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.
