Gates doesnt have to play the race card at all. If any person of any color verifies that they live at the address where they stand...questions should cease. I would have been pissed if the interrogation would have continued after I proved my identity. Gates just has to play to common sense card to get the whole world behind him.

Gates didn't display any sense, common or otherwise. When Crowley first said he was there to check on a break-in, Gates, despite knowing that he had in fact broken in, played the race card: "Why? Because I'm a black man in America?" Predictably, things went downhill from there.

Except that Gates produced a non photo ID and was verbally abusive to the cop without cause. He was so disorderly the cop had to call for backup (for an old man I guess he was pretty disorderly).

The general agreement among people I know on this is that the cop called for backup because Gates was calling him racist and claiming he was being harassed....when someone is making such false claims on a basic 911 response its time to get some witnesses to cover your ass.....and it seems the other cops there agreed the right thing to do was put the cuffs on him.

Stand on your front lawn and shout swears and obscene language for a while and see if private property rights will keep the cops from taking you for a ride (hint it wont). The law applies to blacks and whites alike. A jerk is a jerk.

How do you know he was verbally abusive RML? Were you there? Oh yeah, Officer Crowley's police report says so. The same one that claims that Ms. Whalen said that she saw two black men with backpacks. Only she never said anything of the kind. So why would you believe anything else in the police report? Because Crowley's white?

Yes, because Crowley is white I know he is telling the truth.....boy are you stupid.

I know because it is regular 911 witness procedure to ask the caller for details of who and what they saw....the caller admits she wasnt sure but suggested they "might be black or hispanic" and then the 911 operator would have told Crowley this. But more importantly what does it matter? The person at the crime scene was black and Crowley treated him the same way he would treat a white person. Who cares what the call said about race anymore than height, build, or clothing? It was a physical description.

And how do you know Crowley was a racist cop? Because Gates is black? Well based on a post Gates made on the internet, he saw a "white cop" at his door and "knew there would be trouble". Can you say BOOK DEAL boys and girls? I thought you could.

Gates played the race card with profit in mind. It should be in the book stores by next Christmas.....

slippedvoussoir:

How do you know he was verbally abusive RML? Were you there? Oh yeah, Officer Crowley's police report says so. The same one that claims that Ms. Whalen said that she saw two black men with backpacks. Only she never said anything of the kind. So why would you believe anything else in the police report? Because Crowley's white?

Because everyone else who was there confirmed it including the officer who witnessed some of what happened in the house and filed a report as well.