Aren't you proud to have out & out racists like "Old Joe" on your side?

Cops aren't there to "protect civility" and if that's what the officer in this case was trying to do, perhaps he shouldn't have been trying to provoke incivility.

but when a cop talks.. shut up

Yeah, screw having rights! You don't need those anyway! Surely no cop would ever abuse his power, especially if you make it unlimited! What's the old saying "Power doesn't corrupt much and absolute power absolutely doesn't"?

You're a craven fool.

If a misunderstanding between Gates and a student escalates and the student starts yelling abusive language and refuses to calm down, then Gates has security remove the student from his class or office, then Gates is obviously mis-using his power.

Right?

Gates isn't having the kid arrested or placed in jail and this entire hypothetical takes place in public on school property.

Even if Gates was being a complete asshole, that's not a crime. The cop had no real reason to arrest Gates. The cop shouldn't have asked Gates to go outside once it started escallating, he should have apologized and left. Period. Instead, he decided he wanted to get into a pissing match and show Gates who was boss.

He should have realized that, now that he'd ascertained it wasn't a break-in, he should leave. Once the argument started, he should have realized that if he left, the de-escallation would take place immediately and he should have left. If Gates looked like he was going to follow him on his own, he should have said "Sir, if you wish to file a complaint, please do so at the station. I'll meet you there if you like." and left.

At least, if he were a professional and a good cop.

Gates' screaming, "...your momma..."

That certainly isn't the scenario Gates subscribes to. I'm not at all surprised you take the "Cops are gods who can do as they please" line. You've always fetishized authority here on Salon.

Maybe if you bothered reading Gate's account you'd have a clue. You wouldn't know what to do with it, but you'd have one for a change.

What did Crowley do, to deserve getting yelled at by Gates? This is the central question. The answer may be (and probably is), "Nothing.

The answer is: you have no idea. But that's never stopped you from blathering before.

Oh goody, the delusional Elephantman is going to "set me straight."

Gates claimed who he was, showed a Harvard i.d.

And his drivers license with his address on it.

instead of calmly saying, "I live here, give me a minute and I'll get my driver's license for you,

Flat wrong, that is what Gates did.

And there we have it; for no discernable reason, before Gates was arrested "illegally" (so the left claims), Gates was being an asshole.

Being an asshole is not an arrestable offense. If it were, you'd constantly be in jail.

There is no evidence that the police officer behaved unprofessionally. He asked for identification from somebody who had just broken into a house. That is not unprofessional.

If that's all that happened, then sure. If the cop then said, after Gates showed him two forms of ID, "Sorry to bother you, have a nice day" and left, fine. That's not what happened though. The cop stuck around and made an ass of himself.

All he ever needed to do was explain and identify himself.

He did. Funny that you didn't find that since "I don't make up facts." What, you just omit them when they don't suit your narrative?

All he ever needed to do was act like an adult. That, he didn't do.

Had the cop acted like an adult, it never would have gotten that far. Had the cop acted like a professional, we'd never have heard of the incident.

citizens can't be seen to drive them away by yelling insults and false allegations

Had the cop behaved professionally, Gates never would have been yelling. And you have no idea if the allegations were false or not. So much for "I don't make up facts."

It may be relevant that her denial of mentioning race to Sgt. Crowley took place after several days of being vilified as a racist in the national press. That doesn't mean she lied,

Except that the 911 tapes of her call were released. You could bother to find out instead of just ignoring the facts.

And in a number of ways.

I don't care if "cops can't have crowds seeing them cowered [sic] by a loudmouth.", there was still no reason to arrest him. Cops can't be allowed to provoke people so they can arrest them. If the cop didn't want to seem "cowed", he should have simply left after Mr. Gates provided his identification with a "Sorry for the misunderstanding sir. It was called in, we had to check."

Gates said "And I said 'That's ridiculous because this happens to be my house."

You said "Third, assuming sobriety, why would somebody who'd just broken his door open in broad daylight find it "strange" and "ridiculous" that a cop would ask him to explain?"

Your description has nothing to do with what Gates said. He didn't say it was "'ridiculous' that a cop would ask him to explain", he said it was "ridiculous" that he could be breaking and entering because it was his house.

Meanwhile, President Obama should learn to finesse touchy questions when he doesn't know what he's talking about.

You should learn not to write articles when you don't know what you're talking about. All you're doing here is convincing me that you're an idiot.

For example, the drug Vioxx, patented, heavily promoted, and sold by Merck, was responsible for more deaths than the Vietnam war

You show a level of ignorance that befits a lover of "alternative medicine".

Total Vioxx cases, including non-fatalities: 10 thousand

Deaths from the Vietnam War: 6 million.