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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
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.
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That is exactly why a good thief would enter a home with a suitcase.... much more likely to not arouse suspicion...
Plus, look how much more loot you can stuff into a large suitcase than you can into a little ol' backpack. Who are you more likely to call the police on if you observe someone you don't recognize leaving a home on your street?
Not all burglars are dumb.
