Gates Tapes Released

I have just listened to not only the 911 call in from the neighbor who reported the possible break-in at Henry "Whites don't understand black art" Louis Gates Jr rented home, but also that of Officer Crowley radioing back to dispatch that he is dealing with uncooperative male.

(NECN: Cambridge, Mass.) - Cambridge police have released a recording of the police transmissions after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Gates, a Harvard scholar, was arrested after a reported break-in at his home.

Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, can be heard telling the dispatcher that a man who appears to be a resident of the home was being "uncooperative". Crowley also tells the dispatcher to "keep the cars coming."

from this article: 911 tapes from Gates incident

To my surprise, at odds with what was reported, the woman who called in to report the possible break-in in progress actually says she has no idea what color the suspects are. Asked if they are white, black, or hispanic - she says she doesn't know, and that one looked hispanic but she could not tell. This is directly at odds with what was reported in media and should be noted. I will also say, man, do these cops try and make it difficult for you to report a crime or something? I could almost sense the caller's frustration as she was only attempting to report a crime, that was actually brought to her attention by a concerned elderly lady who stopped her! She did nothing wrong and was just concerned about recent robberies in the area and was trying to report a crime.

Onto the "uncooperative" relay between Officer Crowley and dispatch...

I did not expect to hear much on the Gates audio tapes, but I surely wanted to hear them. Since the only time you get a transmission from Crowley is when he is talking into radio, you can only make out Gates in the background, but not much at all of what he is saying.

Perhaps some more audio-gurus will decipher these transmissions and spill the beans on what is happeneding. But from my point of view the tapes don't reveal that much, only the state of mind of the people involved in this incident while the crime was being reported and during the event itself.