Exactly.

Having the "right" to be a dickhead doesn't mean you HAVE to be a dickhead, especially not to someone who is only following procedure and trying to protect you. Everyone is so concerned that their righteous indignation be heard (a unique though rampant form of attention-whoring) that they forget to even think about the other side, and the implications of behaving like an asshat or acting like a decent person.

It's really that simple. :headshake

I don't think I've defended anything but his right to be a dickhead. I certainly don't think he had to be. I fully agree that he was an ass, and shouldn't have been. I've said so several times.

But you believe that, rather than follow procedure, the cop should bow to the asshat?

I don't consider not arresting someone to be bowing.

It is if procedure calls for arrest, and the alleged "perp" (i love that word) gets his way (the cop not following procedure) because the alleged perp is throwing a hissy fit.

I feel safer already. When the drunk down the street decides to kill someone, I'll be glad to know he was able to scare the cop off by crying foul.

So...to clarify, are you saying that the cop should arrest someone even if they aren't doing anything illegal?

The asshat in question did do something illegal, called interfering with government adminitration and disorderly conduct. He wasn't arrested for B&E, or being a dick, he was breaking the law! How many times do you need to be told that?

Understanding that basic fact makes it near impossible for all the boo-hooing poor pitiful me crap to go on. Facts render the unreasonably indignant mute. There's no attention in mute.

"Don't taze me bro!"

Damn! thats the first I heard of that - Did the cops even have tasers?

I have no idea. I just seemed appropriate in the slant of the thread and how some people believe that Gates was some kind of victim in all of this. He was not. If anything he was an instigator. I would have tazed him just for the hell of it. I guess that is why I am not a cop.

He was arrested for disorderly conduct, in his own home. It is all but impossible for that charge to stick. How would he "cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly [create] a risk thereof" in his own home?I'l wait for the first time that it's told to me when true.

No, he was arrested outside of his home, on his property, but outside the front door, which is why they could have made it stick. Well until the President of the United States thought it was a good idea to throw in his opinion on a local police matter.

Well, it was a color issue and Obama was supposed to fix all that, right?