This police officer may not have done anything wrong, but here's just one example of the type of people who are cops in Boston/Cambridge. A few months ago, I was leaving an Asian supermarket in Boston and a cop threatened to arrest me for shoplifting. I told the guy that I'd paid (I had), but he didn't believe me and said that he had watched me just walk by the cash register. I told him that I'd waited in line for 5 minutes then paid, and he asked me to describe the cashire. You try describing the cashire at an Asian supermarket. "Um, it was the short, dark haired Asian woman." Then he demanded to see my receit, but I'd thrown it away on my way out of the store, so he said he'd arrest me if I didn't dig it out of the trash and show him. I was frustrated, but I found the receit and showed him item-by-item everything that I'd bought. Then he finally let me go, but not before condescendingly asking why I had a Canadian flag on my shoulder (I was wearing my Flames jersey). That's when I realized that the guy knew that I hadn't done anything wrong all along, but he was just harassing me because he had the power and wanted to show me that he thought he was better than me because I'm not American (I am, but that's not the point). If I'd been dealing with that garbage my whole life like black people do in Boston, I'd have probably assumed it from the start and told the cop to dig the receit out himself if he wanted to see it so bad. Then I'd have probably been arrested just like Gates. I guess my point if that even if the officer in this situation had innocent motives, it's hard to blame Gates for reacting like he did.
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