Mayor Richard J. Daley made the definitive comment in 1968, defending police misconduct during that year's Democratic Convention:

"Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all--the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."

The idea that a person who is not a threat to himself or others and not causing a PUBLIC disturbance can be (and was) arrested is INSANE.

I understand the police have a tough job, I understand that. But respect is not earned at the end of a Glock or through the wires of a Taser. In fact, the growing use of Tasers for 'obedience' (rather than a non-lethal alternative to the handgun, as originally intended and marketed) has made the situation worse.

Again, 98% of the police officers there are professional, conscientious, and have my unending respect. It's the 2% that get off on the power trip, who get hot-headed if you knuckle down when they put on the mirrored shades that cause the problems (and that minority could probably be easily identified through testing for steroids). Unfortunately, the police are not good at policing their own, so the image of the entire force is brought down by the bad apples.

When you realize the damage that minority can do to you, you realize how important this issue is:

Police break into wrong apartment, strike epileptic in the head, point shotguns at crying kids. No apology. ((link...))

In this case in Gwinett, officers were wise, recognized their mistake, and didn't get more enraged. Good for them. ((link...))

In this case, the man objected and said the officers were in the wrong house, so they tasered him for talking back: ((link...))

The mentally disabled and deaf are particularly at risk for a "misunderstanding", but again, the response to someone not responding to your commands is NOT to whip out the taser, OK?

((link...))

I particularly like the blog command on this one: "Here's my honest POV: If you're a cop who is afraid of an umbrella, you're a tremendous wuss and have no business being on the force."

Well said. We all have rights, and we must not be made to feel afraid to exercise them. Or else we are NOT a free country.

This is a screwed up situation that Obama should not have waded in to. He has a legitimate point about profiling, etc., but he needs to pick better examples to make it.

In this case, we don't know who said what but we can guess that both sides escalated until it got out of hand.

Regardless, the police operate under the color of law with power of deadly force so they have the final responsibility to walk away from the escalation, even if the guy is following them out of his house hollering insults and throwing F bombs or whatever (and we don't even know if that happened in this case). Arresting the guy crossed the line, and doesn't help public perception of how they handled it.

As for the citizen, he should first be appreciative that neighbors were concerned enough to call in a possible burglary at his home and he should be appreciative of the police for doing their job and coming to check it out. But again, we don't know who said what first, so there's no way to know if whatever reaction the guy had was justified or not.

Personally, I'd be "yes sir, no sir, here's my ID, thanks for checking it out." End of incident. If the cops pushed it beyond that then something should be done. If the guy pushed it beyond that without any justifiable provocation he was being stupid but there's no law against stupid and either way the cops have a duty to practice restraint and walk away (and not say provocative stuff in the first place).

Obviously more was said, and again we don't know what or by whom or when or what prompted it, but either way the arrest was an overreaction by police absent any physical threat or danger to public safety. Unfortunately we'll never know unless there's a video of the incident, which I'm assuming we'd have seen by now unless it makes the cops look bad.

See also Eric Lykins' previous post about this: (link...)

What Gates was actually arrested for was acting like a tenured professor, while black.

To my understanding, arrest is to be used to apprehend someone who has committed a crime or, to prevent someone who appears to be intent on committing a crime from doing so. The real test of whether this is right or not is pretty simple. If the officer had come upon a couple of men of Gates' physical stature and condition, in a private residence of which Gates was the legal resident, having a discussion/argument incorporating the same or similar words and volume level, would the officer have arrested anyone. If the answer is "yes", it needs explication. If the answer is "no", then the officer was in the wrong on the Gates call and should be disciplined for abuse of power.

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

How long has tension between the police & African-Americans
been going on?

A very long time..generations in fact.

Why? Because the police treated African-Americans unfairly.

A decade or so ago tensions rose to a fever pitch between
the police & African-Americans here in Knoxville.

In fact IMO we were close to a riot.

I thought I knew the plight of African-Americans
& the police.

I was a hippy once & I know all that jazz about the MAN!

I didn't know jack shit.

For example

I'd never been told by my grandfather.

If the police stop you..ALWAYS pull over
in a parking lot or where there are witnesses.

But a black grandfather said he gave all his
grandsons that advice.

We have come light years from where Knoxville was
then & the leadership of Chief Sterling deserves
the credit.

But we have miles to go to calm the waters of the turbulance
that was generations in building.