I’ve been trying to figure out a way to verbalize what I think of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates. I think that Radley Balko has essentially got his finger on the pulse of the issue. (H/T: Glenn Reynolds.)
Police officers deserve the same courtesy we afford anyone else we encounter in public life—basic respect and civility. If they’re investigating a crime, they deserve cooperation as required by law, and beyond that only to the extent to which the person with whom they’re speaking is comfortable. Verbally disrespecting a cop may well be rude, but in a free society we can’t allow it to become a crime, any more than we can criminalize criticism of the president, a senator, or the city council. There’s no excuse for the harassment or arrest of those who merely inquire about their rights, who ask for an explanation of what laws they’re breaking, or who photograph or otherwise document police officers on the job.
What we owe law enforcement is vigilant oversight and accountability, not mindless deference and capitulation. Whether or not Henry Louis Gates was racially profiled last week doesn’t change any of that.
Put yourself in his place. You find yourself locked out of your house, and you try to break in. The police arrive. Words ensue, and the police arrest you for disorderly conduct in your own home.
I get that Gates mouthed off to a cop. But that’s what’s been bothering me about this whole thing: Since when is it against the law to mouth off to a cop? It may be unwise, but it’s not illegal. And I have no intention of jumping on the bandwagon of people who say that you must always defer to the man with the badge and the gun. There’s more than enough police corruption out there that proves otherwise.
Was Gates an ass? Probably. Once again, that’s not against the law. Should he have kept his temper? Of course. Should he have been arrested?
NFW. The fact that charges were dropped prove that the cop was in the wrong in that respect.
I’m biased.
I think Gates has always been a racemonger.
He keeps pushing the blacks a victims meme.
While the officer may have not been totally in right-it was nice to see the “good professor” get taken down a peg.
You know I love ya, Meryl, but I think you’re wrong on a few things here.
1) Gates was arrested outside his home, when he followed the cop out of the house and kept mouthing off — loudly.
B) The charges being dropped does NOT prove the cop was wrong, only that the DA didn’t think it was a winning case or worth the time and effort to prosecute.
III) It’s not illegal to mouth off to a cop. It is illegal to shout and holler and cause a ruckus after a cop tells you to pipe down or you’ll get arrested.
The cops, by showing up to Gates’ home, were doing him a service. He’d had his house broken into recently. They got a legitimate call about suspicious behavior at the house, and followed policy precisely to make certain there was no problem (checking ID, asking him to step outside so no hypothetical home intruders could overhear the conversation, etc. etc.). Gates profiled the cop, pegged him as a racist, and (over)reacted accordingly.
The cop sounds like a damned good one. And a charge of “racism” can kill a cop’s career. Crowley needs to fight this if he’s going to continue as a cop.
J.
I’m not saying Gates isn’t an ass for accusing the cop of racism. I’m not saying he didn’t overreact. I’m saying that my reading of the incident is that there was no cause for the cop to arrest Gates. Shouting at a police officer is still not a crime, I’m pretty sure.
Gates didn’t try to assault the officer. Yelling is not an arrestable offense.
The fact that the DA didn’t think he could make a case is absolutely proof that an arrest shouldn’t have been made. You arrest someone for breaking a law, not for being rude and loud to a police officer. The DA knew no law had been broken. “Disorderly conduct” is a giant net now, but I’m thinking it isn’t supposed to be.
gates is lucky he was not beaten shot or killed
in many towns that would have been the end result
The sad fact is that if Crowley had NOT arrested Gates, there would have been no record of FACTS recorded/revealed when Gates screamed “racism”. It’s a sad fact in our society today that members of “victim” groups need only “perceive” prejudice or “offense” to cause massive problems for the person they accuse. Crowley, being the CPD’s expert on racial profiling must have realized immediately when Gates started his “black man in America” rant that this situation would turn into yet another “black man victim, white man villain” deals in which the accused has no way to prove his innocence and pays a price.
I’m so very GLAD Crowley had the foresight to do what he did–turning on his microphone, arresting Gates–so right now “we” are debating the FACTS of what occurred, rather than reading in the inanely biased mainstream media about the “racist” outrage in Cambridge.
when i read an article it stated that he was arrested at 12:45 AM. In my town if someone is making a lot of noise by yelling or something at that time of night when people are trying to sleep and the police tell them to stop and they continue it is a crime. Also in the article it stated that Gates was asked to provide proof of residency and he started yelling. If they got a call for an attempted break-in and someone is trying to get inside the house then the person should be asked for proof that they live there OR atleast identify themselves. If it was a different time of day where didnt the disorderly conduct would make sense or if Gates actually gave his ID then I would agree with Gates but it seems to me that the officer was doing his job reasonably.
Shouting at a police officer is still not a crime, I’m pretty sure.
Uh, yes, actually, it can be. “Disorderly conduct” is one of several ‘catch-all’ charges that towns and cities pass as methods of exerting control over public areas, like streets and sidewalks. In Cambridge, the relevant ordinance reads:
“9.08.010 Disorderly conduct–Profanity and insulting language.
No person shall behave himself in a rude or disorderly manner, or use any indecent, profane or insulting language in any street or public place. No person shall make or cause to be made, any unnecessary noise or noises in any public street, private way or park, so as to cause any inconvenience or discomfort for the inhabitants of the City.”
This is one reason why it’s generally a Bad Idea to shout or swear at a cop. If you press him too far, it is entirely within his power to arrest you on any of a number of “catch-all” charges. A good cop usually doesn’t want to do that, because it means a lot of time and trouble and paperwork for him. I have to wonder just what Gates said and did to push a cop as good as Crowley into arresting him on that charge.
I’m sorry, I read the entire police report, and I’m still not seeing a reason to arrest him. I have seen police officers calm down people who were yelling loudly in a “tumultous manner” that “drew the attention of both police officers and citizens, who appeared surprised and alarmed.”
He wasn’t drunk. He wasn’t threatening anyone. He was acting like an ass, yes, loudly, and yes, late at night. I have called the police many times on neigbhors who were throwing loud parties, sometimes multiple times in one night, and none of them has ever been arrested, yet they were all breaking the noise ordinance laws. So kindly do not tell me that because he was breaking the law, he was arrested. I think Gates was arrested for pissing off a cop, and that is certainly not a crime.
I don’t give up my rights as a citizen as easily as some of you, obviously. He was still on his property, Jay, not in the street. Crowley told him that if Gates wanted to speak with him, to follow him outside. It’s in the police report.
If Gates had threatened Crowley or anyone else physically, I could understand an arrest. But not for yelling at a cop, no matter how obnoxiously he was behaving.
And you know what? I think I have a First Amendment right to call a cop an asshole without being arrested for it. Or even a racist.
I don’t think Gates was right. But neither do I think he should have been arrested.
My guess is it went something like this:
1: Neighbor sees someone trying to force the front door (because Gates’ key didn’t work) and calls the police
2: Gates lets himself in through the back door
3: Police arrive, don’t recognize Gates and ask to see ID, because for all they know, he might be a burgler
4: Gates gets all indignant, as the celebrity Harvard professor with an ego. “Do you know who I am?” was probably shouted at least once.
5: We already know (from Gates’ own statements) that he refused to show ID, so the police had no reason to believe that he was in fact the owner of that home.
6: When Gates decides to take the shouting match outside, he got arrested on a catch-all charge.
Did the police overreact? Maybe, but what else could they have done? They got a call that there was a burgler in the house, and the person they find there refuses to take ten seconds to show a drivers license identifying himself as the owner. Do you think it’s good police policy to abandon an investigation because the person you’re questioning claims to own the house he’s in but refuses to actually identify himself as the owner?
Given what I’ve heard so far, Gates is lucky he was only arrested on “disorderly conduct” and later got the charges dropped. It seems to me that he could’ve also gotten hit with “obstruction of justice” charges for refusing to cooperate with officers arriving to investigate a 911 call.
You know what, David? Don’t guess. Read the police report. It’s linked in my comment above. Because if you did, you would discover that Gates did, indeed, supply his ID. By the time he was arrested, Crowley was pretty sure Gates was the inhabitant of the house.
And before you start throwing around things like “obstruction of justice,” perhaps you should get a lawyer to explain to you the legal definition of such a charge. Your logic is extremely flawed here, mostly because you’re ignoring things I like to call “facts.”
I’m going to split the difference with y’all on this one.
1. Gates showed his Harvard ID, but not a state-issued ID with his address. As he had just gotten home from Logan, I find it difficult to believe that he didn’t have either his drivers’ license or his passport close to hand. He was combative from moment one, but that isn’t his crime.
2. Gates put his foot in his mouth when he followed the cop outside and mouthed off loudly enough to attract the attention of passers-by. It was the volume that led to a legitimate charge of disorderly conduct.
3. What should Gates have done? Simple: produce his license to the cop, and then say in a quiet conversational tone, “Get the hell out of my house, you ignorant redneck cracker piece of s***.” Mouthing off to a cop is perfectly legal, if done quietly.
4. Moral of the story: some Harvard professors are asshats. Could have saved us all a lot of trouble by figuring that out in advance.
Can a person be arrested for being unruly and uttering derogatory remarks to the police on his own property?
If so, we can all understand why the authorities in Iran and China feel compelled to protect order by imprisoning angry unruly street protesters on public property.
Reading the police report, it appears that Mr. Gates was deliberately trying to trigger some sort of behavior in the officer so that he could raise some sort of complaint. Every attempt of the officer to calm things down was met by an escalation on the part of Mr. Gates. I think that his following the officer and continuing to scream epithets may have been what triggered the arrest. While we have seen many cases of a police over-response, I think that in this case, the officer realized that Mr. Gates was trying to trigger a confrontation.
What should he have done? I don’t know. If he had just walked away, I think that Mr. Gates would have continued making a fuss and screaming his accusations of “racism”. When someone knows he is in the wrong, it is often a tactic to go on the offense.
OK, I did read the police report. It’s a masterpiece of bland, vanilla understatement. The sequence went:
1) Gates was nasty and abusive and uncooperative inside the house
2) When the officer retreated so he could use his radio, Gates followed the officer outside and continued verbally abusing him
3) Gates was warned that he was engaging in disorderly conduct
4) Gates continued his tirade
5) Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct
Step 3 is the key: once a verbal warning was given and ignored, the officer had only two choices: back down and let his authority be eroded, or enforce his authority by arresting the individual in question. Part of his job is to preserve the authority of the uniform he wears. Cops can’t do their job if citizens don’t respect them.
This is why you don’t piss off a cop. Don’t cuss at a cop, don’t snark at a cop, don’t yell at a cop. And above all, don’t ever ignore a cop’s warning. If you publicly provoke a cop, then past a certain point he is entirely within his authority to arrest you. If you continue provoking him, then it’s no longer “within his authority,” it’s his sworn duty to arrest you, because now you’re breaking the law and interfering with his ability to do his job. If you leave him no choice between arresting you and losing authority, then guess what? He’s probably gonna arrest you.
You’re offering a false choice when you say that Gates had only two choices. He had many choices, one of which was using the tactics he learned as a peace officer to defuse the situation. This cannot be the only time Crowley has ever had to face an angry, shouting man.
There’s no such law as “Don’t provoke a cop.” He needs to show that you have broken a law to arrest you. Disorderly conduct may be considered a catch-all, but it isn’t supposed to be. It is not a cop’s “sworn duty” to arrest you if you’re provoking him. It is his sworn duty to uphold the laws of the place in which he serves. Kindly show me an ordinance from anywhere in the country that says you can be arrested for provoking a police officer, because I’m calling bullshit on that.
I don’t know where the rest of you have lived, but I just spent the last six years in an apartment complex that went downhill, fast, in the last two years. I have a significant amount of experience with police officers and with people who deal with them on a daily basis. And while I respect them and their work, I do not see a reason for this blind obedience you’re all putting forward. And that’s even before I tell you about the drunk cop two doors down from me in Bloomfield, NJ, who fired off his weapon in a densely populated town in the most densely populated state in the nation, and who was protected by his cop buddies that I called to investigate what I thought were fireworks being shot off.
These people do not deserve blind obedience. They are as human as you or I. Gates did nothing to deserve being arrested. Crowley was in the wrong in that respect.
OK. I read the report you linked to. The facts agree with my opinion a lot more than my speculation.
According to the report, after Crowley was finished inside the house and returned to his car to report what had happened, Gates followed him out, shouting accusations. Gates was explicitly warned twice that he was becoming disorderly, and the second warning included an explicit statement that he would be arrested if he continued. Gates deliberately ignored the warning and continued his accusations.
This is not an abusive cop. This is Gates deliberately trying to get himself arrested. He asked for it, and he got what he asked for.
And now, David, you have just used the classic tactic of moving the goalposts. Also the straw man argument. I have never said that Crowley is an abusive cop. I said that he had no reason to arrest Gates. I don’t give a shit how many times Crowley warned him, he was wrong to arrest him.
I don’t buy that argument that Gates deliberately tried to get himself arrested. I have said repeatedly that he acted like an ass, and that he should’t have been yelling at Crowley. But I maintain that acting like an ass and yelling at a police officer—while you are in your own home and on your own property—is not an arresting offense.
You are also ignoring the facts. Crowley said he was going outside, and told Gates that if he had anything more to say to him, to speak to him outside. It’s on page 2 of the report.
So far, I remain unconvinced that Gates should have obeyed Officer Crowley because Officer Crowley was giving Gates orders. A police officer’s orders are not the law. You are under no obligation to allow a police officer to search your car without probable cause. Even though I have absolutely NOTHING to hide, I would never let a police officer search my car without cause.
It really is shocking how many of you are so willing to erode our civil rights because the person being arrested is someone you disagree with or find behaved obnoxiously. Sorry, but I continue to insist that Gates was guilty only of being an asshole. He didn’t break any laws.
A person can be arrested for refusing to supply proper identification. A university ID is not proper identification.
And yet, Anonymous, that isn’t why Gates was arrested. And so, irrelevant to the topic at hand.
… and now a bit of silly commentary on the matter: http://xkcd.com/617/
Pity it didn’t end up that way. The news would’ve been more fun to watch.