Obama

[Strangler Lewis]

Yelling at a policeman is always stupid as a practical matter. However, the officer clearly behaved stupidly. Even if there was a technical basis for charging disorderly conduct, you can't tell me that every time a Harvard party gets a little loud, everybody gets arrested. Police officers have discretion in this matter. When Gates showed him his ID, he should have said, "Thank you, sir, just doing our duty, sorry for the misunderstanding." Then, if Gates still was upset and followed him out, he should have gotten into his car and left. Assuming that the officer is not a congenital asshole, one must suspect that he was following some sort of departmental policy to cure any mistake-and potential liability-by finding grounds to arrest the angry citizen.