Turns out the law says you can't arrest someone for making a public
disturbance in his own home... That means Gates shouldn't have been
arrested no matter how ****y or derogatory the statements he made to
the police officer. Nor, should the police have entered the house at
all without probable cause, which was not established.

Read for yourselves.




Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News judicial analyst, explained to
Shepard Smith on Monday that under Massachusetts law, Cambridge
Sergeant Jim Crowley did act improperly by arresting historian Henry
Louis Gates.

His argument essentially boils down to the difference between public
and private domain. As Crowley arrested Gates for causing a “public
disturbance,” the action is improper on its face due to the fact that
Gates was in his own home. Additionally, Napolitano said, it was
illegal for the police to enter the house to begin with, as the source
of the report did not pass legal muster to constitute probable cause.

Napolitano added that because of the violation of Gates’s
constitutional rights, he would be eligible to pursue legal action
against the police department.

In his police report, arresting officer Sergeant James Crowley wrote
that woman who reported the suspected break-in “went on to tell me
that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks
on the porch of Ware Street.”

Attorney Wendy Murphy, who represents the 911 caller Lucia Whalen,
said her client never spoke with arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley
at the scene.

“Whalen’s lawyer [...] said yesterday her client’s only contact with
Crowley was fleeting, with Whalen saying ‘Excuse me, I’m the one who
called,’ and the Cambridge cop replying, ‘Stay right there,’” reported
The Boston Herald.

“I want to know that, in light of the fact that Mr. Gates 4th
Amendment rights have been violated, will [the media] rush to his
defense? Will they demand that the Cambridge Police apologize?” asked
blogger George Cook at Lets Talk Honestly.

“Will those same talking heads question the fact that the words black
and backpack appear in Sgt. Crowley’s police report although the 911
caller never mentions those words in her call?”

He concludes: “We all believe we know the answers to those questions.
Let’s hope we are wrong.”