Baytzim

Here's a lesson for Americans: If you ever see anything unusual at your African American neighbor's house, don't call the police. It doesn't matter if you saw someone breaking in, the house on fire, or your neighbor collapsed on the front lawn: Don't call the Police!

The "African American" community wants to lynch the woman who called the Police and correctly and honestly told them she saw two men breaking into Dr. Gates' house.

For example African American "scholar" Elie Mystal thinks Dr. Gates, who after all has the President's ear, thinks the woman who called the police has the right to sue!

On Wednesday, I took a closer look at the woman who called the Cambridge police on Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. I wondered if she could be held liable under a good Samaritan statute, and asked if we should hold good Samaritans to a higher standard.

Most readers felt that the woman was beyond reproach. She saw "two black males with backpacks" attempting to enter a house, and most people -- including Professor Gates and President Obama -- felt she acted appropriately when she called the police.

Legal Blog Watch has published a great analysis suggesting that Gates's arrest was unwarranted. Even if you take the police officer's word about what happened inside the house, it was unlikely that a prosecution against Gates for disorderly conduct could have survived (at least based on the evidence we have now; there are rumors of tapes).

I understand that I am hanging far out on a thin limb, but I remain far from convinced that the woman acted appropriately. I do think, hypothetically , that there is a cognizable legal claim Professor Gates could have against the woman who turned him in.

And the argument is:

Let's start with the easiest arguments, Gates was the victim and he suffered damages. The Cabbed Caller was attempting to help Gates, by protecting his house from a possible break-in, yet through her efforts Gates suffered more harm. Arguably the reputational and psychological damages Gates suffered far outstripped the financial damages he would have suffered had there been an actual break in.

Read the whole thing here . And next time, think twice before reporting a potential crime against an African American. Apparently, any confrontation with Police causes irreperable harm to them. It's like the Wicked Witch of the West and a bucket of water, or Superman and Kryptonite. Blacks and Cops don't mix.