I think you make several very good points in your post, Donuel. Yes, cops are in a very powerful position vis-a-vis anyone they decide to question, and they have their ways of taking advantage, as you suggest....and, yes, you DO have to suck up to them and be a "nice guy" or you're giving them a golden opportunity to give you a whole lot of trouble...specially if they already don't like you for some reason.

So you need to stay cool.

It's certainly something that was always on my mind when encountering police officers who stopped me for any reason whatsoever. (sometimes they stopped me just because I apparently fit their profile of a "long-haired young guy who might be...hell, probably is...a drug user") Was I scared? Yeah. Definitely. But I stayed cool.

Gates didn't stay cool. That may have been for a number of fairly obvious reasons since he was already tired and frustrated, but that was the mistake he made.

As to what Obama said...yesh...both sides probably did act stupidly.