If a DMV employee sends you on a wild goose chase because you were snippy to them and they “misunderstood” what you wanted because you seemed “agitated” do you think their supervisor is going to punish them?

In this case, the cop was within his authority to arrest Gates, though he may be retaliating or he may have been acting out of racism, but he covered himself by ensuring that Gates was breaking the letter of the law before slapping the cuffs on him. It’s an awfully slippery slope when you start punishing people for failing to follow your interpretation of the spirit of the rules.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/23/machismo_and_the_gates_incident/?s_campaign=8315

I think at this point we’re arguing past one another, using different senses of the word “responsible”.

At this point, Gates could have let his head cool and the situation would have been resolved without further incident. But no, his adrenaline (or pride) dragged him out onto the porch after the cop at which point the cop called it a day, slapped on the cuffs and dragged him downtown for a time-out (and, knowing Cambridge, probably a latte).

Seriously, what do you exact when you antagonize the police? If you antagonize someone, you pay the price. If it is a waiter, you get spit in your food, a plumber will over charge you, a DMV employee will give you the run around, and a cop will toss you in the pokey. Sadly, we don’t all have a nice deck of “get to be a douche” cards pre-printed (or the will to use them as the case may be).

No, I don’t believe that, and I’m sorry if I gave that impression. If race was a factor in this incident it was of the implicit rather than explicit variety. What I do believe is that regardless of the motivations involved the police officer was a dumbass. If they were two private citizens then I’d be perfectly happy sharing the blame around; from reading both accounts it does appear that they were antagonizing one another. However, one of the two was an on-duty police officer, and IMO should be held to a higher standard.

It’s real simple in my book, after the argument, the cop attempted to leave and Gates, by his own admission, continued the fight. Gates is playing the race card though, and playing it extremely hard. It will probably let him win, but it is a step back as far as race relations are concerned.

Quite an evocative piece of imaginative writing, Burzmali. Ever considered being a novelist? Because you obviously didn’t read the account Joe linked to.

This bit is on page 2, if you can be arsed:

“So he’s looking at my ID, he asked me another question, which I refused to answer. And I said I want your name and your badge number because I want to file a complaint because of the way he had treated me at the front door. He didn’t say, ‘Excuse me, sir, is there a disturbance here, is this your house?’—he demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don’t think he would have done that if I was a white person.

“But at that point, I realized that I was in danger. And so I said to him that I want your name, and I want your badge number and I said it repeatedly.

“TR: How did this escalate? What are the laws in Cambridge that govern this kind of interaction? Did you ever think you were in the wrong?

“HLG: The police report says I was engaged in loud and tumultuous behavior. That’s a joke. Because I have a severe bronchial infection which I contracted in China and for which I was treated and have a doctor’s report from the Peninsula hotel in Beijing. So I couldn’t have yelled. I can’t yell even today, I’m not fully cured.

“It escalated as follows: I kept saying to him, ‘What is your name, and what is your badge number?’ and he refused to respond. I asked him three times, and he refused to respond. And then I said, ‘You’re not responding because I’m a black man, and you’re a white officer.’ That’s what I said. He didn’t say anything. He turned his back to me and turned back to the porch. And I followed him. I kept saying, “I want your name, and I want your badge number.”

“It looked like an ocean of police had gathered on my front porch. There were probably half a dozen police officers at this point. The mistake I made was I stepped onto the front porch and asked one of his colleagues for his name and badge number. And when I did, the same officer said, ‘Thank you for accommodating our request. You are under arrest.’ And he handcuffed me right there. It was outrageous. My hands were behind my back I said, ‘I’m handicapped. I walk with a cane. I can’t walk to the squad car like this.’ There was a huddle among the officers; there was a black man among them. They removed the cuffs from the back and put them around the front.”

Maybe you looked up and read the police report instead of Gates’ account, Burzmali. Naturally, they would characterize a request the officer identify himself as “loud and tumultuous behavior”. This is something cops do all the time. They even have a word for it: “testilying”.