Gates Got Arrested Because He Hurt Sgt. Crowley's Feelings?!

The arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates is an example of poor police work, to be charitable, and the vestiges of racial relationships between black and white men. The police officer, after having been presented with two valid identification cards demonstrating who Gates was and where he lived, should have simply moved on. He didn't. According to the first-person account I read on The Root, the officer didn't do that, ignored reasonable requests by Gates, and was joined by numerous police officers for backup. Gates, likely tired after a long flight from China only to be greeted by a front door that was disabled in what may have been an attempted break-in, was likely offended that the officer didn't immediately bring the matter to a close. As a black man, I've been there and can easily believe that the officer thought Gates was insufficiently deferential and was looking to knock the professor down a peg or two.

Gates' commentary during the incident didn't help and I'm willing to bet that he may, at some point, regret some of what he said. But the reality is: once the officer confirmed Gates' identification and address, then the officer should have ended the situation. Ultimately, Gates got arrested because he hurt Sgt. Crowley's feelings. That won't hold up in any court of law. And prosecutors declined to prosecute because they knew the arrest was complete garbage.

I think it's folly to ignore the history of race in the interaction between some white men and some black men. From calling grown men "boy" to the well-documented cases of race-based violence, upstanding black men are not willing to accept the behavior exhibited by that police officer. For every Henry Louis Gates, with resources, notoriety, and connections, there are countless others like him who have to live in anonymity with the reality of racism and racial profiling. We don't need hypersensitive cops who didn't like the fact that a black man stood up and required respect and professionalism. Professionalism should have prevailed. Now, the Cambridge police force will pay in the form of a damaged reputation and, perhaps, even monetarily too. All because one officer got mad because his feelings were hurt.

Now, President Obama is turning the White House into the hottest Happy Hour spot in D.C. Thursday. I live about a mile from the White House. Maybe I'll take a six-pack of cold Sam Adams and see if they'll let me in!

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of Republicans and the Black Vote. He blogs at: MichaelFauntroy.com.

Follow Michael Fauntroy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MikeFauntroy

Comments

[dhinds]

Officer Crowley's report states he was the first to arrive, driving an unmarked car.

Does anyone here know whether he was or wasn't in uniform?

If not, that would explain Professor Gates insistence that Crowley identify himself and refusal to step outside, initially.

[JimR]

According to the police report, Sgt. Crowley was in uniform and identified himself as he was standing outside the door.

[Armorbeast]

He turned his back to me and turned back to the porch. And I followed him. I kept saying, “I want your name, and I want your badge number.”

It looked like an ocean of police had gathered on my front porch. There were probably half a dozen police officers at this point. The mistake I made was I stepped onto the front porch and asked one of his colleagues for his name and badge number. And when I did, the same officer said, ‘Thank you for accommodating our request. You are under arrest.

Michael, you need to put on your glasses. He said Crowley turned back to the porch and left. Gates then steps on on the porch to ask "one of his colleagues" for the officers name and badge number. Gates also says very clearly that he was trying to read Crowleys mind about what he must be thinking while also admitting he knew he "was in danger" from other thoughts in his own head. Crowley did nothing wrong and Gates own statements do not say he did except raising his voice and saying something Gate was offended by when Crowley first spoke to him. everything else... his own words say were made up in the mind of Henry gates and at no time does he say Crowley did anything racist or unlawful.

[dhinds]

Except entering the house without permission, refusing to provide his name and badge number and concocting a pretext to arrest Professor Gates.

[dhinds]

"Crowley did nothing wrong"

Entering the house w/o permission;

Refusing too provide identification;

Falsifying a Police Report; and

Arresting the homes legal occupant with no just cause;

"at no time does he say Crowley did anything racist or unlawful."

He'll say it in court, if he decides to do so. (I hope he does).

[LeftRight]

Crowley did nothing wrong??? You mean OTHER than arresting Gates for a non-crime at a location where it wouldn't have been a crime even if he HAD a leg to stand on???

[mamak]

yup the liar Crowley got his feelings hurt. If only he did not embelish and lie in his police report, I would still have some modicum of respect for that guy.....but nope now he truly is an arshule.

A Police with an attitude.

[JimR]

Gates lied. He said that he didn't yell, that he couldn't yell because he had bronchitis. But a witness outside the home clearly heard Gates yelling on the front porch.

What else did Gates lie about?

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20143900/detail.html

[LeftRight]

I'm not saying that Gates was entirely correct, but it doesn't MATTER that he was yelling at the officers! The fact of the matter is that he was arrested at his OWN HOME for a non-crime! If you're on your property, there is no disturbing the peace of any other such crime!

[Edmonsky]

It is regrettable that some commentators, including blacks and whites, are engaging in moral equivalence argument - that Prof. Gate was discourteous to Officer Crowley; hence, the arrest and handcuff. This argumentation extrapolated from police report authored and published by Sgt. Crowley. However, and since Lucia Whalen has categorically contracted a critical aspect of the police report, that she “two black men with backpacks” entering Gate’s house, the aforementioned argument is no more tenable.

Prof. Gates has stated in earlier interview that officer Crowley demanded two photo ids and when he went to his kitchen area to get them, Sgt Crowley opened his front door and followed him without permission. Gates was incensed and felt his rights were violated; he reached for his cell phone to alert a third-party about the behavior of officer Crowley. Based on what Gates was saying to the person on the other end, Sgt. Crowley felt disrespected and decided to arrest him by luring him outside to his porch.

[dhinds]

An accurate description except for one point: You are *assuming* that Gates was "incensed" (a loaded term). Gates was aware that his rights were being violated and _insisted_ on making them valid, which Crowely decided to thwart via illegal means (entrapment and faslifying his account of events).

[JimR]

Gates said he wasn't yelling, that he couldn't yell because he had contracted bronchitis. But a witness outside the house said he heard Gates yelling on the porch, and described him as "agitated" and "slightly out of control."

So we know Gates lied. I wonder what else he lied about?

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20143900/detail.html

[dhinds]

""agitated" and "slightly out of control.""

Does not a criminal offence make.

Why do continue to misrepresent the character of the professors behavior?

Whose axe are you trying to grind?

Hopefully, this WILL go to court - although (unfortunately), I doubt it will happen.

[taxman007]

Hold it, chasing a police officer down to continue to inslut him all the way to your front stoop is breaking the law. The moment he went outside to his front stoop then he was disturbing the peace. Now what makes you think that if you are in your home making loud noises at 2am that the police can't put a stop to it? You are disturbing the peace and when they show up and find that you are commenting another crime they can arrest you for it. It is lawful and you have no right to keep your neighbors awake at 2 am. You certainly have no right to chase the police down and insult them.

[dhinds]

"The moment he went outside to his front stoop then he was disturbing the peace."

Not according the Massachussets Criminal Code and the crime Gates was charged with wasn't Distrubing the Peace.

"Now what makes you think that if you are in your home making loud noises at 2am that the police can't put a stop to it?"

Professor Gates home had been invaded by Officer Crowley, who entered with the home without permission and no search warrant.

Crowely refused to identify himself and enticed Gates outside, where he could slap a bogus sharge of Disorderly Conduct on him, as he had done so many times before to others that questioned his authority, an authority that he evidently ABUSES habitually.

"It is lawful and you have no right to keep your neighbors awake at 2 am. You certainly have no right to chase the police down and insult them."

You're delusioning - none of that happened.

[JimR]

He was charged with disorderly conduct, which includes disturbing the peace as one of its definitions.

[NOLAMoCity]

Your post is so wrong on so many levels! Your choice of sensationalizing the facts to suiut YOUR fabricated scenario is very telling. The use of the word 'chasing' doesn't really help your argument, and NO, insulting a police officer is not against the law. Do not attempt quoting the law if you don't know it. The moment he was on his front stoop, Professor Gates was still on his own private property AFTER having identified himself as the legal owner of the property. It should have been over! It was not 2AM. Adding that inaccurate bit of information is as bad as the police report indicating that two Black men with backpacks were attempting to gain entry. It is a lie inserted to help justify Officer Crowley's inappropriate actions. And finally, I guess the fact make no difference to you. You have created your own fact, stretched the truth, and apparently don't care about what really happened. You may be a racist. Maube.

[dhinds]

"You are a racist. Maybe"

Or a cop. IAC, he/she posseses military mentality and subscribes to implementing a police state.

[SethBLiNK]

Can you see your own bias, Professor Fauntroy?

You're giving Gates slack due to be tired and upset about his door being jimmied. But you make no such assumptions on behalf of Sgt. Crowley. There are reasons why a world reknowned scholar returning from a trip to China might be out of sorts, but not a police officer who spent a day dealing with who-knows-what and has now shown up at the scene of a disturbance only to be berated.

I'm not excusing the Sgt.'s actions. I'm still not sure exactly what the Sgt. did or what Gates did. Accounts vary. i just think if you are going to make so many allowances for Gates, why not for Crowley? Cultural history matters, but it is not the only thing that matters. We're all adults who still need to conduct ourselves with a modicum of respect and decorum.

[dhinds]

"if you are going to make so many allowances for Gates, why not for Crowley? "

Only one went to jail, while the other committed the crime.

[WebForce1]

O.K. we get it, you beat that into the ground but here's what you're missing. Charges dismissed are not equal to winning a case. You assume a jury has found him innocent or a jury has found Crowley guilty of false arrest. Neither have happened. So you saying over and over that Crowley broke the law is incorrect. You beleive that's what happened, but based on your statements you are willing to beleive anything that exhonorates a black man and makes the white man the bad guy. You have a racially biased view that prevents you from taking any one incident and looking subjectively at it. Every time the black man is innocent and the white man is evil. There, I've covered every future controversey for you. You needn't bother chiming in again.

[LeftRight]

I excuse Professor Gates because he was not the one in authority here. Had he reacted that way in a class he was teaching, I would be berating him. Sgt Crowley might have had a REALLY crappy day with THOUSANDS of people yelling at him, but that doesn't excuse his actions ON THE JOB!!!!!!

Arresting Gates for a non-crime while he was on his own property is just plain inexcusable!

[JimR]

Gates had more control over the situation than you think. He had control over his own behaviors and actions. Had he acted calmly and rationally, none of this would have happened.

[WebForce1]

Everyone keeps beating the same two drums over and over again. If you side with Crowley you will make the case for lawful arrest. I looked up the disorderly conduct law for MA and it doesn't support this arrest. That does not mean it was an unlawful or false arrest. Arrests are made all the time that end up being dismissed by prosecutors for lack of evidence. One does not necessarily equal the other.
If you are siding with Gates you will maintain that he was in his home, no law was broken and Crowley is probably lying about the entire thing. This seems very unlikely to any reasonable person keeping an honost and open mind. This wasn't a call where the officer and the professor would have been on opposite sides. No one had called the police on Professor Gates for disturbing the peace and Crowley was there to confront him about his behavior. In this case, Officer Crowley and Professor Gates should have been on the same side.
So what precipitated the hostilities? If you don't beleive that Professor Gates was hostile and un-cooperative as Officer Crowley asserts, then you have to beleive some imaginative (and racially paranoid) scenario where after discovering there is no burglary, and establishing Gates identity, Officer Crowley decides to demonstrate racist and vindictive behavior outside of what he has displayed throughout his career.
Gates instigated, Crowley responded. Arrest was not supported in law, story given by officer is likely to be true.

[robXdion]

The cops of today are reflective of the society they come from.

[dhinds]

A country that invades other sovereign nations without just cause;

A country with no Agrarian Reform Laws:

A country with Capital Punishment;

A country with no Universal Health Care option;

A country that refused to sign the Kyoto Climate Change Protocols;

A country that refused to ratify the Cartagena Protocols on Biodiversity;

A country that refused to sign the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of the International labor Organization;

A country in which corporate interests maniplate public policy and the electoral process;

A country whose President is not elected by direct popular vote;

A country that spies on it's citizens and holds prisoners indefinately with no due process.

[GreatNews27]

Give Crowley a medal. He just proved that police can come into your home and drag you to jail for any reason whatsoever. Welcome to Barak Obama's New and Improved Corporate Police States of America.

Support the Blue - Taze Yourself.

[JustinAddison]

I think it was mostly the disorderly conduct that did him in, more so than any other factor.

[dhinds]

Disorderly Conduct requires a public setting. Gates was arrested as soon as he came outside.

This was a clear case of entrapment and false, unjustifiable arrest.

[LeftRight]

It's also not public when you're still on your property. Since he was on the front porch, that most definitely qualifies.

[tdpubs]

The perspective of most who follow this story is going to be solidly emotional. Those who have the experience of facing authority and having to be deferential whether right or wrong will see the situation from one perspective while those who have never been threatened by that authority will see it another way.

I liken it to the white ladies who would tense up when young black men would pass by. They may or may not have ever been assaulted by young black men but the emotional response has been transferred to them through anecdotal evidence. Television plays a big part in this narrative. It is evident in the attitudes of immigrants who have developed bigoted attitudes by proxy.

I closely watched the reactions of people of color and people who are Caucasian in regard to this story and its pretty obvious who have had issues with police authority and who have no issues with them. That emotional divide crosses race, political party and sex.

[gopgoingdown]

As I seen on your tube, always carry a "camcorder" , then you have proof!

[gopgoingdown]

As I seen on Your Tube, always carry a "camcorder", then if anything comes up, you have proof!

[Citizen-Jane]

Rodney King had proof and still...........

[DesertDogAlpha]

You know it! I live in a major urban area and one of my (white) neighbors was recently arrested by a (black) cop - just because she started yelling at him about not even knowing who is father was (who's your daddy - do you even know?) when he ignored her aggressive requests for more aggressive policing after the third mugging (by a pair of blacks with a knife and pistol, BTW) in our neighborhood in less than a month. All she did was hurt his feelings and the policeman got angry and took her away in cuffs. The charges were dropped a few days later. What's that all about?

[Citizen-Jane]

If she was yelling in her home in the state of Mass. She violate no law then yes the officer like officer Crowley arrested this women because his feelings were hurt. More importantly is that Officer Crowley
falsified his police report. Again Officer Crowley falsified his police report and he should be disciplined for it. (Fired)

Telling on the black cop to justify the action of a white cop, as if the say, "He did too and he was black" Wah wah wah wrong is wrong and your argument is desperate.

Office Crowley is a less than stellar cop, and Professor Gates, even if he said words that would make a sailor blush, was in his home and he violated no- N O Mass law.

Officer Crowley is solely responsible for this mess.

[JimR]

He did not "falsify" anything. Did he get a few details wrong? Yes. But there is nothing in his exemplary record to indicate he has ever done anything other than by the book, no history or racial bias, no history of acting improperly in any way. So your contention is Crowley woke up one day and decided to become a racist and to falsify police reports?

Gates is solely responsible for the escalation of this incident by being uncooperative, combative and abusive to an officer who was simply checking on the security of his home. "I'll speak with your momma, outside?" That says a lot right there.

[WebForce1]

You and your neighbor know what I and my neighbors know and that is that things swing both ways in real life, and if you are white and live with or among black people more often than not they are perpetrators and not victims. This isn't just a white position. There are an awful lot of hispanics who will say the same thing.
A lot of the people on here are black or they are white people from rural areas who have only passing relations with black people if at all. So they sit up in their lovely homes in their crime free sub-urbs and lament the suffering of black people. They're experts at both explaining racial injustice in the inner city and making sure not to live in or send their children to school in the inner city.

[JimR]

Poll: Most blame Gates, or both Gates and Crowley

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/29/wsjnbc-poll-whos-at-fault-in-gates-arrest/

[WebForce1]

That's because while many people feel the police do mis use their authority sometimes to arrest people who talk back. No one can see any reason (other than the obvious racial disposition of Professor Gates) that there was any reason to start a fight with an officer who was coming to defend Professor Gates and his home.
You could see a case where it started from a traffic stop, but Crowley was there to assist the homeowner not issue a citation or in any way adversely affect Professor Gates.

[Citizen-Jane]

It doesn't matter who the people on this poll blames. No Mass. Law was broken and Officer
Crowley abused his power.


Officer Crowley falsified a police report and deserves disciplinary action. And Officer Crowley was the professional at the scene.

[Citizen-Jane]

It does not matter who the public blames for the arrest. Professor Gates Violated no Mass. Law.
Officer Crowley, meanwhile, falsified a police report. Fact. And Officer Crowley was the professional at the scene. He made up events to justify his actions. Read the report. "two black men with back packs."

Officer Crowley deserves disciplinary action. And he owes Pofessor Gates an apology.

The Cambrigde Police department should be sued. To keep their minds and feelings of being "disgraced" with President Obama back on to the matter at hand. A seasoned veteran, exemplinary, Cambridge police officer made up a report to justify his action. They should feel "embarrassed".

[Citizen-Jane]

Again it does not matter what the public thinks. Professor Gates violated no Mass Law.

Meanwhile Officer Crowley falsified a police report and disgraced the Cambridge Police Department for behaving stupidly.

Officer Crowley was the professional at the scene. He falsified his report to justify his action.

Officer Crowley deserves disciplinary action and the Cambridge police department needs to be sued.

A season, veteran, exempliary, Cambrige police officer falsified a report and they should be "embarrassed."

[JimR]

It is against the law to create a public disturbance on your street, even if you are standing on your own front porch. It's a minor infraction, but still against the law. Gates got his Harvard friends to put pressure on the cops and got the charges dropped. Hey, good for him. I'm sure he's been able to get out of some speeding tickets, too.