<p>“A warrantless entry into the house was totally permissable under the exigent circumstances provisions of a specific 911 call reporting two intruders entering that specific address.”</p>
<p>Is this a legal opinion based on Massachusetts law?</p>
<p>What happens with hoax calls?</p>
<p>Do the police have to announce themselves?</p>
<p>We’ve had legal opinions on this thread that a DC charge is an overly broad charge. I don’t recall if the term was unconstitutional but the case law goes back to the 1970s. It may be that the police still arrest people for it only to get it dropped (unless they are really dumb) as an intimidation or punitive tactic.</p>
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<p>The legal expert they interviewed on NPR called it “contempt of cop” and said that it’s very common for cops to arrest folks who don’t show respect and that the charges are dismissed on a regular basis.</p>
<p>“The legal expert they interviewed on NPR called it “contempt of cop” and said that it’s very common for cops to arrest folks who don’t show respect and that the charges are dismissed on a regular basis.”</p>
<p>Sounds like the basis for a class action suit.</p>
<p>It seems like that’s a good issue for a national discussion on police.</p>
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There was an “Explainer” piece on this in Slate, I think. The charge is constitutional as narrowed by the case law.</p>
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<p>The only thing that would support that in this instance would be if AFTER she made the 911 call she saw the driver leaving and saw that he was black, so that when Crowley arrived she conveyed that info. </p>
<p>But I don’t know whether she made the call before or after the driver left. And the idea that she would hang around on the sidewalk and possibly confront a burglar seems strange to me. </p>
<p>I do find it interesting that some on various forums who were loudly proclaiming that everything in a police report is absolute fact and Gates must be a liar are awfully silent about the proven inaccuracy.</p>
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<p>The anecdotes reported by the well-meaning Stanley Fish become mostly irrelevant when the factors of time and distance are added. In addition, alleging that this is an issue about a black person living in a big house is utterly ludicrous. How many accounts are there of Prof. Gates having harassed in the various mansions he has inhabited? How many black members of the Harvard faculty are routinely harassed and their residential status questioned? </p>
<p>Decades have passed since Prof. Gates was mischaracterized in Durham --and mistreated by the Duke faculty. Since then, Gates has almost spend lifetime working with a very different faculty and living in a very different place. Stanley Fish’s accounts suffer from the same problems as Obama’s attempt to support a friend and find a justification for the unjustifiable and explain the inexplicable, namely that that Prof. Gates simply lost his cool and acted as an obnoxious primadona. His friends, obviously, rather than accepting that someone can act out of character prefer to find … external causes. Something rendered easy by the professor’s own attempt to cover his complete failure to control himself with a story of racial profiling. </p>
<p>No matter how one look at this sordid incident of human frailty, only people who remain desperate to fuel a racial debate refuse to see the ridicule of elevating this case to one of racism. The police did not question the presence of a black man in the house. They questioned the presence on an authorized PERSON. Prof, Gates was not questioned because he was black. He was questioned because he was in an house that had just been reported as possibly burglarized. Prof. Gates was not arrested for being a black person in the wrong house. He was arrested for being an obnoxious and agitated person who did not want to drop his egregious attitude. </p>
<p>If there exists a sliver of racism in this incident --and in this discussion-- it starts with Prof. Gates who became immediately confrontional and started the Mexican standoff, and reaches all the observers who find the reactions of Prof. Gates justified because of … racial differences.</p>
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How is the report proven inaccurate? It says that the witness told him in person, upon arriving at the scene that she observed “what appeared to be two black males.” What does that have to do with the 9-11 call?</p>
<p>Cambridge Officer/Dispatch Audio</p>
<p>[Breitbart.tv</a> Cambridge Officer/Dispatch Audio: ‘He Is Not Cooperative’](<a href=“http://www.breitbart.tv/cambridge-officerdispatch-audio-he-is-not-cooperative/]Breitbart.tv”>http://www.breitbart.tv/cambridge-officerdispatch-audio-he-is-not-cooperative/)</p>
<p>That first radio call by Crowley is exactly what he described in his lengthy TV interview. That he told his supervisor that he was with a gentleman who says he lives here, that the man is uncooperative, and to keep backup units coming to the scene.</p>
<p>According to the interview, Gates had been asked two questions at the time of this first radio call:</p>
<p>a) Would you step out here and talk to me. Gates had refused asking if this was because he was black.</p>
<p>b) Is there anyone else in the house? Gates had responded, “It’s none of your business.”</p>
<p>At that point, Crowley radiod that he was with a man who said he lived there, that he was uncooporative, and that Crowley still wanted back-up (he was the only officer on scene).</p>
<p>How come on, Interesteddad, did you not hear the racial slurs, the sound of the shotgun being primed, and all those scary threats on the real tape. </p>
<p>I am so sorry you had to listen to the doctored version.</p>
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<p>According to what I previously read, the report says that the 911 call said there were two black males, and it was reported that way in various media reports. As we know, she did not in fact tell the dispatcher that. On the other hand, when I googled and reviewed the report again, it would seem to indicate that she told him the men were black after he got there.</p>
<p>So right now I’m somewhat confused. It looks like you’re correct. Is some other report that all these people–including police officials–are talking about?</p>
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Heaven only knows, but the confusion doesn’t make Officer Crowley dishonest or his report inaccurate.</p>
<p>I don’t think that a disagreement between the two of them about precisely what happened means that either one is dishonest. People perceive things differently, particularly when stressed.</p>
<p>Consolation:</p>
<p>Here is a link to the report</p>
<p>[Henry</a> Louis Gates, Jr. Police Report - July 23, 2009](<a href=“The Smoking Gun: Public Documents, Mug Shots”>Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Police Report | The Smoking Gun)</p>
<p>The mistake here is relying on media characterizations. Go directly to the police report, the actual unedited TV interview with the policemen, and whatever direct interviews and quotes you can find from Gates.</p>
<p>Media characterizations are almost always incomplete (at best) or just plain wrong. For example, it is not in the police report or in Crawley’s interview that he knew the race of the alleged suspect from the 911 call.</p>
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Not that often normally, but as it happens there were a series of robberies on our street last month, and some vandalized cars last year.</p>
<p>If the driver was still on the scene (ie., in the house), it would seem to me that the limousine would still have been parked in front of the house when the police arrived. And, at no time did any of the responding officers report there being any other person in the dwelling beside the professor. If the driver was merely there to drop off Prof. Gates, there really would not have been much need for him to stick around after he helped the professor gain entrance into his home. But where that driver is now, and why he has never been interviewed concerning this incident is indeed an interesting question. It’s possible the driver’s testimony could be relevant to understanding some of the afternoon’s events. So, why haven’t we heard from him?</p>
<p>And, there are no indications that the witness who called 911 and talked to Crawley when he arrived and talked to Figerosa ever mentioned the driver leaving – something that would be quite obvious to anyone looking at the house.</p>
<p>BTW, Crawley never determined if anyone else was in the house. It was he second question he asked Gates and Gates replied, “It’s none of your business…”</p>
<p>“The legal expert they interviewed on NPR called it “contempt of cop” and said that it’s very common for cops to arrest folks who don’t show respect and that the charges are dismissed on a regular basis.”</p>
<p>That’s exactly right.</p>