Harvard’s Gates in Handcuffs Sounds Familiar Note to Black Men

[marmar]

Harvard’s Gates in Handcuffs Sounds Familiar Note to Black Men
By John Lauerman and Tom Moroney


July 22 (Bloomberg) -- The arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University’s top expert on African-American history and culture, sounded a familiar note to professors and social scientists, who said black men at all levels of U.S. society are vulnerable to similar treatment.

The Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts dropped a disorderly conduct charge against Gates, calling his arrest “regrettable and unfortunate” in a statement yesterday. Police arrested Gates at his home July 16 after a verbal confrontation with him. They said they were called to the house after a passerby mistook Gates’ effort to open his jammed front door for a break-in.

E-mails and telephone calls flew among black academics around the U.S. after Gates, 58, a leading scholar who has written about race and justice, was handcuffed on the front porch of his home, and only three blocks from the Harvard campus where he teaches. Kerry Haynie, a political scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said he received more than a dozen calls and e-mails from friends about Gates’s trouble.

“It’s shocking,” Haynie said yesterday in a telephone interview. “Even before this incident came up, I spoke with a reporter about whether we’re in a post-race society. My immediate thought was, hell no.”

Haynie, who is black, said such encounters aren’t unique to Cambridge. Whenever stopped by police for traffic infractions, he said he deliberately keeps his hands on top of the steering wheel to avoid misunderstandings. He said he consciously changes out of old clothes before shopping to minimize suspicion that he may be shoplifting. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXTIR79ZzJ30

[Sukie]

1. What happened to Mr Gates incenses me to no end.

I hope Mr Gates does not drop this issue and writes about it. What Haynie is saying is that blacks and other minorities have to work extra hard not be thought of as criminals first, when in normal situations that the rest of us would not be looked at suspiciously, and that is outrageously wrong.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Hoping for the best outcome.

“And I’m deeply resolved to do and say the right things so that this cannot happen again.”

If this arrest isn't illegal already, why not?

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Three observations

(1) It is unfortunate that people are sometimes profiled and judged based on their appearance. Those judgments may reflect stereotypes based on race, nationality, sexual preference, gender, or socio-economic status. I know someone who drives an old but well cared for old jalopy. She has family that live in an elite neighborhood. Virtually every time she visits them she is stopped on some pretext and questioned by police regarding her presence there. She's an elderly retired white woman who lives frugally. But she is suspect nonetheless just because of her choice in transportation.

(2) If my neighbors observe someone they do not recognize trying to break into my home I hope they call the police and report it. I hope they call while the event is occurring. I think most homeowners share that view. If I did find it necessary to break into my own home I would be grateful to be confronted by a quick police response. Even if I wasn't grateful I would be mindful that the cop confronting me has a gun and the ability to arrest me and haul my ass off to jail. I'd at least pretend to be respectful. No need to inflame an already tense situation. Police presence may be an additional hassle and inconvenience to me. However, until my identity is known to the responding officer I am potentially a criminal caught red handed with the potential for violence.

(3) I make an effort to know my neighbors. I wave to them. I speak to them when opportunity presents itself. I attend neighborhood meetings. I have met everyone that lives on my street. Indeed, I have been invited into most of their homes. That was true when I lived in one of our nation's largest metropolitan areas. And it is true here in this smaller metropolitan area of a million or so folks. If one thing is apparent in this story it is that the good professor's neighbors did not know who he was or that he lived in the neighborhood. And that may have more to do with them than with him. Still it is a reflection of the fragmentation within our society and our loss of community. We don't know each other - which makes it difficult to understand differences and leads to further polarization.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. #3 -- even if his neighbor didn't recognize Prof. Gates as a neighbor,

how many burglars are dressed in blue blazers for the crime? And enter through the front door?

[Fire1]

5. Somebody said it was the BACK door! Which is it? Not that

it makes much difference. Either way, the whole accusation is suspect.

[fishwax]

6. It was the front door -- he went in the back door with his key

because the front door wouldn't open. But the initial call to the police was apparently about the front door.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. Ummmm......

See #1. Folks are unjustly profiled.

Also see #2. If unjustly confronted by a responding police officer perhaps it might be good to be respectful toward the officer rather than becoming surly, making racial accusations and adding tension to an already bad situation. There is ample opportunity to make the accusation later - after not getting shot or hauled off to jail.