Gates

*******, you're a Patriot. I am proud to be your brother in blue. Keep standing tall and be safe.

Ok, we all know the Sergeant put a POP charge on the professor. At the same time, the professor should have acted more reasonably and not get into a confrontation. Serg, I stand by you as a brother officer, but you needed to swallow some pride based on where you work and the people you work for. We all have put POP charges on people. Serg, you just got slamed with the wrong guy.

As an Obama supporter, there is no excuse for him to make statements on local issues or without all the facts. With that said, Serg you have the oppourtunity to be a man and face the president and provide our side of the badge. Because the citizens don't care about black or white officers they just disrespect the Blue Uniform. Take that message to the President on civil responsibility of citizens to respect police officers and at the same time learn from your experience and don't be closed minded to what occurred. Everything happens for reason.

Stay Safe,

Another Florida COP

[JoeFriday]

So many of you state you support Sgt *******'s actions yet you haven't even considered whether or not he acted in accordance with established case law. As LEOs you should read or know the controlling law before you start supporting a rogue action by an individual with an inflated ego Commonwealth v. Mulvey, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 579 (2003 disorderly conduct case law). A link to the case law is below:

http://masscases.com/cases/app/57/57mas ... html#back5

By the reading of these posts I can understand that most of you do not care about what the law actually says but by what you believe it should be. Bad, bad, precedent to set for LEOs.

Sir, you should know the facts before you label someone as a " rouge" cop. I agree with the statement about an inflated ego, I would assume you are speaking about Gates, but that would be ludicrous, a Harvard professor, with an inflated ego, surely you jest.

[JoeFriday]

Ok, we all know the Sergeant put a POP charge on the professor. At the same time, the professor should have acted more reasonably and not get into a confrontation. Serg, I stand by you as a brother officer, but you needed to swallow some pride based on where you work and the people you work for. We all have put POP charges on people. Serg, you just got slamed with the wrong guy.

As an Obama supporter, there is no excuse for him to make statements on local issues or without all the facts. With that said, Serg you have the oppourtunity to be a man and face the president and provide our side of the badge. Because the citizens don't care about black or white officers they just disrespect the Blue Uniform. Take that message to the President on civil responsibility of citizens to respect police officers and at the same time learn from your experience and don't be closed minded to what occurred. Everything happens for reason.

Stay Safe,

Another Florida COP

As an veteran of over 30 years, I learned many things, first keep your mouth shut unless you know all the facts, second, Monday morning quarterbacking is a luxury we don't always have and lastly, it should be " Sarge" not Serg, unless you are referring to the cabana boy or the hairstylist. Take your own advise and keep an open mind, maybe gates was wrong?

As a retired Captain of 25 years I commend your actions in the arrest of Professor Gates. All too often we are placed into a position where we must act appropriately where others may see different as they sit and have their coffee in the morning. Sgt. ******* I have had my coffee and read your reports and agree your decision to make an arrest was reasonable and justifiable. Over our careers, most officers handle a call for service very similar to the one you dealt with. Most of those would say the homeowner was more than happy you were there to help. Those of course with an axe to grind, such as Professor Gates, obviously require additional patience and experience. We all stand behind you and your agency for a job well done. I can not say as much for your DA who collapsed under the anticipated stress of the media. But we all have lived with, some you win and some you loose.
Good luck and be sure to have a back up at the Friday night beer fest in DC. If you think the junk yard dog [Gates] was a little tuff on the front porch, wait till you see him in action with his back up, on his porch.

[Average Joe]

Florida retired LEO with 30 years on.

Good job Sgt *******. It is a good thing that I had not been there as when he was in the kitchen and refusing to prove he was the resident I would had escorted him out of the house if he had refused to walk out on his own. A kitchen has far too many weapons that can be used against me when someone is irate and not think straight.

And to the poster that commented about the incident report stating that Sgt. ******* felt Gates was the homeowner, we can not go by gut feeling in an incident like this. You can not leave the scene until the person can be positively be identified as the home owner, and the gut feeling does not meet that criteria.

Good work my friend. You professionalism set the example for the idiots out there who think they can walk on police officers.

Well done, too bad Obama wasn't with him !

[Average Joe]

Colin Powell 07/29/2009 CNN LArry King live:

"I think Skip [Gates], perhaps in this instance, might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer and that might have been the end of it," Powell said in an interview with CNN's Larry King.

Powell said that under the circumstances, Gates may not have been in the appropriate frame of mind to best handle the situation.

"He was just home from China, just home from New York. All he wanted to do was get to bed. His door was jammed and so he was in a mood where he said something," Powell said.

He recalled a lesson he was taught as a child: "When you're faced with an officer who is trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him.

I would love to see Romney/Powell ticket in 2012

Florida retired LEO with 30 years on.

Good job Sgt *******. It is a good thing that I had not been there as when he was in the kitchen and refusing to prove he was the resident I would had escorted him out of the house if he had refused to walk out on his own. A kitchen has far too many weapons that can be used against me when someone is irate and not think straight.

And to the poster that commented about the incident report stating that Sgt. ******* felt Gates was the homeowner, we can not go by gut feeling in an incident like this. You can not leave the scene until the person can be positively be identified as the home owner, and the gut feeling does not meet that criteria.

You say that you cannot leave until the person can be positively identified as the homeowner. That's an interesting observation but it is not pragmatic in its application. In your comment you failed to show or explain the "criteria" to be applied in proving how a "homeowner can be positively identified" as the owner of a particular home. What would you do to someone who owns a rental unit and is coming to work on the property which the tenants abandoned? What if he doesn't have the deed to or an ID with the address of the residence in question? Will you take him to jail? What if it were a boarder staying for a few weeks until he completes a temporary duty assignment and his ID has an address different from the residence in question and he cannot get a hold of the landlord? What about a family member or friend taking care of the house because the owner or resident is traveling or in the hospital? Are you prepared to arrest that person too? Please don't be hasty. Should you arrest them you will lose the lawsuit and find yourself out of a job. Police are not omnipotent and they have been wrong before.

The incident report is not just an incident report, it is a compilation of Sgt *******'s investigatory observations at the scene. These observations carry just as much weight as his opinion as to whether or not GATES exhibited "tumultuous behavior". If his opinion of tumultuous behavior (not backed up by any evidence) is sufficient to deprive GATES of his liberty after he confirmed GATES was the homeowner, then his opinion about GATES being the homeowner (absent any evidence of a burglary) should have been sufficient to dispel his fear, thereby requiring him to "beat feet" not escalate the situation. You can't have your cake and eat it too.