***7/29/09*** Disorderly Conduct: Conversation About Gates Arrest Precedes Arrest A lawyer who moments earlier had been complaining to friends about police overreaction in the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., got a taste of the Gates treatment himself after loudly chanting “I hate the police” near a traffic stop in Northwest Washington, DC …”People talk about the Gates thing in terms of race, but it’s an ongoing problem of police using disorderly conduct to shut people up,” Tuma said. www.huffingtonpost.com ***7/28/09*** US To Provide $1 Billion To Hire Cops (CNN) — The federal government will give $1 billion in grants to law enforcement agencies in every state to pay for the hiring and rehiring of law enforcement officers, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday. “The tremendous demand for these grants is indicative of both the tough times our states, cities and tribes are facing, and the unyielding commitment by law enforcement to making our communities safer,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. Biden spoke of the bravery of police officers who never know when they might be shot, even on a simple call. With rows of police officers standing behind him, he pointed out the hazards and uncertainty of police work. “It’s just astounding to me how much we take for granted what you do, and thankfully how much you take for granted what you do,” said Biden. “We ask you to go out to defend us, and you’re …
Why does the President of the US LOSE his right of free speech when he takes office. It is his OPINION, right or wrong, that the police acted stupidly. He SHOULD NOT retract it unless he thinks he should. Introducing such legislation is grand standing and wasting Congresses time and taxpayer money.
About that professor Gates incident. I am from Massachusetts and I know MA law to some extent. I know that it is not illegal to raise your voice or swear at a police officer. So what was Gates arrested for in the first place? I mean Crowley is a police officer, he has to know the law at least to some degree.
In Ma Law “To be disorderly, within the sense of the statute, the conduct must disturb though acts other than speech, neither a provocative nor a foul mouth transgresses the statute.”
@Saromatae
Actually, you CAN be arrested for swearing at an officer. Just like swearing at another citizen or flipping them the bird can as well.
@TheTakaminePlayer 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.