This forum is to discuss basic criticisms of formal rules and to promote the legitimacy of subjective values. Rules, laws, etc. are overcoming judgment and responsibility. The popular idea that "good" has it's own existence independent of and separate from any actual being is demeaning to both. Imposing, rather than persuading, may be efficient, but it does not work and is antithetic to democratic notions. We are not "jarheads", whose lids might be unscrewed and content inserted. We do not teach people how to become better at exercising judgment. We cannot await a general uprising to effect departure from archaic but established rules. Nor can we forever point to them as their own justification. We cannot "share" that which we do not have within ourselves.
Subjective values are more like the ability to appreciate or to dream than a scientific formula.
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Gates showed ID. Crowley unlawfully entered his home, and might have responded "no, I want to assure myself you are not being held hostage" to the alleged "because I'm a Black man in America?" comment, but his subsequent statements ("thank-you for complying with my original request") belie any such possibility. Whatever qualified Crowley to teach about racial sensitivity should have urged him to diffuse the situation, but he did not. He engaged in some weird "I'm the dominant male here" game. Gates actions did not constitute Disorderly Conduct as defined by Massachusetts law, and Crowley should be held to know that. Crowley's failure to repudiate the racist maelstrom he keeps generating shows that he is racist. I cannot imagine a non-racist accepting such accolades and support. Crowley's claim that his mother was dragged into the matter is laughable. Nobody is required to blindly show deference to a policeman. This was not a "Terry stop" -- it was inside Gates' home. Since when is it "wisdom" to appease a bully, especially if it's a policeman. Those who give up a little liberty in exchange for temporary safety deserve neither. Crowley was a bully from the time he determined to not diffuse and to continue to assert his will for his ego's sake. From his subsequent statements, it is obvious to the casual observer that his request that Gates step outside was a vicious ploy to seduce Gates into surrendering his 4th Amendment rights to be secure in his home. Why aren't all the 'strict constructionists' screaming about that. Setting up a vicious thug as a strawman in the circumstances Gates presented -- an "older" man weighing 150 lbs walking with a cane -- is just ludicrous. Crowley was way over the line of what is acceptable conduct by a police man, period.
But not to worry. This case will be the Moot Court project at 100 law schools this fall.
I detest Black racism as much as anyone, but I figure we are more properly concerned with our own side of the street.
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