Racial talk swirls with Gates arrest

[Forkboy]

His front door refused to budge, which is why Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., just home from a trip to China filming a PBS documentary, set his luggage down and beckoned his driver for help.

The scene - two black men on the porch of a stately home on a tree-lined Cambridge street in the middle of the day - triggered events that were at turns dramatic and bizarre, a confrontation between one of the nation’s foremost African-American scholars and a police sergeant responding to a call that someone was breaking into the house.

It ended when Gates, 58, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct in allegedly shouting at the officer; he was eventually taken away in handcuffs.

But the encounter is anything but over. Some of Gates’s outraged colleagues said the run-in proves that even in a liberal enclave like Harvard Square, even with someone of Gates’s accomplishments, a black man is a suspect before he is a resident.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/07/21/racial_talk_swirls_with_gates_arrest/

[luvspeas]

1. This makes me very sad...

I am so sorry that this happened to him. It's really horrible. Louis Gates has contributed so much to our society to benefit everyone. I hope this incident will continue to contribute to our becoming a better nation. For now though, I'm really angry and upset for him.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. looks like Gates was arrested as retaltiation for asking badget #. Officer states he had determined

gates was in home lawfully. Arrested him after gates followed him to door asking for badge number. arresting someone for being 'loud and tumultuous' is bullshit arrest. Just retaliation.

[EFerrari]

11. Exactly. n/t

[Obamanaut]

3. And it didn't happen in the south. Interesting, eh? nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Not really.

The charges were dropped.

If they'd beaten him, shot him, dragged him behind a pickup, planted a gun on the body, and then elected the officer for Governor... THEN I'd be surprised that it didn't happen in the South.

[luvspeas]

5. not particularly...

more likely to happen in Boston, than Atlanta (for example), I'd say.

[Forkboy]

6. Racism is usually more subtle here than down South.

But don't kid yourself, there's a lot of it here.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Not interesting. Bigots have branch offices far from headquarters.

[KingFlorez]

16. So?

It still doesn't change the history the south has, not by any stretch.

[david13]

7. Typical. Stupid cops up to their usual ignorant stunts.

[bobburgster]

8. I do think Gates was not completely innocent in this whole affair.

I do think Gates was not completely innocent in this whole affair. Though I do understand the combination of jet lag and historical, maybe personal, incidences of racial profiling could ignite the fuse of someone.
I was watching Hardball last night and Eugene Robinson, African-American Washington Post Reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and another African-American University professor both cited multiple examples of being treated extremely disrespectful by police....only possible reason is they were black men. I would venture to guess that Gates has also run into this behavior in his lifetime.
Does past experience or knowledge allow you to fly off the handle, no, but it certainly helps us understand why he did. Any person with a grain of knowledge knows you will never win in a shouting match with the police....so I vote justified temporary insanity for Gates.
As for the cop, he acted just like a stereotypical macho cop who was verbally challenged would. He lied about what actually took place.

"I watched a short WBZ clip and they pointed out that that neighborhood has had a cluster of broad-daylight break-ins, and the modus operandi is people kicking down the front door."

Unless there is corroborating evidence this took place, it smells suspiciously like Police PR trying to clean up a mess as best they can.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Not completely innocent?

FTW?

[EFerrari]

10. Except the police probably lied about that, too.

The man has a bronchial infection he picked up in China and he couldn't yell if he wanted to.

Gates most certainly is completely innocent in this affair. He was arrested for being black in his own home.

[bobburgster]

12. Please read my whole statement.

I'm certainly not justifying what they police did. Any person with a grain of knowledge knows you will never win in a shouting match, or derogatory comment match, with the police. I absolutely understand why he reacted that way....see my post....but his reaction got him arrested.

[EFerrari]

17. I did read your whole post. And I'm suggesting to you

that we don't know that his "reaction" got him arrested. We know what was written in a police report already riddled with obvious inaccuracies (to be kind) and an allegation that flies in the face of a fact that we know, that Dr. Gates came back from China with a bronchial infection.

[Karenina]

13. It does not matter if Skip was "completely innocent" or not.

The "incident" should have ended with Officer Jim Crowley providing his information and LEAVING the premises.

[EFerrari]

18. I think it does matter that he was completely innocent

because the smallest misstep in ettiquette on his part allows the assholes defending these abusive cops to pull a Fox -- "both sides are guilty".

And the fact is, he did nothing even remotely illegal. He is, literally, completely innocent here.

[bobburgster]

19. Oh I agree with that!

I'm not condemning Gates by any means. The officer should have left without a doubt. It is quote apparent to me, and most everyone else, that if Gates was white, it would not have happened. When I referred to "completely innocent" as was talking about him losing his cool in a situation he knew he would not win. Before you jump on that statement, I most certainly understand why he did lose his cool.

[Voltaire]

20. That's right

The officer should have noted the information, apologized and left. Period.

I am 50. I hope I live another 50. But I don't think whites and blacks will ever hear or understand each other properly enough to get along and trust each other in this country. That's a shame.

[BlooInBloo]

15. hahahahaaa!!!