Comments on: The "Skip" Gates Police Report: Well, This IS What Happens To Black Men In America

By: atipofthehat

atipofthehat — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:07:41 +0000

Hey! That could have been a sword cane.

Result? One dead officer.

And may I remind you, those "Do the Right Thing" riots could happen any day now, especially if this rain keeps up.

By: moc24

moc24 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:25:15 +0000

This is how it would have gone with me:
ME: "Hey officer"
COP: We got a report of a break in here
ME: Oh, ok. This is my house
COP: Do you have ID?
ME: Sure…here it is
COP: OK. Let me confirm
ME: OK
COP: Yup, you live here
ME: Thanks for looking out for my house
COP: No problem
ME: Have a nice day, sir

Gates has been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this. He's an idiot

By: showmeonthedoll

showmeonthedoll — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:53:50 +0000

Lucia Whalen saw you breaking and entering this post. The police are on their way.

By: showmeonthedoll

showmeonthedoll — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:52:00 +0000

You people always have to play the race card.

By: RonMwangaguhunga

RonMwangaguhunga — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:28:19 +0000

As a black man I need to know: If I respond to this post does that mean I am exhibiting "loud and tumultuous behavior"?

By: showmeonthedoll

showmeonthedoll — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:38:07 +0000

Yes, it is a perfectly logical and quite neighborly conclusion to jump to: a house in a faculty neighborhood is being broken into — in the middle of the day — by an older man man, with grey hair and beard, wearing wire rimmed glasses and a golfing shirt, and who walks with a cane.

He is arrested even after showing his ID proving he lives in the house.

No. No racism here.

"Open and shut case . . . Apparently this n—– broke in and hung up pictures of his family everywhere."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7F50Cd8LME

By: Tulletilsynet

Tulletilsynet — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:52:41 +0000

Redemptively.

By: crotchety

crotchety — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:18:31 +0000

After reading through the entire police report, it does not seem at all me like a clear cut case of racism. I think the assumptions people are making about the cops and the neighbor as just as racist as the assumptions they are accusing the cops and the neighbor of making.

If I were Gates, the moment the cops showed up I'd have thanked them and kissed the busybody neighbor for caring enough to call the cops. Because I can't picture any of my neighbors getting involved and we sure as hell don't have that kind of police response time on our street.

By: cinetrix

cinetrix — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:49:43 +0000

If Crowley *is* the community liaison for the mid-Cambridge neighborhood association, he's got his work cut out for him dealing with Harvard/Cambridge 02138 entitlement *and* Rindge students.

By: cinetrix

cinetrix — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:45:09 +0000

Yeah, and I'm sure reporting Officer Figueroa appreciates everybody's pithy insights about racism and the Cambridge police department.

By: atipofthehat

atipofthehat — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:39:51 +0000

Unless you're Jack Burden and you work for the Boss. Then you can humiliate the cop so much you feel bad about it later.

By: CaptainFantastic

CaptainFantastic — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:34:11 +0000

Moral: Don't fuck with police officers, racist or not; you never win.

By: My Number Is My Address

My Number Is My Address — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:03:12 +0000

Ahem. "Cantabrigga, please!"

By: cherrispryte

cherrispryte — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:19:56 +0000

Yes, but they'll also threaten to kill your sick dog. So there's that.

By: sigerson

sigerson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:11:07 +0000

by "let you go" you mean "throw you in the Gowanus Canal", right?

By: sigerson

sigerson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:10:25 +0000

a tip of the hat to you, good sir!

By: Tulletilsynet

Tulletilsynet — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:09:41 +0000

(By "previous prowler calls", I apparently meant previous calls involving casual prowlers who did not go so far as to own and reside in the targeted house.)

By: atipofthehat

atipofthehat — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:53:05 +0000

And here I thought Cornel West was the big troublemaker!

This made me so angry that I went to throw a garbage can through the window of the pizza parlor on the corner, come to find the place went out of business two months back.

By: Tulletilsynet

Tulletilsynet — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:50:59 +0000

Actually it's probably fundraising lady Lucia Whalen who is or formerly was looking for that missing endowment rather than HUPD or the Cambridge Police. Which, by the way, Sgt James Crowley's phone number and e-mail are prominently displayed all over the latter's site because, how about this, he is the Cambridge cops' community outreach guy for that neighborhood. He is the cop whose contact info is in the obligatory holiday season watch-for-prowlers newspaper article, the one where the citizenry is reminded to be alert about seasonal break-ins. — (17 Ware St itself has had previous prowler calls.)

By: HiredGoons

HiredGoons — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:11:11 +0000

For all intents and purposes, it's part of the larger institution.

Or am I just stereotyping!? (*rimshot).

By: riggssm

riggssm — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:08:47 +0000

Pity you didn't learn the difference between "The Boston Police" (sic) and the Cambridge Police Department during your brief stay at (INSERT UNDERGRAD INSTITUTION NAME HERE).

By: Choire

Choire — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:05:16 +0000

HA! I laughed out loud. Scared the cat.

By: KenWheaton

KenWheaton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:55:11 +0000

"I'll speak with your mama outside" is my new catch phrase!

Also, Sigerson, the NYPD might not actually arrest you. They might give you a warning beat down, then let you go.

By: atipofthehat

atipofthehat — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:40:32 +0000

Ma'm, you need to watch your conducy, or I will be forced to withdraw my department issued handcuffs from their carrying case.

By: NotAndersonCooper

NotAndersonCooper — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:34:49 +0000

The Harvard Police have a lot on their plate; they issued an APB for $12B of missing endowment.