I don't think what the cop did was racial profiling......

It was honestly just an ego filled cop being an asshole.

Anytime a cop does not like someone questioning them or someone asking for their badge number then they arrest them just to prove they can.

There is no downside for a cop charging 1000 people who annoy them with disorderly conduct because 90% of the time the charges are dropped and the cop has no downside. But the cop will be happy because they got to send the person who annoyed them to jail and caused them one lost evening.

I know guys who went through the academy who left the academy as ego filled jerks. Total power is what they have and very little downside to harassing the people who piss them off. About 50% of the cops are really in it for the power it provides them.

This cop did not realize he was arresting someone who would not complain and that is the only reason you are hearing anything about this. It happens 1000 of times a day!

In 95% of the cases the cop arrests the person and the charges are dropped and the cops laugh that they taught the guy a lesson.

Isn't it amazing that about the only time a cop is in trouble for beating a suspect is when there is video. What are the chances that the legitimate beatings only happen on video?

A lot of cops are not jerks and do their job how they should. But a lot of them are jerks and their ego drives their behavior.

If we paid cops more money then you would get a higher quality of people applying to be police officers. I am ALL in favor of that.

Sorry for the rant but I have seen this happen too many times to think it is not a huge problem.

to a white person's house on a burgler call and asked for identification at the door?

Are you aware of the race percentages in prison? Are Blacks just that much worse than white folks?

The police are called to a possible burglary in progress....The witness is outside the house...the door is DAMAGED. Of COURSE the police are going to ask the person inside the house to prove that he belongs there. White, black brown or PURPLE that is exactly what would have and should have been done in any case, by any police officer..

The situation escalated from there, yes, but what do you thisnk would have happened if it really was a burglary, and the police just took the intruder's word for it that he lived there?

Some anecdotal evidence of a gut feeling must surely describe some lil ole innocent guy having a bad day. I think those cops that beat up Rodney King were just having little hissy-fits too.

but that doesn't mean the cops didn't act out of racial bias.

actually saw.

It appears to me that the person who made the call to the police is somewhat guilty of racial profiling.

when they see someone who looks like they're trying to break in the house.

When, in fact, the men WERE actually forcing their way into the front door.

How in the world can a 58 year old black man, walking with a limp and a cane, be confused with two young black men carrying backpacks?

she probably just saw someone black and just assumed the other stuff and went with it.

...factoring in Gates race in his actions.

"This cop did not realize he was arresting someone who would not complain and that is the only reason you are hearing anything about this"

If after finding out who the professor was and the cop arrested him anyway thinking he wouldn't complain...yeah, that was stupid.

Professor Gates taught racial profiling for five years. I think after they realized who the professor was, they knew they were going to catch hell so they had to arrest him and accuse him of something.

Oh, and why were the charges dropped so quickly?

I think his feelings got hurt when Gates accused him of being a racist. And he wasn't adult or professional enough to understand Gates' pain and what he must have been going through.

A well trained cop should learn to leave their egos at home. And you are correct, paying them more and putting more out there so they aren't stretch so thin would help.

a couple of days after she died and it was printed in the newspaper.

IMO, he was the biggest fucking asshole cop EVER.

What made it so fucked up is that he didn't even know my mom!!!

My mom had olive skin with parents from the "old country", which people used to make fun of back in the 80s when she died.

But not once did I ever think the cop was spewing about my moms ancestry, but instead I knew beyond a doubt that the cop was a fucking egotistical d-ck!!!



I think all this hoopla over race around DU is crazy making.

It's what is continuing to divide us instead of being united for the betterment of ALL of us.

I see politics and Washington DC as US vs THEM-no matter what fucking color anyone is.

Yet, I and others around here get raked over the coals the minute we question Obama.

The powers that be-corporate america and the rich elite-have a perfect weapon in Obama-which will continue to divide us all so that we accomplish exactly nothing and get exactly nothing from a government that is supposed to be BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE.

Those people in DC work for US-we should NEVER forget that.

You should check out some info on "police personality": http://www.abuseofpower.info/Culture_Brotherhood.htm

While there are many non-corrupt cops, there are many who feel they have a special authority over others. People with certain personalities are drawn to police work and many police have no problems lying if they feel the ends justify the means. I have had a cop blatantly lie on a police report. Not only that, he wrote down the witnesses' name, address, AND phone number all slightly incorrect so no one could contact the witness. We literally had to use a separate party to hunt down the witness who then signed a sworn affidavit that the police officer blatantly lied about his statements and lied on the police report. It was an endless investigation, that got the police report changed three times, but nothing ever happened to the officer. He was heavily protected by the police department and it took over a month and us tracking down the witness before they would even consider our complaint. Once having considered our complaint an investigator chosen BY THE POLICE agreed that his police report was not mathematically possible for the vehicles to have done what he claimed they did. They changed the police report to find the other person at fault. However, the police officer then complained so two weeks later they changed it again to "fault cannot be determined" despite no new evidence. Despite the eye witness saying that she pulled out in front of me, despite the police department's investigator saying she had to have pulled out in front of me, and despite the woman's story changing more than once. Nothing happened to the officer who obviously knew the woman in the accident. He was completely protected by the police department.

I had another officer pull me over after leaving a ball game at the high school when I was younger. He insisted he "smelled pot" in my car (even though I have never done pot or had pot in my car. I don't even drink alcohol or caffeine for that matter) and he claimed this was "reasonable cause" to search the car. It was obvious he was lying. He even did a fake over the top "sniff" thing with his nose. It took an hour of them searching my car, searching me, threatening to go to my house and search my house if I did tell them the names of people I knew who smoked pot. WHICH WAS NOBODY (though that changed when I went to college, but damn, wtf?) and the frisked my body twice, and my hat. This all happened right at the exit from the high school, where the game was letting out, where everyone saw this happening to me. Finally they found nothing and let me go, but it was a nightmare being threatened, I wanted to flat out cry. I'm a small person, 5'5 and I may be male but I'm gay and did not feel very much like I could defend myself verbally or physically if need be.

So I can say from my anecdotal evidence as well as from a good deal of research (I now have a degree in psychology from UNC-Greensboro) that police cannot always be trusted to tell the truth on a police report. I can provide links to plenty of research indicating a very specific type of personality that serves in the police force. The sad thing is, before these two experiences, I used to think cops were alright. And still to this day, one of my very best long-time friends is a correctional officer.

I remember learning in my Abnormal Psychology course that people who are BULLIES in school have a higher likelihood of growing up to be cops than those who are not.

The answer is obvious. So it the nature of race in this case.

Some cop merely responded to a possible break-in that someone else reported. The physical description of the possible burglar included that he was black (I'm a woman...I'm pretty sure if someone called in me as a possible burglar, they'd describe me as a woman; I don't think that's sexist).

The cop shows up. Gates answers the door. The cop sees this is an older black gentleman, dressed as was described. Gates get irate the cop is there in the first place. The cop says, okay, you live here? Please show me some ID and I'll be on my way. Gates refuses and asks the cop for name and badge #. Cop gives him name & badge #, I guess, but still refuses to produce proof of identity.

What is cop to do? He can't leave w/o getting proof of identity, since a call has been made reporting a possible break-in.

FINALLY Gates produces identity (as he should have when cop first asked).

That's where it should've ended. Why cop then arrested Gates...that's where things got screwed up.

If I broke into my own house (and I've locked myself out a couple of times), and someone in my crime watch neighborhood reported a possible break-in, I'd be DELIGHTED the cops showed up to check it out. I'd gladly grab my driver's license to show that I live here. I'd THANK the cops for their diligence, and that would be that. Altho I understand that blacks are sensitive about being reported as "possible burglars."

What I want to know is...if it was a neighbor that called in the possible break-in...didn't she know who lived there?