<p>My point was that he would dismiss any negative history of prof. Gates as a fabrication: whether true or false.</p>
<p>[President</a> Obama regrets remarks in racially charged case](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2447761120090724?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true]President”>http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2447761120090724?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true)</p>
<p>Whoops.
</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>
See: <a href=“Obama Called Police Officer Who Arrested Gates, Still Sees 'Overreaction' in Arrest - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8163051&page=1</a></p>
<p>plus:
See: <a href=“Chicago News - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune”>Chicago News - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune;
<p>“Obama said he hoped the event would end up being a “teachable moment, where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other” and improve race relations “instead of flinging accusations.”” </p>
<p>Amen</p>
<p>I am going to end at that note. Good Night.</p>
<p>I asked for back up of the “past history of Prof. Gates creating a scene” allegation. I’m still waiting. How does Dross figure into my question—other than as an excuse for you to try to stick it to him. I’ll thank you not to use my posts in that manner.</p>
<p>I frankly don’t care if Gates was coming back from Mars. I can understand him being snappish at first, but he needed to recover and apologize on scene. Once again, this kind of behavior toward police officers is simply unconscionable. Instead, all we hear about is what a victim our downtradden, globetrotting, rich Harvard professor is. Boo hoo. I’m sad.</p>
<p>Let me be clear. True racial profiling is despicable. Moreover, a simple lack of good grace would certainly not justify an arrest. But whatever one thinks of Crowley’s actions, Gates should be strongly condemned for his behavior and no excuses should be accepted.</p>
<p>
No. I want to see if anyone has a better point of view, and I think the best way to discover this is to push the opposing view as hard as I can. So far, nothing better has arisen.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is an a wholly worthless point when one party is responsible for enforcing the law without infringing upon another’s Constitutional rights! The officer has the duty to allow all Constitutional rights to exist freely, WITHOUT using his job as an excuse to infringe upon them, and also to execute sentences of the law in cases where someone infringes upon the rights of someone else. Gates did not not infringe upon anyone’s rights when he spoke his mind, however much of a jerk he may have been. The cop did infringe upon Gates’s rights when in response to Gates’s words the cop used governmental might to arrest him. That is my point, and I am right. Sorry (well, actually, I’m not sorry at all – I’m just right.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am very sure he did not wish to get involved, and for the reasons I have stated. It put him in a bad spot, and he chose the safest place to go. He had little choice but to show solidarity with the white officers, else they would have put him through the ringer. His opinion is, therefore, worthless.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If they are practically synonymous, then there is some difference, even if a nuance of a difference. And I took advantage of this difference, treating distrust as the stronger word, and suspicion as a weaker species of distrust. If you wish to claim I meant something else, then enjoy. I have no wish to disabuse you of your fantasies.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have already stated that I do not think classic profiling existed in this case, where a white officer went out and searched a black guy simply because he was black. I am, however, quite convinced that had Gates been white, he would have enjoyed the privilege enjoyed by all whites. Which is to say that were all things the same but race, this entire episode would never have occurred. No one would have called, the cop would not have approached Gates commanding deference, and Gates would have sensed that the cop was interested in his safety, instead of being interested in him as a likely criminal.</p>
<p>But hey. You disagree, though you have not even a single clue why that is.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And this is relevant to absolutely nothing of value here.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. That is because it fits a long established pattern, stretching across more than two hundred years, of law-enforcement interaction with black folks, especially with black men. It also fits the majority of my own experiences with white officers. Indeed, the pattern is so well-established, that I was able, literally, to guess what was going through Gates’s mind even before reading him say it. This is why I assume that Gates is not lying when he says the cop approached him in a threatening way, when in fact he ought to have approached him in view of Gates’s safety.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps. But showing disrespect did not infringe upon the officer’s rights under the law. Arresting a man for speaking his mind did.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is completely false. I can certainly make these assumptions based on my experience, the experiences of countless millions of blacks, and based on the testimony of one of the greatest historians on our planet. As the officer assumed Gates was a criminal, I can assume he did it in response to race, especially since aging Gates, hobbling on his cane, by no means looks like a burglar. We all know that when it comes to being black, everyone, including even many blacks themselves, feel first that something is wrong. Such is the sordid result of this cursed nation’s history.</p>
<p>And now conservatives are literally approving of using force to deny people the right to speak freely, even if derisively, in front of their own homes. The danger to America does not come from liberals, most of whom would simply allow anyone to do anything. It is with conservatives who are too quick to use the might of law to pry into and compel the private actions and affairs of average citizens. You will get your wish, of course. Because something just HAS to be done to finally deal with those blacks, Hispanics, and now all those A-rabs who are supposed to hate the superior “MURican way of life”. But you are going to hate what you have accomplished, and if not you, then it will be your progeny. (grin)</p>
<p>@poets ,I never said that these allegations where true, I just said that I wouldn’t be surprised. I already admitted I misinterpreted what you said, why are you still claiming that I am abusing your post? </p>
<p>“My point was that he would dismiss any negative history of prof. Gates as a fabrication: WHETHER TRUE OR FALSE.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Speak for yourself</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Once again, we already established the notion that the officer should not have arrested Gates, stop arguing with me about this! No where in the load of crap above, do you disprove the fact that Gates overreacted. Yes he acted legally, but he overreacted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh really, did you call him and find out yourself? So you want me to believe, that, not only did he have to comment about the case, not only did he have to support Crowley, but he also had to support him 100% to escape any persecution? FYI, both the black cops and the white cops in the Department and across the nation support Crowley’s actions. I guess they are all sacrificing their own right to speak their minds in order to keep their jobs?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you are suspicious of cops, you do not trust them (period). Stop hiding behind your own synonyms,and directly explain your belief at face value. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am not talking about “classic” profiling, I am talking about profiling in general. Stop changing the subject. BE DIRECT in your answers. I asked you a question concerning “racial profiling” as a whole. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This episode would not have occurred because Gates would not have been able to deal out the race card instigating this whole ordeal.</p>
<p>I am done arguing with you. It feels like I am talking to a wall. Practically all your arguments are based off of nothing more than your personal gut feeling; yet, when something is obviously the stead fast truth, you are quick to deny it because it contradicts with your fantasy on how the situation occurred. Your arguments, yet defensive, are not even the slightest bit persuasive.</p>
<p>Keep telling yourself that you are 100% right. All the other posters on this thread are wrong. Society’s take on this whole case is wrong, all that information proving the officer is an expert in racial profiling is wrong, the incident where he attempted to save a black man’s life with CPR is wrong, Obama is wrong for claiming that Gates overreacted, the police report is wrong, and even Gates’ own take on this case is wrong. Only you, Drosselmeier, know the truth concerning this entire case.</p>
<p>Whenever you see threads degenerate into a series of long point-by-point deconstructions of others’ posts, it’s time to head for the exits.</p>
<p>“Which is to say that were all things the same but race, this entire episode would never have occurred. No one would have called, the cop would not have approached Gates commanding deference, and Gates would have sensed that the cop was interested in his safety, instead of being interested in him as a likely criminal.”</p>
<p>No one would have called? Now we are blaming an innocent neighbor/bystander for trying to help potentially prevent a crime. Where does it end?</p>
<p>Somehow you have managed to read a totally different version of the events that by now have been well reported.</p>
<p>“But hey. You disagree, though you have not even a single clue why that is.” </p>
<p>OOh is this supposed to make us all examine our inner feelings and face our hiden demons that have the name “racist”.</p>
<p>I think that intolerance and racist views have been very clearly expressed here, but guess who has been the one expressing them.</p>
<p>@poets ,I never said that these allegations where true, I just said that I wouldn’t be surprised. I already admitted I misinterpreted what you said, why are you still claiming that I am abusing your post? </p>
<p>“My point was that he would dismiss any negative history of prof. Gates as a fabrication: WHETHER TRUE OR FALSE.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Speak for yourself</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Once again, we already established the notion that the officer should not have arrested Gates, stop arguing with me about this! No where in the load of crap above, do you disprove the fact that Gates overreacted. Yes he acted legally, but he overreacted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh really, did you call him and find out yourself? So you want me to believe, that, not only did he have to comment about the case, not only did he have to support Crowley, but he also had to support him 100% to escape any persecution? FYI, both the black cops and the white cops in the Department and across the nation support Crowley’s actions. I guess they are all sacrificing their own right to speak their minds in order to keep their jobs?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you are suspicious of cops, you do not trust them (period). Stop hiding behind your own synonyms,and directly explain your belief at face value. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am not talking about “classic” profiling, I am talking about profiling in general. Stop changing the subject. BE DIRECT in your answers. I asked you a question concerning “racial profiling” as a whole. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This episode would not have occurred because Gates would not have been able to deal out the race card instigating this whole ordeal.</p>
<p>I am done arguing with you. It feels like I am talking to a wall. Practically all your arguments are based off of nothing more than your personal gut feeling; yet, when something is obviously the stead fast truth, you are quick to deny it because it contradicts with your fantasy on how the situation occurred. Your arguments, yet defensive, are not even the slightest bit persuasive.</p>
<p>Keep telling yourself that you are 100% right. All the other posters on this thread are wrong. Society’s take on this whole case is wrong, all that information proving the officer is an expert in racial profiling is wrong, the incident where he attempted to save a black man’s life with CPR is wrong, Obama is wrong for claiming that Gates overreacted, the police report is wrong, and even Gates’ own take on this case is wrong. Only you, Drosselmeier, know the truth concerning this entire case.</p>
<p>The incident makes more sense if people knew that the Cambridge police have a history of racially biased actions against blacks. One such story recounted how a group of black Harvard students were hanging out in I think Harvard square and some “concerned citizen” called the cops. </p>
<p>Sounds like the neighbor was just another “concerned citizen” and really the people who are trying to justify the cop are probably not black. When you are black, cops (and typically only the white males) act like ass holes towards you, and I don’t doubt that Gates was ****ed that some man was asking him to identify himself in his own home. I would have been mad as hell too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is, ultimately where the rubber meets the road.</p>
<p>Whether Prof. Gates’ reading of Officer Crowley’s attitudes was accurate or inaccurate, the Prof’s rights were violated. And Officer Crowley violated Massachusetts law by refusing to fully relinquish the information Gates asked for time and again. Full name and badge no. If officers are required by law to carry a card bearing this information at all times so that they might fulfill this request, it is clear Officer Crowley made the emphatic decision not to avail Prof. Gates of this information in written form.</p>
<p>
He was arrested after providing identification.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is an issue of race, if the officer was simply acting in the most responsible manner why did he not want to reveal who he was? Beside I highly doubt a man yelling in his own home warrants him being arrested. He could have told the cops to get the ***** out, and the officer should have left.</p>
<p>What people seem to be forgetting is that NO ONE in thier right mind would think that a harvard professor was breaking into a home, so there would be no need for further proof that he was not breaking in. More than likely the police officer was just being arrogant and wanted to show some “muscle” by arresting him on a ridiculous charge.</p>
<p>What a silly idea.</p>
<p>Crimes happen daily, and they don’t all happen by the most impoverished or socially disadvantaged of our communities.The argument that the cop should have stepped off the porch and left just because Gates was a Harvard professor is utterly ridiculous.</p>
<p>Until the investigation is over, the cops don’t leave. They don’t leave an investigation just because they have encountered a local celebrity or professional in the community, either.</p>
<p>I can’t wait to hear the tapes.</p>
<p>It is ridiculous to arrest a man in his own home. I would REALLY like to see the statistic of the number of harvard professors who break in people’s homes to steal things.</p>
<p>It’s taken me a while to read through all these posts but I think i finally get the point.
- All cops are bad. Very bad. Swaggering, racist, SOBs on a power trip. Unless they are a minority in which case they only “act” bad to save themselves from the torture of other cops. No one enters law enforcement to help the community. They do it to weild power over others and will do anything they can get away with. Always.
- White cops never treat minorities fairly. Ever. Inborn prejudice will always triumph over education, common sense, and training.
- Minorities can never overreact to any action by cops. 200+ years of slavery, racism, prejudice, poor treatment, poverty etc etc are more than enough justification for any reaction.
- Next time you see something that seems suspicioius and involves a minority. Don’t call the cops. Just don’t do it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thank goodness someone finally gets it.</p>
<p>And in terms of number 1, it is not all white cops it is only the white males. White female cops act in a very respectable manner and are not derisive in their interactions from everything that I have seen. The same can not be said for all white male cops.</p>
<p>I have a serious question to the posters who are defending the cop. Do you think black people are ALL just making up the fact that cops treat them poorly. Do you think we just get together to fabricate stories about how cops treat us? Really. Obviously the fact that EVEN the president of the United States stated that cops have a history of treating black and latinos in a negative way reflects the fact that we are not just making this up. So for you, yeah it may be easy to just dismiss it. But think logically, would an ENTIRE population just make things up.</p>