I didn't want to get into this but as President Obama (admittedly a friend of Skip Gates) just stated that the police acted stupidly and went on about racism in this country, I must say that there are a lot of people of all races that are ignorant of the experiences of the other. I think the police officer acted the same way police will always act towards anyone not complying and shouting abuse at them.

No one denies that everyone has their prejudices and there are hard-core racists even, if not more so among police. But the issue of race is only polarized when it is exaggerated in an incident like this. What about class prejudice that is rampant and unremarked in this country? If Skip Gates was not Prfessor Gates (regardless of his race) he'd probably still be in jail.How does this officer or his family feel when not only Professor Gates, but the press and even the POTUS is calling him racist who acted stupidly?

I did not read the police report till its end, but it clearly states that Gates was found in his own home, and while being a bit of a testy asshole, produced an identification, picture ID of a Harvard faculty.

Then policeman rather than being sorry for misunderstanding called Harvard police to verify, which to me was just an annoying manouver. Sometimes when a policeman cannot pin anything on you then he tries to waste your time. So I did not read how the policeman managed to bring Gates out of the house to make his behavior a PUBLIC nuisance that "startled two pedestrians" (horror!) but it seems to me that both sides went out of their way to annoy the other.

In my opinion, the professional behavior on the side of police would be to finish the investigation as soon as it was clear that no burglary is in progress.

Nevertheless, it would help if Gates learned that white and Indian professors can get annoying treatment from police as well. (Hikers follow a fence with KEEP OUT sign, a policeman comes, informs that entire area near the fence is closed to public, takes drivers licenses and faculty IDs, and then vanishes for 30 minutes to "verify".)

My final conclusion: certain important people, and certain police officers, occasionally exhibit behavior "do you know that I can screw you?". And in the example at hand, Gates was an asshole as a private citizen (who happened to be sick, tied, and in his own "castle"), while the policeman was an asshole "under the color of authority".

In particular, I see no beneficial general purpose policy that would advocate the arrest.

Advantage: Gates.

Gates was in his home. He was Constitutionally protected. Gates says he has no problem with his neighbor calling police. Gates' problem is with the police. The officer states that Gates "appeared to be" the owner of the home. The maintenance crew ID'ed Gates. Gates was on the phone asking someone to get in touch with the chief of police. Gates knew from a legal standoint that once he crossed the threshold of his home, that there was a possiblity that he could be arrested as a trespassing suspect and taken to jail. The police would have needed a warrant to drag him out of his home. Despite having the proper ID, Gates wound up being arrested, not for trespassing, but for disorderly conduct.

The truth of the tale is that many Whites can step back and take a "clinical" look at the picture and say that Gates should have behaved better , been appreciative, and just shut up. This is understandable. I cannot fully comprehend how deeply some Jewsish people may have felt about the attack on DC Holocaust Museum. The sexism directed at Hillary Clinton had to be pointed out to me. Try as we might, it is difficult to really put ourselves in the other person's shoes.

Whites are unaware that deopending on the community, you may be stopped because the car you are driving is too nice. You may be followed in stores. Taxis may pass you by. As I'm watching CNN's Black in America 2, a Black psychiatrist is talking about the fact that for many White American successful Blacks are virtually invisible. Successful Blacks do not fit the stereotype. You run into Whites who are condescending in their interaction with you
despite being wealthier and better educated then they are. The CNN special also tells the story of a wealthy Black student who was called a n-----r by one of his teachers at Haverford College. Privilege is no barrier to racism.

If you have a series of events occur over time, you much reach a point where you are just sick and tired of being sick and tired. Gates' reaction may have been a reflection of such a series of events. Blacks can relate. Many whites do not.

Most Blacks get understand Gates was coming from in his interaction with the police officer. Gates is home and just wanted to be left alone. Some Whites will pacify themselves by telling themselves that the same thing would have happened to a boisterous White person. Blacks will reflect on shootings of unarmed Blacks by police deparments and tell themselves and be skeptical.

At the end of the day, most Blacks will side with Gates and say despite what Gates said, he was in his home and the police should have just left. The hancuffing was to put Gates in his place. Many Whites will continue to say that Gates should have just just cooperated.

At the end of the day, few minds will be changed.
Two views of the same events.

As Earl Ofari Hutchinson says, some will never admit there is such a thing as racial profiling.

Oh Ready, your analysis is a nightmare.

It was 12:30 in the afternoon...and Gates could have stood on his porch and sang f-the police naked {ok maybe not f-the police and maybe not naked} or whatever. He was not a threat to anyone. Nor was peace being disturbed. {I've lived in that area} No riots were gonna break out on Ware street.

The sergeant arrested him on his own porch. The sergeant effed-up. I mention Sergeant because it was his job to handle the situation. He failed. I don't know why...but he did.

Here's my take on the officer's report:

The officer makes a factual misrepresentation in the first sentence. The incident happened in Gates' home and the arrest occurred on Gates' porch. There are pictures of him being taken off his porch in handcuffs. The officer represents that this happened in a public place, a requisite for an arrest on the trumped-up charge he decided to use as justification. Being in the view or within earshot of the public does not make private property public. The officer had to return to the citizen's land, and climb their stairs to make the arrest.

It's simple. An American on their own property can be boisterous, angry, insulting, demeaning, and insistent that another person leave or that they provide a badge number if they have physically entered a private home without a warrant. Once it was settled that this was the lawful resident of the private property and that the original call had been a misunderstanding and no crime had been committed, there was no longer probable cause. The only legal course of action would be for the officer to fully identify themselves by providing their state-issued officer ID number, ignore what he felt to be insults and leave the private property. By his own account, the officer never provided his state-issued ID number.

There was also no imperative to have an in-depth radio conversation with dispatch at that point. A simple "This situation is 10-22, in contact with resident. Will advise." would have been appropriate. It would be interesting to hear the dispatch tapes to see what exactly the officer felt was so important. Considering it was not possible for the events as described to unfold with the officer actually making radio calls, this is likely false reporting.

Any time I've asked for a badge number, the officer responded that if I wanted to make things difficult, I'd learn just how difficult they could really be. The badge # is a power trip. Usually the officer makes some bluster, takes the hint that you know your rights and backs off - but don't give the number (longhairs also get the business occasionally). While the officer uses the word "name" in the report, there were enough witnesses that I'd imagine Gates' assertion that he was demanding a badge number would be borne out - which would be another incident of questionable, if not flat out false, reporting.

So, according to his own account, the officer told an upset man demanding his badge number that he would speak to him outside; insisted that if Gates wanted further information that he must follow. The officer led Gates to a location where he felt he could take the upper hand, and told him to get back in his place. When Gates didn't, as would be predictable, the officer showed him his place - under arrest (ha! placed under arrest ... get it? oh, never mind).

What the officer did was conduct an ego-based false arrest (based on the smooth setup, unlikely his first). A security guard with 2 days training knows this. A cop simply doesn't care because there is rarely, if ever, repercussion for their actions. No matter how far outside their mandate they go, there is always some bonehead eager to lend a ready excuse in the victim's tone of voice, lack of deference, or "aggressive" demeanor. This time, there were repercussions.

Obama was right, the officer's decision to pick this fight was stupid; he already lost when Gates didn't take his "step out on the sidewalk" bait. Officers like this should be removed from the force. They place law abiding citizens at risk and cost the taxpayers lots of money.

The question if gates is a total schmuck or not (my take is yeah, he's a prick) is irrelevant. A professional officer would not have allowed the situation to escalate to an arrest. A professional would have provided a badge number and walked away to diffuse the situation; allowing a different officer to handle calming the upset citizen down if necessary. This arrest occurred because the officer wanted to punish someone who wouldn't shut up when told, not because of a legitimate crime.