I'll bet Gates fell victim to the sleazy cop tactic of "Provoke the perp."

[backscatter712]

We don't know exactly what happened inside Gates's house - the witnesses were outside, remember, so do bear in mind that this is speculation pulled out of my ass.

I have thus disclaimed, so...

I'll bet that what happened to Gates was the classic police tactic of provoking a person until he loses his cool.

Here's how it works... You get stopped, the cop talks to you. You cooperate, produce your ID, follow the usual script of cop and accosted citizen.

As the interaction goes on, you find the cop's being an absolute prick. He's arrogant, he's bullying, he's asking you lots of nasty, probing questions, many of which are none of his fucking business. His tone of voice is hostile. You continue answering questions, and the cop continues to escalate the hostility. Maybe he grabs you or touches you roughly, he starts yelling at you, he threatens to arrest you.

You're not doing anything wrong - you're cooperating, but the cop continues to badger you. You can't help but feel your pulse racing and sweat dripping down your forehead as this raging asshole continues to provoke you, so some of your answers might be a little snippy. Finally, you lose patience and say something like "Hey, what's your problem?"

BOOM! The cop comes down on you like a ton of bricks, slams you to the ground, bounces your skull off the pavement, and nearly wrenches your arm out of its socket as he tackles and cuffs you. You're under arrest, charged with disorderly conduct and hauled downtown. When the cop writes up his arrest report and testifies to the judge, he lies his ass off, claims that you were hostile, argumentative, and makes you look like one of those suspects featured in the TV show COPS.

You fell victim to the classic cop tactic of provoking a perp until he loses his cool or asks the wrong question or "shows signs that he's nervous and obviously hiding something."

I'll bet (again, pulling this out of my ass,) that's what happened to Gates. The cop provoked him and provoked him and provoked him until he lost his cool, then arrested him for losing his cool.

Some cops loooove playing this game. Especially with minorities. And of course, the police groupies will tell you it's always the perp's fault - he's gonna be chided and scolded for losing his cool, and proving police misconduct is next to impossible.

And people wonder why I'm filled with white-hot rage when it comes to police misconduct...

:mad:

[BlooInBloo]

1. self-delete - misread.

Whoops.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. Cops are notorious for provoking.

I think people that get into this sort of work already come with an agenda, or a mental problem. I'm sure there are exceptions, but they are, as they're called, exceptions.

[MajorChode]

22. University professors are also known for being pompous assholes

[daleo]

24. I work at a university (not as a prof)

I have been surprised by how un-pompous professors have been, at least to me. Same was true when I was a student.

For the record, the vast majority of my experiences with police have been civil too.

[MajorChode]

25. Certainly there are great profs that aren't that way

But there's definitely some that are.

My subtle point was you can prejudge university professors just as easily as you can cops. There are good ones and there are bad ones, but the bad ones are almost always the ones that prejudicial opinions are based.

[greguganus]

37. My son got a speeding ticket at college for going 8 mph in a 5 mph zone...on his bicycle!

Ticketed by campus police. I asked him if the cop ran beside his bike yelling "pull over!". He had to pay a $25 fine.

[MajorChode]

41. I'm not even sure how you can go 5 mph in a car

I have to ride the brakes at 10 mph.

I guess you could put it in neutral and tie a hankie to the antenna as a sail, provided the terrain is relatively flat and you have a moderate breeze.

[Chulanowa]

28. Especially when accosted within their own home by police without a warrant

Come to think of it, I'd probably be a pompous asshole in that case, too.

[MajorChode]

29. Let's see here...

Your house is broken into once. Then police get a report that someone may be breaking into it again.

So the police come to investigate (without a warrant), but they are assholes for doing so.

Yep, your reasoning makes perfect sense.

[Chulanowa]

31. when I show them my ID and they keep harassing me and arrest me within my own home?

Credit to Prof. Gates. They would have had to taze the shit out of me at that point, 'cause i'd be doing some Mike Tyson shit there. Mmmm, pig ears. a million dogs can't be wrong!

[MajorChode]

33. You're claiming things Gates himself isn't claiming

But by all means don't let mere facts get in the way of a good rant.

[Chulanowa]

35. Really?

Gates isn't claiming he showed police his ID, and the police report that backs him up on this is false.

Okay.

[MajorChode]

36. Keep going

Selective memory is quite the bitch when your comments are there for all to see, no?

[Liquorice]

34. I don't know what other choice the cop had other than to investigate the break-in. I think

Gates acted like an idiot, but shouldn't have been arrested. If I had to break into my own house, and my neighbor called the police thinking there was a robbery at my house, I would cooperate fully with the cops who showed up to investigate.

[MajorChode]

38. Any reasonable person would have been glad the police were investigating

So something obviously went wrong somewhere.

[conscious evolution]

45. Nice nieghbors he has

The man lives next door and they do not know who he is?
Sounds like the pig is not the only racist.

[MajorChode]

46. The report didn't come from a neighbor or a man

But don't let the facts get in the way of making a good false racism charge.

[conscious evolution]

47. Then who called the pigs?The tooth fairy?

[MajorChode]

51. Figure it out for yourself

I don't really feel the need or see much purpose in trying to properly inform someone who refers to the police as "pigs" without having a clue as to even the basic facts. Providing factual information to a bigot is kinda like trying to polish a turd. It does absolutely no good and all you do is get shit all over yourself.

[Mike Daniels]

52. People who live 8 doors down are technically your "neighbors"

Doesn't mean you know everyone of them on sight.

Where does it even say in either account that the person was a next-door neighbor?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

43. My friend, I may be lucky but I have NEVER met a pompous professor....

What school did you go to?!?

[Ikonoklast]

44. Really? Where do you teach?

[MajorChode]

49. Where do you practice law enforcement?

So I have to teach in order to make such observations, yet others can make observations about the police without ever having worked in that profession?

What kind of fucked up logic is that?

[Ikonoklast]

55. I guess that one sailed over your head.

I'll try harder next time.

[MajorChode]

56. incoherence generally does

And I don't really think I would ever want to get prattle. YMMV.

Have a nice day.

[Ikonoklast]

57. I thought you were fluent in it.

My mistake.

You, too, have a nice day.

[slampoet]

50. How many University professors do you meet in Ft Worth?

And why are you repeating Glenn Beck talking points?

[masuki bance]

3. Gates must be in on the cover up of the head slam. nt

[imdjh]

That doesn't even come close to what either Gates, Crowley, or Figueroa said happened. nt

[backscatter712]

6. My little story's hypothetical.

More related to the Gates story, Crowley was asking lots of questions, continuing to ask questions, showing a nasty attitude, and jerking him around until Gates lost his cool and made the mistake of stepping outside.

The point is that cops play the game of provoking you until you lose your cool, and then nail your ass to the wall.

It's something they do for fun.

I don't know how Mother Theresa could have kept her cool in Gates's situation.

[timeforpeace]

4. Don't you hate it when that happens?

[Captain Hilts]

5. That's an interesting theory. The VA Beach police do it a LOT. nt

[TexasObserver]

7. Recommended, for its deadly accuracy.

[Gman]

8. This typical asshole cop passed the Being A Jerk class in cadet school

with flying colors. He obviously also excelled in Creative Report Writing.

One thing you can be very sure of. If a cop's lips are moving, or if he's writing, he's lying.

[Birthmark]

9. That takes me back

Turns out that I'm a terrible person to provoke. :evilgrin:

[kestrel91316]

10. Probably, except Gates was in no way a "perp". He was a citizen

rightfully occupying his home.

[backscatter712]

11. Very good point.

Of course, in the cop's mind, we're all "perps" - just that some of us haven't been caught yet.

[tj2001]

12. Very common tactic

I personally witnessed a cop talking to a motorist that he had pulled over for suspicion of DWI. The motorist passed all tests, but what ensued was something like this:
Cop: "You consumed alcohol, correct?"
Motorist: "Yeah. I had a beer"
Cop: "You smell like you had more than that. You had two beers?"
Motorist: "No. Just one"
Cop: "No way. You must have drank two or three"
Motorist: "Nope. Just one"
Cop: "I think it's two"
Motorist: "Why??? So what? How do you know what I did?"
Cop: "What did you say??? Now don't have an attitude with me"
Motorist: "I don't"
etc. etc.
(Motorist argued, raised voice, said bad words)
Cop: "You're under arrest"
Cop saved the world. Motorist went to jail.

[Davis_X_Machina]

13. In MA, if it's not public, it's not disorderly...

...so the officer needs Gates out on the porch. Which is why he told Gates his badge number if he stepped outside.

So not so much provoked, as enticed....

[Duckhunter935]

14. Police report

Stated the officer provided that information at leeast twice inside the residence. Did he have a badge and name tag on his uniform?

[backscatter712]

15. OK, who believes the police report? Raise your hands!

I don't.

[Duckhunter935]

20. We may find out from the law suit

I am no expert but I think the report would be considered a sworn statement by the officers. If they lied on the report, they should be fired and charged. I would also like to see a swarn statement from Professor Gates on this.

[Davis_X_Machina]

16. Which of the two police reports? n/t

[Duckhunter935]

19. one I have seen

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police%20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF

do you have the other one?

[mullard12ax7]

17. But some super online lawyer-type just said all the law was followed so...

it must be true, I read it on the internet!

[abumbyanyothername]

18. It happened to me . . . .

I related the full story elsewhere. I suspect the cops were revved up on amphetimines or maybe steroids. Whatever they seemed drugged and were obviously trying to get me to blow up.

[SmileyRose]

27. Me too

some dumbass stopped me at 2am for supposedly going 2 MPH over the speed limit. No I'm not kidding he said he clocked me going 37 in a 35. Shined his light all over the car, asked me if I was rushing home to my husband after a night with my boyfriend, along with various other assorted sexually charged BS. Which was pretty funny considering how fugly I am physically speaking. It was really hard not to bust out laughing. But I sat there totally expressionless and said absolutely nothing. I never spoke a single word to him and refused to open my window more that the half inch required to pass back and forth documents. That guy was one pissed off SOB 45 minutes later when he finally told me I could go.

I filed a lawsuit the next day demanding a copy of the dashcam on the cop car. The funniest part of the whole thing was the part I never heard while he was out of ear shot in or near his cop car. Turns out he was on the cell phone fighting with his mistress when he pulled me over.

I'm not sure but I think the guys job now involves "do you want fries with that".

[azureblue]

21. yep I had a cop do that to me

He was getting really testy because I couldn't hear what he was saying- I have a major hearing loss, and he was standing next to his noisy cop car. He ignored me when I told him I have a hearing loss. I had to ask someone else to repeat what the cop was saying and he didn't like that either, got angry and told me to only talk to him. About the sixth time when I had to ask him to again repeat himself, he threatened to throw me in jail. I had enough of his bullying and replied, "you would throw a person with a federally recognized disability in jail for being hard of hearing?" Suddenly it dawned on him what was about to happen- he was inches away from getting sued and having the federal government force sensitivity training on the entire dept. He got a case of the mumbles, and got back in his car and drove off - no explanation, no apology, nothing. But I reported him anyway, and got an apology from his captain. The cop had to pay for his own training in how to relate with people with disabilities, and he got put on rotating shifts.

[Joe Fields]

23. I can tell you from first hand knowledge that cops fudge reports.

[MajorChode]

26. I tend to believe this one didn't

There were other cops making video and audio recordings of the incident, witnesses were present, a police supervisor was present, and there was already media interest in the story by the time the report was written.

So what cop in their right mind would intentionally falsify a report under those circumstances and what police department would continue to support said officer after being privy to a lot of information that hasn't been released to the public yet (but almost certainly will)?

[LiberalAndProud]

30. You are conjuring out of thin air.

[backscatter712]

32. Never claimed otherwise.

This is a hypothesis.

Like I said, the only witnesses to what happened inside Gates's home, before he stepped out on the porch and got arrested, is Gates and Crowley.

[tblue37]

39. What perp? A Perp is someone who has committed a crime.

Gates was not perp--and neither is anyone else unless they have actually done something illegal, even if they have been accosted by a cop. A person is just a person (or a citizen, not a perp), no matter how the cops want to view us all.

[backscatter712]

40. In the eyes of these cops, everybody's a "perp".

They believe that those of us with clean records simply haven't been caught yet...

[hfojvt]

42. I certainly got provoked.

There I was, I had worked a ten hour night shift at an exhausting factory job. Then I had done some grocery shopping and was driving home. I still had to walk my dogs and empty the machines at the laundromat I owned before going to bed so I could work another ten hours the next night.

Then a city cops whips around in a u-turn and pulls me over for a seatbelt violation. That's bad enough, but instead of giving me a ticket and sending me on my way, for reasons he never explains he asks me to get out of the car and starts snapping questions at me about 'Do I have any weapons in the car?'

So I am thinking 'Where the heck did this come from and what is the deal with this guy's tone? Is it illegal for me to carry a weapon in my car?' Plus, I figured he was gonna search my car anyway. Then he would find a weapon and say 'aha, you lied to me. Now we are going downtown to ask some more questions.'

Plus, there was the fact that I sometimes had a machete under my driver's seat for when I went to my wooded property. I did not want to wander even my own woods without some sort of weapon in case I met an animal with an attitude. One neighbor had claimed he saw a wolverine in that area once.

But is the machete under my seat? I don't remember. What's the easiest way to find out? Reach under the seat and look. I am, after all, standing right next to my car and my front window was down. So I proceed to do that after saying "I might have a machete under the seat, let me check."

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Lucky I didn't get hurt or shot or something, but he grabs my arm and the back of my neck and I freeze.

The really bizarre thing was after he cuffed me I turn around and see about five cop cars back there. Holy crap. Who knew that a seatbelt ticket requited the entire police force of the town. He later claimed that when you call for back-up you don't know how many cars will respond.

And that, as I have probably posted before is how I ended up cuffed by the side of the road because of a seatbelt violation.

In a piece of irony, the cop who stood guard over me while my car was searched, was black. Clearly it was racial profiling. :o

However, I can admit some fault on my side, and part of that was because I had just moved from a small town where most of the cops knew who I was and were friendly except for a couple of parking tickets.

[slampoet]

48. I once had a cop bend my ID in half and start cleaning under his fingernails with it.

[FloriTexan]

53. They do want to provoke....

and they can be insulting and rude in their authoritative tone. I got pulled over for speeding (5 miles over no less no more). The officer wanted to know where we were going. Um, why!? Hubby and I had taken the day off for his birthday and were grabbing breakfast and going to the park, but what business was it of his? It wasn't a racist thing, we were all the same.

[mnhtnbb]

54. Add to it Gates had just returned from a trip. I'm completely wiped out

after a trip from hassling with airports, security shit, traffic to get home, maybe even jet lag.
The guy was probably tired and just wanted to unpack and go to bed. Instead this damn cop is hassling
him IN HIS OWN HOUSE!

I bet I would have lost it, too, but the cop would never have bothered me, white woman in a white neighborhood. And it's still no justification for the arrest. The point is, you have to be on your toes dealing with cops if they are considering you the bad guy, because they clearly can't be trusted.

[ecstatic]

58. Like the cop that stopped the ambulance and choked the EMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzQlL1Hb258