The officer was responding to a breaking and entering call. That gives him the right to inspect the property without a warrant. I doubt the officer was just looking for a reason to go into Gates house.

He was not initially in Gates house, but on the porch. From even the most liberal accounts, Gates was abusive to the point that Crowley was having difficulty talking on his radio. He went into his house after Gates walked in to get his ID. At that point his ID had not been given and his identity had not been confirmed. The officer was required by procedure to follow as he may have been an intruder holding a hostage or was going to get a weapon rather than an ID.

As to this being racial profiling- I am sick of hearing about this. We have become so touchy that officers are required to go to classes on racial profiling. And BTW, Crowley teaches that class. The backup was a black officer and a hispanic officer who both confirm Crowley’s account. The hispanic officer was the one who wrote up the account. And now I am falling into this trap. WHO CARES WHAT COLOR ANY OF THE OFFICERS OR GATES ARE?

Risking “holes placed in your own,” while asserting your constitutional rights seems to be acknowledgment and acceptance of a police state. I don’t think you, me or anyone else here is for that.

Moe pointed out, “the cop didn’t know that he was dealing with three people who meant him no harm”. I understand this and that’s why I’m always respectful to the police as I bet you are. But, in my own home, I think a police officer or anyone else should be respectful of me and use the utmost discretion. It’s sad that we’ve come to the point where you can be arrested for having the wrong attitude in your own home. Sadder, that so many are for it.

Is your issue the request to Gate for ID or the arrest of Gates on his porch? You folks appear to be more focused on the latter.

If it’s the request for ID, I think the posters here at RedState have made a virtually unrefutable case that the request was reasonable – and indeed necessary – under the specific circumstance of a neighbor having reported a breaking and entering of Gates’ home. In this case, the officer has the duty to obtain and verify the identity of those who are found in the house.

Are we in agreement that the request was reasonable?

And please note that Mr. Gates’ public complaints appear to focus around an accusation that the act of his being asked to produce ID was the result of and proof of racial profiling.

Everything I’ve read indicates that Mr. Gates had that presumption and did not even ask for an explanation before his tirades began. And it was this presumption that led to escalation because he never investigated that presumption before jumping to his conclusion.

Plus, there is the further issue that if he was convinced that he was being profiled, was the appropriate response on his part to become verbally abusive towards the investigating officer? I don’t think anyone could say that would be advisable.

So I can see no defense for Mr. Gates’ behavior to this point.

————————————————–

Moving on, the evidence we have is that Mr. Gates began to berate the officer and call him a racist; the officer walked away and was followed to the porch, where a crowd began to gather.

The question then becomes, was the officer behave appropriately in arresting Mr. Gates after warning him to be quiet?

Here I think we need more information to determine whether he followed department guidelines. Several questions I see would include: 1) could Officer Crowley have defused the situation by walking awat? 2) Was OC in a position to walk away, or did he have to stay in proximity pending arrival of the Harvard police. 3) If a crowd was gathering, assuming OC was in a position to leave, was it safe to allow tirade to continue, or did that risk the danger of a public riot or group assault on the officer if he had to walk into the crowd to reach the car? 3a) Was the language of Gates “fighting words” that unchecked could have incited mob violence?

We don’t have the answers. We do have to give some deference to the officer’s judgment unless the prevailing evidence comes out that he was outside the range of police procedure.

In any case, the actions of President Obama and Gov. Patrick in rashly jumping to judgment were highly irresponsible given their high office.

NT

Given that I would have then known that this guy was an eletist Harvard hack. Do you know when Gates started with the racist bombs? And given that the Sgt knew a thing or two about profiling wouldn’t you want some BACKUP so that if the incident got blown out of proporsion, you would have other reliable wittnesses, i.e other cops.

Gates and the officer had to enter the house for Gates to prove his identity and that this was his house. The officer’s full written statement is out there and documents the verbal exchange which was quite heated on Gate’s part. Gates was verbally abusive toward the officer outside. According to other police and other witnesses, Gates was acting in a disorderly manner after being warned several times.

It is against the law to be disrespectful to a police officer. You have to be polite, answer questions. Being belligerent toward an officer is behavior deemed threatening. Criminals act that way all the time. This officer was professional, with a excellent reputation, he called for back-up because the exchange from the beginning was obviously deteriorating.

The tapes probably support the officer all the way, that is why they have not been released.

Can a FOIA be filed?

yet you then go on for paragraphs over how the policeman here was wrong to behave as he did. Policemen face life and death situations every single day. Here in Tennessee, a policeman made a traffic stop because a car had a tail light out. Turns out the vehicle he stopped contained an escaped convict from Mississippi. The guy had been doing time for murder. For his efforts to do his job, the policeman ended up with 4 bullets in him because the escapee was determined not to go back to prison.

Sgt. Mark Chestnutt lived, thank God, and they did capture the guys who did this. My point is that their jobs are much more complex than we can imagine and we owe them our respect. In a situation such as the Gates thing, Gates had no right to start screaming and yelling. In the community where I live, cops have often ended up cuffing and stuffing people who behave like Gates. To allow them to behave this way can often escalate a situation to violence, but even if that doesn’t happen, it certainly leads to people thinking that you can yell at and insult the cops with impunity. And that does nothing but lead to a lessening of the public’s safety. They should release the tapes and put to rest any doubts.

“However, according to this officer’s report, upon finding out that Gates was a Harvard professor who lived in the house, Crowley called for BACKUP.”

When he found out he was a Harvard professor, he called Harvard police. Whether as a courtesy or because that’s their normal procedure I wouldn’t know, but it certainly wasn’t to call them as backup officers in the sense that we normally think of it, i.e. this situation is out of control and I need help.

http://www.redstate.com/dia0420/2009/07/27/gates/#comment-425

Its awfull convenient that some want to put this aside only after it has been shown that Gates and Obama exploited race and were wrong.

Where were all these cool thoughtful delibertate people Wednesday and Thursday, when Gates and the Harvard faculty were demanding heads.

Calling Crowley a “rogue” and a “racist” and that he needed to “beg” for forgiveness. That he needed to be re-educated in sensitivity training.

That TOTUS used a national platform to call him “stupid”.

But all that – nevermind.

Once Officer Crowley was satisfied that Gates was who he said he was, he should have exited as quickly and politely as possible. The question is whether Gates made it difficult for him to do so without feeling threatened.

I have officers in my family. I understand, to a certain extent, how they think and how they are trained. They will escalate until they are in control. Not being in control could mean life or death for them or those around them,

From what I have gathered so far, Gates was verbally abusive to the officer from the beginning and throughout the exchange. Somewhere along the line, Officer Crowley made the decision that he needed to get back in control of the situation. Since Gates refused to calm down after a verbal warning, Crowley escalated to arresting him for disorderly conduct to get back in control of the situation. IMHO, this action would be textbook for most officers.

Whether it is right to arrest someone for yelling at you is a whole separate question.

Gates was a jerk. And, probably, is a jerk. And as I said on another diary, it speaks highly of the local PD that, if there’s another call about a breakin at the Gates residence, they’ll still show up, ready to serve and protect.

He was in his own home. Now the ID might be the property of the state or something and then I could see having to give it but why should a man be under an obligation to provide ID in his own home or even speak to police to have peace? Maybe there is a law that says we must but I think that law should be challenged.

I don’t get the attitudes on here. When they arrest people that did a real crime in broad daylight and it’s an emergency situation or confessed to a crime it, they give them all these protections but we are so quick to remove them someone minding their own business?

PC Guide to Racism. In order:

Black police officers don’t count as real blacks, they’re just as white as the rest of the pigs.

The chief of police is just another pig.

The union obfuscates their conspiracy to deny blacks their civil rights.

Crowley was only teaching the class as a front.

As for the no blemishes, all the above combine for that.

/end snark.

More seriously, we need more people like Crowley, who actually is willing to speak truth to power.

911 not too revealing, but demonstrate a level headed Crowley.

The long-awaited 911 tape and audio of the controversial July 16 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been made public today where the arresting officer tells the dispatcher to “keep the cars coming” – he’s dealing with an “uncooperative gentleman.”

Gates can be heard on the tapes talking in the background, but his exact words cannot be made out. It is difficult to say if the professor is screaming or not.

Arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, does say calm and clear “he’s off with a gentleman who says he resides here (but) is rather uncooperative.”

In the initial 911 call, Harvard alumni magazine employee Lucia Whalen of Malden can be heard spelling out the name of the street and saying that another woman approached her about seeing two men trying to enter the 17 Ware Street home.

“She had noticed two gentlemen trying to get in at that number 17 Ware Street,” Whalen said. “They kind of had to barge in … using their shoulder … I’m not sure if these are two individuals who actually live there … they were pushing the door in.”

When asked by the dispatcher if the men are “white, black or Hispanic,” Whalen said, “One looked kind of Hispanic,” also saying they were “larger men.

“I just saw them from a distance,” she said, adding she called when an older woman also walking on the street seemed concerned about the men busting into the house.

Her voice is also clear on the 911 audio. The conflict, however, begins to develop in the second audio of the 12:44 p.m. call of a “possible B&E in progress.”

One minute into the tape, Crowley is heard saying “can you have the caller come to the front door?” The dispatcher replies, “It’s not her house.”

Forty seconds later Crowley asks for Harvard Police to back him up. Finally, you hear police call for “the wagon.”

The tapes “speak for themselves,” said Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas.

Didn’t Gates say “It was time to move on”? I think I know why he made that comment. (smile) You reap what you sow.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/27/gates.arrest/

I’ve got what the Herald posted link.

I’m trying to see if they were leaked anywhere.