From the "Black People Arrest Themselves" files

[The Minsky Moment]

By the time the backups had arrived, Crowley had concluded that gates was the legal resident and that there was no break-in.  That changes nothing about why he might have wanted them earlier.

Sorry doesn't work.  Crowley received whatever ID he received *before* making the call to "keep the cars coming."  He learned nothing new about Gates' status between the time he made that call to radio dispatch and the time the officers arrived.  Thus, if he really believed at the time of the call there was a risk that some other nefarious person might be inside, nothing came to his attention that would have dispelled that belief.  The simplest explanation - and the only one consistent with what actually happened - is that he didn't believe that was true at the time he made the call to dispatch and specifically confirmed the backup because he had decided to escalate the situation.

It is a creative effort, and a nice try at an ex post explanation for behavior that can't be explained, but it just doesn't fit the facts

If Crowley really believed what you are creatively attempting to ascribe to him, he would have told the backups to return to patrol.  There was no need for them, in the "he just decided to be a racist and arrest gates" scenario you have concocted, and many reasons why he would not want such witnesses.

Of course he needed witnesses - that is why he instructed Gates to come outside so that the other officers could witness Gates being angry, thus supplying Crowley with his bogus pretext.

Where did he specifically ask for backups from CPD?

He called dispatch.  He could either tell dispatch to send the cars back home, or to keep them coming.  He chose the latter.

I understand your semantic point here, but it is just that.  Crowley made a choice, and as a consequence of his choice, more officers arrived at the scene.  If he makes a different choice, those officers never come, and the outcome is quite different.

If CPD policy is complaint, Crowley followed that policy.  See, two can play at this game.

Two can play the game, the problem is that you can't demonstrate that the facts provided sufficient cause to arrest under the Mass standards for disorderly conduct.

[The Minsky Moment]

Two different conversations:  The 911 call, and what Whalen said to Crowley.  She could easily have told him something a bit different from what she told the 911 operators.  I think this dog don't hunt.

Except for one big problem: there was only one conversation, because according to Whalen, the only words she ever spoke to Crowley were "I was the 911 caller."

Which means that Crowley fabricated from whole cloth a significant part of his incident report.

Hmm - think I see something bloody in that dog's mouth.   

[The Minsky Moment]

It means absolutely nothing, other than that perhaps Crowley was not as careful as he could have been when writing the report.

It means he fabricated a significant part of it.  And in a very strange way - he invented a statement about "two black men" with "backpacks" when the witness had called dispatch about "two men" with "suitcases".

[Razgovory]

It's odd that many of our more libertarian leaning posters seem so adamant about defending the police.  Police misconduct is so often a favorite issue in those type of circles.

[Eddie Teach]

It means he fabricated a significant part of it.  And in a very strange way - he invented a statement about "two black men" with "backpacks" when the witness had called dispatch about "two men" with "suitcases".

Maybe they were large canvas bags and he saw them and thought "backpack."

[Siege]

It's odd that many of our more libertarian leaning posters seem so adamant about defending the police.  Police misconduct is so often a favorite issue in those type of circles.

Because Gates was like the rich man yelling at the working class cop.
He just happened to be black.

[garbon]

Except for one big problem: there was only one conversation, because according to Whalen, the only words she ever spoke to Crowley were "I was the 911 caller."

Clearly she's lying.

[Neil]

Except for one big problem: there was only one conversation, because according to Whalen, the only words she ever spoke to Crowley were "I was the 911 caller."

Clearly she's lying.

Naturally.

[garbon]

Naturally.

Makes sense that all the citizenry involved would lie while the cop is the sole defender of the truth.

[Neil]

Naturally.

Makes sense that all the citizenry involved would lie while the cop is the sole defender of the truth.

Indeed.  Cops are by and large morally superior to citizens.  Especially race-baiting citizens.

[garbon]

Indeed.  Cops are by and large morally superior to citizens.  Especially race-baiting citizens.

I wonder if Whalen actually saw Gates open his front door using a key.

[CountDeMoney]

Famous Uncle Tom criticizes Gates:

Powell mildly critical of Gates' response
Former secretary of state also says that he has experienced racial profiling
The Associated Press
updated 2:45 a.m. ET, Wed., July 29, 2009

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Barack Obama.

Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, criticized the way Gates dealt with Sgt. James Crowley, a white officer who responded to reports of a possible break-in by arresting the black professor at his home on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was soon dropped.

Gates "might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it," said Powell, one of the nation's most prominent African Americans.

"I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," he said.

But, Powell said, Gates was just home from China and New York and "all he wanted to do was get to bed."

When asked about the incident at a news conference, Obama said the police acted stupidly. The president subsequently toned down his criticism but not his denunciation of racial profiling generally.

I was also victim of profiling, Powell says
Powell said he was the target of racial profiling many times and he sometimes got angry.

On one such occasion, he said, he tried to meet someone at Reagan National Airport "and nobody thought I could be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy."

Asked how he dealt with the situation, Powell said "You just suck it up. What are you going to do?"

"There is no African American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation," Powell said.

But, he said, "when you are faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him. I was taught that as a child.

"You don't argue with a police officer," Powell said.

[grumbler]

That is a tough case.

And I don't think it was really the wrong house - they had a search warrant for both aprtments in the duplex.

It seems entirely possible that Mayes acted "reasonably", but will pay the price anyway - after all, anyone can say they didn't hear the police identify themselves after they shoot one. On the other hand, the entire thing seems like it was fucked up from the get-go by the cops.

The cops said they didn't know the door they were busting down was in a different apartment.  The police who were present but not part of the four-man unit that went into Mayes's apartment heard no calls of "police!"  And Mayes had no motive for shooting any police.  It is pretty clear that the dead cop (who was a K-9 unit cop, along for the ride) fucked up in some pretty major ways, and Mayes is paying the price.

[Siege]

What was Gate doing in China anyway?

Do you think that visit might have had an influence in his reaction?

I can easily see Gates radicalized by chinese anti-american propaganda, while dismissing chinese discrimination against non-han minorities.

[grumbler]

Sorry doesn't work.  Crowley received whatever ID he received *before* making the call to "keep the cars coming."  He learned nothing new about Gates' status between the time he made that call to radio dispatch and the time the officers arrived.

Got a cite on this?  You apparently have much, much more detail on this case than has been in the papaers I have seen.  I assume your source is also where you got the transcript of the conversation between Gates and Crowley, so you should share.

Thus, if he really believed at the time of the call there was a risk that some other nefarious person might be inside, nothing came to his attention that would have dispelled that belief.

I'd like a cite on this, also.

The simplest explanation - and the only one consistent with what actually happened - is that he didn't believe that was true at the time he made the call to dispatch and specifically confirmed the backup because he had decided to escalate the situation.

That is certainly what you have convinced yourself to believe.  Your convictions have no credibility with me, unless you share the sources of the facts that led you to them.  You also don't explain why he wanted witnesses to his decision to escalate, nor why his fellow-officers support his decision to escalate.

It is a creative effort, and a nice try at an ex post explanation for behavior that can't be explained, but it just doesn't fit the facts

Yes, this is true of your creative explanation, as I have pointed out.

Of course he needed witnesses - that is why he instructed Gates to come outside so that the other officers could witness Gates being angry, thus supplying Crowley with his bogus pretext.

There were no other police present when Crowley asked Gates to step outside.  And why would he need more witnesses?

Where did he specifically ask for backups from CPD?

He called dispatch.  He could either tell dispatch to send the cars back home, or to keep them coming.  He chose the latter.

Yo claimed that he had specifically asked for backups from CPD.  When did he do this?  It isn't in the transcript.

I understand your semantic point here, but it is just that.  Crowley made a choice, and as a consequence of his choice, more officers arrived at the scene.  If he makes a different choice, those officers never come, and the outcome is quite different.

So he DIDN'T specifically ask for backups from the CPD, but DID specifically ask for Harvard police.  Why did he ask for Harvard police, f your theory is true? HUP officers would presumably be more inclined to take Gates's side of things, and their presence would complicate Crowley's nefarious plot.

Two can play the game, the problem is that you can't demonstrate that the facts provided sufficient cause to arrest under the Mass standards for disorderly conduct.

I don't need to.  A whole host of authorities on the topic (the CPD police) have weighed in and if you want to claim them wrong, you must provide demonstrate that the facts DID NOT provide sufficient cause to arrest under the Mass standards for disorderly conduct.