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08-10-2009, 10:06 AM #1
Commentary: Why didn't conservatives support professor Gates?
Commentary: Are conservatives consistent?
But within all that time and coverage, there is still one question that is yet to be asked: Why didn't the conservatives support professor Gates?
As practically every conservative on the Judiciary Committee so passionately spoke of at length during the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings, legal matters should be decided on the facts alone and not on personal opinions or empathy.
Think about it. If this truly were a post-racial America, as so many of my conservative friends tell me, then wouldn't Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and the likes have flooded the airwaves in support of professor Gates?
After all, don't their firmly stated beliefs force them to align with Gates? Aren't conservatives the ones who are always railing against "government intrusion" and "excessive use of government power"?
Here you have a government official intruding on a man's personal property, denying his constitutional right (freedom of speech) and abusing government power by arresting him when he refuses to back down in his home.
Now don't get me wrong, Gates was no choirboy here. His attitude definitely heightened the situation; however, he was at home and a man's house is his castle. He's entitled to speak his own mind. And while it may be unwise to raise your voice at a law-enforcement officer, at home or anywhere else, it is not illegal.
Crowley, on the other hand, was not at home. He was at work, performing a job that requires him to follow the law. Further, he has been trained to use sound judgment and to keep the peace as often as possible. Yet he chose instead to not be a peacekeeper, but a tension increaser.
Ridiculous...
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08-10-2009, 10:20 AM #2
What a jack***. what a flawed argument. Obviously has a bias. I'd be willing to bet that his mind is so warped that he thinks he just made a good argument and is probably proud of himself. I dont think im going to waste my time getting to detailed in this one. I think this BS speaks for itself.
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08-10-2009, 01:28 PM #3Let's put aside our opinions and empathy and deal specifically with the facts. And the facts in this case clearly support Gates:
1. He was in his own home.
2. He showed two pieces of identification proving that it was his home.
3. He was not physically threatening to the officer.
4. He had broken no law.
But yet he was arrested. That arrest, seeing that there was no just cause for it, equals "abuse of government power" and possibly the only illegal act in the entire incident. Proof of this illegality was the Cambridge Police Department dropping the charges.
all i really know about this case is what i just read in the article...what am i missing? the writer seems to have a point.
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08-10-2009, 01:29 PM #4
I didn't hear what Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, or Bill O'Reilly had to say about it, but for the fact that he was at his own home you would think that they would have leaned towards Gates at least until it escalated. That said, i'd think a lot of democrats would have aligned themselves on the side of gates until it escalated. Who in their right mind would think or want a police officer to detain and/or arrest them at their own house. I'm not really sure why this warrants an editorial piece relating to politics. Even people that want more government power or involvement probably wouldn't say that they would want someone arrested at their own house.
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08-10-2009, 01:46 PM #5
selective facts that even by themselves are not 100% factual. as far as the charges being dropped, that is proof of nothing. I'm sure there was no outside influence involved with that. This is all pointless. This guy is arguing that republicans and the right have a racial Bias here. He conveniently leaves out the fact that gates made it all about race within 5 seconds of the encounter. as far as the empathy BS, trying to tie this to the sotomyor thing. This guy leaves out the fact that gates follwed the officer out of his home and continued his outburst. he was given one more warning after this, then arrested. those are facts.
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08-10-2009, 01:46 PM #6
Hardly...a summary:
Gates couldn't get in his front door, so him and his driver had to try to get in another way. They were seen by neighbors going around the house and obviously trying to get in. One neighbor called the cops. When they showed up, Gates was already in the house. The cops stepped inside the house and confronted him, asking for ID. He showed ID and the officer turned to walk outside and offered to discuss the situation further. Gates was yelling at the officer saying things like "you have no idea who you're messing with," about the cops being called saying “Why, because I’m a black man in America?" and when the officer asked him to speak outside said “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside." After Gates continued to yell at him and berate him, the officer informed him he was under arrest. The officer said later “While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.’’ He wasn't arrested for being in his house lawfully as this joker would lead you to believe, but for verbally abusing a police officer and “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior." Anybody else would probably be arrested for the same thing, but because this man is a black Harvard professor, apparently he wasn't supposed to be.
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08-10-2009, 02:17 PM #7
what was the professor charged with?
it doesnt matter what he said or who he insulted...freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution. You can't be arrested for insulting a police officer....at least, the charges 99.9% of the time won't stick. It sounds like he never threatened the officer physically, so what would he have to arrest him for?
why would his neighbors call the cops on him? did they not recognize him? was this during the day or at night?
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08-10-2009, 02:23 PM #8
I don't know what the actual charge was, but it certainly wasn't for breaking into his own home like this guy and many others are saying. The articles I read said he was arrested for “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior," but I'm not sure if that was the actual charge. From what I've read, it sounds like he was disturbing the peace...
I think it was during the day and I guess they didn't get a good look at him. People say the cops were called because it was two black men in a white neighborhood, but I'm thinking the neighbors probably know a black man lives there. I would guess the neighbor didn't get a good look at who it was, but just saw two people walking around a house trying to get in...I know that would probably get the cops called in my town.
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08-10-2009, 02:39 PM #9
okay...he was charged with disorderly conduct as i suspected....which is usually a BS charge when officers have nothing else to charge you with.
here's a quote from a law page...
A disorderly conduct arrest is usually a discretionary decision by a police officer. If we can show that the officer may have been mistaken and overestimated any potential disorder created, we can get the case dismissed. The prosecution must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that your action created a dangerous situation, and served no legitimate purpose.
Being angry and yelling at someone, even if that person is a police officer, is not sufficient cause to sustain a disorderly conduct charge. You are absolutely permitted to express yourself and your first amendment rights to free speech.
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08-10-2009, 02:45 PM #10
while reading more about this, i noticed this...
On July 28, it was revealed in the media that Justin Barrett, a 36-year-old Boston Police Department officer who has been on the job for two years...sent a mass e-mail to fellow National Guardsmen and to The Boston Globe in which he referred to Gates as "a banana-eating jungle monkey."
In the e-mail, Barrett wrote, "If I was the officer he [Gates] verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC [oleorosin capsicum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent non-compliance." During the course of the message, Barrett used the phrase "jungle monkey" four times, three times in reference to Gates and once in reference to Abraham’s column, which he characterized as "jungle monkey gibberish."
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WOW
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