'nuff said.

Heck, even if every word of Crowley's report is accurate, Gates was arrested for yelling. In his own yard. Yelling. The dude was arrested for yelling. How can a cop arrest someone for yelling and have the approval of his superiors? He wasted time and money arresting someone for yelling. OMG.

Yelling. That's right. Arrested for yelling in his own home.

I personally know a young (white) man who was recently arrested in a friend's home for questioning a sherif's disrespectful behavior toward his girlfriend. Hand cuffed in a stress position, held in a squad car for 2 hours, taken to a holding tank for 20 hours and subsequently released on Easter Sunday without charges because he had the audacity to question the language the officer used when a gang of county sherifs in riot mode burst into a private home after a neighbor's noise complaint. None of the other young adults were arrested, just him. And the sherif made it clear it was because he verbally questioned the SWAT team tactics being used in a private home without a search warrant. It was pure harassment and intimidation.

What I see in this story is a police force out of control. We need to SEE the monsters we've allowed to grow in our midst and figure out how to rein them back in.

Black, white, yellow, brown, blue. It really doesn't matter. The person arrested could have been you or me. We need to understand that.

Just in case any of you aren't aware of it, it's quite possible to be arrested and charged just for disagreeing with a cop who has an attitude.

Woman giving lip is just as likely (more?) to be tossed in jail than a black man. Cops in this country are out of control. They seem to think that their authority is completely unlimited and that any lie they care to dream up to justify their behavior is just fine.

The problem is that juries and judges give the police that license. You CANNOT get a jury in the US to disbelieve a cop's account of anything. No matter how rankly obvious the lies are. Defense attorneys routinely advise their clients to plead guilty to things they DID NOT DO in order to avoid being convicted of same because only the cops' word is considered by juries to be the truth.

Americans---if you were on a jury, would you really be able to absolve an innocent person who was accused by a corrupt and lying cop? How would you know the difference and how hard would you fight to clear the innocent? No, truthfully...

All Gates has to do was show the cops his driver's license, which has his picture, and current address. That's it. Instead he yells at the cops (which is technically disorderly conduct and failure to obey a police officer). If the police officer shot Gates then I would agree with you but honestly Gates got of easy. As for race, police here just arrested an old white guy for doing the same thing.

Can you imagine arriving home after a long transcontinental trip -- finding its difficult to enter your home. What kind of confusion would you experience ... like, to worry for your family, for your possessions, etc.?? Then, struggling to get in and once you've gotten in and started to relax.. there's a small army of belligerent, testosterone loaded cops on your doorstep and in your home, questioning your identity (especially after its been clearly established) and instead of apologizing and going away ... the cop decides to use force to make his BIG mistake into your transgretion ...

Put yourself into his scenario. Why is Dr. Gates the only person in this equation expected to act with calm and measured steps?? Just exactly how calm, cool and collected would you be???? The other guy was armed and had backup. Why can't the cop take a breath, plug in his brain and take a look at the documents offered, instead of gettin' out the "whup-ass"??

Because we all know that if the cops had found a middle-aged, gray-bearded white man in the home this would've NEVER shaken out the same, no matter how pissed the white guy got over cops swarming his house. They would've apologized and backed out genuflecting.

Whatever outrage Dr. Gates displayed was totally justified. And I sincerely hope he uses every inch of any extended platform he gains from this incident to berate, belittle and embarrass the Cambridge PD for this outrage! I can't think of a more perfect person to rub their nose in it than Dr. Gates, a man of enormous intellect and grace.

Being a cop doesn't make them teflon and its about time they realized the world is a different place. They need to get in the parade or get trampled by the future.

P.S. the neighbor who called the cops about the "break-in" described 2 black men with backpacks, instead of luggage. He saw what he expected not what was true. Just another case of the shakiness of eyewitness testimony.

I admire Professor Gates and always find his work interesting, provocative and bereft of antagonism. I was surprised and saddened by the whole episode. It all should have stayed in the category of minor annoyance. Neighbor calls the cops, they come, as requested, and ask questions. HLG gets bothered, feels insulted, and takes his turn at bat. Okay, all fair so far. However, a man is safe in his own house. You can yell and scream all you want. If the cops turn and leave and you follow them out the door? You have forfeited home field advantage. The cops can arrest you because you are in the public domain and harassing them. In the big picture of today this is still a minor drama. Seems like all these players should be ticked at the neighbor.

1. Look up disturbing the peace. Yes it is a real crime

2. police have a tough job since some people have a habit of SHOOTING AT THEM. Being polite and complying when the request is reasonable is good for you and THEM.

3. If Gates didn't want to show him his ID that's fine, but he didn't need to shout at the police and put them on edge. All he had to do was stand quietly and wait until the police confirmed his identity

Personally I think Gates was hiding something (drug dealer or gay lover) and that's why he started to act up.