I just heard Professor Gates being interviewed on Oprahs satellite radio channel on "The GAyle King Show". By listening to his "TONE" of voice in recalling what happened, its obvious that he was in the wrong. If you read the reports in the media, you would have a tendency to believe that GAtes was grossly wronged.
At first I was on Gates side, then I heard him recall his side of the story and it is plainly obvious that he has a HUGE chip on his shoulder. He exhibited a tremendous amount of arrogance. This is a rough estimate of what he said.....
The police officer knocked on his door and immediately said "step outside." He said no and then asked him what the problem was, the officer said there was a burglary report and he needed to see his ID. Gates immediately walked to his kitchen to get his wallet, the police officer followed and looked at the ID and immediatly realized he actually lived there. The officer was getting ready to say something and GATES immediately says to the officer "Can I have your name and badge because I want to file a complaint?" Just by reading the words does not give life to the words it was the TONE in his voice that was very disrespectful.
The officer did not say anything back BUT immediately turned to walk out of Gates house and it was GATES that followed him outside repeatedly asking the officer for his name and badge number. Once GAtes stepped out on the porch the officer turned and said "thank you for complying with my early request and you are under arrest." That last statement is where I think the officer went wrong.
The recall of this story is not the officers version, its Prof. Gates version. To get the full context you would have to have heard the tone of GAtes voice while he was recountring this story. He actually said he was thinking during the time of the incident how he was going to get this large white man that has a gun out of his kitchen.
The officer was wrong by arresting GAtes but it was not as clear cut as some of the media reports claim.
I agreed with what Obama said during the news conference BUT that was based on the facts he believed were true at the time of his statement. Just by listening to GAtes recall his version really made me recoil. If Obama wouldve heard GAtes tell his side of the story he would change his opinion, because I sure did change mine.