Sergeant at eye of storm says he won't apologize

You may read the actual POLICE report and see there is nothing to apologize to the RACIST Prof. Gates for.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police report on Gates arrest.PDF

Read page two, the irony here is hilarious! :lamo:


Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Police Report - July 23, 2009


When they handcuffed him, the officer asked Gates if he wanted him to lock his door, too which he replied, it doesn't lock because of a previous break in.... :roll:


Gates is an asshole and quite frankly the cop was too nice....

I admin I don't know all the facts in this particular case, but my coworker and I - myself being an African American and my coworker being a female Hispanic - both agreed that based on what we know of the situation and our own experiences with local law enforcement there could have been some racial profiling by the Hartford PD. That said, we both agreed that it was the responsibility of Mr. Gates to first be as cooperative as possible in order to not escalate the matter further.

While it is true that the police were doing their job in responding to a report of a breakin, we really don't know what events led to the situation turning from "civil" to "civil unrest". I've heard two-sides to this story: 1) that the police kicked the door in; to 2) they were let in by Mr. Gates who "reluctantly" presented his driver's license. In the first case, you have the police storming the place while Mr. Gates was already in his home. I can see someone being un-nerved by such action especially if they've been harrased by the police in the past (not saying he was...just trying to paint a broader picture as to why Mr. Gates may have been resistant), but his first response should have been to follow police instructions until he could be properly identified no matter what his past dealing with police authority had been previously. In the second, one has to ask why he was reluctant. Again, if he had experience previous misgiving w/the Hartford PD, I'd understand him giving them a hard time. But, that still doesn't excuse him from being uncooperative upon learning that the police were simply responding to an attempted burglery call to his home.

Myself and my coworker being minorities and being victims of what we believe were incidents of racial profiling can understand (hyperthetically) why Mr. Gates would have been uncooperative, but we also honestly believe that based on what we know of the situation, Mr. Gates could have conducted himself better. Regardless, the full story doesn't appear to be out yet. Thus, I'm sure there were mistakes made on both sides.

uhm, the police report is linked in my post.

The report mentions a plethora of witnesses, and this Gates loon acted beligerent.

galenrox said:

I don't dismiss that the only reason the cops were at his door was because he's black. I've broken into my own apartment before because I was locked out, I've broken into my parents' house because I was locked out, I've done it pretty openly, and no one who ever saw me doing it thought I was a burglar. And I assume that the fact he was black played a role in the person calling the cops and saying that he might be a burglar.
The cops didn't do anything wrong, and I'd probably just understand that and be on my way, but that said, I'm white. It's very hard to claim that my visceral reaction would be the same if I was black, the bulk of my research focused on the treatments of blacks, and I worked extremely hard to become a professor at Harvard. It wasn't the logical response, but it was a legitimate emotional response.

President Obama owes the police officer an apology. President Obama was wrong for saying what he said. Similarly, it would be helpful if the police officer at least acknowledged that he understands why Gates responded the way he did. It would also be good if Gates chilled out and recognized that wedging his own door open looks a lot like someone else wedging his door open.

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Like I said, I had someone call the cops on me, "breaking in" my house once. I didn't act like a fool when they showed up.


It wasn't my whiteness that caused them ease, hell I think I was wearing a flight jacket and a skull cap that night..... but I presented them my id, thanked them for their diligence and sent them on thier way.....


Perhaps I should have screamed at them and refused to show ID.... That would have been the smarter thing to do as a white man. :roll:

Reverend_Hellh0und said:

Obama made a comment that had he lost the keys to the white house or something, that "he would be shot"....


Classic American sharpton level race baiting. One would think our President would be above that.

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I don't think the President meant it in quite that way. After all, it is the White House and it is under 24/7 guard from unlawful intrution. So, in a comic form, I imagined the President losing his keys and trying to sneak into the Oval Office and being caught in the crosshairs of a sniper riffle. After being shot, he looks up at the Secret Service agent and asks, "Why'd you shot me? Don't you know I'm the President?" The SS agent then says, "Sorry, Mr. President, but we had a report that a black guy was breaking into the White House."

Bah-dum-bump! :mrgreen:

Objective Voice said:

I don't think the President meant it in quite that way. After all, it is the White House and it is under 24/7 guard from unlawful intrution. So, in a comic form, I imagined the President losing his keys and trying to sneak into the Oval Office and being caught in the crosshairs of a sniper riffle. After being shot, he looks up at the Secret Service agent and asks, "Why'd you shot me? Don't you know I'm the President?" The SS agent then says, "Sorry, Mr. President, but we had a report that a black guy was breaking into the White House."

Bah-dum-bump! :mrgreen:

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I disagree, after attacking the cambridge PD, he seqwayed into this comment, it was directly related.

After having read the police report, it appears to me that the police Sgt. in question is not at fault, if his version of events is correct.

This is not to say that his version of events IS incorrect....

But one must always ask.

That said, there seem to be a large number of potential witnesses to the actual reason for the arrest, so why the charge against Gates was dropped...

We also need to be concerned for our troops. Given his quickness to turn on a public peace officer, the next time our troops are falsley accused of an attrocity, how will this president respond?

Objective Voice said:

I don't think the President meant it in quite that way. After all, it is the White House and it is under 24/7 guard from unlawful intrution. So, in a comic form, I imagined the President losing his keys and trying to sneak into the Oval Office and being caught in the crosshairs of a sniper riffle. After being shot, he looks up at the Secret Service agent and asks, "Why'd you shot me? Don't you know I'm the President?" The SS agent then says, "Sorry, Mr. President, but we had a report that a black guy was breaking into the White House."

Bah-dum-bump! :mrgreen:

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I'll give the president benefit of the doubt for a joke tanking, but everyone has to admit it was a horrid timing mistake for the punchline.

The Mark said:

After having read the police report, it appears to me that the police Sgt. in question is not at fault, if his version of events is correct.

This is not to say that his version of events IS incorrect....

But one must always ask.

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did you notice, how the officer mentioned the gathering crowd who witnessed this?


I think this report will be found to be air-tight.

Objective Voice said:

I admin I don't know all the facts in this particular case, but my coworker and I - myself being an African American and my coworker being a female Hispanic - both agreed that based on what we know of the situation and our own experiences with local law enforcement there could have been some racial profiling by the Hartford PD.

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I never understand the issue with profiling.

Maybe US is different and the racial tensions still exist and mistrust with police and i apologise if i am wrong but in London for example, black people disproportionately commit the most crime and stabbings. It makes sense the police stop and search and focus reflect the statistics of crime. I'd much rather be safe than anything else. I know its not a PC thing to say

Objective Voice said:

I don't think the President meant it in quite that way. After all, it is the White House and it is under 24/7 guard from unlawful intrution. So, in a comic form, I imagined the President losing his keys and trying to sneak into the Oval Office and being caught in the crosshairs of a sniper riffle. After being shot, he looks up at the Secret Service agent and asks, "Why'd you shot me? Don't you know I'm the President?" The SS agent then says, "Sorry, Mr. President, but we had a report that a black guy was breaking into the White House."

Bah-dum-bump! :mrgreen:

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How is that funny, or appropriate for the President to say? How is it not race-baiting? And how is it not exactly what I said it was -- implying that he'd be shot because he's black?

And besides being insulting to law enforcement everywhere, how is it not SPECIFICALLY insulting to the Secret Service charged with protecting him?

I must note that no one laughed at this "joke."

Reverend_Hellh0und said:

did you notice, how the officer mentioned the gathering crowd who witnessed this?


I think this report will be found to be air-tight.

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Yes, I did. But did YOU notice that the 2 reports provided in that link seem to indicate that the Sgt. was alone with Prof. Gates and his driver (and perhaps the neighbor?) for a short period before the second police officer showed up.

That period seems the most dangerous to the Sgt. in terms of verifying his story.

Additionally, it occurred to me that this happened at 1244, or the middle of the day. I do not have any idea of the layout of the house (shade?), or the location of the neighbor's house, but why would the neighbor not recognize her neighbor?

Reverend_Hellh0und said:

We also need to be concerned for our troops. Given his quickness to turn on a public peace officer, the next time our troops are falsley accused of an attrocity, how will this president respond?

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You just destroyed any sense of impartiality you may have had, and injected the hyper partisanship that you are too well known for.

Joe1991 said:

You just destroyed any sense of impartiality you may have had, and injected the hyper partisanship that you are too well known for.

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Nonsense. Obama today, is telling people that "cooler heads could have prevailed" and not taking back his comments of calling the PD "Stupid".......


now if you want to have a texas tantrum about my concern for the troops and how he will react when france puts pressure on him to have the ICC try troops, well thats your bag. I have been called far worse, by far better. :2wave:

Joe1991 said:

You just destroyed any sense of impartiality you may have had.

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When did he ever claim to be "impartial?" And since when is "impartiality" a standard to be applied to participants in a debate forum?

galenrox said:

I've been through similar situations as well, and have responded in similar ways. That said, Gates was pissed off, and are you going to suggest he didn't have a reason to be pissed off? He's fairly old, he's dressed like an academic, unless the person who called the cops didn't even consider the possibility that this might be someone locked out of his house the only reason to assume it's a burglary is the guy's black. I chose to get my tattoos, he never had a say in his race.

There was a more expedient way to deal with the situation. It would've been a better response to understand that the cops are just there because someone saw him wedging his door open, thought it might be burglary, and called the cops. He was pissed off, are you going to suggest you've never responded to a situation in a less than ideal way because you were pissed off?

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did you read the report. All the cops wanted was due diligence in asking for his ID, the intellectual snob, became beligerant and quite frankly suspicious acting by refusing to provide ID. The cop according to he report, and I believe him. Acted by the book.....


Hell I've responded to cops the wrong way because I was pissed off when I was young. I paid the consequences....

That said, as an adult, and especially if my house was previously broken into as Gates house was, wouldn't be pissed off but thankful to the police and Mrs. whalen fore doing thier civil duty....


He acted like a race baiting liberal elite asshole, and got caught.

Harshaw said:

When did he ever claim to be "impartial?" And since when is "impartiality" a standard to be applied to participants in a debate forum?

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The Good Reverend is indeed impartial to his greatness.... :mrgreen:

Harshaw said:

When did he ever claim to be "impartial?" And since when is "impartiality" a standard to be applied to participants in a debate forum?

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Quite true.

I personally do not expect anyone to be "impartial". Indeed, IMO it is impossible.

Now, recognizing that the other side exists, and trying to understand their point of view...

The Mark said:

Quite true.

I personally do not expect anyone to be "impartial". Indeed, IMO it is impossible.

Now, recognizing that the other side exists, and trying to understand their point of view...

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The Good Reverend understands all to well that the other sides point of view is wrong. Does that make me unbiased? :mrgreen:

Reverend_Hellh0und said:

now if you want to have a texas tantrum about my concern for the troops and how he will react when france puts pressure on him to have the ICC try troops, well thats your bag. I have been called far worse, by far better.

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No tantrum, but if you don't think the President cares for and appreciates the troops then you've gone off the deep end.

Joe1991 said:

No tantrum, but if you don't think the President cares for and appreciates the troops then you've gone off the deep end.

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Anecdotal propaganda shots aside.


I am concerned that he would be more willing to subject or troops to the ICC and other european kangaroo courts. This is evidence imo....

Reverend_Hellh0und said:

I am concerned that he would be more willing to subject or troops to the ICC and other european kangaroo courts. This is evidence imo....

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Soldiers shouldn't be immune from anything and everything but if they have done nothing wrong, nothing to fear from ICC no?

Laila said:

Soldiers shouldn't be immune from anything and everything but if they have done nothing wrong, nothing to fear from ICC no?

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I did not sign on to any international shingdigs, as an American, I would not recognize the authority of an international court, sorry.


And as an American, I find the reasoning I highlighted in bold, most abhorrent.