Cambridge police have got some ‘splainin to do. FREE SKIP GATES!

well…black people do make up the majority of prisons…

Well yeah… If a black guy resembles the suspect I’d hope the police aren’t busy stopping white guys…

‘Why, because I’m a black man in America?’ Gates said, according to a police report.

No, idiot, because the neighbors saw someone breaking into your house and called the police to investigate. I hope that guy’s house gets broken into for real, and the neighbors do nothing.

Glad to see I’m not the only Ivy Leaguer who reads Fark.com.

According to Gates’s lawyer’s statement, after Gates showed his ID to the officer proving that he was the resident in his own house, he asked for the officer’s name and badge number repeatedly. And when he followed the officer out the front door to where other officers were, Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior”.

According to the Associated Press, the officer’s report says that Gates initially responded hostilely to the police, saying, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?”

The officer wrote that after Gates reluctantly produced his ID, “Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him,” after which the office placed Gates under arrest.

Now I don’t think it’s wrong for the police to investigate a break-in, and to make sure that the person who’s in the house is really a resident. But arresting a 49-year-old Harvard-affiliated (Gates flashed a Harvard ID) black man for yelling and calling you a racist? That’s a dumb move that makes you and your police force look bad, no doubt about that. That just invites unwanted attention.

If the police report is true, I’m not letting Gates off the hook, either, for acting extremely hostilely towards the officer. If he had been calm then none of this would have happened. I am saying that the Cambridge police force stands to lose out much more than Gates in the media kerfluffle that will arise from this incident.

Gates’s side of the story (his lawyer’s statement) is at this link.

The police report, written by the officer in question, James Crowley, is at this link.

Boston is incredibly racist… always has always will be.

The only racist person here is Gates. If he had respectfully and reasonably handled the situation it would be a non-issue he could laugh about. Instead he gets all poor me, I’m black and all the white world hates me. Way to set racial progress back two steps. Of course he’ll turn into a martyr and Jesse Jackson will be all over this. Penn ’11 is right the police are far more likely to come off looking bad in the media despite what actually happened. You give one of the county sheriff boys as much crap as Gates did and you’d be lucky to not get tasered.

I’d tend to give the benefit of the doubt to Gates in this situation. I refuse to believe that a man of his erudition and class would let race enter his mind were it not for some sort of provocation on the part of the Cambridge policemen. For anybody who actually know him, he truly is a man of racial progression- not one of those Jesse Jackson-esque segregationists who cry foul whenever they can to foment public outcry.

It’s far too easy for us in the era of Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons to claim hysterical racial bias where there is none, and I believe this is a real case of Cambridge police acting out of line.

I would also give the benefit of the doubt to Gates. Cops are real pricks and I say this as the sister of a cop who has interacted with them and heard their “fun” stories about humiliating people. They do whatever they want often and can be really aggressive with normal commands (basically, they have no customer service skills even in situations like these where all you have to ask is for an ID, no need to be harsh, demeaning, or overpowering–they’ll do it anyway). I highly doubt a professor at a prestigious school would flip out upon being asked for an ID when he can clearly provide one. If he did ask if it was because he was Black I assure you he was likely provoked before getting upset and those things are not included in a report. The officer who did it would never say it and if any of his fellow officers saw it they would never rat him out.

What about having a physical disability? Was he targeted because of that?

People with disabilities are the largest minority in the world. It’s not clear what training officers receive in terms of how to ensure an arrest without damaging a person’s health or well-being.

HEALTH PLANS IN THE USA WORKS BETTER THAN CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS PLANS FOR BLACK AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE USA. BLACKS IN THE USA NEEDS SOMEONE TO TAKE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THEM. BUT FOR SURE IT DON’T SEEM THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA IS THE ONE. HE’S TOO BUSY BEING A SHINE.

Good thing for you, you haven’t experience the brutality or force by an officer. Thank goodness you only have an opinion, but not real life knowledge. When you encounter injustice by the hands of others in power, time and time again, and those that look like you do too, then let me know if it’s just your imagination or perception or reality.

Well-he wasn’t arrested for B&E-he was arrested for disorderly conduct; charges that have since been dropped. The testosterone was apparantly flying that day. I’m thinking this was more class based(having been born a working class kid in Cambridge)than race based. Harvard folks have always felt that they are somehow above the rest of us; and I can understand the sensitivity on both sides of this equation. I am no fan of cops-but this guy strikes me as pretty decent. How sad that this incident has become fodder for talk radio.

Don…..
you are off topic???? Obama is not the topic.

I just want to know what was the reasoning behind his arrest….
He showed the pigs what they ask for then arrest him for what?

I am not asking people on here blogging to give me and answer, that would be impossible for me to get a highly educated guess judging by the comments left on here by such bias individuals.