Background: incident report #9005127
Shouting in your own home isn't a crime; contrary to the official report, Henry Louis Gates was arrested because he was being an asshole ("Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest"). The arrest constitutes an actionable error.
Given Officer Crowley's background (in race relations), to what degree racism played a part in the arrest is a question entirely up in the air (likewise, the following example).
Imagine racism as a Twinkie, and the cellophane wrapper as an individual. Separate, and clearly, the wrapper is not the Twinkie. Yet, when one sees a Twinkie wrapper, one can safely assume that, at some point, Twinkies were present.
How many see a Twinkie wrapper on Officer Crowley's forehead?
Mr. Gates shouldn’t have yelled at the police officer; still, what he did was irritating, not criminal. Once the officer determined Mr. Gates did live in the house, he should have left, no matter what the professor was shouting.Harvey A. Silverglate, a criminal defense lawyer, civil liberties defender, and Harvard Law School graduate, believes Mr. Gates’s arrest should be investigated, but not only because of its racial implications: Was Mr. Gates arrested and held as a way to teach him a lesson? If so, asks Mr. Silverglate, “Is this acceptable, regardless of whether the citizen is white or black?”
Gates and every other American have a First Amendment right to shout and be rude in their home and on their private property.Crowley's refusal to apologize and his public criticism of Obama's remarks are manifestations of his contempt for civilian control and civilian rule, in a democratic republic.The fact that Crowley didn't arrest Gates for burglary or trespass and the local prosecutor rejected the disorderly conduct charge shows Crowley's professional misconduct.-- Steven L. Kendall, Seattle
There was no real basis for the arrest. Thus, President Obama was justified in initially categorizing Officer Crowley's behavior as "stupid" (1). Crowley should be reprimanded. A lawsuit wouldn't be out of the question, if only as an attempt to further delineate standards for police behavior in exactly these types of situations.
Given his friendship with the president and the flak Mr. Obama would have to deflect during, and in the aftermath of such proceedings, Gates (via back-channels) has obviously been persuaded not to persue this course of action.
Better make those beers, "Moosehead"s, boys...
Politics and "political correctness": destroyers of men and killers of civilizations.
(1) “Black males hold the distinction of being the only group in America who are expected to be responsible full-blooded men and acquiescent boys, simultaneously.”
3:15
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