Silverglate on the Gates Arrest

Harvey A. Silverglate has a wonderful piece on the neglected issue in the Gates arrest—the constitutional right to be rude to a cop, and the trouble with “disorderly conduct” as a class of criminality. A choice excerpt:

It is not yet entirely clear whether there was a racial element to the initial decision by a woman on the street—working for Harvard Magazine, no less!—to call the police, although that is looking unlikely. It remains disputed whether Sergeant Crowley treated Professor Gates any differently than he would treat a white citizen in the same position. (In fact, if one accepts Crowley’s claim that he dished out to Gates equal treatment under the law, this case stands as a dire warning to all citizens as to the dangers inherent in exercising one’s constitutional right to free speech when in an exchange with a police officer—but more on that below.)