Nice review and interesting responses. Well I am not White and I am in LE field, so I know first hand how a situation escalates in a matter of seconds....fractions of seconds. The neighbor did what anyone would want their neighbor to do call the police, it is not her responsibility or job to do anything other than that (picture your mom making that call)! Whoever an officer encounters in a home on a call like that should cooperate immediately with everything the officer says only and only for Their Safety and the Officers Safety, period and trust me on that. Going home at the end of the day is paramount! The officer arrested Gates for Disorderly Conduct, this has nothing to do with the original call offense. Unless you were there or have FULL video and audio you cannot pass judgment on Crowley's arrest. It is an ordinance/offense that was violated, a tough one for some courts and States but still a violation. As for all those who want to beat the US and Law Enforcement down for racism, please take a look all around the World the US did not corner the market on racism/discrimination. Coming from a person who's entire family escaped from the Middle East to the US, due to religious persecution such as death. Take a real good look at what is happening within religious sects, social class and racial discrimination throughout the world. Take a stroll in Iran and pop off to the police see what happens, try your luck in Iraq, China, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, GB, France..... I recommend everyone clear their calender and go to your local police sector and request a ride along if you have never experienced a day in the life of an officer. As for racist officers, it is awful that exist but they do like in any other arena. Unfortunately they have to actually do something racist to be exposed, and that makes the entire LE community look like racists. Crowley so far seems to be the type of officer I would want to respond to my house or my mothers house to protect life and property.

Hi Sean......you make a good point. I feel bad for the woman who was trying to do a good deed. She's really the innocent party here and she's getting slammed by the media. For me, media falls under the category of "dont' get me started." That's an entire review in and of itself, and one I'll write about at some point. They blow so many things out of proportion for the sake of entertainment and they hurt a lot of people. Many folks never recover. I really believe the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Gates may have been tired and maybe the cop was too, but time now to move forward. Hopefully, the media will let it rest so that we can in fact advance as a nation. We've come a long way and I do have faith that we CAN get past all this.

Hi Devora......good review. We always seem to have some kind of "gate" going on, don't we.....and you bring up some valid points here. I admire Crowley for hanging tough in this situation, and if I were Gates, I'd get town on my knees and thank Whelan for having the guts and taking the time to call police. Everyone should be as vigilant. She got a bad rap out of this, which is one of the reasons people often don't become more involved. I also agree with Sean that's there's more to the story than meets the eye....there always is. Unfortunately, the media only tells what they want us to know.

In all honesty, I think the media blew this out of proportion much more than anyone else.  They keep coming back to this story and making it seem bigger than it actually is.  People like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck don't help either as they've used this incident to push a very racially heated agenda, and even call Obama a racist.  Did the police act stupidly?  Well, who knows.  Let's be honest... we weren't there.  As a result... we don't know.  In truth the only people who DO know are Gates and Crowley.  Regardless of what we have heard... there's even more we have not. 

Now in terms of Gates getting arrested, I'm of the belief that some of it WAS racially motivated.  Even if Gates acted disorderly and was arrested for such, there are plenty of people who act disorderly in that way and suffer no consequences at all.  Could Gates have behaved better?  Sure.  But could Crowley have also behaved better?  Definitely.  In our society we often like to put forth different reasons for why we do certain things.  So was it REALLY disorderly conduct or is it that they don't want to admit to a mistake and they're able to use this as an alternate reasoning?  No one likes to be caught with their fly down, and people fall back on excuses and alternatives all the time to save themselves from being embarassed.  The point of the matter, however, is that we don't know what happened and the only two that TRULY know are Gates and Crowley.  We can't even be sure everything in the police report is 100% accurate.  Disorderly conduct or not: Crowley could've easily taken the high road rather than jumping the gun and arresting.  To put it simple, most others in Gates's situation probably wouldn't have been arrested. 

As far as the race card... watch the political pundits.  Listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or just watch a couple of the news shows.  Who exactly is playing the race card?  Either directly or indirectly?  Some of the comments that have stemmed from this seem to be from certain people hoping to use this to incite a bit of racial rage where it isn't needed or wanted.  I don't understand how Obama's "stupidly" comment brands him a racist.  And I don't know why five minutes of a press conference turned into this when the other 55 minutes were about healthcare.  As I said, I think the media really blew this thing into a bigger monster than it should've been.  They blew Obama's comments up... but not Justin Barrett.  I understand that Obama is the President... but what people have been saying about Obama's comment has been far more widespread than the incident between Gates and Crowley itself... just because of one word.

And here's an interseting fact: After Obama was elected while America kept celebrating this, "Racial barrier destroyed..." a paper in the UK was noticing something different... that shortly after Obama's election hate crime increased.  The story is from November 17, but I think you get the idea.  It's good to talk race, but the race card isn't just thrown out by minorities.  Look at how Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have been using it to say Obama hates white people... It's still the race card. 

Not everything is about race.  And I understand your point.  I don't think this is entirely about race, but this incident has shown two things.  The first is that people are scared to talk race and that racial tensions are bad.  The second is whether or not America was actually ready for an African American president.  We elected one... but was it a little soon for that?  If this small incident could spark such vasts racial tension and say... the realization that hate crimes increased when Obama was elected didn't raise an eyebrow in America... what exactly does that say about our country?  Especially when you consider our history...

By the way, an excellent write up!  I really enjoyed it, even though I disagree with a few parts.  But I do understand.

Hi Devora, Sorry to disagree with some aspects of your review. I am a white male, but very much understand what racism means in this country. There having cases where white cops have "mistakenly" mistreated and even killed black men. It is just the plain truth which we should all have the courage to face. And you seem to have deliberately avoided mentioning anything about that white police officer named Justin Barrett. In case you don't have your facts complete, let me inform you that officer Barrett has been suspended by his command unit. He circulated vicious e-mails which are full of venom and obscene words. Please, google his actual words online because I can't even think of writing them here for you. As a white person who has good friends and co-workers from various racial background, I was ashamed by the choice of Justin Barrett's words. And it is a pity that you avoided pointing that out as you criticize those you wanted to fault. Know that it is the responsibility of police officers from all backgrounds to improve certain aspects of their race-relations. Their historical race records are just not fantastic, and I am sick and ashamed of all that.

Let's really face facts head-on, and understand both sides. Many non-whites actually battle racism as much as the police battle crimes. So, if a cop "innocently" believes that a homeowner is a thief, a person of color (of Gates generation with real color-bar experiences) could easily believe rather "innocently" that a white police officer has some racial motives. The president (just like any other person) is not above making a mistake. And, the fact that he corrected it is good enough. Our history is full of things and worse things like this race palaver. And, the best way to heal it is to always see the varying points of view, as we try to rectify errors and move forward. Unfortunately, something like this will still crop-up in the future. It's just a fact we should learn to cope with. As at now, both the prof and the cop are moving in the right direction. That is what really matters most to me. Thanks again for your review.