Report by second officer at the scene

I had not realized that in the same pdf file that contains Sgt. Crowley’s report, there is also a report by Sgt. Carlos Figueroa, who arrived at the Gates house shortly after Crowley. Notice the difference between the “Narratives” of the police officers and the supposed “white racist narrative” that, according to Gates, led Crowley to believe that a black man must be a criminal.

Narrative

On July 16, 2009 at approximately 12:44 PM, I Officer Figuaroa #509 responded to an ECC broadcast for a possible break at __ Ware St. When I arrived, I stepped into the residence and Sgt. Crowley had already entered and was speaking to a black male.

As I stepped in, I heard Sgt. Crowley ask for the gentleman’s information which he stated “NO I WILL NOT!” The gentleman was shouting out to the Sgt. that the Sgt. was a racist and yelled that “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN America!” As the Sgt. was trying to calm the gentleman, the gentleman shouted “You don’t know who your messing with!”

I stepped out to the gather the information from the reporting person, WHALEN, LUCIA. Ms. Whalen stated to me that she saw a man wedging hi shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open. As I returned to the residence, a group of onlookers were now on scene. The Sgt., along with the gentleman, were now on the porch of __ Ware Street and again he was shouting, now to the onlookers (about seven), “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN IN AMERICA!” The gentleman refused to listen to as to why the Cambridge Police were there. While on the porch, the gentleman refused to be cooperative and continued shouting that the Sgt. is racist police officer.

Let’s underscore two things. Gates, according to Figueroa, in a report written the day of the arrest, was shouting. Shouting what? That Crowley was a racist police officer. Exactly as Crowley said in his report. Yet ever since the arrest Gates has told the world that he was not shouting and that he couldn’t have shouted because he had a bronchial infection. Second, Officer Figueroa provides a striking new detail that Crowley omitted, that when Gates was shouting on his porch, prior to the arrest, he was directing his yells at the passersby in the neighborhood who were apparently gathered in front of his house. Meaning that he was trying to create an incident, trying to create as much disruption and as much trouble for the police as possible. And then recall that “Dave,” a reader whose comment National Review Online saw fit to post (I wasn’t aware ‘till now that NRO posts readers’ comments) said in reply to me that it was no more right to arrest Gates for carrying on as he did, than it would be to arrest a man for yelling at neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. To repeat, NRO, a site that normally (or so I thought) does not post readers’ comments, posted a comment by a reader saying that that Gates’s behavior toward Officer Crowley was the moral/legal equivalent of a man chastising misbehaving children.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 23, 2009 01:32 AM | Send