Did Gates use his race as an excuse ?

One of my readers must have really wanted to know how I felt about SGT Crowley and Professor Gates. I attempted to response in the comment section and my response was too long. So this is my comment to a reader's comment in an earlier post:

This is is high profile interaction between a police and a citizen. A police responded to a break in in progress. Upon arriving at the scene officer was told the person breaking in actually lived in the home.

Next, the police officer did not call back up. It was obvious that the officer did not feel threaten in the presence of Gates. It was reported in news acccounts that the suspect was a bespectacled old man who walked with a cane. The officer was packing a deadly weapon, for Pete's sake!!!!!

The police officer requested the suspect to prove he lived in the home. The suspect requested how and the officers requested driver license, or something to verify the address and the person. The suspect provided his work I.D. which the suspect worked for the University on the ground.

End of story.

except..suspect did not quietly work with officer. Suspect began to verbalize his discontent with the action of the police.

At one point the suspect requested the officer's identification. Officer requested suspect to exit his home. Suspect still expressing his discontent exited his home and was told to quiet down. Suspect still on his property expressing his discontent was arrested after failing to shut the F up.

Suspect could not be charged with breaking into his own home so the officer reached into his bag of tricks and decide to charge the suspect with disorderly conduct. But, he had to get tGates to come out of the house to get a public disturbance of loud mouth ranting.

Massachusetts bars disorderly conduct through Section 53 of Chapter 272 of its general laws, the chapter devoted to crimes against chastity, morality, decency and good order. Specifically, it states that:

Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, common railers and brawlers, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of the opposite sex, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, idle and disorderly persons, disturbers of the peace, keepers of noisy and disorderly houses, and persons guilty of indecent exposure may be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Now, Officer with a charge on suspect other than the breaking an entering, can freely deprive the suspect of his right to freely enjoy his own property.

In depriving the suspect of this right the police is authority to cuff the suspect and haul the bewildered suspect to the jail house.

Suspect can now challenge his arrest for disorderly conduct as being unlawful and charge as a pretense to arrest a loud mouth black man.

However, the alleged charge of disorderly conduct was dropped.


The charge was dropped, the probable cause did not rise to the level to convince the prosecutor to warrant going forward with the charges based on the information in the affidavit.


Now, I was not there, but I have read the affidavit. I am allowed to form an opinion and let me tell you that is what every person who was not there is doing. However, the legal person who made the decision to go forward dropped the charges.


Let me add this to my opinion, if you enter my house and I begin to scream yell and tell you to get the hell out of my house. I suggest you do so, especially if I did not invite you into my house in the first place.

TRESPASSING..and don't let me have a gun and tell you to get off my property. Oh boy.

The suspect did not have to be a warm and courteous guest just because the uninvited guest was a POLICE OFFICER.

A POLICE OFFICER once on your property by your personal invitation or because of alleged criminal activity is doing one thing..and it is not for hot tea and chit chat..it is to found evidence to support the reason why the call was made or to find other probable cause to justify arrest.

Crowley wanted to arrest Gates and guess what Crowley arrested Gates!!!


I have had good and bad interactions with police. I have a criminal justice degree. There is nothing that will convince me that the police officer did not entice Gates outside his home so that he could have a probable cause to arrest.

Nothing, except if Gates pull out a gun on the officer.

Arrest is not the same as being found guilty of a crime. Crowley was hoping the charge would stick and the charged was dismissed

And because the charge failed, Crowley will be either sued or lose his job allegedly using pretense of disorderly conduct to cuff and arrest Gates. Crowley is doing everything in his power to SAVE HIS JOB and not get sued.

Save job and not get sued.

Now that I have dealt with the facts of the case as I know them , let me move on to putting their (police) lives on the line everyday.

Get a hold of yourself. Police officers are allowed to carry a deadly weapon because of their job. It does not mean that they put their lives on the line everyday. Now, if you were talking about a soldier that goes off to war and at combat daily that's putting his or her life on the line. But back to the police officer.

Police officers are expected to response to situations different than ordinary citizens. Why, because it is in their job description, not because me as a African-American person does not want a police officer arbitrarily and capriciously messing with me !!! Nor do I want them talking to me like a criminal when I having committed a crime !!!

They (police) have a higher standard when interacting with the public.

Let me repeat a higher standard. Don't send me a Sgt Crowley when I am getting ready to jump off a tall building..send me someone that knows his or her job description and with that higher standard, okay.

Crowley did something wrong and I would fo further to suggest Crowley did several things wrong.

Finally, if Gates wants to use the black as excuse after Crowley enticed him outside to justify an arrest, go for it. I don't care if Gates acted like a 2 year old. As a taxpayer, I am not paying Gates to rise to a higher standard, on his own property. If it's black as an excuse to call out the behavior of the offense behavior, than use the black as excuse moment.

But..let me say.. but..I would expect Crowley to act better than a 9 year old because his manhood was challenged during the black as an excuse moment. And that is what the taxpayers are paying Crowley to do in his role as a POLICE OFFICER.

Never try to compare the action of a citizen to a police officer. It is never the same. The Even when an officer is out of uniform his conduct is to be without reproach, a higher standard than the fallen down drunk. The police officer is to never forget what he or she represents in the public sphere. Those who uphold the law at all cost.

Higher standards.

As you expressed yourself you have been harassed by the police. Gates decided to stand up for himself in his home.this is not the same right one has on the street. A man or woman is king or queen of their domain, barring all others including the police.

The police are agents of coercive force and if they are commanded to take you down, so be it. Does it mean you have to fear them? No, it just means know your rights and stand down and assess the situation.

Gates does not represent you or me. Gates represent himself and he is fighting for himself. Hopefully, you and every other person watching will learn something from the incident when a police shows up at your door.

Do you have to let them in? Do you have to say sir or no sir I beg your pardon?

Some folks are not willing to take the public scrutiny and settle behind closed doors. Gates is doing this in the public arena and for that I thank him.

Racial profiling is only about data collection. If you think it is about stopping bad cops from behaving badly you really don't understand the code of blue.

Thanks for your comment and keep on reading.

Raced White Researcher studies Conservative Few Black Bloggers

I read about Antionette Pole's study from Dr. Lester K. Spence's spot. After reading the study I went back and left this comment on Spence site.:

I found the article and comments informative.
Thanks for the link to the “scholarly” paper. The paper did answer a question I had about African-American bloggers. Who is blogging? Although the sample was very small, it was interesting to learn the ages of 20-49, gender males, education master to law in the sampling.

I strongly disagree with the finding on discrimination, from my own experience. Plus, have had several bloggers express a degree of discrimination toward them
based simply on the assumption they are African-Americans or writing about topics about African-Americans.

I found it interesting that two of the bloggers cobb and prometheus 6 participated in the survey. Which suggest to me that the blackosphere is really small or they have a wide reaching audience.

Earlier, Spencer Overton had asked the question about emailing vs blogging among African-Americans on BlackProf. I comment there:

Interesting I write about Women and blogging and Spencer Overton over on BlackProf writes about the email usage among African-Americans. An email posted on the BlackProf spread like wildfire through the email community. Overton ask the question,

While there are a number of successful African American blogs, why does email continue to be such a big driver of political discourse in the African American community?

Well, let's see email is pretty much free. Yahoo and other makes it pretty simple to set up an email.


Once someone sends you something to read, with a click of the mouse you can send it to another person, effortless.

If they get an email that is from a friend or family marked urgent, it is sent to everyone they know. And if you check the chain mail list and find a friend or family member name missing you send it to the next person.


It's easy to get away with sending stuff on email on the job.

Email spam is easy to do when you are bored.

Email does not require you to know how to write.


Now blogging.

Blogging can be time consuming.

Blogging requires you to write.

Blogging requires you to post

Blogging may cost you money.

Blogging may require you to have your own computer.

I would suggest that many bloggers are young technically savvy folks.

Of course blogging does not require either, but that's my take.

I also believe many African-Americans bloggers are college students.

I suggest that the young students use myspace.


Email generation tend to be older African-Americans are unwillingly to give up time to learn about utilizing the internet beyond being a consumers. Many of the younger generation are using IM or texts on their cellphone. Blogging reaches a broader network than the more personal email.

Another person E.C. Hopkin posted:

A few more possible reasons why some Black folks aren't sharing their ideas with the whole world via popular Black-focused blogs?

THE TOO SMART TYPE
Some people believe they are too advanced to involve themselves in the good blog conversations my fellow commentators and I often have in these threads. Engaging us would be a waste of their time or would require them to spend to much time educating us.

THE LEISURE-LESS TYPE
Then there are some who would like to, but simply have too little time to mix it up with us in these blog threads. Those who do have too little time to contribute to our conversations make me even more grateful for the fact that I do have a few leisure hours each week I can afford to spend on these blog conversations. I'd hate to be so burdened by my labors and familial obligations that I would not be able to devote a few hours per week to engaging smart Black folks in these digital conversations.

THE TIMID TYPE
There are some whose skins are not quite thick enough to engage others in argumentative exchanges. And things can get aggressive on the best blogs, where some of the best commentators share their controversial ideas. Some are so afraid of an antagonistic rhetorical environment or an embarrassing confirmation that they got something completely wrong that they simply avoid these potentially traumatizing events by staying quiet.

THE CAUTIOUS ACADEMIC TYPE
There is also the type whose livelihood or self-esteem depends upon others believing he or she is exceptionally erudite, authoritatively scholarly, or incapable of making silly mistakes. These types are often careful not to share their unstudied ideas. Perhaps, they think they have too much to lose. Indeed, every time I see a lengthy (more than 100 words), unedited, unstudied, and controversial comment by a professional scholar in a blog thread, I view it as an act of courage and confidence.

THE DISCOURAGED BY BIG CROWDS TYPE
I suspect there are some who won't comment in a thread after a few dozen folks have packed it full of dozens of comments. Perhaps some believe that because so many conversations and debates have already begun or finished in the thread, too few folks are likely to pay attention to their comments. The threads that get filled up with dozens of comments quickest (the controversial political and cultural posts usually get a lot of attention here) might discourage these types.

EMAILS AS SHIELDS
Emails shield the fearful from widespread professional or social embarrassment, traumatizing blows to their self-esteem, disillusionment concerning their erudition, or simply having to deal with smart strangers' opposing viewpoints. Sharing one's speech via a blog, in ways that actually cause one to risk having a smart person disagree or expose an error, probably causes some to tremble in fear.

Closing comment from Overton:

When we started blackprof.com in September 2005 we appreciated the various attributes of blogs, and we suspected that blogs would eventually play a critical role in African American debate. How far are we from that tipping point? I don’t know. I continue to believe that it will happen. But for now, I think that email plays a constructive role in African American political discourse, and I’m thankful for that.

Other places to read about the study:

African American Political Pundits,Jack and Jill Politics and Francis L. Holland