Interesting story Nigel. I agree with the previous poster who is an LEO. Obama jumped too quick on this with his remark.

I place blame on both Gates and the Officer. The officer being in a position of authority expected that authority to be respected. Gates (in his home) felt he was being disrespected by someone who was in a position of authority.

Gate's needs to come to terms with something though. YES.., he was racially profiled. He however wasn't profiled by the Police Department. Gate's and his driver were profiled by his "neighbor". The officers were simply responding to a call. The neighbors call wasn't accurate either and the caller added a little "fluff" to the report (such as saying two black men with "back packs") when neither of them had back packs (using back packs to imply two black men with ill intentions using those back packs).

I feel bad for cops today. You guys got it hard. The public often puts the police in a hard spot because they just respond to a call. They have no clue that they're responding to a call based on someone's racial prejudices. The cops are always taking a public beating because of racist callers that do the profiling and not the cops.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 07-26-2009).]