it's a scary world. . .

[walkitout]

when the cops can break into your house, demand that you show them ID, arrest you after you do and then try to demand an apology from you for having any issues with that process.

Weird which side the right-wingers are coming down on this one.

ETA: A friend on facebook pointed me to the Smoking Gun's facsimile of the police report (which blotted out the house number, a little strange, since you can pick it out of 411 -- Gates is listed). To correct my above summary, the police did not break in. And the arrest was a disorderly, for attracting the attention of about seven people on the street. I am even more mystified, altho marginally less concerned about the breaking-into-house-and-demanding-ID part. But only marginally.

And if someone feels like explaining to me why Gates has deed/mortgage/whatever on Francis, but lives on Ware using information that is publicly available only (if you know this because you personally know Gates please do not violate his privacy for my curiosity), I am sort of interested.

Comments

interesting side note on the MA disorderly statute

[walkitout]

http://www.commonrailers.com/the_name.html

Sorta has built-in racism, apparently.

ETA: This is usually the point at which R. brings up the thing he learned recently about vagrancy statutes being used to arrest poor black men, rack up some court fees, then get them for indebtedness and put them in a chain gang or a mine or something to work off the exorbitant and snowballing fees and interest.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

He certainly used to live in the house on Francis -- there are several reports of him and his wife having some big parties there. But he and his wife divorced some years back. I thought maybe she was still living there, but apparently she now lives in Somerville per http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/regional/x540129139/Henry-Louis-Gates-ex-wife-Arrest-aftermath-was-unfortunate. There are also some reports that he remarried, but I can't find anything about who his second wife may have been -- perhaps the supposed second marriage was some very brief thing, or never happened at all.