All over America and the world there are copious authentic bona fide racist and discriminatory actions being reported. Yet when one racist and/or discriminatory report shows unwarranted grounds for whatever reason, it hurts those people that truly need the backing. In my opinion the Gates incident is just such a case.

So, if it was a white person, under the exact same circumstances, and I mean exact, who was smacked with an illegal Disorderly Conduct as things escalated, what then?


The same exact thing as is happening now. The white person who was falsely arrested could sue Crowley and the Cambridge PD.

The Disorderly Conduct has nothing to do with this being a race issue but of an incorrect arrest given the nature of the conduct for the arrest.

The investigation of a black man admittedly breaking into a building

What if this case as many have leads to even more unwarranted calls of wolf.
What if even more feel that the race card is a good "get out of jail/trouble card" or ??? because of what they saw Gates and the President support. This could very well happen. Especially since the President has given it more merit.
Then what happens to all the work of the people like MLK.

because the false arrest on disorderly conduct has a history being used in a way that has a "disparate impact" on black people. As an "expert" on racial profiling, Crowley should know this

But, the reality is, given the continued existence of insititutional racism in the U.S., and PD's particularly, is that Gates had reasonable cause to suspect racism was involved.

“Now it’s clear that he had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone’s house, probably a white person’s house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me.”
http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,1

At this point, and until Crowley can demonstrate otherwise, the bogus, B.S. arrest and the apparently 'fudged' report are as close to a "smoking gun" as you are likely to get in such a situation. And the only way to clear that up is for Crowley to admit to abusing his authority because he was too thin-skinned to walk away from "name calling".

But, the reality is, given the continued existence of insititutional racism in the U.S., and PD's particularly, is that Gates had reasonable cause to suspect racism was involved.

Crowley's action THROUGHOUT the incident speak to his motivations and are fully germaine to the question of racism, not just the ones his supporters can "hang their hats" on.

Crowley was already guilty of racial profiling & racism before he even showed up at the door.

Crowley wasn't guilty of anything. He hadn't been charged with anything that I knew of. Now Gates on the other hand was being charged with disorderly conduct before any of us even knew what the hell was happening over there in Cambridge MA!!

Now to top this off another officer of the force that was with Crowley is now being labeled an "Uncle Tom" and considered by some a betrayer to his race. (see post 789 for video).

Now you begin to see just how many lives Crowley as affected because he couldn't be professional enough or smart enough to just leave after he had Gates ID.

That wouldn't even be a potential issue if Crowley had simply left rather than charging Gates.

Another way to word that would be, "Would it even be a potential issue if Dr. Gates had presented his identification upon request to a uniformed police officer?"

The fact that he was in his own home at this time holds little weight when the police officer who arrived was responding to a 911 call about a possible B&E at said address.

I can't help but wonder what reaction Dr. Gates would have displayed had Sgt. Lashley been the first on the scene?

Now you begin to see just how many lives Crowley as affected because he couldn't be professional enough or smart enough to just leave after he had Gates ID.

Why are we still arguing this?

I'm just amazed at all the people who try to say Dr. Gates is at fault for what happened that day

I am reluctant to post the following simply because I am not 100% certain of its validity. I am not at all familiar with this site but came across it while doing a bit of research concerning this matter. Also, I seriously doubt this is the entire interview as it seems to address only that which someone with an agenda would wish others to see. The extreme brevity of this 'interview' is what makes me question this.

I'm just amazed at all the people who try to say Dr. Gates is at fault for what happened that day. Even if he was being cross and shouting up a storm, that's not a crime when you're on your own property. And let's not forget that it was Sgt. Crowley who was on the clock that day. It is his DUTY to react calmly and diffuse tense situations like that. He is trained to do as such and when he fails to it is no one's responsibility but his own. So while perhaps both of them behaved badly that day, only one was being paid not to. Sgt. Crowley is therefore inescapably in the wrong.

He is trained to do as such and when he fails to it is no one's responsibility but his own

Again, how about Gates be responsible for himself and not someone else.

Sure, he should. But when two people, one a just civilian and the other a paid servant of the people, get in an altercation, who is ultimately responsible? It's always going the guy getting paid. Just as people say Obama should not have made a personal comment on the event because he is a public official and his words have stronger impact than those of a private citizen, the actions of a police officer hold more weight than those of an average joe. Even if things went down *exactly* as Sgt. Crowley wrote in his report, he still failed to de-escalate the situation and instead made an improper arrest that was ultimately thrown out. And that is no one's fault but his own.