Entering your own house with a key while Black

[NCVol]

The fact that Crowley is helping him down the steps shows that he bears no ill feelings toward Gates, and he's truly a helpful and upstanding person.  The same can't be said for the chosen one.

Seems someone here is caring and concerned, and someone else is all about #1.

[Obama's] detachment and self centered persona is all to apparent.

Sounds like mind reading to me, but that's just because the descriptions assume a knowledge of what each man was thinking. 

[Dementia_Madness]

Okay Nc, you are right, what we are actually seeing is Crowley is grabbing Gates and preparing to heave him off the steps, Obama on the other hand is going out for the long pass.

[Sasquatch]

Sounds like mind reading to me, but that's just because the descriptions assume a knowledge of what each man was thinking. 

It is really just another example of the cop behaving "stupidly", right NCVol.

And since whitey cop would dare do anything to a good, upstanding, loved-in-the-black community citizen like Gates we just KNOW what Crowley was thinking when he made the arrest. 

[NCVol]

No, there is a difference.

The reality is the cop arrested Gates for being disorderly in his own home.  The charges were dropped after Gates spent four hours in custody.  There has never been any allegation that Gates threatened anyone, especially not the police officer.  His "offense" was being angry and using strong language against a cop - aka contempt of cop. 

Does anyone think that police chiefs are looking at the incident and holding meetings with their officers saying "THAT is how to handle an incident like that!!!" 

If not, the way it was handled was "stupid." 

[Dementia_Madness]

The reality is the cop arrested Gates for being disorderly in his own home.

Wrong he was arrested for being disorderly in PUBLIC.

There has never been any allegation that Gates threatened anyone, especially not the police officer.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE MESSING WITH." that is a THREAT! not just a threat but an act picked up a phone calling the police “GET ME THE CHIEF” “WHAT’S THE CHIEF’S NAME.”

Gates was creating a public disturbance with "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public place."

Gates yelled that Crowley "had not heard the last from him." THREAT!

Threatening someone with violence is one thing, but threatening someones image, career, and very livelihood can be even worse, and is still a THREAT. Also NC if I were to tell you YOU did not know who you were messing with, in reference to me, and then stated you hadn't heard the last from me...would you consider that a threat?

Massachusetts General Law G. L. c. 272, § 53, makes disorderly conduct unlawful. Specifically courts have found conduct unlawful where “people could have seen or heard the defendant from any place of public access, such as a nearby sidewalk, publicly used path or road, shopping area or other neighborhood facility." Commonwealth v. Mulvey, 57 Mass. App. Ct. at 584.

[Jeremy Roenick]

The reality is the cop arrested Gates for being disorderly in his own home.  The charges were dropped after Gates spent four hours in custody.  There has never been any allegation that Gates threatened anyone, especially not the police officer.  His "offense" was being angry and using strong language against a cop - aka contempt of cop.

Do you ever watch the TV show Cops NC?  I see moving citations that turn into disorderly arrests on there all the time.  And these people weren't doing "anything wrong" other than speeding or some other ticketable affair.  But then they become disorderly, non-cooperative and foul-mouthed with the citing cop in THEIR OWN automobile.  Then then get promptly cuffed and stuffed into a cruiser and hauled off for a mugshot due to their stupidity.

It has nothing to do with race.  For I see it happen to white folks on Cops all the time.

Advice for dealing with the police...  Be curtious, be cooperative ALL the time and you don't get the perp treatment.  Tennants to live by.

[Just Win]

The fact is no one said what was going on in their minds...it is simply an act of kindness and an act of humility. That is all. No need to bash Bush...no need to assume or argue about conservatives or bankers or evil rich people police states or military costs....It is a moment captured in time of two men being very human but in a gentle nice way. A big contrast from the other photo of Gates' being helped off a porch.

Looking back I believe this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion....Obama was the biggest JERK of all in his statement about the police acting "stupid" and this whole beer summit was more about fixing that image than anything else.

We might want to ponder the differences between these two photos, and the thoughts and attitudes they inspire (interesting and humorous to note how both are similar in the fact that Gates is being "helped" off a porch):

dm,
the officer helping the professor down the stairs and the inattention of the potus in this photo speaks volumes. The potus and the professor are allegedly old and close friends yet the photo indicates a somewhat different tale. Also dm, notice how the west wing pr staff have the potus' "brooks brother" pinpoint oxford dress shirt sleeves rolled up “picture perfect” for the obligatory photo-op by the adoring and fawning press corps awaiting nearby. It is sure to be a self-aggrandizing Kodak moment for the potus.

[NCVol]

Wrong he was arrested for being disorderly in PUBLIC.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE MESSING WITH." that is a THREAT! not just a threat but an act picked up a phone calling the police “GET ME THE CHIEF” “WHAT’S THE CHIEF’S NAME.”

Gates was creating a public disturbance with "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public place."

Gates yelled that Crowley "had not heard the last from him." THREAT!

Threatening someone with violence is one thing, but threatening someones image, career, and very livelihood can be even worse, and is still a THREAT. Also NC if I were to tell you YOU did not know who you were messing with, in reference to me, and then stated you hadn't heard the last from me...would you consider that a threat?

Massachusetts General Law G. L. c. 272, § 53, makes disorderly conduct unlawful. Specifically courts have found conduct unlawful where “people could have seen or heard the defendant from any place of public access, such as a nearby sidewalk, publicly used path or road, shopping area or other neighborhood facility." Commonwealth v. Mulvey, 57 Mass. App. Ct. at 584.

You're not really defending the right for a police officer to ARREST someone for asserting his rights as a citizen are you?  It sounds like it.  Last I heard, calling someone's superior is LEGAL, as is filing a lawsuit and any other action contemplated by "you haven't heard the last of me" etc.  and arresting someone for threatening a legal action is exactly what a jack booted thug would do in that circumstance to intimidate the citizen. 

Nice job digging a big hole for yourself.  Especially since Gates alleges that the reason he didn't stop yelling was because the police officer refused to provide him with his name and badge number. 

BTW, he was arrested on his front porch.  And the charges were dropped, didn't survive a day.  It's funny reading defenses of that as "intelligent" police work, since it makes a person come up with defending arrest for someone threatening a legal action. 

[Dementia_Madness]

NO Nc I am DEFENDING a police officers rights an duty to arrest someone for breaking the law. You keep trying to paint this image of boot wearing thugs kicking in gates door, screaming at him and threatening him at gun point with a boot on his neck after he was slammed to the floor. When the truth if far from that fact, even though he was on his own property when he was arrested, he was not IN HIS HOME, and neither should that matter, one is not permitted to break the law on their own property (or in their home) any more than they are off it. If I am murdering or raping someone it does not matter if I am doing it in my home or out on the lawn. If I am causing a PUBLIC disturbance it does not matter if I am at home or not, and if I am doing any of those being white or black, has no bearing on the fact that I would be breaking the law. The amusing thing is that the police were there to ensure that Gate's rights were NOT being taken away by an illegal intruder, and THEY were villainies by Gates, by Obama, and by YOU. The deal here, is Both Crowley and Gates were able to get beyond their initial animosity and at least be cordial to each other...You however do not seem to be willing or able to do even that.

BTW the charges being dropped had NOTHING to do with whether the arrest was valid or not, thousands of charges are dropped against CRIMINALS and GUILTY people every day. It has no relevance to the arrest than OJ's acquittal had to do with whether or not his arrest was valid, Police officers are not Judges, or Juries, or prosecutes...they arrest people, some times they get the right guy and sometimes they do not, we all know that an arrest is not the same as guilt, but NEITHER were Gates claims as to it being because he was BLACK.