Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates arrested

Parent Cafe
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<p>Of course Gates did not say these things. The things the cop reports are right out of the blinkin’ 1970’s.</p>

<p>“Yo mama”, puleeze!</p>

<p>It is a caricature of a black guy, and sounds exactly as if it came from someone trying to caricaturize a black guy.</p>

<p>Cops, I tell you, COMMONLY trump up charges in their reports.</p>

<p>[Here</a> is a cop on tape, coming right out and saying it.](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3GlEe1kCHA&feature=related]Here”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3GlEe1kCHA&feature=related) Now, it seems, that some cops are coming even after whites. This will only increase, and society will continue to disintegrate, which will cause even more corruption in the police against everyday citizens. Then all this nonsense about incessantly noble cops and their unquestionable police reports will end.</p>

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<p>There are two separate issues here:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Was Crowley right to arrest Gates, regardless of how rude he was or wasn’t being?</p></li>
<li><p>Assuming Gates did act rude and raise the race issue very quickly, was he right to do so, and are we right to be doing so now? This relates to the initial complaint, the cop’s investigation, and the arrest.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I’m leaving aside the issue of who is telling the truth, because most of what I’ve read boils down to he said/she said. Both have some reason to lie.</p>

<p>On the first issue, I think it is very likely that Crowley was wrong. Even the version of events most charitable to the officer doesn’t suggest that Gates was doing anything threatening or particularly inflammatory, just that he was being a jerk.</p>

<p>The second, however, is more complicated. I suspect that the neighbor would have been less likely to feel suspicious is Gates had been white, but given that she did indeed witness a man breaking into a house, and apparently didn’t know that he was the homeowner, she certainly had cause for suspicion no matter what race the person was. This is NOT like the case that NSM described, when her son was questioned and brought home just for standing at a bus stop in a predominantly white area, or like the black person who gets pulled over on the NJ turnpike for going five miles over the speed limit just because he’s driving a nice car.</p>

<p>Once the call was made, the officer had to investigate. No racism there. We have no idea what tone he took with Gates once he got to the door, and we also have no idea if his tone would have been any different had Gates been white. Neither does Gates. If Gates made any comments about racism, he was in the wrong.</p>

<p>The fact that Gates was wrong doesn’t justify the arrest. But the arrest doesn’t prove racism, either. Here’s a narrative for you: a cop who doesn’t make a lot of money or get a lot of respect is kind of resentful at getting told off and accused of racism by a prominent, wealthy Harvard professor. In this case, class may well have trumped race - had Gates been a middle-class black high school teacher, the cop might not have reacted in the same way. The cop overreacts, and oversteps his authority in making the arrest. </p>

<p>Now, can I say for sure race wasn’t involved? Of course not. Maybe Crowley is an inveterate racist. Maybe he was lying 100%, and Gates was polite as can be. But I also can’t say for sure that just because there is a history of racism in the police force, any individual action, even an unjust one, is a result of race.</p>

<p>Every incident involving a black person and a white person is not evidence of the white person’s relative level of prejudice. The fact that a white person has a black friend doesn’t mean he isn’t a racist, but the fact that a white person behaves like a jerk to a black person doesn’t mean he is. Some white people are jerks to everyone, just like some cops love using their authority in silly ways no matter who they’re dealing with.</p>

<p>The alternative is always assuming that any negative experience a black person has with a white person is a result of racism - not a terribly productive, practical, or just way of approaching the world.</p>

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<p>My point is that African-Americans are [ten times more likely to be convicted of a drug charge once caught]( <a href=“http://www.hrw.org/en/node/81105/section/7”>http://www.hrw.org/en/node/81105/section/7&lt;/a&gt;), and being more likely to commit a crime doesn’t justify going to prison ten times as often. When its a drug that affects white disproportionately, like meth, we have to create commercials and save and rehabilitate the poor innocents that have become addicted. When it’s a drug that disproportionately affects blacks, like crack, we have to lock them up. That’s my point.</p>

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<p>I assume not. Harvard Square doesn’t have a lot of black guys. If you know an old black guy owns a particular house in your posh neighborhood and you see an old black guy trying to get into the house with a TAXI waiting outside, it’s safe to assume that its the homeowner. Blacks don’t take taxis to the suburbs to do break ins in broad daylight. Reason alone should have dispelled any suspicion that Gates was a criminal.</p>

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<p>If Gates was white, and did exactly the same thing, I think the same result would’ve occurred. Ergo, not racism.</p>

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<p>I would bet all my money that Gates (not Bill, the Harvard one) is the least known of those names, even among students at Harvard.</p>

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<p>lol.</p>

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<p>"CHICAGO — Ralph Medley, a retired professor of philosophy and English who is black, remembers the day he was arrested on his own property, a rental building here in Hyde Park where he was doing some repair work for tenants.</p>

<p>A concerned neighbor had called the police to report a suspicious character. And that was not the first time Mr. Medley said he had been wrongly apprehended. A call Mr. Medley placed to 911 several years ago about a burglary resulted with the police showing up to frisk him.</p>

<p>“But I’m the one who called you!” he said he remembers pleading with the officers.</p>

<p>Like countless other blacks around the country, Mr. Medley was revisiting his encounters with the police as a national discussion about race and law enforcement unfolded after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard’s prominent scholar of African-American history. Professor Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct July 16 at his home in Cambridge, Mass., as the police investigated a report of a possible break-in there. The charge was later dropped, and the Cambridge Police Department said the incident was “regrettable and unfortunate.”</p>

<p>In interviews here and in Atlanta, in Web postings and on television talk shows, blacks and others said that what happened to Professor Gates was a common, if unacknowledged, reality for many people of color. They also said that beyond race, the ego of the police officer probably played a role.</p>

<p>But more deeply, many said that the incident was a disappointing reminder that for all the racial progress the country seemed to have made with the election of President Obama, little had changed in the everyday lives of most people in terms of race relations…"
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/us/24blacks.html?_r=1&hp[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/us/24blacks.html?_r=1&hp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>“Why is this story on national news? If Gates wasn’t the self-proclaimed victim that he is, it wouldn’t be. Thats for certain.”</p>

<p>The story is on national news because Gates is a Harvard professor and an internationally known intellectual. If Gates had been white with that background, the story still would have made the national news.</p>

<p>"Me: “Harvard is the biggest deal in the Boston area. Gates is probably the most esteemed and well known Harvard professor. Gates is to Cambridge as Dolly Parton is to Nashville, Bill Gates is to Seattle and Michael Jackson was to LA.”</p>

<p>Another poster: “I would bet all my money that Gates (not Bill, the Harvard one) is the least known of those names, even among students at Harvard.”</p>

<p>As a Harvard alum, I probably have a better idea about what Harvard students pay attention to. There probably are some Harvard students who don’t know who Henry Louis Gates is, but I bet far more aren’t familiar with Dolly Parton. </p>

<p>Unlike what’s the case at the rest of the country where people like sports stars and movie stars are the main celebrities that people care about, at Harvard and in the Boston area, star faculty at Harvard are the local celebrities. Henry Louis Gates is one of the local superstars.</p>

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This happened midday.</p>

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<p>There is ignorance abound on this thread and we will never know how or what the question of race played, but one thing is for certain, there are things that white and black people will just NEVER understand about each other. We can try to progress, but there will be those who easily and conveniently dismiss the other, and that is such a loss.</p>

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<p>The fact that our president would make such an unwise comment about a situation with which he had no direct experience disturbs me on many levels. Shows very, very poor judgement.</p>

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<p>“There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently.”</p>

<p>Why has no one yet speculated that the cane might have been one of those secret agent canes with a spring-loaded poison tip? Really, the menacing Gates be lucky he wasn’t shotted at,…</p>

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<p>This is off topic a bit, and a mild attempt to lighten the mood just a little, but…</p>

<p>There are several “deals” in the Boston area that are easily “bigger” than Harvard. In fact, It’s probably a safe bet to say that more people care more passionately about these “deals” than all the Boston area colleges put together:</p>

<p>Red Sox
Patriots
Celtics
Bruins</p>

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<p>Oh, rorosen, you and your mordant humor are welcome back!</p>

<p>And now, it turns out that the person who called the police works for Harvard Magazine, the alumni magazine of which H and I receive one copy each. Crowley graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin which is about a block away from Ware Street where Gates lives.</p>

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<p>Black thieves normally take cabs to upscale neighborhoods, and break in via the front door.</p>

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<p>President Obama said Thursday he was surprised by all the hubbub over his comments that a white police officer had acted “stupidly” in arresting a prominent black scholar for disorderly conduct. The president didn’t take back his words, but he allowed that he understood the sergeant who made the arrest is an “outstanding police officer.”</p>

<p>[Obama</a> Surprised by Controversy Over Remark About Arrest of Black Scholar - Political News - FOXNews.com](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/23/obama-surprised-controversy-remark-arrest-black-scholar/?]Obama”>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/23/obama-surprised-controversy-remark-arrest-black-scholar/?)</p>

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<p>my point exactly, Beldar: he is clueless as to the impact of his remarks.</p>

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<p>I don’t have a problem with Obama said, because even if you take Crowley’s version of the story as gospel truth, the Cambridge police still acted stupidly.</p>

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Regardless, I’m not sure what the issue is. We aren’t in the judicial system. A police officer was responding to a breakin.</p>

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Okay, so Lucia Whalen is a racist *******. Now on to the police officer. How is he racist again?</p>

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<p>Link regarding the “Ivy League Effect”</p>

<p>[Skip</a> Gates, please sit down | Salon](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/gates/]Skip”>http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/gates/)</p>

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<p>Here is a link regarding the “Ivy League Effect” from a left leaning website</p>

<p>[Skip</a> Gates, please sit down | Salon](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/gates/]Skip”>http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/gates/)</p>

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<p>Lets say it really was a burglar and the neighbor didn’t call. Then she would be racist for not caring about her black neighbor.
It is AMAZING to me how people here can trash a woman solely based on their assumptions and hypotheses of why and how she acted…
But then again she is white so assume and stereotype away</p>