Off The Fascist PIg!

Someone who understands the law & the real world, & is capable of rational thought, has published an article at Forbes.com pointing out that a pig is a pig is a pig, and the Cambridge PD & Sg't. Crowley acted just like pigs.

The meat of the matter:

The issue is not how nasty the discourse between the two might have been, but whether what Professor Gates said--assuming, for argument's sake, the officer's version of events as fact--could by any stretch of both law and imagination constitute a ground for arrest for "disorderly conduct" (the charge leveled) or any other crime.

Thank you, Harvey A. Silverglate, assisted by Kyle Smeallie, for dealing w/ this from the only possible perspective. After all, in the Freeman's Libertarian Paradise that is AmeriKKKa, the customer is always right. The customer, in Magic AmeriKKKa, being he who pays the pigs for protection. And in this AmeriKKKa, it's the protection-payer who's boss, not the bully/thug w/ a stick, badge, gun & handcuffs, & the boss can always tell employees what to do.

One could imagine some of the right-wingers who've advised where to shoot a DEA agent to kill him & so on would be slightly sympathetic to a man in his home/castle being harassed by a government agent, but we all know consistency is the hob-goblin of little minds, to twist a quote a bit.

And, to the extent that tossing an expletive at some hothead on the street might conceivably produce a violent reaction, surely such words directed to a trained police officer should not be expected to incite such a response. To be sure, much of police training is specifically directed at producing a peace officer who knows how and when to keep a violent response wrapped under a highly polished discipline. It would be an insult to any law enforcement agent to assume that he or she would respond, with violence, to unpleasant--even offensive--words. Hence, even at its worst, Gates' reaction to the officer's presence and questioning cannot by any stretch be deemed grounds for an arrest. Professor Gates, in other words, was fully protected by the First Amendment. It was the officer's duty to restrain his own response, particularly the exercise of his official powers of arrest.

So there, fascist coppers. Stop fucking w/ Americans & their Constitutional rights, or we'll give you something for which you can try to arrest us!! Pin-dick losers!