Posts Tagged ‘Sergeant Jim Crowley’
Our Morning Roundup: Do You Feel Safer?
Good morning, City Desk readers (both insured and uninsured), and welcome to our muggiest Freedom Friday yet! Bad ideas thrive on attention, and the Henry Louis Gates Jr. story is getting a ton of it. According to the arrest report, which Gates has said contains "fabrications," the arresting officer asked Gates to come outside and for his ID and Gates initially refused to cooperate. He was then able to prove himself the resident of the home and was instead arrested for being belligerent.
In essence, Gates was arrested for saying that he felt violated and oppressed on his own property. And President Barack Obama was right: The Cambridge police did "act stupidly." The arresting officer, Sergeant Jim Crowley, claims “there was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother,” and yet neither charge would hold up even as a ticketable offense.
But for the record, finding yourself in handcuffs after arguing with a police officer isn't something that just happens to blacks and Latinos. Cops everywhere are always on the lookout for opportunities to assert their authority, and, as in Gates' case, they'll gladly misinterpret public safety laws in order to show a civilian who's the boss.
