Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnski
Two points IFF. I think that link to the police transmissions MAY have been editted down in length to leave out some silence, unlike their 911 tape. The reason I say that may be is that another site indicated it was 40 seconds from the time Crowley asked for the 911 caller to come to the door (and was advised it wasn't her home) and the time that Crowley indicated Gates was "uncooperative", yet it was only 13 seconds or so on the link above. FWIW anyway.
Secondly, yes, the suitcase thing is odd. But I would think that what Crowley put into his report was from his quick talk with the 911 caller outside the home, not from the 911 call itself. Perhaps different things were said then. Don't know.... That could explain the "two black men" part too, if she said that in person to Crowley (she was outside the building by that time... may have seen them.)
It is clear that you can hear Gates in the background (pretty loudly) at a couple points in the tape.
I will have to listen again for that "keep the cars coming" bit again as that doesn't appear consistant with the report (or what was said later... I forget...) Will do that when I get a minute.
Love armchair detective work, eh?
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I couldn't hear Gates; I'll take another listen. Hard to assess his demeanour from what amounts to snippets of audio just a couple of seconds long, though. Crowley, FWIW, sounds pretty calm throughout.
I did wonder if some silence had been edited out--otherwise, the whole series of events would have to have taken place in just over two minutes, which seems unlikely to me.
As for the 911 caller, she has commented on the record, and denies ever having said that the two men were black, including when she spoke to Crowley outside the home. I think her 911 call bears this out--why would she be unwilling to tell the dispatcher, but willing to tell Crowley, after she can no longer see the suspects, even from a distance.
I'm speculating, but I think it's at least as possible that Crowley got the information about the race of the two men from talking to Gates, and then in the heat of the moment the info got "misfiled" in his brain, so that he ascribed it to Whalen when she never said it. It's the sort of mental error we all make all the time, and is very understandable. But it should serve as a reminder that a police report is merely one person's account, and is as vulnerable as any other to inaccuracies or erroneous recollections.
The suitcase thing is weirder--and Whalen's comments can't enlighten us there. But if Crowley was thinking "thief," maybe his mind replaced that detail with something more consistent with the profile he had in his mind... I don't know. But to me there's a big difference between suitcase and backpack in this context, because a suitcase is so much less practical for a thief to be using.