<p>I can understand why Gates became angry about what happened. It reminds me of what happened about 12 years ago when a policeman brought home my then 12-year-old son, who was standing at the bus stop behind our house on a Saturday morning. The policeman said that a neighbor had called police saying that someone suspicious looking was at the bus stop. S told the policeman that he lived at our house, and the policeman brought him home to verify that.</p>
<p>We had been living in that house about 4 years, and S’s school bus stop was across the street from the city bus stop. For the record, S is African American and was dressed in his usual attire which was a sports jersey or polo shirt and jeans – the kind of jeans that fit. </p>
<p>"Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.</p>
<p>Police arrived at Gatess Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook some members of the black Harvard community.</p>
<p>He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence, said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates about the incident Friday. I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.…</p>
<p>Outrageous. Apparently he was inside his own house and produced ID! I don’t care if he pursued the cop down his walk yelling all the way. I don’t blame him in the least. The cop was completely out of line and should have simply left after apologizing profusely.</p>
<p>The midday incident was apparently initiated by a neighbor, who saw Professor Gates at his own door, and called police.</p>
<p>Professor Gates was accurate to say to the officer, at the time, that this was a racist occurrence. It simply happened because of the color of his skin, and for no other possible reason.</p>
<p>If my neighbor dialed 9ll every time my H has tried to unstick the door of our house, we’d spend all our time at the police station. </p>
<p>Over the years, I’ve heard Professor Gates on several news and analysis shows discussing American History, books he’s written, articles published.</p>
<p>To quote a friend of Rosa Parks on the day of her arrest, “Mm, mm. They messed with the wrong one this time.”</p>
<p>This is ridiculous the police should have apologized as soon as they saw the ID, but it’s a little sad that his neighbors didn’t know him well enough to know it was his house.</p>
<p>What bothers me also is that the police officer did not “keep the peace” in a place where there was no crime. Instead, he stayed on inside the house, even after determining that this really was the homeowner. </p>
<p>And why? To be yelled at and called a racist. Nobody wants to be called a racist, and perhaps that officer isn’t a racist at all. But it seems to me that the police duty to “keep the peace” should overcome personal insult.</p>
<p>It bothers me that the officer stayed around to self-justify. Reading the report, it sounds as though the officer’s continued presence on the property fueled the situation beyond what it was originally. </p>
<p>He could have also told the assembled onlookers, “go home, folks, everything is fine…” the way they do when they want to defuse situations. Instead the police report uses the assembled onlookers as more reason to arrest Gates, because he was upsetting them and “beginning” to act disorderly.</p>
<p>Black university professor Henry Gates was arrested and released on own cognizance after he refused cooperation and displayed loud and disorderly behavior when Cambridge police came to investigate a possible breakin. This incident if you have not followed it started when a woman noticed 2 male with backpacks trying to force open a gate. It turned out it was professor Gate and his entrance was jammed. </p>
<p>It seems like some blacks and even as educated as professor Gates are too quick to press the race button, and acted confrontational when it was only a fair question. It looked from distance window down the street that 2 men were trying to force their way into a home. And professor Gates instigated the incident by refusing to identify himself and acting loudly. For all we know there could have been armed robber with gun behind the door pointing at Gates to make the police go away. I am really surprised that some blacks even highly educated ones like professor Gates still choose to carry a grudge. He could have laugh it off, “officer. that ‘robber’ was me. My door jammed and I had to pry it open with help of my friend. I am professor Gates of Harvard Black Studies and this is my home.” The officer would reply, “go get that door fix, Prof Gates and have a good night”.</p>
<p>Whoa. I don’t see racism here, just a pompous ass screaming racism. If the police report is accurate (and I don’t see that Gates has yet disputed the narrative), the officers were investigating a report of an attempted break-in by two black men and arrived at the house to see one black man inside. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that they would need to ascertain that the person they saw wasn’t a successful burglar, so they asked for ID, and then Gates went ballistic, responding to the police with accusations, disrespect and threats, pulling the “do you know who I am” garbage and following them outside yelling at them. The arrest was perhaps an overreaction, but these were some justifiably ****ed off cops, and I’m not surprised at that they had had enough of Gates’ big mouth. Mouthing off to a officer is a sure fire way to earn police enmity, regardless of one’s race. And yelling and screaming on the street close to midnight is disturbing the peace, even if you’re a high and mighty Harvard professor.</p>
<p>We talked about it over dinner. S pointed out that showing one’s ID is not the same as proving that one is the homeowner. But it would be easy to ascertain by asking for some letter or form with both name and address on it, as the ID has the name and the picture.
Did the police ask for it? Did Gates refuse to provide proof not of who he is but of home ownership?
Still, I think that the policeman should have treaded lightly after Gates showed him his Harvard ID; how likely is it that a person pushing 60 in possession of a Harvard picture ID that, I believe, says faculty, is a housebreaker?</p>
<p>Sounds to me like Gates overreacted. The officer was there because the neighbor called. Perhaps the neighbor was guilty of racial profiling, but Gates took it out on the officer. </p>
<p>But did you read the part about how the front door was messed up because of a previous breakin attempt?? LOL! Gates should have been happy that neighbors and the police were looking after his house.</p>
<p>The woman might have been alarmed that there was a black man in what I’m guessing is a white neighborhood, (he’s a Harvard professor) but I don’t see where the police did anything wrong.</p>
<p>i don’t blame the neighbor, who may or may not be new or have ever set eyes on Gates before (there are plenty of people on my street I’ve never met–though I’ve lived in my house for nearly 20 years). He saw someone who looked like he was breaking and entering and called the police. He was not necessarily being a racist for doing so.
I would not call what happened racial profiling, but still, why did the police not accept Gates’ explanation and claim that he was owner of the house, after Gates showed him his two IDs?</p>
<p>Logicwarrior, you are not so logical as always. Don’t twist the facts to fit your POV.</p>
<p>“The woman might have been alarmed that there was a black man…” - Logicwarrior</p>
<p>The woman called police because she saw two men at night trying to pry open the door of a home, not because she saw black men. I hope my neighbor will call the police when she sees men trying to pry open my door. Give us a break!</p>
<p>"Gates said he turned over his driver’s license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com
He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26…</p>
<p>Some of Gates’ African-American colleagues say the arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge.</p>
<p>Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years, said he was stopped on campus by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.</p>
<p>“We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white,” Counter said. “It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened.”</p>
<p>Northstarmom, professor Gates only turned over his ID after a rauchus had already taken place in which he refused to identify himself. Saying things like “you don’t know who you are dealing with” doesn’t exactly endear him to the officer white or not.</p>
<p>The title of this thread is highly misleading and does not reflect what happened according to the police report. Gates was not arrested because he was mistaken for a burglar (and thought to be a burglar because he was black). He was arrested because from the first moment of police contact, he was uncooperative, hostile, arrogant, and out of control. Even at that, it appears that the police officer (and believe me, I am no fan of law enforcement in general) was reasonably patient and was satisfied after having been shown the ID. It was only after Gates followed him out and created a loud public scene that the police officer placed him under arrest. And this was after very disrespectful treatment by Gates in the house. </p>
<p>The police did accept the Harvard ID and was preparing to leave. That is clearly stated in the police report. But Gates would not let him leave without following him out and harassing him publicly. </p>
<p>I don’t think he should have been placed under arrest (though I wasn’t there), but I can see why the police officer felt that he should be. It’s always a risk when you do not cooperate with law enforcement. Best to cooperate first and then deal with the problematic situation later.</p>