<p>Icarus, it’s been announced that the tapes are being reviewed today but no decision on the release has yet been made. I hope for all concerned the tapes will be released.</p>
<p>I would never give credit to anyone who backtracks only when the heat is on. </p>
<p>Wednesday: Criticizes Cambridge police.
Thursday: More or less holds to this statement as the critique starts, shrugs off the criticism.
Friday: Does the typical Obama eloquent “I didn’t mean that” as the heat rises.</p>
<p>Frankly, this is in a compressed time frame the same as the Reverend Wright episode. Then, he didn’t do the right thing and repudiate him until there wasn’t any downside to it anymore; now he doesn’t reverse himself until he has so much pressure on it doesn’t matter anymore.</p>
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<p>Oh, thats excellent. I’d imagine they will be. I know audio recordings are specifically included in FOIA, and I’d be surprised if that only referred to telephone and radio transmission recordings.</p>
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<p>Typical. I know you think you are open-minded and fair, but you really ought to consider, deeply consider how easily it is for you to do what many here accuse me of doing. You are implying here, of course, that Gates’s is not being driven by noble principle, but by some self-serving motivation. And yet you are unwilling to ascribe the same sort of nefarious motivation to the white cop. It would be understandable had you been subjected to the bad behavior of dishonorable black professors, and over many years, but I suspect you haven’t. Gates is simply being lumped in with all blacks, whoever they happen to be, who complain of these issues. Vast majorities of Americans will never hear him because the honorable guy is not the black guy but the white one.</p>
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<p>I don’t gamble.</p>
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<p>Well, the problem is that by the time Gates was outside, the real damage had already occurred. As I have said, I am sure he repeatedly demanded the cop’s name and badge because he knew it was his right and he also knew the cop had to comply. It was his way of doing to the cop what the cop had done to him. The white cop certainly felt this and retaliated by falsely arresting the black guy. So I am sure we would hear Gates decrying this ill treatment as forcefully as he could. What we need to hear are tapes of the events that began the issue as well as the events inside the house.</p>
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<p>And what makes you think those events simply won’t be on the tapes? The sgt would likely have started his recorder as he got out of his car, so we should hear the entire exchange, start to finish.</p>
<p>So will Dross be apologizing along with Gates if the tapes back up the officer’s version of the incident?</p>
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<p>If the officers lied, they should suffer a slow painful death; if Gates lied, they should throw out the tapes and pretend that the incident never happen. After all, we don’t want Americans to believe that there are actually false claims of racism when a white cop arrests a black man!</p>
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<p>So most blacks don’t go to jail for non violent crimes? So blacks aren’t ten times as likely to get convicted? So judges aren’t more apt to give criminals they believe will commit the same crime twice a stronger conviction? Fact: Whites get more time for white collar crimes because people believe that your typical white collar criminal is a white guy. Fact: Blacks get more time for drug related offenses, because the archetypical drug dealer in the minds of most Americans, judges included, is a black man.</p>
<p>The burden of proof is on you, kiddo.</p>
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<p>This reminds of the incident involving my friend’s son. He was stopped outside his parents’ house. He was asked to produce ID whereupon the officer proceeded to check on a computer whether he had any outstanding warrants. Had my friend’s son been black, this would seem like racial profiling…perhaps the young man shouldn’t have been in the neighborhood. But no, this is a case of “loitering while being white.”</p>
<p>@Dross, Officer name and badge is on the uniform; there is no sense in asking for it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/art.gates.demotix.jpg[/url]”>http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/art.gates.demotix.jpg</a></p>
![http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/art.gates.demotix.jpg[/url]](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/art.gates.demotix.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>There was a black officer who was present, seen in the photograph. I am wondering why he hasn’t said anything one way or another.</p>
<p>@cbreeze, Here you go: [Black</a> officer at scholar’s home supports arrest - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_arresting_officer]Black”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_arresting_officer)</p>
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<p>What does it say from the picture?</p>
<p>“> @Dross, Officer name and badge is on the uniform; there is no sense in asking for it”</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that it can be read by the person wanting that info. Many people need reading glasses, etc.</p>
<p>^^–^^</p>
<p>How many more excuses will there be needed before accepting a much plainer truth?</p>
<p>But we already know that truth and facts are not really relevant in this case --and neither is integrity and honorability.</p>
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<p>Nonsense. Once again, Gates was doing to the cop what the cop had done to him. He knew the cop had to give this information if asked, and so he wanted to flex his rights to show the cop that he was no slave. It was his right to do this. The cop simply arrested him because he did not like it.</p>
<p>The black cop is in a hard place. He has to agree with the white cop or else. His statement here is meaningless.</p>
<p>@Northstarmom, He does have his glasses on. 
What ever happened to common sense? sigh.</p>
<p>I’ll just keep it simple rather than painfully looking for comparisons until it looks favorable for blacks. </p>
<p>If your job is to investigate crimes and you actually desire to be successful or to solve as many as possible, you know where to tune your sensors.</p>
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<p>Perhaps. The problem here is with meaning. Listen, I do not in the least fear the tapes because even if everything the cop says is true, Gates broke no law and therefore he ought not have been arrested. In other words, the police report does not justify an arrest.</p>
<p>I suspect the tapes will likely show a calm and collected cop juxtaposed to an unhinged professor. And since many are already biased against the black guy, they will point to the contrast as evidence that the black man was wrong. It would be a false thing to do. I am already of the opinion that Gates eventually became unhinged in response to the cop’s refusal to give his name and badge number, and also in response to the cops being at the residence though Gates had proven he belonged there. I was of this opinion before I read the account. Gates has already admitted this. And he has already declared that he eventually spoke with force about how black men are treated in America. There is certainly nothing wrong here.</p>
<p>I am also suspect of anything coming from cops about a black man. Cops lie. They falsify and doctor evidence, and they do this with remarkable frequency where blacks are involved. But if I am wrong about any material thing concerning the cop’s claims (not Gate’s anger, but a few of the statements he is alleged to have said), then it would be no great issue to me to flatly admit it. I do not think I owe anyone an apology, though I suppose I could offer a symbolic apology to the officer for thinking he lied. No great issue at all.</p>
<p>What I need to hear on the tape is not just the words, but the tone of the exchanges, to see if the meaning in the cop’s initial approach is accusatory or one that expresses a desire to help Gates. How might I know the tape is unedited? I want to know this. And I want to be able to hear the full escalation of events. If people are moving around, as they tend to do in these things, we may not be able to get all of this information.</p>