Henry Louis Gates arrested when trying to force open door of his own home

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me like the officer was doing a grate job! If we could get a hole load more of these commie profesors arrested we could start to take back this once grate country from the MSM, socialists, and atheists!

Poor attempt at mockery. To be a troll is to understand subtlety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me like the officer was doing a grate job! If we could get a hole load more of these commie profesors arrested we could start to take back this once grate country from the MSM, socialists, and atheists!

But sweetie, you sound like a right wing type, that means you should be anti government and anti police, remember?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...
He's not the first and won't be the last. I can tell you I've been in cars with white people -I'm white- where the cops said something along the lines of "I'm going to give you a warning but if you don't shut your mouth I'll give you a ticket." Did I like it? Hell no. But I shut my mouth and didn't get a ticket. And no I didn't file a complaint b/c frankly I forgot about it almost as soon as the cop let us go. Not everything needs to be a federal case.

I am also white and have gotten away with warnings a few times. Have any of you who are not white gotten similar treatment?

[Anonymous]

Obama weighs in:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/harvard.gates.interview/index.html

Pretty remarkable. Equally remarkable is that the police are sticking to their story about Gates refusing to "step outside" the house when the police arrived.

No matter what, I keep coming back to the fact that Gates got locked out of his house. Next thing he knows, the cops arrive. He's in his own house. And whether or not he spoke angrily to the police, he ended up being pulled out of his house with handcuffs on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...
He's not the first and won't be the last. I can tell you I've been in cars with white people -I'm white- where the cops said something along the lines of "I'm going to give you a warning but if you don't shut your mouth I'll give you a ticket." Did I like it? Hell no. But I shut my mouth and didn't get a ticket. And no I didn't file a complaint b/c frankly I forgot about it almost as soon as the cop let us go. Not everything needs to be a federal case.

I am also white and have gotten away with warnings a few times. Have any of you who are not white gotten similar treatment?

Thank you for this. It's possible, you know, that the average treatment you receive as a white woman differs just a little bit from the average treatment you'd receive as black man.

[Anonymous]

How about this:

http://www.examiner.com/x-6121-Oklahoma-Crime-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Oklahoma-Highway-Patrol-finally-releases-video-of-trooper-attack-on-paramedic

And pp, you are right - As a white woman, I have been treated badly by officers. I wonder how much worse it must be for black men. Scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...
He's not the first and won't be the last. I can tell you I've been in cars with white people -I'm white- where the cops said something along the lines of "I'm going to give you a warning but if you don't shut your mouth I'll give you a ticket." Did I like it? Hell no. But I shut my mouth and didn't get a ticket. And no I didn't file a complaint b/c frankly I forgot about it almost as soon as the cop let us go. Not everything needs to be a federal case.

I am also white and have gotten away with warnings a few times. Have any of you who are not white gotten similar treatment?

Thank you for this. It's possible, you know, that the average treatment you receive as a white woman differs just a little bit from the average treatment you'd receive as black man.

My husband was driving home after leaving a bar last week. He was doing 80 in a 55 and cut off a cop driving a suburban. The cop called my cell phone and told me if I came and got him he would just let him go. I couldn't believe it. When I got there to pick him up the cop told me he thought my husband had had a bit too much to drink and was speeding and tried to run him off the road but, "he seems like a decent guy". I almost did a double take. I was, of course, very grateful the cop hadn't arrested him on DUI and reckless driving, but I told my husband it must be nice to be white and dressed in khaki's and a polo. I was half joking but I honestly believe that situation would've went down completely different if he wasn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have no neutral viewer providing information, so we are creating scenarios depending on our own backgrounds and biases. Having spent a few years in Cambridge, I'll toss out another possibility: town/gown hostility. Possibly it was more the fact that Gates is a Harvard professor that irked the police than the fact that he is black. I have no evidence to back this, but since we are spinning, I figured I'd join the fun.

I also wondered if it was a blue collar police officer vs white collar elite university professor kind of hostility. I saw a picture and there was a black officer at the scene. I am thinking the neighbor who called police may be moving soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this:

http://www.examiner.com/x-6121-Oklahoma-Crime-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Oklahoma-Highway-Patrol-finally-releases-video-of-trooper-attack-on-paramedic

And pp, you are right - As a white woman, I have been treated badly by officers. I wonder how much worse it must be for black men. Scary.

The trooper vs. paramedic story is shocking. There was a patient in back who needed to get to the hospital, but it suited the policeman's ego to make him wait.

I'm also a white woman who has been treated rudely by police officers. I suspect I've also been selected as a traffic stop target (for painfully petty infractions, when so many others doing the same things are allowed to proceed through the same trap by the same officers) because they expect I won't be any trouble. I'll agree that black men probably have it worse because officers expect that no one will credit their complaints. Still, I think police officers count on white women to not complain, which is why they continue to behave badly to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about this:

http://www.examiner.com/x-6121-Oklahoma-Crime-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Oklahoma-Highway-Patrol-finally-releases-video-of-trooper-attack-on-paramedic

And pp, you are right - As a white woman, I have been treated badly by officers. I wonder how much worse it must be for black men. Scary.

The trooper vs. paramedic story is shocking. There was a patient in back who needed to get to the hospital, but it suited the policeman's ego to make him wait.

I'm also a white woman who has been treated rudely by police officers. I suspect I've also been selected as a traffic stop target (for painfully petty infractions, when so many others doing the same things are allowed to proceed through the same trap by the same officers) because they expect I won't be any trouble. I'll agree that black men probably have it worse because officers expect that no one will credit their complaints. Still, I think police officers count on white women to not complain, which is why they continue to behave badly to us.

This video is scary http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=4309643&page=1

"A handcuffed Louisiana woman who emerged from a police holding room with two black eyes and broken teeth said that after the arresting officer turned off a monitoring camera he slammed her against a wooden door and then against a metal locker."

[Anonymous]

Very disturbing. So what are the practical checks on police officers' behavior? Is their entitlement to treat citizens any way they want only challenged when a big scandal provokes public censure?

I have looked at the procedure for filing complaints against DC police officers, but it is discouragingly bureaucratic. I am also put off by the fact that it is a part of the police department itself. Not a lot of incentive to change their culture when even criticism is an internal affair. Where exactly does one find external "police watchdog groups"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very disturbing. So what are the practical checks on police officers' behavior? Is their entitlement to treat citizens any way they want only challenged when a big scandal provokes public censure?

I have looked at the procedure for filing complaints against DC police officers, but it is discouragingly bureaucratic. I am also put off by the fact that it is a part of the police department itself. Not a lot of incentive to change their culture when even criticism is an internal affair. Where exactly does one find external "police watchdog groups"?

I started a thread on this in "Off Topic" the other day. I really believe the answer is that all on duty officers should have a mini "web cam" on at ALL times. It is in THEIR best interest to protect them from unfair and untrue accusations; it is in our best interests to ensure that they know they can't abuse citizens and get away with it. We have the technology. It would cost less than a couple of law suits!

Obviously these officers knew they were on dash-cam.... it's amazing that they behaved so badly anyway. But at least now they've been caught and can be weeded out before somebody gets seriously hurt.

[Anonymous]

Last year my burgler alarm went off and I did not get it off in time because I was new to the house and the alarm etc. etc. and the police came. I told them that I had a problem with the alarm and the first thing they did was ask for my identification and to prove it was my home. I showed them my id and also a photo I was in and then they asked if they could search the house to make sure there wasn't someone lurking around. What I didn't do was freak out and get mad that the police asked who I was. This guy is another racist black guy who is looking for an opportunity to incite hate --of course he in a short time is now talking about making a documentary on race or something to that effect and I am sure the book deal will be soon. This kind of thing just sets us so far back. I am so tired of it and shame on the President for fanning the flames without having any real knowledge of the event-other than acknowleding that a neighbor called the police about a break and he admitted he was jimmying his door open-that alone should have given the police the benefit of the doubt..he needs to remember he isn't in Rev. Wright's church anymore.

[Anonymous]

I can see the chip on the shoulder argument but I also think your perspective changes if you have been subjected not just to overt, but subtle racism your entire life. Overly sensitive and seeing things that aren't there? Maybe. I had a friend who went to a women's college and I swear she thought everything was anti-female after that.

[Anonymous]

NO it doesn't set us far back - the issue of profiling is real and needs to be dealt.

The problem is that there is a total disconnect in accepting that a significant number of black people either have been harrassed, abused, or killed by police or have immediate family members that have been - over MULTIPLE generations. And that folks refuse to believe that our experience is real is just downright hurtful. Our relationship with the entire criminal justice system has been unfair and as the President said last night there is evidence and research to back it up.

The fact that folks don't want to believe what goes on is what sets us back.