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• Wednesday, July 29, 2009 07:15 PM

  Stupid, stupid, stupidly.

  Sgt Crowley wrote a report to accompany this arrest stating that the 911 caller had identified to him "what appeared to be two black men" breaking into the house. The caller denies having identified the men as "black," and the transcript of her 911 call has her, after prompting from the dispatcher, only allowing that perhaps one of the men appeared "Hispanic."

  I think Crowley's report places the caller in the proximity of "black men" for a reason. Read it once, quickly, and the caller identifies "black men." Read it carefully, and she does no such thing.

  Crowley, in his report, also fudges his failure to properly identify himself. He states that again and again he "identifies" himself by saying that he is "Sergeant Crowley." Sergeant Crowley, highly experience officer that he is, knows, or should know, that he is required to provide his full name and badge number to citizens. Yet he fails to do so -- and his report is silly excuse making that would make a 13-year-old class-cutter blush: In essence, he says "Gates didn't ask for my identification, he only asked for my name! And my name is Sergeant Crowley!"

  Crowley's report is plainly CYA bullshit from top to bottom. Gates's story is far more believable.

  But the arrest itself is another issue altogether. Even if Crowley's crap report were to be believed 110%, the arrest was stupid, stupid, stupid. All Crowley needed to do, once it was determined that no break-in had occured, was get in his car, drive it to a Denny's or a Dunkin Donuts, and there would have been no "public disturbance." Voila -- effective policiing!<.i>

  —Semiautodidact Read Semiautodidact's other letters
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