Osler's Razor

But murders are up in Dallas? Yet another reason never to go there. I have to say I like the Guns N' Hope theory. Don't know if it holds water, but I like it.
 

The Gates story doesn't read like profiling to me. It sounds like a conscientious neighbor reporting suspicious activity, a cop that responds to a typical burglary call, and a professor who 1) refuses to leave his house or show ID to the cop, which would have cleared up the whole mess (when Gates does identify himself, it’s with a Harvard school ID that doesn’t prove his address, and only later does he pull out his driver’s license), 2) starts accusing the cop of racism before explaining that its his own house, and 3) shouts, follows the cop to his car, and raises such a ruckus that he gets taken in on disorderly conduct. I.e., NOT burglary. The only person hung up on race in this story seems to be Gates.

As a homeowner this is a visit I'd hope to get from police. I'd have no problem wasting a few minutes explaining that it's my house if it means that the police are responding to reports.
 

Dallas is an outlier. And not the good kind...
 

I must say, in the Boston Globe version of this story he is reported as telling the cop, "you don't know who you're messing with." I always lose a little sympathy for someone when they say something like that, because it seems to imply that they're above or beyond the law.

Also, the article you linked to quoted Al Sharpton calling this racial profiling, which is evidence of nothing more than the fact that Al knows how to keep himself in a job.
 

Oh, how I wish they would never talk to Al Sharpton again about anything... what is he an expert in, exactly? It's like when they go to Pat Robertson to get the "Christian" perspective...

I do think the police reacted badly. For one thing, they should know whose house they are approaching (it is in their computer in the car), and this IS a very well-known person in a relatively small community (Cambridge).
 

Sorry Prof., I'm mostly with RRL and Jesse on this one. (and I generally think that police exercise their power too broadly)

Based upon the press reports, it sounds to me like Gates reacted as if he was too special or important to have to produce his Driver's License or other useful form of ID. Since he's a big deal, he thought he deserved special treatment.

This is like the Senators and Congressman that occasionally cause a stink at the airports when they get hung up in security just like "the little people."

Gates was doing something suspicious. He could have dealt with it calmly and quickly by producing an ID with an address. But his own ego and sense of self-importance got in the way.

--ending all of this with a big caveat that the press reports could be wrong, that there's more to the story, etc. etc.
 

Meantime, I still want to know why no one else is outraged by The Onion's theft of the Prof's joke regarding the sale of a publishing organ to a foreign government! The French bought the Razor long before the Onion PRETENDED to be purchased by the Chinese.

Those lousy Badgers ripped the Prof off and NO ONE SEEMS to care!

An outrage, I tell you!
 

I'm with all the above posters on this "racial profiling" incident. Prof. Osler, I'd be interested to hear you defend your assessment of this one. I don't see how the cops could have done anything differently, although you contend they reacted the situation "badly."

You said they should have known who owned the house before they arrived. First of all, it's not a given this information would have been immediately available. The articles says Gates rents the home from Harvard. Are you positive all that information, including the name of a renter, would be reflected in a police computer database? I seriously doubt it.

Well, okay, let's assume they did know who owned it, or, as the case were, who was renting it. What could they have done differently? They'd still have to confirm that the man inside matched the name of who was in the house, and then further confirm that that man was who he claimed to be through some kind of identification. Should they have just known who he is because it's a small town and he's a Harvard hot shot? I didn't know the Who's Who Among College Professors was required reading for a beat cop to do his job.
 

I'm surprised the woman who reported it--if she was a neighbor--didn't know it was Gates, or it didn't occur to her that it might actually be his home. I can see all sides here, and it sounds like all parties reacted too quickly.
 

I make no defense for the neighbor, other than the benefit of the doubt that she was just being thoughtful. See might be a raging racist, for all we know, but profiling by your nosey neighbor is still a far cry from profiling by the police.
 

I just wonder if the neighbor would have been so quick to call the police if it had been two white men with backpacks trying to push open the door . . . yes, it's good the neighbors are watching out for each other, but there may be an element of stereotyping, if not profiling, here--from the neighbor and the police.
 

Knowing what I know about Boston cops, I'd be very surprised if there weren't racial motivations behind this incident. That being said, it looks like he needs to teach a criminal procedure class to learn how to deal with cops. Yelling at them and calling them racist won't get you anywhere (other than defense attorneys rolling on the floor laughing at your police audio).
 

I wish we did have dash cam on this one...that's exactly the conversation my investigator and I had this morning when this story broke.
 

The Gates story doesn't read like profiling to me
___________________

Vince

HD Access for just $10 a month to your FAVORITE Channels!
 

Vince, are you really going to post your ads on every post?

______________

Micah

BsaketBall Prompting to your Favorite Game of Sport! Fun For Child and Parent, Sometimes Cat!
 

Smoking Gun has the Gates police report, if anyone hasn't seen it yet.

The report could be embellished, but to me it has the ring of truth. Seems like Gates tried to play the race card a bit too early in the game, not to mention the "big shot" card.
 

I have a word of advise for Prof. Gates: meet your neighbors!.

You don't have to like them, go drinking with them, but make sure they know what you look like. And I guess in the future let the one that likes to watch the world go by know when you will be out of town.