The neighbor is not at fault for calling in what she thought was a crime in progress. And it’s worth noting that the cab driver was not taken into custody. But I do agree that once Skip Gates provided his I.D. and established his lawful presence there, the matter should have been closed. So why wasn’t it? We had a clash of egos, and the reports say that Gates was raising his voice. (This is protected free speech– while inside your home. But Skip got baited into walking outside, and presto! Now he was causing a “public disturbance.” )

Sgt. Crowley had the discretion to close the case and walk away. He didn’t. Instead he called for backup. I still fault him for that decision, but this is just one person’s opinion. But the inference is that he was protecting, and I do question the need to haul away a disabled 58 y.o. from his own house.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/24/cambridge_police_chief_backs_sergeant_but_promises_review_of_gates_arrest/?page=3

“…Amid the crossfire of opinions, Crowley continued to earn praise from all quarters of the law enforcement community.

He was so highly regarded by the prior police commissioner in Cambridge that he has spent the past five years teaching a class at the Lowell Police Academy to Cambridge and Lowell police cadets about how to avoid racial profiling, according to Thomas Fleming, academy director.

Fleming said the former Cambridge police commissioner, Ronnie Watson, handpicked Crowley and another officer, who is black, to jointly teach the class to about 60 cadets each year. The course meets four times a year, for three hours a session.”

Read it and come to your own conclusions.

What really bothers me, according to what I’ve heard and read, is that when the police arrived and Gates was able to prove, with his ID, that it was his home, he was still arrested for disorderly conduct. The police are the real problem.

Let’s give the lady the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume that Dr. Gates wasn’t at home and two thieves decided that broad daylight would be the perfect time to rob a house because no one would suspect that anyone would be stupid enough to have such bad timing. The woman has three choices with four potential consequences:

1) Yell something at them from the cab where potential criminals can shoot at the cab or run away in fear (assuming the cab wasn’t moving so fast that she couldn’t say anything if she wanted to)

2) Call the police and have them arrive and assess the situation since it’s their job

3) Don’t call and risk the possibility that someone’s home is genuinely being burglarized

I think the woman made the right choice in terms of mitigating risk. It’s not her fault the police decided to make an arrest and file charges after Dr. Gates proved his innocence.

What’s really frightening is that like a lot of other issues in this country, there is extreme polarization. For every American who is convinced that the Cambridge cops are racist, there is another one who backs the cops 100 percent (check out some of the pro-cop comments on the Boston.com site). This is a signal that there are fears here that go way beyond the behavior of law enforcement.

No question that blacks are hassled, profiled and all around treated like crap by the police hugely more than a white guy in America.

You indicated that you would want your wife to get involved from the safety of her car. I get that in the context of your own experience where the risk to you and your wife might well be greater by getting the police involved. Thus, I can see why you would feel both you and your wife might have a better ending in the situation were she to call out “yo..what are you doing?” before getting police involved.
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In my case, I would want my wife to keep on driving because I am more afraid of the risk to her if she has anything to do with potential bad guys than I am concerned about dealing with the police when they arrive to find that I was getting into my own house. We are both, no doubt, equally concerned about our wives safety. In your case she may be more endangered by the police while mine is more likely to be endangered by potential burglars.

So, from the cultural experience point of view, i do begin to see why your reaction would be different from my own. We do still live in two different countries. Pretty sad.