[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Defender968

Apples to Oranges, we're not trying to discern what is going through a man's mind and making a judgment on whether it was right or wrong based on a video that is unclear. While you're right I wasn't there, I did read the first hand official report of what happened by not one but TWO respondings LEOs who WERE there, and last time I checked it's illegal to file an illegal police report in pretty much every state in the Nation, with that in mind and my experience in the matter as I've personally been to that same call dozens of times, I voiced my opinion on what I believe happened, and I stand by it.

I don't see it as apples and oranges. In both instances, you are offering analysis of events to which we do not have access to all the documentation. In the shooting, you suggest that judgment should be reserved until all the available facts are collected. In the Gates arrest, you appear disinterested that the same standard level of due diligence be applied.

See Sigaba one of two things happened here, either the Police officer who is a detective chose to arrest a guy for no reason what so ever other than being black, and in doing so made more work for himself, violated the law in filing a false official report and in doing the above knowingly exposed himself to the real probability of a law suit on top of risking his job, as the guy he was arresting worked at a LAW SCHOOL and then on top of it all convinced another officer to go along with it and file a second false/illegal police report while a witness looked on, or the officer showed up and this idiot did exactly what was in the report, which in turn pissed said officer off, and when the idiot continued on he was placed under arrest. I say these are the two options because we have a statement by Mr. Gates lawyer saying he was just nice as pie, and we have a police report saying the exact opposite, these two options are mutually exclusive, and based on my life experience I'm going to go with the second one every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

You are suggesting that a police report is a document that perfectly (by the nature of it being exact) captures everything that happened in an incident. If such is the case, then why are there ever follow up investigations?

MOO, QP Pete offered an interpretation that reconciles the two versions of the event that appear to conflict.

Originally Posted by Pete

Would be really funny if half said he was nice as pie and the other half said he was shouting.

Originally Posted by Defender968

You know this is just another example of a day in the life of an LEO, the only difference here is the ass hat he was dealing with happened to be a muckity muck at Harvard. Mr. Gates talked himself into cuffs, it happens all the time and personally I wish the PD wouldn't have dropped the charges, it makes them look weak, and will just embolden idiots like him not to mention the fact that Mr. Gates violated the law. I have no doubt that the police report is accurate because I've been on that same call dozens of times. The racist in this situation is Mr. Gates, not the officer as the liberal rag media are spinning it. Mr. Gates needs to pull his head out of his rear and come to grips with his own racism.

Personally I think the fact that he gave a Harvard ID shows how pompous this moron really is, if I were the officer getting yelled at by this idiot I'd probably have insisted on a state or federally issued type of identification not a college ID just out of spite, and if he continued on as he did I'd have arrested him too, disorderly conduct is a referred to a POP law, (pissing of police) don't piss off the police and you probably won't get arrested.

Here you are presenting a fourth reason for the arrest: spite.

Moreover, you are saying that it would cross your mind to use your authority as a law enforcement officer to satisfy your affective state. You are also suggesting that antagonizing a police officer is grounds enough for an arrest. Are these standards of conduct that you want?

In regard to your allegations of Professor Gates's racism, are you discounting entirely the findings of Northeastern University's study on racial and gender profiling by LEOs that was published in 2004? Do you also disagree with the concerns Harvard University has raised over the treatment of members of that school's community by members of the Cambridge PD (link)? Was Gov. Deval Patrick in error when he pointed out that these kinds of incidents have a huge financial impact on the state (link)?

Incidentally, you have an extraordinarily high standard for intelligence if you find a MacArthur Fellow and member of the Council on Foreign Relations an "idiot". (FWIW, Professor Gates's CV is available here.)