<p>The city dropped charges because there’s nothing to prosecute. Does that imply the officer was wrong and should be sanctioned? Not necessarily. </p>
<p>Gates and his lawyer drop talk of filing a lawsuit and signal the willingness to sit down and talk to the officer and come to a man-to-man agreement about what happened. Maybe they’ll apologize to each other, maybe not. But does the willingness to drop it imply that Gates fears something terribly incriminating on the tapes? No, not necessarily.</p>
<p>It’s pretty obvious that emotions, egos, feeling right and justified about how they were behaving got the better of both men that day and they both can see, after time, sleep, hot meals and reflection, that the incident could have been handled better by both of them. </p>
<p>The willingness to do the right thing now, and bury this hatchet, doesn’t have to have an ulterior motive.</p>
<p>Again, xiggi, my reference to the allegation that Prof. Gates shouted, “yo momma” to Officer Crowley was in reference to my earlier statement that, at this point, I find aspects of both player’s story to be questionable—meaning, I don’t fully believe either account. Just as you obviously don’t believe everything the professor says about what happened that afternoon, neither do I believe everything Officer Crowley said happened. In particular, I have a hard time imagining Henry Louis Gates saying such a thing. But hey, I’m still waiting for the tapes…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>FWIW, I very much doubt that this was a case of racial profiling because of all that I’ve come to understand about Officer Crowley’s history and his relationships with his fellow, non-white officers. For me, it doesn’t pass the smell test. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t believe that Professor Gates genuinely perceived that his treatment was predicated upon his race, because, from all I’ve been able to ascertain so far, he was indeed arrested illegally. His rights were indeed violated. If, at some point I receive more information, or a greater understanding of the law, I may have cause to change that opinion. </p>
<p>But, you can make it all about Prof. Gate’s ungrateful, ungracious behavior in his home, and his subsequent allegations of racial discrimination if you want. But for me, it’s about something far more important. Anyone who feels our entire Constitution and Bill off Rights ought to be scrapped in order that law enforcement might easily arrest anyone whose words and behavior they find insulting, should contact their Congressional Representatives, and lobby that those documents be amended to reflect their opinion on this matter and others. Until then…</p>
<p>It has already been defined Kajon(your post 909) but here it goes again.
“Yo Momma” would be used in a low-brow fashion to get the attention of a woman- picture construction workers at lunchtime and a pretty girl walks by “Yo, momma” Not really different from “hey baby!”</p>
<p>“Ya mama” was an 80’s insult. I first heard it in the early 80’s , so nearly 30 yrs ago. Oddly, the phrase was rarely finished, but it was used an insult so it was assumed something nasty followed it. As in “Ya mama… is a prostitute” could be one(cleaned up) example; and would mean your mother is a prostitute. Someone did or said something you didn’t like, you might respond with “ya mama”</p>
<p>I personally don’t consider the front porch of a home to be “a public place” within the meaning of the law, and there is no evidence that Gates ever left the front porch. The police report can be read here – [Gates</a> Police Report](<a href=“Gates Police Report | PDF”>Gates Police Report | PDF) – and to me, the “lie” is right in the first paragraph which (as noted in Slate) mirrors the statutory language, but is falsely characterizing Gates as having been “observed… in a public place”. </p>
<p>I’d note there is some possible ambiguity and equivocation in terms of the definition of “public place”. The Supreme Court has ruled that for purposes of search or arrest, and unenclosed front porch is considered “public” in the sense that the police can make an arrest without a warrant, or a warrantless search of the area. But that’s probably not what is meant by “public” in terms of the constitutional scope of disorderly conduct / disturbing the peace type laws. From the pictures, the Gates house had a front lawn and was set back from the street, so to me that would be within the curtilege of the private home.</p>
<p>Another note, from the police report. The cop never explains how he got IN to the Gates home – he does not say that he asked permission to enter, but it is clear that he is IN the house when he describes himself as “walking through the foyer to the front door”. This is a HUGE omission from the report, since it is absolutely illegal for the cop to enter the house without permission. If I had this cop on the witness stand at a court hearing I would be all over him on this, and as a matter of guesswork/speculation I’m wondering if the “yelling” going on was Gates demanding that the officer leave the house. Is it possible that the part that is left out is where the officer shoves past Gates to enter the house after Gates has attempted to refuse entry?</p>
LOL. Obviously you don’t see this through the eyes of a PI lawyer. (I can assure you, the city attorney for Cambridge does!) – psychic injury counts, and by the time a claim like this gets to trial you could have a very long record of anxiety, nightmares, plus all sorts of attendant problems like high blood pressure or whatever combination of potentially stress-aggravated ailments Dr. Gates is likely to have at his age. On top of the medical & psychiatric damages, there’s the damages to reputation and the general emotional distress, shame & embarrassment. Plus Dr. Gates mentioned in the article he wrote that he’s claustrophobic & was scared to be locked in a jail cell. </p>
<p>And no, Gates doesn’t need the money. I’m sure that his lawyers would be happy to have a nice fat settlement check from the city, let the lawyers take their cut, and then for Gates to announce that the balance is being contributed to his favorite charity or nonprofit advocacy group … or even used as seed funds for a new foundation or project.</p>
<p>Well xiggi, to me, the nature of the debate should shift. It should be about whether or not a man (any man, any person) has the right to act in a manner law enforcement perceives to be that of an obnoxious ass on his own property, without his standing in danger of being arrested for that behavior. That’s where I am in this thing now. I’ll not be tagged as a “race baiter” in this discussion.</p>
<p>Uh, Gates isn’t suing anybody. Did you see how quickly he shut up when Crowley’s attorney started talking to the media about filing lawsuits against Gates for calling Crowley a rogue cop and a racist on TV? Gates changed his tune almost as fast as Obama did when saw Axelrod’s overnight polling on Friday morning. </p>
<p>Attacking the police may play well on College Confidential, but the polling numbers tell a different story among likely voters.</p>
<p>I found that very thought-provoking, Calmom. However, I also found plausible, earlier conjecture that the officer’s sole intent in asking the professor to step outside might be to make sure he could speak freely in case there might be another or others inside who might mean to do him harm. Officer Crowley has stated that his impression from the very beginning, was that he was dealing with the homeowner, so it makes no sense that his motive for asking him to step outside was to free himself up to possibly arrest the man. I believe there was a misunderstanding on the part of Professor Gates as to the officer’s motives for asking him to exit the home. I surly hope so. </p>
<p>In any event, it seems things started there and went downhill quickly. It’s a shame.</p>
<p>^^It is also possible that the officer realized that the situation was escalating and wanted to step outside so that there would be witnesses to what went down. If the officer is telling the truth about Gates accusing him of racism right off the bat, he may have realized that a more public setting (at least with some witnesses) was a better option.</p>
<p>By Prof. Stanley Fish, who, incidentally, is white.</p>
<p>"I’m Skip Gates’s friend, too. That’s probably the only thing I share with President Obama, so when he ended his press conference last Wednesday by answering a question about Gates’s arrest after he was seen trying to get into his own house, my ears perked up.</p>
<p>As the story unfolded in the press and on the Internet, I flashed back 20 years or so to the time when Gates arrived in Durham, N.C., to take up the position I had offered him in my capacity as chairman of the English department of Duke University. One of the first things Gates did was buy the grandest house in town (owned previously by a movie director) and renovate it. During the renovation workers would often take Gates for a servant and ask to be pointed to the house’s owner. The drivers of delivery trucks made the same mistake.</p>
<p>The message was unmistakable: What was a black man doing living in a place like this?</p>
<p>At the university (which in a past not distant at all did not admit African-Americans ), Gates’s reception was in some ways no different. Doubts were expressed in letters written by senior professors about his scholarly credentials, which were vastly superior to those of his detractors. (He was already a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, the so called “genius award.”) There were wild speculations (again in print) about his salary, which in fact was quite respectable but not inordinate; when a list of the highest-paid members of the Duke faculty was published, he was nowhere on it. …"
[url=<a href=“http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/henry-louis-gates-deja-vu-all-over-again/]Henry”>http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/henry-louis-gates-deja-vu-all-over-again/]Henry</a> Louis Gates: D</p>
<p>PH, it would unfortunate for you to think that I am tagging you as a race baiter … because I am not doing that in the least. As far as the dabate shifting, I simply would like to understand what it is that people want to see debated on a larger scale. Is it it the precise legality of the arrest or is it the underlying allegation that Prof. Gates was arrested for the crime of being black?</p>
<p>Northstarmom, thanks for that peek into a bit of Prof. Gate’s history. It’s entirely common to the human experience for people’s past experiences to effect their perceptions of the way the world works. So, it makes sense, if you’re a black man whose coming of age was during the height of The Civil Rights Era, and who repeatedly experienced the above humiliations as described by Prof. Fish (especially, concerning the way people react to you on your own property) to constantly be on the alert for repeat experiences of that sort, as well as to be primed to react to them. A lifetime of accumulated experiences of racial discrimination tends to cause one operate not too far from high alert, unfortunately. It’s a state I have to purposely remind myself is not always necessary. I’m seven years younger than Prof. Gates, and I’ve got plenty of emotional scars arising from racist encounters. Nobody on this board can convince me that I should join in the vilification of this man.</p>
<p>I think the debate should shift to encompass the more far reaching issue of illegal police action as it pertains to the Constitutional Rights of ** All American’s**. But, this does not negate the value of continued discussion of the unfortunate racial dynamics that caused this thing to be such a sad mess. I happen to believe that an attempt by all parties to obtain greater understanding from all of this is a very valuable thing indeed. I know you see it differently. I’m sorry, xiggi, but I guess we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this point:(.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know what all the “hooplah” is for you or others, but I have said from the very beginning, and I still maintain it, that this is not an incident of classic profiling, where a cop decides to hunt down black guys just because he suspects them guilty of crime. The cop actually received a report of a crime in progress, a crime being committed by two big black guys.</p>
<p>What I maintain, and have maintained from the very beginning, is that general societal racism, racism of the sort harbored by the vast majority of Americans, impacted this situation so profoundly, that the neighbor actually saw two big black guys, when in fact one of them was Skip Gates. It impacted the situation so profoundly that the cop involved began to treat Gates as a suspect when had Gates been white, the cop would have treated him as a potential victim. It would be the oddest thing indeed, for Gates to respond as he did to an officer who began to speak of his concern for Gates’s safety. I am convinced that the white cop, in seeing a black man, simply decided that his value was not enough that he might show that black man the concern and respect that would have automatically been extended to a white man of the same age, credentials, and general circumstances. Indeed, the neighbor herself, upon seeing two white guys doing exactly the same thing, would have seen a large driver trying to help an older white neighbor get into his home.</p>
<p>I think Gates understood these things, and it irked him to no end – as it should have. I do not excuse his behavior. I do not know it, and do not need to know it. I know he was a homeowner unhinged by cops prowling around his house, having little idea why, and feeling at least one cop treating him as a suspect. I also know that the cop, since his duty is to protect, not infringe, civil rights, was dead wrong to arrest the man just for speaking his mind. Nothing of the sort would have happened were all things the same, except that Gates was white. I think we all know this, whether we wish to admit it or not. We know blooming well that this is the God in Heaven Truth of this matter.</p>
<p>Me either. I have already stated that I am committed to Gates’s side of the story because Gates’s responses are striking close to those of a man who experienced what he has claimed to experience. Moreover, I have also experienced nastiness from white cops, and I know the feeling I had during it. They were very much like Gates’s. I may not have yelled in Gates’s situation, but I would have wanted to strike back just as he tried to strike back. That cop put himself in a situation where, rather than show Gates that he was his servant, and there to help, showed him instead that he was Gates’s adversary, and there to harm him. </p>
<p>All that cop had to do is say this:</p>
<p>“Sir. We received a report of a B&E at this address. Would you please step outside so that I can confirm your safety and get some ID?”</p>
<p>But I am convinced nothing of the sort occurred. It just would have been completely different and better had Gates been white. And I really do not care what anyone says about it. Really, now.</p>
Not at all. I don’t want cops looking around inside my house. I’ve never had cops come to my door in a situation where I thought I was at risk of being arrested – its more that they are investigating some sort of incident in the neighborhood & asking questions. </p>
<p>If I though there was a good reason to let the cop in, then I’d open my door. But other than that I prefer to protect my 4th amendment rights. No rummaging around my stuff without a warrant.</p>
<p>Wow, calmom, I’ve never heard a white woman (which I assume you are—though perhaps, I shouldn’t:p) expressed such a jaded opinion of law enforcement.</p>
<p>Now see, I’ve never had any personally negative experiences with the police, so I probably would let them in my house and looked at them just as guileless as anything, thinking, “I’ve not broken the law. I’ve got nothing to hide.” But, I’m sure my perspective would change overnight if, after I had let the police inside, he/they proceeded to try to ransack my house, or arrest me on suspicion of some crime someone of my description is reported to have committed.</p>
<p>Poetsheart, in my line of work I’ve seen the worst. Of course I have seen the best as well – but I knew who the dirty cops were and what kind of stuff they were capable of. So yes… I’ve got a healthy mistrust of cops. </p>
<p>I want to add that lawyers work with cops on a regular basis, so we know who the good guys are as well. I’ve had very positive experiences with many – but when a beat cop knocks on your door, you’ve got no way of knowing what is going to happen.</p>