About Crowley

[Raspberry]

He got to Prof. Gates' home AFTER Gates had already gotten inside, right? So, he didn't actually observe Prof. Gates attempting to 'break in' to his own home. Didn't he have a duty to make sure that there wasn't someone else there who perhaps HAD already broken into the home before Prof. Gates got there? Someone could have been holding a gun to someone's throat, or something.

Did Crowley have a responsibility as an officer to make sure of the situation before he left? Don't know if that's an issue at all. Just something I've been wondering about . . .

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Yeeeeah, that's the ticket.

[WeDidIt]

2. LIAF

[Howardx]

10. totally

another loser "just wondering...."

[thereismore]

3. He acted stupidly. nt

[MADem]

So....arresting the homeowner to "protect" him, is that where you're going?

I don't understand.

Police have no right to come into your home uninvited, particularly when you ID yourself positively with two forms of ID.

If the Professor needed help, all he'd have to do is roll his eyes a bit and do the silent "HELP ME" routine.

[Jane Austin]

4. I don't think anybody is arguing that Crowley should not have gone to the home

and establish Gates's identity.

The problem comes after that.

The problem is that he arrested the homeowner and took him to jail for the "crime" of shouting in his own home.

[MrsBrady]

9. thank you

I don't understand why that is so hard to understand?!?

[BlooInBloo]

5. He's a worthless sack of shit - we all know that.

[YOY]

6. I often wondered what goes on in his head...

Has he talked to the dead?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSnj8X1zAZI

[geek_sabre]

7. thats what he said in one of the earlier interviews...

he said that's why he initially asked Gates to step outside.

[vi5]

8. Here's my anecdote about police responses to things...

About 2 years ago my son was still in the throes of medical issues, and as such we had a night nurse in our house. Who stayed with him in his room while we slept.

One evening the nurse knocked on our (my wife and I) bedroom door. We jumped up and got out of bed. She said the police had been at the door and said "There's a man in the neighborhood with a gun and that they were ordering us to get the family together and leave the house." She said she asked why if there was a man in the neighborhood loose with a gun, would we leave the house? Wouldn't that put us in more danger? She also explained that we had an infant in the house attached to medical equipment. The cop apparently got mad, offered no more explanation, yelled at her and ordered her to get us and the kids out immediately.

I got up and called the police station and the woman at dispactch said that the problem had been resolved and that we didn't have to leave.

The next day I found out that this was a domestic dispute across the street from us, and that the man involved was said to have a gun. The reason they wanted everyone to leave was that before they went in, they wanted the area cleared. A few years prior during a domestic dispute a man started shooting from his front porch and stray bullets entered the houses of neighbors and people across the street.

Now this as an explanation is still fairly dubious, as it would have been safer to just tell us to stay away from windows or go to our basement or whatever. But the fact that the officer gave questionable orders, and refused to offer any additional explanation (even a condensed version if there was limited time), and got mad when there were extraneous circumstances explained to him, is I think a good example, and part of the whole problem.

Cops have many reasons which citizens don't always know about, for doing what they do and asking what they ask, and going about things the way they do. They have a background both personal and case related that we may never know about or be aware of. And while they can't always hold our hands and coddle us and walk us nicely through the process, they should also avoid getting agitated when pressed politely for reasonable explanations.

[Wednesdays]

11. Checkin' today's menu. Hmm...pepperoni, sausage, anchovies...

Just wondering when delivery time might be.

[seabeyond]

12. no. the cop did not have a responsibility to extend his suspensions. his job was to identify

who was in the house. that was it