"Racial profiling" is a ludicrous, touchy-feely term. This was a complete, menacing denial of fundamental rights - both property and civil. You should address if the police had a legal right to enter Professor Gates' house when he went back to the kitchen to get his I.D.

racial profiling is real, it's just a shame that an incident like this automatically gets slapped with the "racial profiling" tag without any sort of analysis other than the fact that gates is black. this cheapens real racism and racial profiling.

from what i have read it looks like a case of two assholes butting heads and the one with the badge coming out on top, temporarily. gates is a loud mouth with a chip on his shoulder who goaded the cop. the cop, who may have been more irked by class distinction, responded inappropriately and violated gate's rights. both should be flogged.

the real question is why didn't the neighbor recognize gates trying to open his own door? maybe she, like every other white person who doesn't bow before gates, is a racist. or maybe gates is such a prick that his neighbors don't want to talk to him. i would love to hear from his neighbors.

From what I have read, the neighbor reported two black guys with back packs trying to jimmy the front door...they then went round back to open the back door with a key...it's entirely plausible that the neighbor didn't get a good look at the men and just saw them trying to get in the front door (and failing)

Maybe Gates is a loudmouth. Maybe both he and the cop are assholes. Only one of them broke the law. The other one was arrested. I don't mind the cop responding "inappropriately". It's the "illegal" thing. Do you see the difference?

Even if Gates is a creep, he's a well-known professor at Harvard who lives in Cambridge. You'd think the neighbor would have recognized him. I don't know if she's a racist, but she certainly doesn't sound very observant.

what illegal thing did Gates do to warrant arrest? Is yelling on your front porch a crime?

A few questions...

How come the neighbor saw two black men with bagpacks trying to break into a house...when they were not wearing bagbacks.( the driver was in a tux, there were suitcases on the porch and an old man with a cane was trying the lock)????

How come the officer did not say. OK my bad and leave. Once he was presented with Gates' ID which featured his address???

Gates was on his porch, supposedly yelling at the officer. Not he is over 50 and walks with a cane. Was the cop threatened enough by this man to arrest him???

Exactly. I hope you didn't misunderstand me. The cop didn't even claim that Gates threatened him. He arrested him for doing things that aren't illegal. Gates commited no crime The cop did. As much as it disturbs some folks, our laws apply to everyone.