I think both were probably at fault. The police were investigating a possible B&E. Sounds like Mr. Gates was fairly pissed that some police were telling him to prove that he was the owner of the house. Once he proved that he was the owner or the resident of the house it should have been over. But like some have said, if Gates followed the officers out of the house and continued to berate the officers, then that could easily be "causing a disturbance". I have found that the police in the US are much more prone to charging people for "causing a disturbance" for very minor things than the police in Canada. I dealt with a guy once (a White guy) who was charged AND convicted of disorderly conduct because he had parked his vehicle on the yellow line of the parking stall.
A story related to this one. A friend of mine came home from the bar in Lethbridge one night. He was totally blasted. He locked his keys in his house. He was trying to get through a window and a neighbor had witnessed this and thought someone was breaking into the house. The police responded to a B&E call. They almost arrested my friend, however, he convinced them to let him go through the window and then he could show him a bill with his name on it. His DL had a different address so the police originally didn't believe he lived there. Once he produced the documents, the police left. My friend was not hostile to the police and completely understood why they were there and was glad they were there becuase if it was actually a robber he would want the police to responde.
On the face of this I would say it is not at all racism and possibly both parties are at fault. Gates being very definsive and rude and the police being to sensitive and laying charges when they probably didn't need to.
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