Agreed. But the police officer was a sergeant and knew belligerent when he seen it...jmo

Sure blacks have been profiled...so have teens....so have Hispanics...so have people with sports cars. I was a police officer, and believe me, you are under the microscope 24-7. In this case I see it as a simple case of the Professor going off on a policeman responding to a possible burglary. If the Professor was sure of his innocence he normally should have cooperated fully.jmo

bingo

I totally agree...but none of the other officers disputed the report. And please don't say it's their code.

Lets see the other officers reports...as they have to file one also.jmo

Well of course the officers reports will all match....
silly goose

Yes, he is half white but when he walked down the street his whole life, people saw him as a black man.

Btw, I was not shocked by what he said. I don't see how you could perceive that as being scary.

Did you just Goose me?! Seriously, the Code of police officers is nothing like what it used to be. Too much at stake now. Careers, jobs, family's etc. Besides Police are soooo underpaid it is scary. silly goose.

I think it's more about him being a prestigious college professor at a prestigious college. He's not used to being treated like that.

I agree.

Sounds like Ted Kennedy back in the Chappaquiddick days to me.

Thank goodness for that! By 'code' you do mean the tendency for police to cover for each other, right? I think cellphone cameras and the internet have helped clean things up, too. But I also think it varies with the region.

Agreed, technology keeps the police honest. Both internal and external. And in some poor rural areas the police may get away with things that a Chicago, New York City cop may not. The microscope is on them most of the time. But small town cops have a lot more latitude. Whether in North Dakota or the Bayou.

This story is getting a life of it's own, anyone know the real story now? Probably not. Did I hear someone say cops don't cover for each other anymore? That's too funny.

I live in a rural town where more folks have lived her their whole live and they can tell you stories that will make you hair stand up about the cops here. And those cops are still here, so they do get away with alot more than in cities.


I think Obama didn't help by calling what the cops did stupid and he probably regrets giving people that don't like him that bit of red meat, but I sure would have liked to be fly on the wall when this went down, because by the time this story ends it won't be anywhere near what actually happened.

I actually like cops, but if they act like swell headed morons I am not surprised why people don't have anything nice to say about them.


Who ever said we should walk in their shoes, please consider that people walk in their shoes ever day of the year in areas that are violent and they don't get to wear a gun and badge and have the authority to arrest. They deal with things cops face as well but with out the protection of a vest or a gun or even back up.

Other cops are more secure in their personalities and take in to account that people can be upset at times and not always act accordingly. They don't throw their weight around like others do. Those are the cops I like, and have alot of respect for the way they deal with people in general.


Not having seem the interaction between these two I can't say who was at a fault or more at fault than the other.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html


Check out this site Boo...and we already discussed rural vs. urban with police. Rural cops are not watched like Urban cops. Not many cell phone cameras on a country road.

I've seen how those Kangaroo Courts work in the rural parts of Missouri.

Based only on what I have read, it would seem that the entire confrontation could have been avoided if the professor had showed his ID. The police were acting upon a neighbor's call that she saw some people breaking into a home. I would hope that if it were MY house, the police would ask for ID and not just take someone's word that they were the residents of the house! What if strangers HAD broken into the professor's home and told the police that they lived there and the police then left? I bet Obama would then say that their actions were stupid. Again, based on what I have read, the officers were acting by the book and Obama should not comment on local news, stick to the national news.

Obama should apologize to the officer and the police department for saying they acted stupidly without any clue about what happened. I notice that he didn't include the possibility that his friend could have done something less than stellar. There is ample evidence that the officer is not one to racially profile people or denigrate people because of their race. His boss (a black man) choose him to teach others how to avoid profiling people. The "victim" has made his living with an emphasis that white people are racist. The reports from those on the scene indicate that he was at best uncooperative and making racist claims. The house had previously been broken into.


If you read the report, it states that at no time did Gates show identification, although he was repeatedly asked for it. I challenge everyone to read it for themselves, and then attempt to claim that Gates was cooperating. --http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html-- All Gates had to do, is what EVERYONE is expected to do in this situation, SHOW HIS ID. If there is any accuracy in the report at all, he belligerently refused.

Now we're learning that the Honorable Professor uttered some disparaging remarks about the police officers mother. Where I come from, such comments can usually buy you an opportunity for dentures. It's not unusual for the public to scream for and demand that police officers be held to a higher standard of respect when going about their duties. Respect is a double edged sword and it swings both ways. An individual who is disruptive and argumentative during a confrontration wtih police is probably going to be dealt with in a manner fitting the display of temper. At this point at least were I officer Crowley I wouldn't offer an apology either. This isn't a case of black and/or white. It's a case of a home owner letting his alligator mouth overload his humming bird brain.

Well put Modela. Thanks for saying it more literate than I did.

You are very welcome hun...

Modela said, "Obama should not comment on local news, stick to the national news."

He didn't just step up and make a comment. The press asked him about the situation during his Presidential speech. He also said that he didn't know the whole story but based on what he knows....

Then simple very simple even a 6th grader can answer this:
I am so sorry I cannot comment on the issue because i do not have the facts and let's leave it that way. Or he can say: I will get back to you guys when I have the facts.

But instead he open his mouth and disrespect the police enforcement at Cambridge andt the entire police force in the country by saying they are "stupid for arresting his friend" that is uncalled for my friend... sorry, he make a fool of himself by saying so without the facts at hand.

While I think according to the report he did over react, (if the report is accurate) did say that initially he did 'not' show idenditfication but then 'did' show id, so I don't know where you got that he did not at any time show id, because he did according to the report. While I agree that we should show respect on both sides, reacting to violence with violence, as per your denture remark, doesn't show restraint or character either.

I would have respected the cop more if he had continued to walk away and allowed the professor to act like the child. They both had an audience, so it was unlikly that they old man would have done much more than yell, making himself look foolish. The cop really didn't need to make his day worse by arresting him, in my opinion. I think if the cop had walked away it would have put him in a much better light.

As for Obama, he was asked about the incident inappropriately, when his focus was on health care, so to me they just wanted something to make a stink about and unfortunately Obama walked right in to that one.