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What does it mean to be a black man in America? Ask Mr. Gates. He’ll tell you. It is apparently awesome.
His arrest docs are up at thesmokinggun.com, in case you want to take a look. A lot of convo on the subject over at The Daily Dish the last few days. And this isn’t even all of it. We’re just scraping the surface.
Contempt of Cop: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
Arrested for Speaking his mind: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
Maryland perspective: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
When is conduct disorderly: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
A couple more to round this out. Sullivan’s recent piece at the timesonline.co.uk. And one over at huffingtonpost.com called Obama Was Right About the Gates Arrest.
It’s a damn sad story, really. Black guy gets arrested at his own house. Taken to the police station and iced for four hours. Then he gets let go. Like nothing ever happened, right?
Right.
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1) this is not a race issue. Jesus.
2) it seems entirely possible that Mr. Gates was a dick when a cop showed up in a timely response to a timely 911 call. If you’re a dick to the cop when it looks like you may be committing a crime, you stand a chance of being arrested. Whoa, big surprise.
Nothing is fucked. It’s a tempest in a teapot.
both were wrong in their actions and the BigO is wasting our tax dollars on the non-issue.
Gates was wrong for acting like an ass.
Cop was wrong for arresting him for being an ass vs. just walking away from the jerk.
the end. i don’t want to hear any more about this frivolus shit. kind of says something when sharpton & jackson are even touching it.
edit above – sharpton & jackson “are not” even touching it.
and they are 2 of the biggest media whores out there.
carry on
BJ,
Not surprised that you got this one wrong, too.
Does Gates represent the social experience of the average black man in America?
No more than Hahvahd professor Noam Chomsky represents your social experience as a white man in America.
Actually, I speak from ignorance here. Perhaps Noam enjoys an early morning PBR buzz, palping a niner around Hahvahd, and posting porn on the interwebs. Then again, maybe not.
Let’s call this one for what it is. Gates is a raging anti-white racist.
Sgt. Crowley may or may not be a racist. Based on what is reported, he does not appear to be. A cop with a bit of an ego perhaps.
From what is reported, it appears that Gates mouthed off too much and ended up arrested. If Gates had kept his mouth shut and thanked the officer for checking out the possible break-in, it is probably Gates would not have been arrested.
What is certain to follow is a civil rights lawsuit against Crowley and the police department. Gates has no hope of winning that lawsuit, but it will settle for nuisance value.
Is that justice for Crowley?
Methinks not.
SMT – how did I get it wrong?
Gates may be a “raging anti-white racist”, but what was he arrested for? It is not unlawful to be a raging anti-white racist.
He was handcuffed and driven downtown only to be harassed. He had not violated any relevant state statute, so there was nothing to charge him with.
He was cuffed and stuffed for being a big mouth. Is that the best use of our police force?
Gates just sounds like another loud mouthed Cambridge jerkoff to me. No one knows what went on inside that house except him and the police, but one thing I know is that if a cop comes at me, I say yes officer, and no officer. If I mouth off, I expect to be arrested. End of story.
why not write a ticket? throw in a mandatory court appearance, ffs. I’m sick of hearing about people getting arrested or detained for ticketable offenses. More problems arise from trying to arrest someone, like tazering or otherwise having to physically restrain someone, than if you just write a ticket and send them along. mostly i’m still pissed about getting arrested and detained for most of a day because i had less than 1/4 oz of pot. write me a ticket, if I don’t pay then turn it into a warrant and pick me up next time you find me. it’s fucking simple.
same shit happens to blue eyed white girls, only we get groped too. the race thing just takes away from the real, WAY to common issue that actually affects everyone, abuse of power. Ah, America…land of the police state…
update: i just did a word find on each of those articles posted by BJ. nowhere did i find the word ‘ticket’ referring to Gates. Am I the only one who thinks that he should have been ticketed? Do cops even write tickets anymore? I’m sure traffic tickets are still in common use, but it seems like you get arrested for anything other than a traffic violation anymore.
Hahvahd perfessers are supposed to be all smart and shit? Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I’m just a dumb electrician and I know not to mouth off to a cop.
When you set out to make a living being a professional Angry Black Man shit like this is gonna happen from time to time.
Massachusetts courts have held that yelling at a cop is not in-and-of-itself “disorderly conduct.” All police officers are taught how to de-escalate situations. The cop apparently needs some retraining.
But on the other hand, it is nice to see all you red-necks show up here at DC.
SMT,
Noam Chomsky works out of MIT, not Harvard.
I realize that you are speaking from a position of ignorance so I thought that i would help point you in the right direction. Dr. Gates has had the experience that is common for black men. That is, to be wrongly accused by a white person in a position of authority using a trumped up charge. Dr. Gates did the right thing by standing his ground, literally, and telling the cop where he could go.
Speaking of Dr. Chomsky, time to get back to “Manufacturing Consent”.
For someone to be charged with “disorderly conduct”, they have to be disturbing the peace in public. Dr. Gates was yelling in his own home. Black, white, or whatever, people can yell as much as they want inside their house. If the cop didn’t want to put up with it, he just needed to leave.
Two assholes floating though their respective existance have collided, creating nationwide media shitstorm. And our President is fixing it with Blue Moon????? WTF? At LEAST pick a real beer.
we’re things and the police manage us as such. some things are treated more harshly than others, but all us things are ultimately just trash to more and more police because that is what they are told is correct and they never question it.
if you don’t believe me then you’re not asking enough questions and/or not looking for the answer. but its not about human life, its about good jobs and a healthy economy: California values prisoners over students. nice attitude, eh?
no wonder there’s not much of a rise out of the masses over all the dropped cyclists. “fucking what’s that guy doing riding a bicycle anyway? he/she/they should be dead. if they ride on the street they know they may be killed, so its ok. case dismissed.”
Schultze speaks the truth
Professor Gates is currently researching racial profiling. Could it be that he manipulated this altercation to give his research a personal experience?
Imagine a black cop, entering and arresting a white man in his own home near Dallas or anywhere in Alabama. You think the outcome would be any different? I’d expect a dead cop and an apology to the homeowner from the police department.
Here’s some wise, thoughtful commentary that treats the subject with the dignity and sensitivity that it deserves.
Gates may have been a dick – not a crime. He may have mouthed off to the cop – stupid perhaps, but again not a crime. I actually think race wasn’t really the issue here – the fact is the man was in his own home and had not committed a crime. Even if the cop wants to argue that Gates was interfering with his investigation of the initial 911 call, by the time Gates was in the back of the squad car they had clearly determined that no crime had taken place, because they left the house. Given all this, why lock him up?
More wise, thoughtful commentary from Colin Powell on Larry King Live: cnn.com (it may come up as the second segment in the video highlights from the interview or it may load first).
Video here: cnn.com.
Andrew Napolitano with Fox News:
Source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
I wasn’t there. All y’all weren’t there either. And neither was Barack Sharpton Obama.
Dave is 100% correct.
None of us were inside Mr. Gates house, but Mr. Gates who is the owner of that house and the police officer, who seems to be refusing to acknowledge, or recognize the basic laws given to the home owner.
Or, maybe the government has already completely stripped those away, I’m not sure; maybe Jonny can freshen us up on the rights of a homeowner in the state of Az.just for reference?
Black, white, or whatever, he was in his fucking house, and had proved beyond a doubt that it was his house.
This is where the cop is suppose to say “thank you and have a nice day”, but he didn’t.
At that time, it is my understanding because Mr. Gates is in his home he can be completely free to express his freedom of speech as is protected by law.
I don’t see this as a race issue at all, but I see spin doctors trying to make it that way ’cause it then becomes much easier to control and hide away either an asshole cop, or that we don’t have any rights while in the privacy of our home to express our freedom of speech.
– Ryan