Breaking into your own home + show proof of ownership + arrested by police = police stupidity
PDF Copy of police report
Crooks and Liars:
Police have dropped charges against a famed Harvard professor. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested for disorderly conduct after he was seen breaking into his own house.
Gates' attorney doesn't believe that the professor was guilty of disorderly conduct. Professor Charles Ogletree told CNN's Kiran Chetry and John Roberts that the professor suspected race was an issue in his arrest.
According to Ogletree, Gates' told police, "I live here, why are you doing this to me? I told you this is my house, I gave you my I.D. and I'm the owner of the home." Gates charged that the police would not have treated a white man in the same way. "You're doing this because I'm an African-American and you're a white police officer? This makes no sense for you to question me like this in my home."
But when Gates stepped out of the house to talk to police they arrested him.
"He was very frustrated, there's no question about that, but belligerent is not the case. He never touched the officer, never pointed at the officer and in fact, he was trying to stay in his house having produced identification saying what more do I need to do," said Ogletree.
Here is Obama's take:
Obama: If I Tried to Break Into the White House, I'd Get Shot
2 comments:
President Obama really should stop trying to make jokes. They are not funny enough and end up getting him into hot water.
Dr. Gates was probably a little cranky from his trip from China and being sick, which did not help. On a full night of sleep, this probably never would have happened.
"Dr. Gates was probably a little cranky from his trip from China and being sick"
Kittybowtie,
You have to listen to Gates' side of story. I heard his side of the story on mp3 on the state's newspaper as well as read the police report. Gates ask for the officer's badge number several times and the officer refuse to provide that for him. But, let's face, an ID of his residence? The officer went too far in this case.
As far as Obama's joke, Obama should have left his opinions about the Gates' case alone as this is still an on-going investigation. By the way, Cambridge is a very prominent area in Massachusetts where there are not lot of African-American. Despite Obama's joke, he was right about the high rise of racial profiling in this country no matter how much people want to deny that factor.
But according to Gates' interview, his wife is white and this children are bi-racial. And he talks about having white in his heritage. But regardless of what happen that night with Gates and the officer by the police dropping the charges, that simply means that the police department doesn't want to admit that they were wrong about the situation.
This situation is a very touchy subject as the police department is tarnish from this matter as the man that is in the spotlight is a prominent professor and not an every day Joe.
Post a Comment