From the "Black People Arrest Themselves" files

[CountDeMoney]

I think that depends on how "eminent" the black person is, and how much he can get attention.

Get a room, Dorsey4racism.

Don't even try to be black now.  You haven't the practice.

[garbon]

Don't even try to be black now.  You haven't the practice.

My sister has been staying with me since May.

[CountDeMoney]

Don't even try to be black now.  You haven't the practice.

My sister has been staying with me since May.

:lol:Well, there ya go.  Say hey to all the kids.

[garbon]

:lol:Well, there ya go.  Say hey to all the kids.

Don't worry, she leaves in a week.

[Scipio]

You know, cops do stupid things all the time.

Sometimes, those stupid things will be done around and to a black person.

It's true.

No argument here. Seen it plenty.
Doesn't make it raciss, though.

Stupid Cop Tricks does not equal racism.  It equals fascism.

[CountDeMoney]

Stupid Cop Tricks does not equal racism.  It equals fascism.

That would cover any aspect of the service industries.

[Jaron]

Stupid Cop Tricks does not equal racism.  It equals fascism.

That would cover any aspect of the service industries.

I used to work in the service industries.. !

[derspiess]

Fruit-picking is a service industry now? 

[The Minsky Moment]

But Crowley stated in interviews that Gates first just gave him the Harvard ID.  That is perfectly consistent with his report that Gates appeared to be from Harvard, and his rquest for a Harvard policeman to be dispatched. 

I haven't seen any interview transcripts.  There is no question that Gates gave him a Harvard ID and there is also no question that Crowley was satisfied that Gates was the resident - both facts are confirmed in the incident report.  Thus, the whole issue of the driver's license is a red herring - either Gates gave it, or Crowley concluded it wasn't needed.  My guess is that Gates gave it and that Crowley simply didn't bother to mention it in the report -- he mentioned the Harvard ID because (as you point out) he needed to explain why the uni police were called.  But it doesn't matter either way.

Since you chose to not include the facts that (1) Gates may not have demonstrated that he was the legal resident

That possibility is excluded by the officer's conclusion - based on whatever material was presented - that Gates was the legal resident.

and (2) that Gates refused to say what had happened to the second man reported to be part of the break in (according to Crowley) there is no excuse not to note that a backup was needed.  An unknown additional suspect is bad juju for one cop.  Only an idiot would not ask for the backup to keep coming under the circumstances Crowley relates. 

Except that neither Crowley nor the responding officers acted in way vaguley consistent with that belief.  If Crowley thought there might be an "unknown suspect" lurking about, he either would have undertaken a protective sweep or - as you indicate - call for backup and then undertaken the search.  But of course that never happened because once Crowley realized it was the resident who was in the house -- a realization he reached before confirming that the Cambridge Police should send more cops -- he knew there wasn't a break-in in the first place.  So when the back-up arrives, no attempt is made to secure the residence, because no one thought there was any need.

Put another way, if Crowley really believed what you are creatively attempting to ascribe to him, then he and his fellow officers deliberately and knowingly left the scene of a possible break-in without making any attempt to secure the residence.  It would take even more than an "idiot" to do that.

He specifically asked for Harvard police in the transcript I read.  Are you disputing this?

He specifically asked for BOTH - that is the point your comment is trying to respond to.

I assume that the CPD policy complies with Massachusetts law and Mass constitutional standards for police conduct.  They may be wrong, but it is the basis for my conclusion that Crowley acted properly.

That doesn't follow - if CPD policy is compliant, then Crowley didn't follow that policy.

[The Minsky Moment]

Hey Minsky, here's a good oh-loady-whoa-is-us column for you, what with the Black Man being your muscle:

This is pretty much the poster child story for the Minsky version of events.

I don't need a poster child.  I am not the one inventing spurious ex post motivations.  I am just going by the policeman's own incident report and the dispatch recordings.  Even assuming their accuracy in full, they are damning.

[The Minsky Moment]

for the reasons stated.  and if there was an investigation still to conduct, he didn't conduct it.  He just lured Gates outside and clapped cuffs on him.

  "[J]ust lured Gates outside and clapped cuffs on him."  Classic revisionism in action.  I suppose all of the other cps involved (black and white) supported the story of the warnings prior to arrest because they were sellouts to "the man?"

Only one other officer filed an incident report, and he mentioned no warnings.

So you are going to have to be a little more precise about what you mean by "supported the story".

[The Minsky Moment]

Another very interesting aspect of this incident is the distinction between the witness' report and what Crowley recorded the witness as saying.

What the witness actually said: "Um, well, there were two larger men. One looked kind of Hispanic, but I'm not really sure"

What Crowley wrote in his incident report: "[The witness] went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males . . ."

I point this out because although I have been relying on Crowley's own report to indict his conduct, it is additionally clear that his recollection as memorialized in the report is less than 100% reliable.

I also think it is interesting that Crowley has told "two men" and one "kind of Hispanic" and yet somehow heard (or at least wrote down that he heard) "two black men."  I suppose it is theoretically possible that Whalen orally told Crowley something different from what she told everyone else, but that seems unlikely.

[Caliga]

I noted that also and assumed Crowley misremembered what she'd said.  Probably when he wrote the report he wasn't anticipating that the entire country was going to be reviewing it, so he didn't dwell on the minutiae of it all that much.

[PDH]

I suggest everyone just take a chill pill and relax.

Jesus, does it have to be so hard?

[garbon]

I noted that also and assumed Crowley misremembered what she'd said.  Probably when he wrote the report he wasn't anticipating that the entire country was going to be reviewing it, so he didn't dwell on the minutiae of it all that much.

"Black" and "hispanic, I'm not sure" do sound awfully similar.