Wonkette
- SKIP GATES CLEARED OF CHARGES OF LOUDMOUTHING TO COPS: “Disorderly conduct charges filed against one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars have been dropped, local media reported on Tuesday.” And for all you people who have been saying, “Well maybe Gates was just being an abrasive dick to the police and he should know better,” you are encouraged to read his lawyer’s version of events. [Reuters]
TAHWB. ‘Teaching at Harvard while black.’
“Justice delayed is justice denied!”
*inaudible whispers*
“Never mind.”
Er, nothing to see here. Move-a-long. Move-a-long.
The Wiggums and Barbradys of the world would like to eat their doughnuts in peace, thank you very much.
The officer’s name was Mark Fuhrman, no doubt.
How is this being covered on FOX?
Oh, well, if he says he wasn’t acting like a dick, then it must be true! Afterall, he’s a Harvard Professor!
In 99% of locales and situations, I would TOTALLY believe Gate’s story. But this is the .001% of cases where you have a very professional police force and a highly arrogant Harvard Professor person!
Here’s a video report on the Gates arrest from Boston.com:
http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2009/07/henry-louis-gates-gate.html
Wicked local!
hockeymom:
“Old criminal breaking into house gets what’s coming at hands of the glorious never wrong police. Go get’em boys!!!”
Sad that even an a town as educated as Cambridge the cops are still racists morans. I’m pretty sure the Middlesex district attorney wasn’t looking forward to facing off with Charles Ogletree.
Johnny Zhivago:
” very professional police force”
Nope, not even close. The Cambridge police I’ve seen in action are anything but.
REVERSE RACISM
Fun times over at the Boston Herald where local white boys are certain that letting Gates go means the demise of police security in the greater Boston area.
No wonder new Yorkers think Red Sox fans are a bunch of wimps.
ManchuCandidate: I believe the actual script said “BLACK old BLACK criminal breaking into house gets what’s coming at hands of the glorious NON-BLACK, never wrong, PURE police. Go get’em boys!!!”
Cops just love to arrest people. That’s why they became cops. Once they’ve got it in their head that they’re going to arrest you, the fact of your being totally innocent really pisses them off.
They should get some old school Southies that protested school busing to throw some rocks at random Cambridge cabs.
Men become cops because they have authority issues. They like to dress up in black leather, carry lots of heavy stuff on their belts, talk on radios, drive around in black cars with the A/C on the windows rolled up, and, most important of all, carry guns.
In other words, they have small dicks. That’s why they hate teh Blacks.
story is there was a 911 call… hmm, very interesting… even more interesting may be the audio recording of that call, and the dispatch log… and while we’re at it, the dispatch logs and tapes of the responding officers… not to mention the belt tapes and belt tape transcripts… they do have belt tapes, no? when do we get to stop, look and listen? we’re all abuzz with excitement, let’s see a little more justice here… mach schau! mach schau!
I’m just glad he can return to the butler’s pantry of his boss’s house.
Wait, since when is being an abrasive dick a crime in Massachusetts? Because that is a law that has been dramatically underenforced as far as I can tell.
Fight fiercely, Harvard!
Meanwhile, Al Sharpton sadly puts away his maroon velvet jogging suit and medallion which were last seen during the Tawana Brawley circus.
GDuvall: If it were strictly enforced, Curt Schilling would have been put to death years ago.
V572625694: Cops are like firemen and teachers. They run in families.
I still don’t understand why he was arrested. Being obnoxious is not a crime.
I can only hope nobody hassles poor Al Sharpton. We all know how camera-shy he is.
Even if he was being an abrasive dick in his own home, since when is that illegal? Jeez, I’d be locked up forever if that was the case.
BUT WHAR IS HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!1
Min: True enough; I was exaggerating for comedic effect. A lot of cops are admirable people. But they do tend to weird up on ya when they think they’re not getting sufficient “respect.”
WIDTAP: Wow. I see Louisa Day Hicks still has a strong following.
In fairness to the cops, perhaps this all could have been avoided if Gates wasn’t wearing his ‘after hours’ togs of a skull cap & saggy jeans. Oh wait, he wasn’t? And that would be racial profiling too you say? Oh dear.
It was inevitable. You let the black man get all educationalized and he begins to think he has rights, even in his own home. I’ll bet this “professor” was born in Kenya, or maybe even Africa just like the ol’ abortion-loving “president” he voted for after ACORN granted him fake Merkin citizenship with its gay magic fairy dust.
Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately.
“Hey, it’s Gates on the line, demanding that we do something ‘immediately’ again.”
This seems to be a classic case of two dicks getting in a “who can be the bigger dick” contest, where the guy with the badge and cuffs thinks those items give him the A-A in dick poker when they don’t.
Anyway … thanks for combining with the private pool douchebags in my neck of the woods to set back race relations. Again. Also.
V572625694: Oh, I agree. My father and grandfather were cops, and they focused that suspicious cop mentality on everything. My dating years were not pleasant.
Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty he is free at last!
I’d like to hear Michelle Bachmann’s thoughts on all of this.
norbizness: Win! Schilling is an uber-douche.
Where the professor obviously went wrong was entering through the front door of his mansion instead of through the service entrance. What did he expect? He’s a negro, duh!
Skip Gates is this generation’s Emmett Till.
His agent has been working overtime: Oprah, a book deal, a movie with Samuel L. Jackson (”Snakes at Harvard”). There will be an opera, a ballet, a statuary tribute to Gates’ bravery (Gates looking into the Martha’s Vinyard sunrise while seated on his famous tricycle).
There is money to be made, you betcha! Al and Jesse will soon be moving from the fading Michael Jackson spotlight into the reflected glory of Skip Gates, civil rights martyr.
gjdodger: Oh, man. Does this mean Prof Gates is a renter there up at wealthy, entitled Haaaahvahd?
Screw the whole being black thing, it’s being a renter that gets you no respect.
Lascauxcaveman: Well, it could technically be a perk; the owner is Harvard, it looked pretty nice, and he has some status.
Johnny Zhivago: Are you a cop by any chance. Or married to one?
was he being charged as an uppity negro, or an uppity elitist?
Advocatus_Diaboli: Before assuming the Cambridge police are racist, read the story in yesterday’s Boston Globe (online). You can also find the police report there. I think there was some blame on both sides (Gate and cops, not to mention the busybody woman who started the whole thing). I live in Arlington (next town over from Cambridge), and I think Gates is a pompous ass. Apparently he wouldn’t calm down and immediately pulled the racism card. It would be nice if Harvard would hire some high-quality black professors, but that wouldn’t be very Harvard of them.
yellowdogdem: Oh fer crying out loud. The guy was in his own damn house. Some cop walking in (without a warrant) would tend to annoy the hell out of me, too.
I would just like to point out that the commenting functions on the wickedlocal (ha!) site has some sort of filter that blocks out racial slurs. This is probably EXTREMELY well called for in this case, but it does result in the word “suspicious” being rendered as “su****ious.”
Going through Gatwick pre-9/11, the security guards insisted on x-raying my film.
Me: “I really wish you hadn’t done that.”
Brit Security Guard: “Well, you’re not in America, are you!”
Me: “No, but we also have ass-holes in America.”
Well I hope Prof. Gates learned his lesson not to get all pissed off and hissy the next time cops barge in his house, demand ID and accuse him of trepassing.
jfruh: I guess my mind is cleaner than I thought - I couldn’t figure that one out for the life of me.
If it was spelled “subeanerious” I would have got it.
yellowdogdem: So that’s an arrestable offense? One would think a rational cop were be very embarassed and get the hell out of there asap.
Extemporanus: but now he has a criminal arrest record, right? He could be on the homeland security risk list. Gates needs this record expunged to be set to rights.
If a cop would not give me his badge number in my own house, I would start to be a bit unreasonable too.
WIDTAP: Sorry, this is my third post but those comments on the Hearald. I know it’s been the official organ of the mouth-breathing set in the Boston area for years now, but jeez you think this was the OJ thing.
yellowdogdem: Yes, I’ve read the story and the police report. Interestingly, the second officer’s report seriously undermines the arresting officer’s report on a number of issues regarding the timeline of events. More important, Gates was charged with disorderly conduct for being “loud and tumultuous in a public place.” The incident took place on HIS property, so how does that even make sense? I’m sure many people believe Gates is a pompous ass, but after he provided proof that he had the right to be there, that was the end of the story. As someone else pointed out, sadly, police hate it when they’ve decided to arrest someone who then proves his innocence. I know that from first hand experience, after having one of Boston’s finest plant drugs on me (long story).
Advocatus_Diaboli: There was undoubtedly blame on both sides, and you’re right about the police not liking to be wrong. But Gates just basically went off the deep end and had a hissy fit. Does that mean he should have been arrested? No, he should have been cited for misdemeanor bitchassness.
trickyrick: Obama’s preternaturally ability to politically triangulate in 4 dimensions will once again be on display when Gates takes this all the way to the Supreme Court and Sotomayor casts the deciding vote in favor of expungement.
I once had a crazy roommate in Brooklyn who decided that climbing in the front window was easier than using the key to unlock the door. One day a neighbor called the police to report a robbery in process, and a couple of cops burst into the apartment, guns drawn. I thank god every day they realized I was white, because those Giuliani fuckers would have gunned me down otherwise. Those jerks wouldn’t give me their names either, but one of them was nice enough to tell me it was okay to put my hands down as they had a good laugh on the way out the front door.
yellowdogdem: I saw that he repeatedly asked for Id and badge number from the officer. I am pretty sure police are required to have their badge visible and give that information. And as someone pointed out to you -in case you wouldn’t mind this happening to you- the man was arrested for actions(what- asking for information that is his legal right, being incensed) on his own property after a number of police gathered on his property. We do not live in a police state - and I worry about people like you who think this is acceptable. Your dismissal of Professor Gates’ rights makes me much more suspicious of you than of him.
They better leave the Car Talk guys alone.
yellowdogdem: Nah. White cops hear a black man answer back rather than groveling and they stop being able to think. Check this out (From the NY Daily News May 10th 2008:)
At least one cop has been disciplined for ordering the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed black officer out of his auto while the three-star chief was off-duty and parked in Queens, the Daily News has learned.
“How you can not know or recognize a chief in a department SUV with ID around his neck, I don’t know,” a police source said.
THE LAST LINE BEARS REPEATING. The black man in question was in an official NYPD SUV and was wearing NYPD Id around his neck. White asshole still ordered him out of the car.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/05/10/2008-05-10_plainclothes_officers_in_trouble__didnt_.html
“It would be nice if Harvard would hire some high-quality black professors, but that wouldn’t be very Harvard of them.”
Um…you don’t really know who Gates is, do you?
All the homeland security crap that has filtered down to local police forces since 9/11–both equipment and attitude–reinforced cops acting like tough guys and ramping up response levels for anything.
yellowdogdem: Are you saying that Arlington is four blocks from Cambridge?
The police report says the officer gave his badge # and name twice, Gate’s lawyer says he didn’t. Who here really knows which is true? Our reaction to this says more about our beliefs than it does about the facts of the case.
x111e7thst: “The black man in question was in an official NYPD SUV and was wearing NYPD Id around his neck. White asshole still ordered him out of the car.”
All those black people look alike to white people.
Somebody call the cops! I just saw a black man force his way into the White House! The President could be in danger!
Last night I saw “Teaching Mrs. Tingle” [that Katie Holmes is HOT!] and it’s my bet that some twenty years ago Prof. Gates gave that cop a “C.”
SayItWith Wookies: Ten bucks says President Obama and his family never use the front door!
Yes but what is the connection to Bill Ayers?
They are now filming “Cops” in Cambridge. Bet this incident is included.
“Naughty lads, naughty lads.
What will be your reaction
when they come for you?”
yellowdogdem: Apparently he wouldn’t calm down and immediately pulled the racism card.
I agree with racist liberal. Being handcuffed and accosted by police in front of all your neighbors and colleagues really should be par for the course of any jiggaboo, really.
http://www.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large_652×488_scaled/photos/110032.jpg
And screw anyone who uses the term race card, sans irony. Also.
x111e7thst: No, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!
But seriously, I figured “Cambridge” - so “must have a really professional police department”. Sounds like this may not be the case!!!
ZombieRichardFeynman: Belief and experience. I grew up in NYC and saw the police as somewhat fearsome. Then lived many years in a rural area and saw them as the people who responded to get cats out of trees.
A couple of years back I travelled around Europe on a work project with a co-worker/friend who was an Asian male (coincidentally, a graduate of Harvard Law School). And at every border/customs location, he was hassled and I was waved through (I am a white male). It is a sad, sad thing that prejudices run so deep and just about everywhere.
Yellowdogdem did you read both sides of the story including the police report? Of course you overplayed your hand about your stance on the matter by using “race card.” I’ve come to accept that no one is an empath when it comes to race relations in the world and we are more like sociopaths: Aping behavior we think we lead to the path of least conflict; Of course there are some d-bags chaffing to break this social contract between the races by openly questioning the reason why they can’t be openly racist in public. Well 1. it makes you a jerk, 2. You act like Ofc.Crowley when confronted with someone willing to challenge your dickitude, 3. Paid vacations. I guess the moral of the stories is racism has its upside?
Actually, being an abrasive dick is one of the main qualifications for/privileges of tenure at most institutions of higher learning. However, due to reverse racism this is only required for white men. The requirement is waived for women because nobody wants a department full of bitches. And it is waived for blacks because in many states it is still a crime to be black while being an abrasive dick. Just as it is against the law to be driving while black or residing in upper class neighborhoods while black or standing up for your rights while black.
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/07/21/PH2009072101803.jpg Does this photo put to rest once and for all the fact that he wasn’t arrested on public space? He seems well under the awning of his porch. Goddamn this cop messed up big time. The police report he wrote read like a treasure-trove of children cover-up.
Why all this “blame on both sides” crapolino? Gates was sitting IN HIS OWN HOUSE. In Texas, it would have been within his rights to have SHOT the cop.
Also, the report as written screams of butt-coverage. I know Gates is pompous and silly at times, but do you really believe he’d yell “yo’momma” crap at a cop? At anybody? YO MOMMA? I mean, really. People, get a grip.
If Gates is really an abrasive dick, we’ll have ample evidence of it in the near future, when he sues the balls off the Cambridge PD. What, you mean he’s just accepted the apology and written the whole thing off? So what does that make him?
Ha Ha, Bolshevik Harvard Housing. If he had his own place the door would have worked. Ha Ha. Put the blame where it belongs, the trailing spouse that was put in charge of maintenance. Ha Ha. I bet if Gates was a follower of Booker T Washington, not WEB DuBois he would have been able to fix his own damn door instead of needing the white liberal establishment to fix it for him.
“The police report says the officer gave his badge # and name twice” Stupid police spend all their money on pensions but not business cards. Ha Ha. Cool would be if cops had business cards shaped like their badges.
Paul Tardy: Business cards for the cops to hand over in such circumstances! Bingo! Dunno why that never occurred to this moran. Come to think of it, I just discovered The Wire and am half a dozen episodes in. The homicide detectives are leaving their business cards all over the place; occasionally reminiscent of the 82′d leaving the Ace of Spades on VC bodies. So is this a requirement for at least some police departments?
SayItWithWookies: ROTFLMAO! AHAHAHA!! I’ve been comedically slain.
Now, let me get serious, for a moment. It is the very job of law enforcement to deal thoughtfully with dickish behavior. It is their very job to be the adult in the room even when the other party refuses to be. That’s their only job; it’s all that we ask them to do. That the police come into contact with dicks is a given; the only thing we ever demand of them is to not be a dick, in kind.
I don’t care if the guy on the other end was Spencer-fucking-Pratt. I don’t even care if Gates willfully crapped his pants so that they officers would have to smell it. The police completely and utterly abused their power in this situation. You can take out the racism accusation, entirely, and the cops managed to out-dick the dick in the room.
BTW, whoever correctly guesses the number of times I used dick in the above tirade gets a complimentary bag of assorted dicks.
LoweredPeninsula: You’re a madman wong burger
Can anyone in America tell me why Al Sharpton, that very strange and non-credentialed weirdo, has to crawl out of his “black” box whenever a person of color (the more famous, the better for Sharpton) is charged with a crime? I think he only makes matters worse when he goes all politico in these things, and besides, who in their right mind (or black mind) would want such an inarticulate clown speaking on their behalf? Sharpton is the biggest joke since Rush Limbaugh. They both turn otherwise serious events into media circus shows. Can’t they find legitimate work to do?
saysun: “black” box.
How fucking classing. You last two are total assholes.