Deeper than Race

It as been hard to avoid the coverage of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr, because it has turned into the big race debate all over again. All over the news, people just seem to have let slip from their minds one universal truth: The police have a real tendency to be dick-headed egomaniacs, and routinely arrest people for little to no reason when they feel insulted.

Hot headed people, of any race, can tell you this one. Had Henry Gates been white, and upset about the police in his house, I am absolutely sure that he would have still been arrested.

The fact, which everyone seems to be ignoring, is that this does NOT excuse Sgt. James Crowley. The simple facts, here:

1. The initial call even mentioned seeing suitcases, the police had little reason to suspect anything strange going in.
2. Rude or not, neither side disputes that Henry Gates showed identification documents and resided at the home
3. Rude or not, being rude and/or loud is an unreasonable standard for "Disorderly Conduct" and every indication was that the MATURE AND PROFESSIONAL thing to do, was simply for Officer Crowley to leave the scene.
4. Officer Crowley chose not to be a mature professional. He, as a representative of the City of Cambridge, chose to be petty, and abuse his power to defend his ego.

This is a pretty open and shut case of police abuse of power. My recommendation is that Sgt. Crowley be fired, and brought up on charges of public corruption. He should be made an example of, because being an example was his job, and he failed miserably.

Edit: This does raise the question of what the Disorderly Conduct law in MA actually is. Here is a great write-up of why the Officer had no leg to stand on, and should have known better: http://volokh.com/posts/1248465451.shtml

Overall I just have to state it again. Gates was a grade A ass in this encounter. However, I object to the idea of that being an offense that warrants the use of state power to correct. I am happy to see that the law agrees with me. Now if we could only reign in power tripping police, who tarnish the dignity of the state with their petty actions.