My sense is that it was a case of two men used to others deferring to them, one because he was a cop, and the other because he was a Harvard professor. When I was doing my PhD in Boston I met a lot of them and honestly, these people generally have an ego the size of Mount Everest and are unbelievably patronizing and not used to being contradicted. They also do not think laws apply to them, in case of my dissertation advisor, even traffic laws. Neither do policemen, who are also used to people being scared of them and being respectful.

You get these two, both tired and stressed out and you have to have an conflict.

fantazja:

My sense is that it was a case of two men used to others deferring to them, one because he was a cop, and the other because he was a Harvard professor. When I was doing my PhD in Boston I met a lot of them and honestly, these people generally have an ego the size of Mount Everest and are unbelievably patronizing and not used to being contradicted. They also do not think laws apply to them, in case of my dissertation advisor, even traffic laws. Neither do policemen, who are also used to people being scared of them and being respectful.

You get these two, both tired and stressed out and you have to have an conflict.

This is probably the most sensible evaluation that I had heard so far.

Yep, agreed. But...one was being cranky in his own home. The other was acting unprofessionally on the job. Therein lies the difference.

This is my theory as well. After all, jerks and idiots come in all colors.

Sounds about right. The cop should have walked away and the Gates should have STFU.

So basically race was not at the center of this conflict. It was a case of two top dogs used to intimidating and getting respect and neither one would back off.

I am not saying race had nothing to do with it, just that it was not the main reason of conflict.