Black Scholar, Gates arrested by White Cop in his home

[paulbee]

By now I think almost everyone has heard how a "prominent black scholar" was arrest in his home by a white cop, in the USA.

Being black myself, and close in age to Mr. Gates (who was arrested), I was deeply angered and troubled by the case. I am not going to describe the incident here (since I assume most readers cursorily already know what happened), I just want to air my feellings and hear the feelings of others here.

In my opinion, arresting a man for "disorderly behaviour" in his own home, is the very Anti-thesis of freedom and liberty that America stands for. I think what really happened was that an egotistic Cop took umbrage to being yelled at or being disrespected (in his own mind), and he used his broad powers to arrest Mr. Gates, with the rather week disorderly behaviour charge.

In the US, and almost anywhere else, if a cop wants to arrest you, he has such broad leeway to cook up a charge against you and find something to arrest you for. In my opinion, egotism should not be a part of Law enforcement, and rudeness should not be treated as a crime.

While I am certain that I would not have acted rudely to a cop, I am also certain that I would be royally pissed off by one who enters my own home, without my permission. While this is probably not racism, I think that there is something dreadfully wrong about that cop arresting Mr. Gates in his own home, for no crime, even after the cop had seen his ID. What should have happened was, the cop should have said Good Night to Mr. Gates and he should have walked away and left him alone.

I am not an Obama fan really, because I am too conservative, but I have to agree with him in this case. Obama's latest statement to date

[Itsu]

Actually I have heard no such thing.

Do not expect that the majority of this forum is Americans.

Please, explain.

[Wolverine]

I've not heard anything of this and after reading about it, its a non-story.

If he had been shot and then wrestled to the floor after having Van Dam Round Kicked a few cops in their faces, then I'd be interested.

[kuroihikari]

Well over here, it's much simpler: If you smacktalk the wrong cop, your family will soon be finding themselves identifying something inside a gasoline drum along the banks of a river or in the middle of a rice field.

[xioaxioa]

I'm American and I haven't heard of it. Care to share the news?

[Afro Thunda]

I read an article on this. Me being black as well, the headline caught my eyes so I had to read it. There was definitely no good reason for Gates to be arrested. If Gates provided the information that the cop asked for, and surely the cop could have complied with Gates's request for the cop's badge number, then the incident should have ended there.

[paulbee]

Here it is, already on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_He...mbridge_police

[kuroihikari]

The question is: Was Gates really yelling unnecessarily and excessively?

Because if he were, then I think it's fair reason to arrest him, whether or not he was in his home.

[paulbee]

The question is: Was Gates really yelling unnecessarily and excessively?

Because if he were, then I think it's fair reason to arrest him, whether or not he was in his home.

This where it gets tricky. Can the police go around arresting people for yelling excessively? How do they even define excessive yelling, is it by the volume, was the cop carrying an electronic device to measure the decibels? If my kids misbehave and I yell at them, is that excessive? More to the point, is yelling excessively a crime? Should it be a crime? Should you be handcuffed and dragged away from your house for yelling?


In America there is a First Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech, this is why Protesters can shout down the President, Governor, or Mayor while they are speaking.

I strongly suspect the cop felt disrespected by Gates, and just wanted to show Mr. Gates who is the boss, and he used that "yelling excessively" as an excuse.

[kuroihikari]

Well, if I had a neighbor who was causing a ruckus and apparently having an altercation with cops next door I'd want him taken to the station, charge or not. That's just something you can't define by numbers.

I agree though that the cop simply felt disrespected. Whether or not it was fair is another question, we have basically have one guy's word over another's. Gates does seem to go around respectable circles to warrant suspicion on the cop's actions, but in those same circles people can turn eccentric, too.

It's odd how there's not one neighbor who could corroborate the participant's words. Or even one who bothered to step in and say, "That's the homeowner."