"cops can't have crowds seeing them cowered by a loudmouth. "

Though I disagree with this entire diatribe, here's where you really go off the rails in blazing glory.

Cops can't "have" that? Why not?

First of all, does "not arresting someone and hauling him off his own front porch to jail and questioning" equal "cowering" in your mind?

So in your view, it was a matter of being seen as dominated by some black man because he could raise his voice to you, unless you slapped the cuffs on and hauled him off to show the "crowd" who's boss?

Also this "crowd" idea is complete nonsense. There was no "crowd" gathering, plus the law states clearly that disorderly conduct must be an actual stirring up of people with the real possibility of a riot resulting. None of that was even remotely met here.

So in your estimation, a cop feared losing a status contest with a citizen, and could only respond by exerting his dominance by arresting him.

Oy.

On MSNBC on Monday by the way Lawrence O'Donnell played the recording of the whole thing and Gates wasn't heard shouting so loudly that the officer couldn't hear, as the officer claimed. He wasn't shouting at all. So it seems the cop lied about this, or "embellished" the report as others say happens all the time. He also got no report about "black men with backpacks" since there was no such call, the woman had said that they were possibly residents of the house, said nothing about race except one was "maybe Hispanic", and that they had "suitcases" which would tend to imply the resident idea, nothing about "backpacks".

So for whatever reason, we know that the cop lied now, about several important aspects. This has certainly changed how I see this story. It seems Gates was telling the truth all along. Oh and he wasn't a "loudmouth" by the way, this now tells us. Though whoever wrote this article certainly gives that impression.

I agree by the way with whoever talked about Salon and black men, it's a pretty clear pattern, from the PUMA-stoking all-Reverend-Wright-All-The-Time days last year to this.

Did Crowley hear the 911 call? Or did a dispatcher give him the information? Could the dispatcher have said "two black men with backpacks"? The cops don't usually take the 911 calls, an operater does and then passes the pertinent information on to the police via radio. I'd really like to know.

And now you do:

The police also released a recording of the radio communications between Crowley and a dispatcher just before and during the episode. When the sergeant asked if the dispatcher knew the race of the suspects, she answered, "Unknown on the race," adding that "one may be Hispanic, I'm not sure."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/28gates.html

The whole "two black men with backpacks" appears to be entirely the officer's own invention, since it was neither the caller nor the dispatcher's description at all.

A lot of people bought the story from that police report without questioning it, and made judgments about Gates from there. The recording is also available now and shows no shouting, certainly not "so loud that I couldn't be heard" as Crowley claimed.

Imagine if it were you, bullied and pushed around by some cop in your own house, then hauled off your own front porch to jail, questioned for hours, humiliated, all because you talked back.

Then the world read some fictional police report and blamed you.

If you yell at a cop

And continue yelling at the cop after being told to calm down, you're getting arrested.

If you yell at anybody, and continue yelling at them after a cop tells you to calm down, you are getting arrested.

That's nice. What is it, though? Is that a rule you just made up?

Because it has nothing to do with the law, and in fact what you describe is illegal in Massachussetts.

Has anyone heard the conversation between Crowley and the dispatcher?

Yes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/28gates.html

And it bears out what Gates said, and nothing that Crowley said. There's no "shouting" heard, and certainly not "drowning out" everything that Crowley is saying, as he claimed.

Who knows why Crowley made these things up, I mean claiming that he got a report of "two black men with backpacks", when no one said that, doesn't seem to help him. Though maybe he thought that the truth, that both the witness and the dispatcher said "two men who might be residents, with suitcases" made him seem less justified in demanding that Gates step outside as his first act. In any case, he clearly made things up that simply weren't true.

Here's another take on that:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#32179133

Watch that and then defend Crowley if you want, but at least you'll have facts instead of things you just made up.