Cops Heard Calling Gates "Uncooperative"

(CBS/AP)  A Cambridge police sergeant who responded to an emergency call about a possible break-in at the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. told dispatchers that Gates was being uncooperative and to "keep the cars coming."

Listen to a portion of the police transmission.

Another voice can be heard in the background of the transmission, but it is unintelligible and unclear if it is Gates.

Cambridge police released recordings of police radio transmissions and of the call Monday following more than a week of controversy over Gates' July 16 arrest on a disorderly conduct charge. The charge was dropped, but the encounter sparked a country-wide debate about racial profiling.

Gates' supporters called his arrest by Sgt. James Crowley an outrageous act of racial profiling. Crowley's supporters say Gates was arrested because he was belligerent and that race was not a factor.

Interest in the case intensified when President Barack Obama said at a White House news conference last week that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates. He later tried to quell the uproar about his comments and invited both Gates and Crowley to the White House for a beer, a meeting that could happen this week, according to the White House.

In the telephone recording released Monday, caller Lucia Whalen tells police she saw two men pressing on the door of a home, but says she is unsure whether the men live there or if they were trying to break in. She said she saw two suitcases on the porch.

"I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key. But I did notice they used their shoulder to try to barge in and they got in. I don't know if they had a key or not cause I couldn't see from my angle," Whalen said.

Listen to the 911 call.

Whalen does not mention the race of the men she saw until pressed by a dispatcher to describe them. At that point, she said one of the men may have been Hispanic.

In Crowley's report, he said he spoke to Whalen at the scene and she reported seeing two black men on the porch.

Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said her client did not mention the men's race to Crowley and is upset by news reports she believes have unfairly depicted her as a racist.

"She doesn't live in the area. She is by no means the entitled white neighbor. ... That has been the theme in the blogs and the implication in some of the mainstream news media," Murphy said in a phone interview Monday.

In the radio transmissions, Crowley tells a dispatcher he is at the home where the possible break-in was reported.

"I'm up with a gentleman, says he resides here, but was uncooperative, but keep the cars coming," Crowley said.

In his written police report, Crowley said Gates became angry when he told him he was investigating a report of a break-in, then yelled at him and called him a racist.

Cambridge officials on Monday announced details of a committee being formed to both study the incident itself and develop recommendations for police to handle similar incidents in the future.

City Manager Robert Healy said the committee will not conduct an internal investigation into Gates' arrest or make a judgment about the actions of any police officers.

"I am committed to making sure our city is not defined by that day. Today is the day to move forward," Healy said.

[cinoti]

It all points to the sad fact that to avoid ambiguous events
like this, all ethnics should live in the same area and be policed
by their respective ethnic police. Let the "Blacks" have the South
(in a way they have earned!). Oh wait!, there are black "Blacks"
and white "Blacks" (leave it up to them to figure that out.)
Then we have northern European "Whites" versus southern European
"Whites". The Mexicans have all ready captured Calif. and the
South West. lets see ... that leaves us with about 30 or so states.
to divide up between any remaining "Whites". Wait I forgot about
Asians and Arabs. Start over. Jews get NY & part LA. ........

[reasoned1955]

by thesevenveils July 27, 2009 2:45 PM EDT
The cops on this really showed their Bacon. Not only did they get his name, drivers license and confirm he was the lawful residence of his home, they continued to harass him on his property.

This is clearly a fine example of misuse of police powers and harassment that was promoted by a azzhole in a blue uniform with a racist background.
================
Not even close Nichole.

[fzy1hc]

Gates gets to sell more books by saying racist.

The white Officer Crowley doesn't need to show he wasn't racist because his department including minorities support him.

Obama is starting to show anything that happens right now with minorities he gets involve and they know it.

And why didn't Obama invited L. Whalen for a beer. She was accused of be racist.

[ISABELLAM4]

What is wrong with our President?? His actions has just clarified how overboard this racial defensiveness has gotten way out of hand. Our African American President exemplified how much our African American people has free reign to do anything they want and say anything they want just because of the racial issues. Our African American people need to see boundaries as well. I for one, am not going to be handing out tolerance for their lash outs anymore!!! I?m starting to feel sorry for the white man more and more. Oh by the way, I am Asian American and my husband is Mexican American living in Hawaii. Weigh the scales, the officer knew how high profiled this would become if he arrested Mr. Gates. I really believe he used all wisdom to access the situation with Mr. Gates and all precautions. Considering those facts, making the decision to arrest Mr. Gates should bring one other angle to look at, but many will not look at it. Which is the angle of Mr. Gates also knowing how high profiled the situation could become as well, so I truly believe that Mr. Gates' understanding of his defense of being a black man, made him exceptionally arrogant, uncooperative and on the defense fueled by foolishness. I think this time, the black man had the "black man taking down the white man" on his agenda. I cant believe how Mr. Gates is trying to turn it around and say that the white man had the "white man taking down the black man" on his agenda. All I can see is that the white man in this case could see his rear end possibly being fried if he went through with the arrest, but Mr. Gates also only saw the white man's rear end being fried, rather than his. Weigh the scales, there is more support for a black man to pump up the volume rather than the white man who has to take the bad end of the deal. I am Asian American and I cant stand the battle between both sides, but in this generation, I see the black race as the victimizer rather than the victims.

[jankebenzone]

How one is perceived by the public is directly proportional to what perception one displays to the public. The fool is spurned, the wise are admired.

[fred-mertz]

W/T-F has happened to this country that makes the police think they have the right to arrest you inside your own home for having a "bad attitude"? Cops ARE stupid and they DO ACT STUPIDLY. That should be a surprise to no one!

This was an unjustified arrest. It doesn't matter if Mr. Gates had a "bad attitude". It doesn't matter if he called the cops names. He has that right. It doesn't even matter that the cops think he was "uncooperative" because he DID show them his ID. Once he did that, it was their responsibility to leave his residence and get back to their job busting criminals. Instead, they arrested him to prove that THEY were "in control". Only truly pathetic people have such a desperate need to be "in control" all the time!

[ericmoutsos]

Eric Moutsos said: Can't we all just get along?

[dreamspan]

The Cambridge PD needs to also release the conversations carried on by the officers on channel 2. On the, so far, released audio you can hear the officers asking to "go to 2". That means to switch over to another channel. This is where we can get some real information on how the incident was going down and the mindset of the officers. GATE's attorney should ask for a copy of the radio transmissions on channel 2. The Cambridge PDs failure or refusal to release the audios for channel 2 creates a cloud of suspicion as to what the full account of the officers conduct was. FISHY, FISHY, FISHY.

[tafhdyd]

If people spent as much time doing something constructive as they do calling names and degrading people on these blogs we wouldn't have have the problems Cheney & Bush got us into.

[noloyalisti]

I think we should use these blogs to plan general strikes to demand equal rights, health care for all and withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. That is constructive.

[dgal878]

Get used to it white america, for at least 4 years.

[noloyalisti]

Black Americans make up 12% of the population and have less than 1/2 of 1% of the wealth. They make up a hugely disproportionate percentage of prison inmates. And people will claim this is not a racist country? What is wrong with this picture?