 2 cop cars still running and parked in my driveway. Just then the cop came back to my porch and started questioning me about the alarm. I was standing there in nothing but a wet towel and this guy thought I was up to no good. I had to show him my DL to prove who I was and where I lived.

He was very annoyed at having to answer a bad call and was kind of being an ass about the whole thing, but I wasn't offended at all. I certainly wouldn't want to make a federal case about the whole thing. I thought it was funny and my wife still teases me about it.

Frankly, I felt better knowing that if something DID happen and my alarm went off, the real cops would be there in 5 minutes and not some lame private security guard showing up an hour later.

Anyway, I'm encouraged to see so many posters in this thread being open-minded enough to not just automatically assume the cop is a racist pig. To me, this sounds like another case of someone expecting special treatment because of who he is.

 

Jimi Izrael, a host of The Root, says yelling at a cop is disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct can be grounds for arrest.

According to its website, The Root is a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives. Professor Gates is the Editor-in-Chief.