On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 11:26 PM, Judah McAuley<ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Jerry Johnson<jmi...@gmail.com> wrote: >> If in fact Gates was threatening the cop by asking for his badge number, and >> promising to rain hell down on him, in front of other cops and witnesses, >> the police officer's ability to just "walk away" may have been limited for >> both pride and legal and professional reasons. > > WTF? Threatening the cop by asking for his badge number? That should > be every citizens first response. If there is not immediate danger to > life and limb then I'm not going to do a damn thing until the cop > shows me that they are, indeed, a cop and have identified themselves. > And promising to rain hell down on them? How is that threatening? If > the cop is doing the right thing, he's got a whole review process > already tilted in his favor and a powerful union backing up his ass.
Asking a cop for his badge number is about as threatening as it is racist for a cop to ask a minority for ID...especially when the police officer is investigating a reported crime. Oh, and I am sorry, saying you would 'rain down hell' on someone is most definitely a threat. > > Sounds like police state talk to me. They work for us. Period. A tough > job, no doubt, and I am happy that they do it. But every citizen has > the right to be presented with identification of the person exerting > authority in the situation and to loudly proclaim that they will seek > legal recourse under their rights. Unless the dude is seriously > obstructing an critical investigation or threatening them with > non-legal (i.e., physical harm) means, that is the end of the story. But Gates was not arrested for threatening the police officer, nor for being in his own house, he was arrested for being 'disorderly'. He could have been singing the Hokey-Pokey, but if he was doing it loud enough, he would still have been disorderly. I have not read anything that states Gates asked the officer for ID to determine if he was a police officer, only that he wanted The more that comes out about this story, the more I think the majority of the blame for this incident falls on Gates' shoulders. When we first moved into our house, we went to dinner with my in-laws. Sometime, right before we got home, my in-laws' dog set off the house alarm. We got home, turned off the alarm and were talking to the alarm company when a sheriff's officer arrived. He pretty much asked what was asked of Gates. He asked that I come outside on the porch and then asked for ID. When he was satisfied I lived there, he then asked if everyone in the house was safe (I assumed he wanted to be sure there were not bad guys in the house). Want to know something? I was tankful he did such thorough job rather than just take my word I lived in the house. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300885 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
