Harvard scholar's arrest raises profiling questions

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This is in fact what many officers do once establishing there is no crime to book. Temporarily detain and release with an apology once clearing the 'suspect.' I smell a bit of individualistic attitude from the professor (health, arrogance, racial defensiveness based on likely history of facing racism in the past, etc) and attitude from the arresting officers wanting to show him a lesson for daring to snap back at them. Both are guilty or overreacting, but the police in this case overstepped their authority.

bump

You'd never make in on Springer, HAL...you're too logical.

[pedroh 21]

well, for you looks like the cops are never wrong either.. and that g.i joe attitude of 'yea i would cooperate and thank him for searching my own house' is BS, after a trip, tired in the middle of the night, u ain't gonna be polite to a cop asking why are u entering ur own house and where's your id... that's so far from reality..

of course I'd give the cop the ID cuz I know better, I don't want no pigs beating the ###### out of me or arresting me.. minorities resisting to a cop, there's never a good outcome of that...

[SMOKE 1,426]

hey, if I told the cop, look dude here's my ID, I live here, and still keeps asking questions, I'd be pissed off like a madman too.. why ask more questions? that's just being exaggerated from the cops side.. and if they keep doing it, I'm gonna ask for a badge and name, and if they dont give me that, I'm gonna haev a fit, they can't just do that sh!t.. they are servers of the law, not fukcin vigilantes

sure you would

[pedroh 21]

first rule of survival, if you ain't white, don't resist to the cops.. that's a no brainer.. that's what America's law system is all about

[Krikit 1,163]

The police department has already dropped the charges and issued an apology. Doesn't quite happen that way when they think they're in the right.

[HAL 9000 96]

This is in fact what many officers do once establishing there is no crime to book. Temporarily detain and release with an apology once clearing the 'suspect.' I smell a bit of individualistic attitude from the professor (health, arrogance, racial defensiveness based on likely history of facing racism in the past, etc) and attitude from the arresting officers wanting to show him a lesson for daring to snap back at them. Both are guilty or overreacting, but the police in this case overstepped their authority.

bump

You'd never make in on Springer, HAL...you're too logical.

I am related to Steve... Wilkos.

not.

[mendeleev 67]

#######? Are you kidding me...people are actually agreeing w/ the police on this one???

Well yes of course, what good reason did this professor have for getting a attidude and pulling out the race card right away. They were there too help him. People here sometimes really amaze me. Where you guys dropped on your head as a kid.

Sorry, but if anyone came over and accused me of trying to get into MY house, there will be plenty of attitude on my part. Count on that. And, for those who do not know prof. Gates from Adam, he is one of the most kind and non-chalant academics you will ever meet: not a diva, so your theory just does not fly. And yes, I know ####### I am talking about.

You dont know him, you dont know what he really is like. Put yourself in the officers shoes. They show up to a house that was reported to have somebody breaking in, they knock on the door and ask to speak to the man and he refuses and pulls out the race card and refuses to give ID. Where would that leave you, to get pissed at these officers is just not rational, the guy had a attitude that was unjustified. The officers at that point didnt know who he was, THE GUY WOULD NOT SHOW HIM HIS ID! It was later when he did. I would be thankful to know that the officers were there to check in on an reported burglary on MY house.

A few weeks ago, cops turned up at my home, accusing me of beating my wife. (Turned out the guy beneath us had been yelling loudly and hitting furniture when his sports team threw away a game in the playoffs. The cops showed *zero* interest in getting to the true bottom of the disturbance in our neighborhood.)

My mistake is that I was cooperative with police. They intimidated my wife and I for over an hour, separately, threatening me, then her, with arrest for ... absolutely nothing at all. Eventually they did leave with making an arrest. It was outrageous. These cops invaded our home, separated us, abused us, without any grounds.

We complained in writing to the chief of police. His written response was essentially ... "Hey, we're the cops. Deal with it. We can do what we want."

By the way, we are white ... maybe that is a reason neither of us got arrested?

There are only two times you need to be afraid of the cops: when you've done something wrong .... and when you haven't.

I dont see your case as being the norm. Did you or didnt you get arrested, you have contradicted yourself. If your wife had no physical evidence of abuse and didnt agree to press charges then they would of overstepped there boundaries by arresting you.

No one was arrested. You're right, I wrote inconsistently.

In my 50+ years, I've never had an encounter with the police. I was inexperienced and naive in adopting a cooperative posture. My wife and I both learned a lesson that night ... police are not our friends. It was a pretty awful experience. In the town in which I live, we have come to learn, from conversations with other law-abiding neighbors, that the police are the most severe threat we face with respect to peaceful enjoyment of life in our own homes.

We subsequently learned that a woman living opposite us was arrested for a nonexistent assault against her husband. There was no physical evidence of assault and the husband denied police accusations of an assault, but she was arrested. (It did not go to trial, but by your criteria, looking up, the police overstepped there (sic) boundaries.)

[HAL 9000 96]

well, for you looks like the cops are never wrong either.. and that g.i joe attitude of 'yea i would cooperate and thank him for searching my own house' is BS, after a trip, tired in the middle of the night, u ain't gonna be polite to a cop asking why are u entering ur own house and where's your id... that's so far from reality..

of course I'd give the cop the ID cuz I know better, I don't want no pigs beating the ###### out of me or arresting me.. minorities resisting to a cop, there's never a good outcome of that...

now we all know there's no such a thing as profiling and racism among many law enforcers.

[Bobby+Umit 161]

I call bullsh!t on any of you who say that you'd be calm and collected if the police showed up to your house and accused you of robbing it. . I've actually been in this situation, it is extremely humiliating and degrading. If you don't feel pissed off after something like that happens, then you are a robot.

Well - call me a robot.

I had this happen to me at my home, I left for work, the front door popped open, triggering my alarm.

I received a call from the monitoring service telling me about the alarm, I told them my passcode, and they said they would call off the police. (unknown to me - they didn't)

Turned around, went into my home, to turn off the alarm, and then there is a knock at my front door, two cops, and they asked me to step outside since they were responding to a "break in alarm".

I came outside, they asked me for my ID, I showed it to them, they confirmed the address on it (drivers license) - I calmly explained what happened and they said "Have a good day!" and left.

There is no way the cops would know who I was, if it was my house, or if I wasn't the robber (that triggered the alarm).

Now - in this case, not sure what went on, but after he produced ID, that should of been the end of it, wasn't there - so can't comment on that.

Edited July 21, 2009 by Bobby_Umit

[HAL 9000 96]

The police department has already dropped the charges and issued an apology. Doesn't quite happen that way when they think they're in the right.

Must be a Harvard thing.

Ramírez Business College professors doubtfully receive the same clout.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Bottom line is, he got special treatment.

He didn't get a special treatment, he didn't need any, his lawyer is a professor from Harvard Law School.

Picture this TV commercial...

District Attorney and Police Chief: Let them complain and scream all they want

District Attorney's Secretary: His lawyer is Charles Ogletree, a Harvard Law School professor

TAAAAAAAAN!!

District Attorney: I think we better settle this one

PWNED!

Edited July 21, 2009 by TävôLuDô

[_Simpson_ 250]

well, for you looks like the cops are never wrong either.. and that g.i joe attitude of 'yea i would cooperate and thank him for searching my own house' is BS, after a trip, tired in the middle of the night, u ain't gonna be polite to a cop asking why are u entering ur own house and where's your id... that's so far from reality..

of course I'd give the cop the ID cuz I know better, I don't want no pigs beating the ###### out of me or arresting me.. minorities resisting to a cop, there's never a good outcome of that...

now we all know there's no such a thing as profiling and racism among many law enforcers.

oh yeah of course and we all know too that there has been alot of cry wolf when it comes to our officers and our black citizens.

[HAL 9000 96]

well, for you looks like the cops are never wrong either.. and that g.i joe attitude of 'yea i would cooperate and thank him for searching my own house' is BS, after a trip, tired in the middle of the night, u ain't gonna be polite to a cop asking why are u entering ur own house and where's your id... that's so far from reality..

of course I'd give the cop the ID cuz I know better, I don't want no pigs beating the ###### out of me or arresting me.. minorities resisting to a cop, there's never a good outcome of that...

now we all know there's no such a thing as profiling and racism among many law enforcers.

oh yeah of course and we all know too that there has been alot of cry wolf when it comes to our officers and our black citizens.

Seems to be a lot of everything too.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Moral outrage doesn't go over well with the undereducated jock douchebags who typically gravitate towards careers in law enforcement. In their minds, they can do no wrong. Too bad for the rest of us, they're armed to the teeth and wrong.

Kind of like Republicans.

[HAL 9000 96]

Moral outrage doesn't go over well with the undereducated jock douchebags who typically gravitate towards careers in law enforcement. In their minds, they can do no wrong. Too bad for the rest of us, they're armed to the teeth and wrong.

Kind of like Republicans.