Reply #16: Too bad there isn't a video of the incident [View All]

[Gator_Matt]

If Gates followed the cop out and continued to slander him and disrupted the neighborhood, the cops had every right to arrest him. Honestly, I can't imagine blowing up at a cop in that manner. If you're polite to a cop, the cop will generally be polite back. Two examples that I've had (I'm white by the way):

I got pulled over for coming to a rolling stop early in the morning. I was driving to the airport very early and was in a wealthy part of town. Perhaps the cop pulled me over to make sure I wasn't casing the place. I was very polite to the cop, and he was very nice in return. Let me go with just a warning (the cop was black by the way). If I had blown up and screamed "this is what happens to white men in America" I'm certain that I would've been ticketed and probably arrested.

Perhaps a better example was in a separate incident in college, I was driving a friend into his apartment complex. They had a cop at the gate who was extremely belligerant (white cop) and seemed to be convinced that we were trying to start a party for some reason. I could tell the guy was unstable, so I played it cool and he had to let us go on our way. If I had blown up and screamed at him, I most certainly would've been arrested. If I were black, I might have thought "he's only doing this to me because of my race," but I think this is but one example that anyone can get harassed by bad cops.