Fox legal analyst: Gates arrest was improper
Published: July 28, 2009
Updated 7 months ago
Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News judicial analyst, explained to Shepard Smith on Monday that under Massachusetts law, Cambridge Sergeant Jim Crowley did act improperly by arresting historian Henry Louis Gates.
His argument essentially boils down to the difference between public and private domain. As Crowley arrested Gates for causing a “public disturbance,” the action is improper on its face due to the fact that Gates was in his own home. Additionally, Napolitano said, it was illegal for the police to enter the house to begin with, as the source of the report did not pass legal muster to constitute probable cause.
Napolitano added that because of the violation of Gates’s constitutional rights, he would be eligible to pursue legal action against the police department.
In his police report, arresting officer Sergeant James Crowley wrote that woman who reported the suspected break-in “went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of Ware Street.”
Attorney Wendy Murphy, who represents the 911 caller Lucia Whalen, said her client never spoke with arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley at the scene.
“Whalen’s lawyer [...] said yesterday her client’s only contact with Crowley was fleeting, with Whalen saying ‘Excuse me, I’m the one who called,’ and the Cambridge cop replying, ‘Stay right there,’” reported The Boston Herald.
“I want to know that, in light of the fact that Mr. Gates 4th Amendment rights have been violated, will [the media] rush to his defense? Will they demand that the Cambridge Police apologize?” asked blogger George Cook at Lets Talk Honestly.
“Will those same talking heads question the fact that the words black and backpack appear in Sgt. Crowley’s police report although the 911 caller never mentions those words in her call?”
He concludes: “We all believe we know the answers to those questions. Let’s hope we are wrong.”
This video is from Fox News’ Studio B, broadcast July 27, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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Oh, my - is hell freezing over??
Exactly - the cop was not allowed to *enter* Gate’s house, nor was he entitled to demand that Gates “step out onto the porch and speak with me”. Gates was in his own home, nor did he know someone had phoned in a ‘possible break in’ at his house. It was the cops responsibility to explain why he was there, and politely ask for some ID.
The cop was obviously used to bossing people around, and having them comply no matter what their legal rights were. It probably pissed him off that someone actually understood that he need not comply with illegal orders (to step outside), nor do they need to be polite when the cop barges into the house without a warrant (read the Police Report):
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates2.html
Gates was entirely right to demand a name and a badge # from a cop who barged into his house. Crowley “claims” he gave his name (but not badge #), and Gates claims he never did.
I think Gates should sue the Cambridge Police just to clear his name - plenty of media reports have left out key facts (such as Crowley not being allowed to enter his house) which *LED* to the “loud and tumultuous behavior” for which he was arrested, and leave it sounding like Gates was just over-sensitive to a poor white cop doing his duty.
Cops have to be taught a lesson the few times they are caught in the spotlight, because most times they lie and cheat in the dark…
Gates should sue for a few $million, to PROVE the Cambridge Police were in the wrong - a handshake and ’sorry’ just sounds like police PR to keep the crazy Professor happy, and millions of Americans will continue to think Professor Gates is a lunatic.
What neutron said! Crowley lied. If anyone does any apologizing it should be him. Of course, the media got it all wrong, but what else is new.
well put.
Question is, will the media discussion shift from a race issue to a customer service issue? Gates, after all, as a taxpayer, is the person who pays the cop.
Our media newstainment programs won’t go there. As this shifts to it’s proper discussion, they’ll drop it. A Gates lawsuit will do nothing nationally constructive.
It was clearly a case of false arrest. The officer was just showing Gates “who is in charge”. The reason the charges were dropped was because the prosecutor knew he could not win the case if Gates contested it.
@ neutron
Well stated.
And I would add that cops routinely lie in police reports and in court under oath the world over and with impunity.
The entire concept of law enforcement begs reform.
Where is the accountability mechanism?
It makes sense that it was an improper arrest.
If you believe the police report that Crowley posted, Professor Gates was arrested in his own home for disturbing the peace.
I stand less ignorant because of what this commentator made clear in his comments regarding probable cause, what is private and public domain.
So when is Rush Limbaugh…who called Gates a racist …and also called the woman who called the police a “liberal racist”…going to apologize?
This is clearly a case of police abusing their powers and overstepping private citizens constitutional rights. Racism…probably not…but the cops need to make some apologies here… and so do idiots like Limbaugh.
Wingnutz are going to go crazy trying to explain this. They will start talking nonsense like Palin..
The Wingnutz think that yelling at a police officer in your own home is a felony LOL…….
Do not fear - Fox’s pet judge is still wrong. Massachusetts law is clear on this - yelling at the police - in public OR private - is not disorderly conduct:
In Commonwealth v. Lopiano, a 2004 decision, an appeals court held it was not disorderly conduct for a person who angrily yelled at an officer that his civil rights were being violated.
In Commonwealth v. Mallahan, a 2008 decision, an appeals court held that a person who launched into an angry, profanity-laced tirade against a police officer in front of spectators could not be convicted of disorderly conduct.
The law in Massachusetts says Crowley’s arrest was illegal detention and false arrest. Either Crowley is an idiot, or the Cambridge police have done a really bad job of teaching their law enforcement officers what is or isn’t proper protocol.
This is not the first time Sgt. Crowley has been accused of abusing a citizen. See http://fromtheport.blogspot.com/.
Finally, the truth starts to come out.
I’ve been surprised that the ultra-right loonies haven’t embraced the Gates case as as cause celebre. After all, when the police “come for their guns”, aren’t they going to rely on the fact that a man’s home is his castle and the police may not enter unless there is clear evidence of a crime to defend themselves? Glenn ‘I carry a big gun’ Beck should be screaming… at the cops! But no, Gates is a black man. Black men should not be allowed to defend their castles, they should submit to the white authority. I wonder what the reaction would have been if it had been a black cop and some white celebrity.
The fact that Gates is black trumps all else
The media love to make racial issues out of every incident involving a black man and a white man. Racial profiling does exist, but this wasn’t such a case.
The cop simply f—— up. He asked Gates for his ID, which Gates gave him. When Gates (properly) asked for Crowley’s ID, Crowley refused. Actually, Crowley didn’t need Gates’ ID, because the police department has access to names and address of every citizen within its jurisdiction by computer (reverse lookup). By the time Crowley had arrived at Gates’ home, he should have known who lived there. Once he saw Gates’ ID, that confirmed what he should have already known. At that point he should have excused himself and left. Instead, he tried to play “tough guy” with Gates.
Obama should have said nothing. Gates is a prominent black man, but that shouldn’t matter to a president. If this had happened to a middle-class black with no name recognition, Obama wouldn’t have said a word. So it’s a lesson for the president. But nothing he said before or afterward changes the facts of the case. The cop was wrong.
Gates didn’t say this was ‘racial profiling’ - Crowley didn’t stop Gates for driving while black…
Gates is saying that Crowley’s *attitude* (the “step outside”, the pushing into the house because the boy wasn’t getting his papers fast enough, the “I’ll show you, boy” arrest as soon as he stepped outside on his own porch to talk to a Harvard policeman he recognized) - THIS could very well be a racial attitude towards what Crowley sees as his “inferiors”. “Do exactly as I say, boy.”
Or,
maybe Crowley is just an asshole to *everybody*.
Either way, Gates has a lawsuit.
GATES FALSE ARREST MARKS 1 BILLIONTH CUSTOMER SERVED
– Issue Divides Polluting Consumerist Corporatist Torturing Empire —
– President, Prof, Pig to Cure Nation’s Ills By Grabbing a Beer Together –
Jeesh!!!
Everybody needs to put this thing to rest.
Both of these men were wrong in the way they handled the situation. Gates could have been a little more understanding of the officer trying to do what is expected of him and the officer, racial training or not, could have been a little more understanding of the astonishment a black man experienced when he opened the door to to a bunch of white officers making demands of him in his own house. And if it’s true that Gates didn’t lay a hand on the officer or use verbal threats, then the police did “act stupidly” by falsely arresting him. A man’s home is his castle and as long as he’s not broken any law, the police have ‘no right’ to arrest him.
But, at worst, both of these men are just plain human and they each, in their own way, fucked up.
Sure, Obama should have passed on the reporter’s question, but I’m sure the ‘Right-shitflingers’ would have raised a ruckus over that too.
It’s a damned good thing Gates wasn’t a right-wing survivalist. Both he and the cop would probably be dead.
It should not be put to rest until it is finished.
I’m tired of hearing people naively giving Crowley a pass on what should be a main objective of his profession.
It is not Gate’s job to defuse heated situations, whereas being a “Peace Officer” it is Crowley’s. Saying the situation escalated because they both acted out of line ignores that fact.
This being in the public eye means more facts are coming out -it is starting to become evident that Crowley is an “Egotist Cop” who does not understand the fundimental purpose of his profession. He was confronted with an “uppity” black man and arrested him to show him who’s boss. If Gates had been a normal everyday black man he would still be in jail, and if he continued to fight for his trampled rights, on his way to prison.
I just finished listening to NPR this morning. And I am disgusted with their borrowed Fox News white racist commentator Juan Williams. This guy who has been described by another NPR host as a ‘great philosopher of race’ ranted on about the Gates affair. He wept crocodile tears for the poor disadvantaged white working class policeman who was victimized by the black Harvard professor abetted by a black mayor, a black governor and a black president who colluded together to keep the poor white working class down. Why can’t NPR be honest and simply call itself Klan Radio since it insists on giving white racist like Williams pride of place in its schedule.
I’m sick of NPR -and I’ve been listening since the Seventies
NO! Today’s police department is modeled after the German
Gestapo since Reagan and under those laws, the police
have the right to enter at any time, arrest for any reason or no reason and jail for any or no reason. This was affirmed by
the Bush “Patriot Act”. I thought you all knew.
The question that has not been addressed:
gates: “I just got back from China” cop sees bags on the porch and limo out front, limo driver in a suit.
Did Gates fly back from China first class, business class, or coach. It makes a difference.
24 hours with connectors. Day is night(times are opposite) For Gates, it’s the middle of the night and he’s tired, only the sun is out. Did he sleep on the plane? Some people can’t.
Bags on the front porch. hmm.
The cop should have understood that this residents emotions were outta whack, backed down apologetically, and gotten the hell outta there. Instead, he focused on who’s in charge. That, my friends, is what has been termed “acting stupidly.”
The row of cop supporters that stood up the other day embarrassed themselves and the City of Cambridge. Taxpayers there should be asking a lot of questions and getting some reassurance that their fine officers are properly trained.
One said “I’m a third generation cop”
Well, ya know, that may be the problem right there.
Hesus Kristos, I’d recommend you guys checkout Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Freedom Watch, on FOX ONLINE, ONLY. You may want to guess why. It actually deals with REAL CONSTITUTIONAL issues; Noooo a popular topic since Ron Paul, but still can’t have it on prime time, so they’ll take the ratings, but not real presence.
By the way, is this the ONLY time when REAL Constitutional issues are considered on this site, when “one of our own” gets attacked?
oBUSHma is NOT on YOUR SIDE. He is a puppet of the banksters. Has he commented on Oscar Grant? Has he commented on Oklahoma EMT? Has he commented on a damn PANDEMIC of POLICE STATE tactics, murder and abuse, and death by taser, RAMPED UP under Bush, now EXPANDED under oBOMBa with all the color of law he’s kept from the village idiot’s reign?
NO.
Why butt in on Gates? Because he’s a friend, and an “intellectual” within their own circles.
Let me repeat once more, YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE RULING CLASS. There are REAL Constitutional crisis in our nation. Supporting a puppet who continues to TORTURE, BOMB civilians, rendition, THREE theater wars, is NOT your friend, nor your public servant. So you want to take “FREE” healthcare from him? So you can be bribed into killing your fellow citizens and sovereign foreign citizens? How low have we come.
Also is it really “free healthcare” if all it is, is continue funding the likes of Merck, Bayer, all spinoffs of I.G.Farben, the financiers and cyanide mfg. for the concentration camps? You think the gvt provides anything? IT PAYS back their favorite campaign donors, continuing CORPORATOCRACY. For the life of me, many of you “get” how the military ind.complex operates, at cost plus, funding black projects, continuing to fund wars on both sides, and yet, with all the malfeasance, such as actually SELLING HIV laced vaccines by Bayer, you can ask the liberal Atty. Mike Papantonio, Vioxx, SSRI’s PUSHED upon our kids, while continuing unCONSTITUTIONAL war on drugs, (watch Kevin P.Miller’s Generation Rx to check out the REAL human cost), FDA being essentially run and funded by them, now elitist assholes like Bill Maher is applauding, hey, with this system, we should essentially let old people who do not have too many days left, DIE, and save gvt money. This is the essence of rationed healthcare, limited funds, gvt dictating who should and should not live, so you can FEEL good about getting substandard “healthcare.”
Gvt is soulless. They’re only “old” and “too costly to pay for operations” for the govt, NOT to you and me.
Think people, think.
There is a PANDEMIC of Police brutality in this nation, as a derivative of this insane “war on terrorism” where a moron thug deludes he’s found al-CIA-da everytime he pulls over someone. This MUST come to and end. Where is your people’s champion on the real issues? Grandstanding AFTER signing off on ALL the BANKSTER bailouts, AIG payoff, Goldman-SUCHS payola. Are you all that gullible? He is a trojan horse. He is here to put the final nail in the coffin of the American Constitutional Republic. There is NO Left vs. Right. ONLY US, We the People, the Free HUMANITY vs. Bankster oligarchs and their sycophantic minion turds.
There is still time to embrace our heritage of Resistance against Oligarchy, our strain of Declaration of Independence. Embrace it. They’re pushing the people into desperation, a perfect storm of economic meltdown, racist redherrings to get us riled up against each other, wasting time on useless non-issues, classic divide and conquer. DO NOT fall for it. I beg of you.
The GREAT Gore Vidal, on the RAMPANT American POLICE STATE:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090728_america_the_great_police_state/
a MUST read. This is cruicial. What if the SAME happen to YOU and ME, who don’t have a Hotline to the WhiteHouse? This is a CONSTITUTIONAL Republic: ALL CITIZENRY, as well as those on this soil DESERVE CONSTITUTIONAL protection.
The POLICE STATE MUST END!
White cop and a white perp.
watch it:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/960074/crazy_guy_annoyed_by_a_cop/
The cop did what is the usual thing, THE COP FIT THE CASE TO COVER HIS MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!