[Alex]

Yelling at a policeman is not even close to "disorderly conduct." If the charge was so justifiable why were they dropped immediately?

Because it was a policeman upset about not being shown proper obeisance (and I don't attribute that to racism so much as bullying) and so proving who was the one with power. The police officer also apparently may have violated state law by not providing his name when requested (the policeman disputes this saying he did give his name).

I won't deny that Gates may have also behaved stupidly (since generally it is stupid to not show the proper groveling obeisance that many police officers expect). But that is a different type of stupidity.