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]

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).)