This week, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Department arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for the crime of being angry inside his own home. The officer had already completed his investigation of a mistakenly reported burglary, finding that it was just Gates himself dealing with his jammed front door. But when Professor Gates demanded Crowley’s name and badge number, the officer arrested him for “disorderly conduct.”
This concerns me deeply, not just as an American, but as an American who has spent a lot of money soundproofing my home so that I can say what I want, as loudly as I want, in my own living room (which, as a side note, I’ve remodeled to resemble the Hall of Justice).
Disorderly conduct is only a crime if it’s disruptive to something or someone. In this case, even if Gates was yelling, he was inside his own home, yelling “Get out of my house!” at a man who clearly should have gotten out of the house! Unless the neighbor who’d called in the burglary called back to complain about the noise, Gates’ behavior wouldn’t have been disrupting anything except the officer’s illegitimately prolonged visit.
Look, Sargent Crowley, sometimes we all screw up at work. I once delivered a pizza to 223 Columbus Rd. instead of 322 Columbus Rd! You harassed an innocent man, then illegally withheld your name and badge number. These things happen. Customers get pissed and they yell. What you never learned, apparently, is that if you let them vent at you, they’re far less likely to complain to your superior, whether that be the assistant manager at Domino’s or President Barack Obama.
Whenever someone defends the police in this case, they say Gates was at fault for “overreacting.” But since the Professor was arrested, how about defending the officer by naming a crime!! Overreacting is not a crime. If it was, we’d have an easier time locking up Nicolas Cage. Did Professor Gates threaten the officer? Did he use racial slurs which would make it a hate crime? Did he confess to a murder? There’s not much else you can do with only your voice that would warrant arrest inside your own home. In fact, isn’t your home exactly where you’re supposed to go to do things that would be considered disorderly conduct anywhere else? Where else can a man freak out?
I’m gonna spend the rest of the day in my house, naked, drunk, and ranting about injustice. Come and get me, Crowley.