So RW now promotes the idea that cops can arrest you after you prove you live at/own the home?

[blm]

So much for their concern for limited government.

So much for their concern for a person's right to privacy in their own home.

So much for their fear of law enforcement being used to come for lawful citizens.


Hypocrites. 95% of the time the RW and their mouthpieces will always come down on the side of HYPOCRISY.

[seabeyond]

1. seems to me the left does too.... du. n/t

[Fumesucker]

2. It's a question of percentages..

Very nearly 100% of the right is stunningly hypocritical.

The percentage on the left is somewhat less and also the hypocrisy is usually not quite so far over the top.

[seabeyond]

11. that i can agree with. n/t

[Captain Hilts]

3. It's Bill Clinton's fault. nt

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. Your statement is just silly.

There was probable cause to believe a crime was occurring. A witness saw someone breaking into a home.

Asking for ID to prove the person lived there was appropriate--indeed the officer would have been remiss had he not asked for ID.

The incident should not have devolved as it did. Cooler heads, on all sides, should have prevailed. Gates turned a routine investigation into a racial incident. The officer responded equally stupidly.

This is not about RW. This is not about police encroachment into privacy rights.

[Winterblues]

8. A police officer when asked for Identification must produce it.

Just wearing a blue uniform is not enough. The police officer failed to produce any identification and therefore no one should just automatically do what they say. Gates was asked to leave the security of his home by a man that would not show proof he was in fact an officer of the law..

[Evergreen Emerald]

13. Stop. Now you are just making stuff up.

The officer was investigating a potential burglary. Can you imagine if it was an intruder and the cop just took the guy's word for it?

Gates, according to the police reports, was not asked to leave his home. He was asked for ID. He, in return was hostile and angry and asked for the officers badge number, which he gave numerous times. The officer was exiting the home with Gates following him and berating him.

Gates escalated a routine investigation into an incident--stupidly. The officer responded in kind. Cooler heads should have prevailed, on all sides.

[Winterblues]

15. The information you have is quite different than the information given publically

The story has been reported that the officer asked Gates to step outside his house to the front porch. It also was reported that Gates asked for the officers badge number and was refused that information. The charges were quite hastily dropped for some reason..I suspect there was no cause for arrest in the first place..

[Evergreen Emerald]

16. I read the police report

It indicated that the officer gave Gates his badge number numerous times and he continued to berate the officer. There was another officer who witnessed the incident and wrote a follow up report. The officer left the house and Gates followed.

Charges are dropped for a variety of reasons...sometimes even when there is Probable Cause for a charge. I don't believe that he should have been arrested, or charged. I do believe that he escalated the call into an "incident."

[EFerrari]

19. Why would an officer verbally give his badge number "numerous times"

instead of merely handing the individual a card? There is no evidence that he gave it even once.

[Evergreen Emerald]

21. Because despite the fact that he continued to give it

Gates continued to ask for it. He stated to Gates, "I have given you my number twice now, and you keep asking for it."

I have not known officers to carry a card with their badge number on it. And, why was he asking for his badge number? Because he was pissed off. And even when given the number he continued to follow the officer out of the house berating him. He escalated a call into an incident. Should officers who are responding to calls for the good of the commuinty be subject to yelling/berating/anger? Is that part of the job description? What is the purpose of the berating? How should they respond?

Cooler heads should have prevailed. On all sides.

[EFerrari]

23. You don't know that he gave at all. You know that he wrote that

into the police report. Crowley is legally bound to deliver that information, regardless of why he's asked for it.

And it was Crowley's responsibility to make sure that call went well. He was the one on the job, not Gates.

[kestrel91316]

10. Once the ID was presented, there was no longer any probable cause

to believe a crime had been committed.

[Evergreen Emerald]

14. and that is when the officer exited the house

As the police report indicates, he was walking outside, ending the contact, as Gates followed him and continued to berate him. He drew a crowd with his yelling. The officer should have continued to his vehicle and left the scene. But, instead he responded by arresting him for disturbance. Cooler heads should have prevailed.

[johnaries]

17. I agree, if the police report was correct.

I just posted a new thread saying almost exactly that.

[kestrel91316]

24. Professer Gates was at that point exercising his First Amendment right

to express his opinion of the officer and the incident. There is only ONE head that needed to be cooler.

It is not a crime to tell a cop what you think of him.

[blm]

18. What you posted doesn't matter to my point, EE.

.

[Solomon]

5. I don't agree. Maybe the rightwing media is doing this but

I was shocked when I peeked at FreeRepublic about the incident. They look at it as a first amendment issue and not race. They are mad at the idea that you can't speak your mind in your own home.

It shocked me to see them consistently saying this since we have left wingers over here supporting the idea that cops can do whatever they want to do whereever they are.

A real eye opener to me. On some things left is right and right is left, up is down and down is up.

Go figure.

[MineralMan]

6. There is not unanimity on that issue at DU.

Lots of people don't hold the view you stated.

Contempt of cop is not a crime in any jurisdiction of which I'm aware. Speaking your mind and insisting on a police officer identifying himself is a right.

That the police routinely ignore that right does not justify it.

As for the racism issue here, I can't really speak, although I suspect that the fact that Gates is black played a role in what happened.

[blm]

20. The RW media mouthpieces ARE doing their best to blow this up. They are the ones I target

with my post - what FR thinks from day to day is not my concern.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Pfft. Be serious. That's only if you're black. No hypocrisy - just bigotry...

Not so different from here - folks here just hide it better.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. "They Can Pry My Guns from My Cold Dead Fingers" is a COP KILLER argument

I don't take advice on my comportment towards the police from a bunch of people who promote COP KILLING.

Every right winger who has ever said "from my cold dead fingers" is setting up a condition for cop murder. Ruby Ridge, Waco, and this clown in Pittsburgh clearly demonstrate that the gun people's line in the sand ends in cop killing.

[Vinca]

12. I wonder what the reaction might be if it happened to Glenn Beck or

one of the handful of black Republicans. How would old Ron Christie like being dragged out of his own house in handcuffs after he'd proved there was no burglary?

[Johonny]

22. If your black... duh