I don’t understand why the cops didn’t have someone check the city directory to get the name of the home owner. We would do that when the directory was an actual book, not an on-line database in most places these days.

I’m still waiting for Obama to take a stand on something, but I’m not holding my breath.

Cambridge is not a big city environment, and neighbors would definitely know each other, even if they weren’t on speaking terms.

So you can’t tell me the “neighbor” didn’t know who was going into his own house. That’s the most bogus thing of all.

And who would expect Obama to react any differently? Of course he’s in the Harry and Nancy Bunch. For some reason the words Namby Pamby come to mind….

More data does not equal more information.

OTOH, if you don’t have reasonable relations with the public, they won’t talk to you, or tell you things that you need to know when you canvas a neighborhood around a crime scene.

And what annoys me now (and the LEO’s I’ve spoken to) is that here as in the USA, there are now TV ad’s telling Joe & Mary Public to rat on anyone and every one they see or hear doing anything that person considers *suspicious*! Good lord… Where do Governments get these insane ideas from? Really! The police here have had to increase their admin staff, especially in various call centers, and use valuable policing resources to sift through the tripled number of calls about *stuff that happened, maybe*. And yet, the same stupid public are screaming about the lack of LEO’s out on the streets to protect them, without realizing the irony that it’s their own stupid fault for doing what the equally stupid Gov tells them to do!

Common sense is truly dead.

Jill, citizens are allowed to get angry. Oh, it wasn’t a neighbor who called, it was a woman going passed. Another problem with the reporting on this case.

Shame the neighbor didn’t recognize their own neighbor “breaking” into his own house.
.-= ´s last blog ..Fighting for the Heart of Dairy =-.

yep.

it’s a shame obama couldn’t stick with his initial reaction, that the officer behaved stupidly.

Jack, they went into the situation looking for trouble and they found it. Just as soon as the address verification was made, they should have left because there was no legitimate reason for them to be on the man’s property. Even cops need a reason to be on private property.

Dr. Gates was probably not in the most reasonable of moods. I picked my Mother up after she returned from a trip to Hong Kong and she wanted to get home, get in bed, and collapse. If someone had started pounding on her door, even someone wearing a gun and a badge, a tongue lashing was the least they would have gotten.

He arrived home and his front door stuck, no doubt from all the rain they have had in the Northeast lately, and then the police showed up.

The cop couldn’t control himself, so he couldn’t control the situation. I’ve been called a racist almost every time i arrested a person of color, and I ignored it. You do the job and keep the peace, you don’t argue with people. If you are easily offended find another line of work.