From the "Black People Arrest Themselves" files

[Sheilbh]

All true, but none of it relevant.  Gates was not arrested because the police felt threatened by him.  He was arrested because he was disturbing the peace (being 'tumultuous,' if you will).

Iif he was threatening it would be a necessary arrest, because he wasn't it wasn't.

[CountDeMoney]

Interesting, but also off the topic.  Gates wasn't arrested for threatening a police officer, and frankly there were enough cops on the scene by the time of the arrest that it would be hard to argue that Gates was threatening any of them.

EVERYONE IS A THREAT. ESPECIALLY BLACK PEOPLE WITH CANES
THEYRE WEAPONS YOU KNOW

[grumbler]

The officer asked Gates to accompany him outside.

Long befoe the arrest, and Gates refused, so the officer took the information inside.

No, because he was being asked to identify himself in his own house.  That would piss off anyone.

Inside his own house with a non-functional front door that he and his driver had just busted open.  No reasonable person would deny that circumstances were suspicious, and no reasonable person would be angered by the police verifying that they were not there to rob the house (and maybe harm the actual residents).  You may be unreasonable, and Gates certainly was, but "anyone" would not be.

First of all the situation wasn't going to get any worse and the arrest wasn't necessary.  So I think on that it's wrong and more because of the officer's pride (understandably) than anything else.

I understand that you think it unnecessary, though you provide no good reason why Gates should be exempt from the law, and while your mind-reading exercise is, I am sure, compelling to you, it leaves me un-moved.

You're right I mischaracterised, sorry I read shoddily.  What the officer said was that he was leaving and if Gates had any further questions he could follow him out.  That's fine.  But why didn't he leave?

He didn't leave because Gates proceded to violate the law (not a very good law, IMO, but that's neither here nor there).  The better questions ares:  why did Gates follow the officer out of the house? And why did he not stop disturbing the peace when he was informed (twice!) in no uncertain terms that he would be arrested if he persisted?  There is the mind-reading exercise that would be revealing.

I think it was understandably an issue of honour.  I think, given his background, he probably felt a great deal of pride in not being a 'racist cop'.  So when he was called one for him to walk away would have been to accept what Gates had said, that he was a 'racist cop'.  I think that the guy has been more than punished by the press on his door and I feel very sorry for them.

Perhaps, but again this is mind-reading.  I can only evaluate and comment knowledgeably on what we have been informed about what happened, and I cannot see why the officer is being made the bad guy here.  Gates gets zero sympathy from me, while the officer may have been guilty of misjudgment, i certainly don't asume that from the start.  We don't know enough about the policies he was being ordered to enforce.

What should have happened after this wrong, unnecessary arrest, was that the charges were dropped and both could hopefully talk it over.  That didn't because Gates was a well-known, well-connected Harvard scholar and after the arrest he's been in control and I think it's very sad that it's become this big a story.  But fundamentally I think that's the issue over all others: neither man could back down.

You assume the officer could back down, when we don't know that (and we have no evidence at all that the arrest was "wrong").  We do know that Gates could have stayed in his house and none of this would have happened.

But I agree that it is absurd that we are still debating this story when it was all a big nothing.

[grumbler]

Iif he was threatening it would be a necessary arrest, because he wasn't it wasn't.

First part true, second part mere supposition.  This is the fallacy of the false choice.

[Caliga]

The biggest non-event ever continues to have legs: The Boston Globe is reporting that Obama called both Crowley and Gates today and all three agreed to meet at the White House. 

I predict Obama is going to force them to shake hands Clinton-Arafat-Sharon style and declare that he's solved America's racism problem.

[Fate]

Obama has tempered his remarks about this situation. We now know that Obama has spoken with Sgt. Crowley and pronounced him a "good man." The whole thrust of Obama's remarks and appearance speak to his fear that this incident was getting way, way too dangerous for him. The remarks from him went on to suggest that he hoped that his actions at this point would "tamp down the rhetoric" on this subject and instead make it a "teaching moment where we learn to listen to one another better."

Obama's an incompetent hypocrite with delusions of grandeur. Who do you suppose will be the last one to capitulate to the realization that Barrack Obama is heading to the elevated position of "Proven totally incompetent in 6 short months as POTUS"—his supporters, the MSM (same, I know) or Obama himself? I'm betting Obama, but it's a close run thing as his true believers (I'm looking at you, Minksy) are as delusional as he is.

[Jaron]

Obama has tempered his remarks about this situation. We now know that Obama has spoken with Sgt. Crowley and pronounced him a "good man." The whole thrust of Obama's remarks and appearance speak to his fear that this incident was getting way, way too dangerous for him. The remarks from him went on to suggest that he hoped that his actions at this point would "tamp down the rhetoric" on this subject and instead make it a "teaching moment where we learn to listen to one another better."

Obama's an incompetent hypocrite with delusions of grandeur. Who do you suppose will be the last one to capitulate to the realization that Barrack Obama is heading to the elevated position of "Proven totally incompetent in 6 short months as POTUS"—his supporters, the MSM (same, I know) or Obama himself? I'm betting Obama, but it's a close run thing as his true believers (I'm looking at you, Minksy) are as delusional as he is.

Glad I voted for McCain.

[Fate]

Obama has tempered his remarks about this situation. We now know that Obama has spoken with Sgt. Crowley and pronounced him a "good man." The whole thrust of Obama's remarks and appearance speak to his fear that this incident was getting way, way too dangerous for him. The remarks from him went on to suggest that he hoped that his actions at this point would "tamp down the rhetoric" on this subject and instead make it a "teaching moment where we learn to listen to one another better."

Obama's an incompetent hypocrite with delusions of grandeur. Who do you suppose will be the last one to capitulate to the realization that Barrack Obama is heading to the elevated position of "Proven totally incompetent in 6 short months as POTUS"—his supporters, the MSM (same, I know) or Obama himself? I'm betting Obama, but it's a close run thing as his true believers (I'm looking at you, Minksy) are as delusional as he is.

Glad I voted for McCain.

As am I. We have Berkut and Grumbler to blame for putting this monstrosity in the White House. When will these liberals learn? Crowley's blood is on their hands.

[Darth Wagtaros]

You left out ussdefiant Fate.  He's been an OBamazombie for over a year.

[MadImmortalMan]

Obama has tempered his remarks about this situation. We now know that Obama has spoken with Sgt. Crowley and pronounced him a "good man." The whole thrust of Obama's remarks and appearance speak to his fear that this incident was getting way, way too dangerous for him. The remarks from him went on to suggest that he hoped that his actions at this point would "tamp down the rhetoric" on this subject and instead make it a "teaching moment where we learn to listen to one another better."

Obama's an incompetent hypocrite with delusions of grandeur. Who do you suppose will be the last one to capitulate to the realization that Barrack Obama is heading to the elevated position of "Proven totally incompetent in 6 short months as POTUS"—his supporters, the MSM (same, I know) or Obama himself? I'm betting Obama, but it's a close run thing as his true believers (I'm looking at you, Minksy) are as delusional as he is.

Did Fate revert to the other personality again, or did he just forget to log back in as Hansy before posting?

[grumbler]

Did Fate revert to the other personality again, or did he just forget to log back in as Hansy before posting?

Is there some element to his trolls that seems different to you?  He seems the same as always to me.  Whatever position is best for trolling is his position.

If people stop responding to his trolls again, he will go away again.  It is very simple.

[derspiess]

The biggest non-event ever continues to have legs: The Boston Globe is reporting that Obama called both Crowley and Gates today and all three agreed to meet at the White House. 

I predict Obama is going to force them to shake hands Clinton-Arafat-Sharon style and declare that he's solved America's racism problem.

Or it could continue to hilariously blow up in his face

[Savonarola]

And like an episode of the Brady Bunch things go back to the way they were at the beginning after a short time:

Gates says it's time to 'move on' from his arrest
Russell Contreras / Associated Press
Boston -- Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he's ready to move on from his arrest by a white police officer, hoping to use the encounter to improve fairness in the criminal justice system and saying "in the end, this is not about me at all."

After a phone call from President Barack Obama urging calm in the aftermath of his arrest last week, Gates said he would accept Obama's invitation to the White House for a beer with him and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley.

In a statement posted Friday on The Root, a Web site Gates oversees, the scholar said he told Obama he'd be happy to meet with Crowley, whom Gates had accused of racial profiling.

"I told the president that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative," Gates said. "I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sergeant Crowley for a beer with the president will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."

It was a marked change in tone for Gates, who in the days following his arrest gathered up his legal team and said he was contemplating a lawsuit. He even vowed to make a documentary on his arrest to tie into a larger project about racial profiling.

In an e-mail to the Boston Globe late Friday, he said: "It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience."

In a statement to The Associated Press, Gates promised to do all he could so others could learn from his arrest.

"This could and should be a profound teaching moment in the history of race relations in America," Gates said. "I sincerely hope that the Cambridge police department will choose to work with me toward that goal."

Gates, 58, did not say in his statement if he planned to file a lawsuit.

Crowley did not return a telephone message seeking comment Saturday.

The outcry began Monday, when word broke that Gates had been arrested five days earlier at the two-story home he rents from Harvard.

Supporters called the arrest an outrageous act of racial profiling. Public interest increased when a photograph surfaced of the handcuffed Gates being escorted off his porch amid three officers.

Cambridge police moved to drop the disorderly conduct charge on Tuesday -- without apology, but calling the case "regrettable."

Obama, who had said Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates, sought to tamp down the uproar Friday. He spoke to Crowley and Gates during separate telephone calls and declared that Crowley was a good man.

Obama invited the officer and the professor to the White House for a beer. He conceded his words had been ill-chosen, but he stopped short of a public apology.

A trio of Massachusetts police unions released a joint statement shortly after Obama's latest comments, saying Crowley had a friendly and meaningful conversation with the president.

"We appreciate his sincere interest and willingness to reconsider his remarks about the Cambridge Police Department," according to the statement. "It is clear to us from this conversation, that the President respects police officers and the often difficult and dangerous situations we face on a daily basis."

Gates added that he hoped his arrest would lead to a greater understanding about racial profiling in America.

"If my experience leads to the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying," Gates said on The Root. "Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law' is a lived reality."

And, like a good family sitcom episode, we all learned a valuable lesson at the end of the episode.  We learned something profound about race relations and how equal justice before the law is for everyone. 

[CountDeMoney]

"This could and should be a profound teaching moment in the history of race relations in America," Gates said. "I sincerely hope that the Cambridge police department will choose to work with me toward that goal."

"At least he got arrested for a good cause."
"What cause is that?"
"Race Relations?"
"You'd better flush out your head, new guy. This isn't about race relations; this is a race riot. If I'm gonna get arrested for a word, my word is "Rodney King"".

[Ed Anger]

I hate the phrase "teaching moment". Fuck that shit, I ain't doing any homework.