Henry Louis Gates is a douche, part dux

I continue to be incensed about this issue. I want to let it go, but I can't. I just can't see why people are spending so much time

A. Bitching about non-existent racism. (At least as far as this incident is concerned.)
B. Ignoring the very real problem of treating police as minor nobility, a special class with privileges the rest of us don't get.

People, this is not a racist cop treading on the black man. This is the system swamping individual liberty.

Even people I normally agree with (and still respect) are on the wrong side of this issue.

You can't let the moral character (or lack thereof) of the victim cloud your judgement on the actions of the perpetrator. Nobody deserves to be raped, no mater how much skin they show.

I don’t get to punch somebody for something they say, no matter how loudly or offensively they may say it. I can't call a cop to arrest you for calling my mother a whore. Why does a police officer get to arrest you for "mouthing off"? Is there not a right to freely express yourself, even to a police officer? If someone threatens an officer with violence, it would be a crime. Then he would have justification to respond with violence (physical restraint and deprivation of liberty, i.e. "arrest"). Just as I would have the right to defend myself if I believe I am in danger of assault.

But just as I would be in the wrong legally and morally for escalating from words to physical violence in that situation, the cop could have (should have) walked away, got in his police car, and driven off, swearing out loud to relieve the stress perhaps, but none the worse for the experience, the douche-y professor could have gone back into his house, they both could have bitched about it to friends, co-workers, and the world at large, each striving to present his own ideas to the marketplace of public opinion. That is my (no doubt crazy) libertarian interpretation of the best scenario.

Remember Sir Robert Peel's principles?

4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

Good job, Officer Crowley. You're not a racist, you're a fascist.