Ravi
Diamond Member
I thought you knew that all along.
Is this a fact?
My understanding has always been that verbally assaulting a police officer can be deemed disorderly conduct. If my understanding on this is wrong, I would change my opinion about Crowley's actions. But I would need to validate the veracity of the above quote.
However, it would still do nothing to change my opinion that Gates is a douchebag asshole for berating an officer for doing his job.
Not sure I sure share this info with a hothead, but ...
But one thing is clear: Gates did not violate any law. Under Massachusetts law, which the police officer was supposedly enforcing, yelling at a police officer is not illegal.
There are clear decisions of the Massachusetts courts holding that a person who berates an officer, even during an arrest, is not guilty of disorderly conduct. And yet that is exactly what Gates was arrested for.
The Massachusetts statute defining "disorderly conduct" used to have a provision that made it illegal to make "unreasonable noise or offensively coarse utterance, gesture or display," or to address "abusive language to any person present." Yet the courts have interpreted that provision to violate the Massachusetts Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech. So police cannot lawfully arrest a person for hurling abusive language at an officer.
In several cases, the courts in Massachusetts have considered whether a person is guilty of disorderly conduct for verbally abusing a police officer. In Commonwealth v. Lopiano, a 2004 decision, an appeals court held it was not disorderly conduct for a person who angrily yelled at an officer that his civil rights were being violated. In Commonwealth v. Mallahan, a decision rendered last year, an appeals court held that a person who launched into an angry, profanity-laced tirade against a police officer in front of spectators could not be convicted of disorderly conduct.
So Massachusetts law clearly provides that Gates did not commit disorderly conduct.
Adam Winkler: Obama Was Right About the Gates Arrest
Ok then, it appears that I was wrong and Crowley did indeed abuse his position of authority. Fuckin pigs!
Thank you for your help and perserverance in dragging me into the light.
Although I still think that as a matter of pragmatic prudence, I'll continue to refrain from verbally assaulting police officers even though it may be by legal right to do so.