Black man forces entry into own home, is arrested

[ailbhe]

This is about Obama's reaction to it.

The president also considered for a moment what would happen if he, like Gates, were unable to enter his home — the White House — and decided to force the door open. He concluded: “I’d get shot.” The audience of news reporters burst into laughter.

The audience of news reporters burst into laughter.

Comments

[songster.livejournal.com]

Having now looked it up I'd have to say this assessment doesn't seem quite right.

The professor had just come back from a foreign trip, ended up struggling with his front door. Concerned citizen from down the road sees somebody trying to get in the door of a house where the owner is known to be away, calls the cops. Cops come and investigate. So far, everything's going exactly as it should.

The problem comes when the cops arrive. They successfully ID the professor as the resident, however there's some verbal aggro between them. Not actually having a CCTV camera there, I don't know who started it, but that's irrelevant anyway. At that point the police should have fucked off, but instead the copper decided to stand on his dignity and arrest the professor for disorderly conduct.

So yeah - stupid policeman, as Obama said. Copper deserves a reprimand, professor deserves an apology. Nobody got shot, nobody was ever likely to have been shot. The initial callout for suspected burglary was justified in my opinion, and doesn't look to me to be racially motivated.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yep, the initial callout for suspected burglary was reasonable -- and Obama made that point in his answer -- although, in a better world, people would recognize their own neighbors.

Copper deserves more than a reprimand. Copper 1) entered a dwelling without a warrant -- which, when he thought there was a burglar, was reasonable, but, as soon as he knew there wasn't, it became trespassing, and 2) falsely arrested a citizen when he KNEW there were no grounds for it. Copper committed two criminal actions.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Fair does though - according to the report I read, the prof was inside the house trying to pull the door and the (also black) taxi-driver was outside pushing. That was the point at which the police were called.

After that, though, the police should have backed off. They had proof that the prof was in his own house.

[songster.livejournal.com]

Not sure about (1) - the cop did leave the house after verifying the guy's identity.

(2) is almost certainly true, though let's be clear that he was arrested for creating a disturbance, not for burglary, and that he was arrested outside his home, having followed the cop out shouting at him. In a hypothetical scenario where the professor had decked the cop, then the cop would be justified in arresting him for assault, say. Breach of the peace is much more nebulous though, and probably comes down to "insulting a cop" - which of course it shouldn't.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The cop taunted Professor Gates in order to get him to come out of the house in order to be able to arrest him.

[songster.livejournal.com]

Ew, very much not good. Cite?

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

The version I heard is, in fact, that the cop told Gates he *had* to go out onto his porch because he, the cop, couldn't see the ID properly inside. I got most of my information by following links around from Shakesville (http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/07/lol-your-post-racist-america.html).

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

(Oh, and from Shapely Prose (http://kateharding.net/2009/07/21/this-is-what-happens-to-black-men-in-america).)

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

It's in the realm of speculation, but my gut feeling is that people in Harvard in general are not such curtain twitchers that they would call the cops on every random guy pushing at a door *as long as he was white*.

That the cops behaved criminally is indubitable; that their behavious was motivated by racism is likely; and that the while incident simply wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for race, is likely.