Black man yelling at a cop in his own damned house = arrestable offense

White people screaming and hollering, heckling, shouting down Members of Congress, disrupting public education events = "grassroots democracy in action."

I said the same thing to my wife this morning.

These thugs (the hecklers) would be the first to scream bloody murder if a cop (especially a black cop) hauled them out of a town hall for abusing their right to free speech.

It might not seem to make a difference to you, but let's at least make accurate commentary.

Since we're nitpicking, let's pick the nit exactly right.

. . .I really want them to reinstate the charges against Gates, it would show hoe fucked up the cops were.

...if you want to pick nits.

If you really want to nit pick.

The Sgt., along with the gentleman, were now on the porch of Ware St. and again he was shouting, now to onlookers (about seven) "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN AMERICA"! The gentleman refused to listen as to why the Cambridge Police were there. While on the porch, the gentleman refused to be cooperative and continued shouting that the Sgt. is a racist police officer"

Statement of Carlos Figueroa, not Crowley.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17512830/Gates-Police-Report


...if you really want to nitpick.


My issue isn't with some people's belief that Gates was arrested unjustly. The simple fact, though, is that he was NOT arrested for yelling "in his own damned house".

I know that is hard for some people to "get" the offense of it all but that is the point.

Injustice sucks.

My neighbor was drunk and in his front yard yelling at no one at about 11:00 at night. Cops showed up and arrested him.

and it was in broad daylight. :shrug:

You can't yell and scream all you want while sober, but once you do it while drunk, you are disturbing the peace.

It seems that Mr. Policeman didn't like being spoken to in an unkind manner and used his badge to take down the homeowner. The homeowner wasn't a threat to 3 cops with guns but the cop got his panties in a bunch and charged Gates to show him who's boss.

That is the cutoff here. My wife and I were new to our neighborhood and had a colicky baby who had just fallen asleep when our neighbor decided to start screaming (about 10:30). We had our windows shut, but he still managed to wake our baby up. I would not give 2 shits if my neighbor was drunk, sober or pissed at some power hungry cops. I wanted his ass shut up and cops did it (by arresting him).

Now, I am not arguing if the cops were right or wrong. All I am saying is this ordeal made me think back to that night and I would damn well want him shut up if he was neighbor under the circumstances we were under.

a great deal of experience with colicky babies, that you would get your neighbor arrested rather than maybe, talk to him, or suffer through a little inconvenience. Someone's freedom is less important to you than whether you lose a little sleep over a crying baby. That says a lot about you.

Good thing you never lived in any neighborhood I'm familiar with. People who get their neighbors arrested for their own convenience and selfishness don't do very well in most neighborhoods.

Your attempt to cover your support for the arrest of Prof. Gates is transparent. The 'colicky baby' was a nice touch, though not very convincing. It's a tough world out there. Babies cry, if you don't want to hear them crying, don't have them. But people's freedom takes precedence over your slight inconvenience.

I find it hard also to believe that your neighbor was arrested simply for yelling. That would not happen in any place I've lived unless there was some kind of threat involved. A warning maybe, but that's about it.

The individual turned out to have some serious mental issues, to the point of getting himself killed by going psycho on a car speeding through the neighborhood.

However, I am glad you seem to know EVERYTHING without ever having to be there. Must be nice to be omnipotent.

Oh, and in case you "know" I made this up, here is a link to the article:

http://www.ketv.com/news/5000829/detail.html

One of our neighbors had a security camera that showed he sticking his arms up and jumping in front of the car, challenging the person to stop or swerve to miss him.

However, your level of empathy with a first time parent of a colicky child (we now have 3 kids and are much more used to the whole parenting thing) reminds me of the attitude I hear from loons on the right.

I actually expect my neighbors to follow the law. I don't treat them all like they are my 6 year old son and need to be reminded what to do.

stop spreading the LIES...!!!

...and it's not nearly as bad as some here (who have never been tased) would have you believe.

if it was as bad as some would have you believe.

i hate ignorance.

It's an extermely rare occurrance.

Tasing is still not as painful as most people here seem to believe.

I have to say that there is nothing so ignorant as trying to qualify pain in someone else. :eyes:

I can tell you are either in law enforcement or you hang with those who are.

time.

You should get an award for this one.

I'm stealing the phrase, though it will never be as fitting as it was here. LOL

:D

It's a misrepresentation to make the outcome appear more unjust.

It may have been unjust, but that doesn't excuse misrepresenting the facts.

If you're gonna make a point, don't fudge the facts to do it.

the police say without question. Believes everything to the cops advantage in a police report and fails to recognize the legal insufficiency of the charge and all of it's flaws.

I want to see video of Gates hollering on his porch. And how come the "crowd" if there ever was one, besides the police, were drawn there by Gates yelling, or who were rubbernecking because multiple squad cars and police were piling up outside?

Did a neighbor make a complaint, or the police?

What a crock of shit this case was, which is why they had to dismiss it.

My front porch is my damn property and I can yell whatever the hell I want until and unless a neighbor complains that I am disturbing the peace.

What a crock of shit this case is. People willing to give away the most fundamental right, security in your own damn home, because they don't like Gates.

Stating that Gates was arrested for yelling "in his own damned" house creates an artificial scenario that makes his arrest appear more unjust.

Hell, believe it was completely unjust...just don't misrepresent the facts.

He was wrongfully arrested and that was acknowledged already by the dropping of the case which probably would have been laughed out of court.

But, as the OP points out, for those who cheered on the false arrest of Prof. Gates for 'yelling', how come they are not screaming for the arrest of those who are disturbing Town Hall meetings preventing Congressmembers from being able to communicate with their constituents, and doing it deliberately as has been proven? That is the point! Try to stay on topic.

Its quite obnoxious.

Because I pointed out that the OP misrepresented the event.


:eyes:

He had no other reason in the world to ask him to do so otherwise. He had all ready confirmed no burglury happened and that the guy lived there. There is not one single reason you can give me for asking him to step on outside and then immediately arresting him. The fact that he was still riled up on his porch is IRRELEVANT. The cop arrested him for yelling at him and obviously all ready wanted to do so while they were still in the house.

People like you are irritating and you defeat your own purpose by worrying about the pettiest of things to argue over. When you actually challenge something important, people don't want to listen because of how annoying you were when it wasn't.

Crowley states that he was leaving the house and told Gates that if he wanted to discuss the matter further, he'd have to lower his voice and step onto the porch. Gates went outside, but continued to shout accusations of racism... to the civilian spectators who had congregated on the sidewalk. Crowley asked him TWICE to calm himself, and Gates refused.

That's characteristically different than "arresting a man for yelling inside his own house".

that says alot about YOU...

Gates himself said that Crowley left the house and said not a word and that Gates voluntarily followed him outside.

He didn't say anything. He turned his back to me and turned back to the porch. And I followed him. I kept saying, "I want your name, and I want your badge number."

It looked like an ocean of police had gathered on my front porch. There were probably half a dozen police officers at this point. The mistake I made was I stepped onto the front porch and asked one of his colleagues for his name and badge number.

Now, Crowley said in his report that he told Gates that he was leaving and if he wanted to continue to talk to him he would have to do it outside. He then left and Gates followed him outside. Whether or not Crowley spoke to him or not (Crowley says he did, Gates said he didn't say a word) Gates still voluntarily followed him outside.

Interestingly, Gates claimed he never yelled as he had some kind of physical problem with his throat and was physically incapable of doing so, yet no one here disputes the fact that he did indeed yell, and Gates stopped making that claim when the photo of him on his porch shows him with his mouth wide open appearing to be yelling. What is interesting about this is that no one here ever said a single word about him lying about the fact that he was yelling.

There has been so much misinformation told about the events of this matter, and yes indeed, accuracy in reporting is damned important. Every day we slam the MSM for not being accurate in reporting, and if we're going to be doing that we damn well better be accurate ourselves.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

while on his own porch/property, then there is no reason not to be arresting and charging these protestors who are disrupting townhalls on public property (there are laws to enforce there as well).

I try to be charitable about it, but I can't see any reason why other than Gates is a black guy sassing authority, and these town hall protestors are white people sassing authority.

Let's get a big crowd of black republican protestors doing the same at a town hall, and see what happens and how fast...oh, wait, are there even that many black people in the republican party?

This kind of unequal treatment just pisses me off to no end (part of the reason I became a lawyer years ago). The inconsistency drives me up a freaking wall when I see it, and esp. when I hear the freaking excuses people try to make for drawing lines in the manner.

can you have two thoughts simultaneously? :eyes:

Start an artificial argument and then defend it. You go on ignore from now on.

:thumbsup:

poor, scaredy, policemen, doncha know.

:eyes:

White Man Calls Barack Obama a racist = "patriotic hero"

Kanye said "black people" ;-)

My brain thought one thing but it got ahead of my fingers typing, so my fingers reacted.

It's called "Living Black in America."

The supreme test would be to gather some Black people (on our side of the Health Issue) and let them start screaming at the Rush Whites to be heard and breaking up the meeting.

That is the true test.

Husband and wife are both beligerant and screaming at the cops - they get arrested.

public event, it's "free speech".

We live in Bizarro World, where up is down and black is white.

are they? I don't think so.

And there is a very big difference between impeding an officer of the law from doing his job, and yelling at a town hall meeting.

The cop should not have arrested Gates. He should've walked away from the old, disabled man, after seeing his proof of residence and ID. Until then, though, as far as I can tell, the cop did nothing wrong. It was all Gates.

Wow - you didn't even read the complete story, did you...

The fucking RACIST PIG of a cop LIED REPEATEDLY on his fucking POLICE REPORT!!!

and you still believe that fucking PIG over Professor Gate...nice...

that's a little like saying i yelled at you so you punched me therefore we were both wrong.

no. :eyes:

Instead, Gates became abusive to the cop from the get-go.
Still the cop still shouldn't have thrown him in jail for it.
They dropped charges once they realized there's no law against
acting like an arrogant, self absorbed sob.

and the vomit inducing idiots who insist on making excuses for him. Gates was arrested AFTER his residency was established and even the lying sack of shit cop admits he knew that the man lived in the house. So what the excuse for arresting him again?

That's right there isn't one.

If it's all the same to you if you're going to be giving the cops a virtual rim job can you do it where the rest of us don't have to be nauseated by seeing it?

Either that or you're as bigoted as the our law enforcement system. Either way you're not anyone worth wasting time on. Good luck living on Fantasy Island.

I'll take a pass on the movie in your head, that's for sure.

it can mean there is simply not enough evidence to proceed.

innocent until proven guilty.

i understand the game that is being played, but he is innocent in the eyes of the law.

:patriot:

Go have a beer.

K&U

:kick:

:thumbsdown:

Too bad you can't unrec a post.

and it shouldn't be so.

K&R

Great observation, EffieBlack.