Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates arrested

Parent Cafe
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<p>Keep talking, Barack. Make a few people on this board happy by directing your magical powers to solve racial profiling, all the while you are losing your grip on health care reform.</p>

<p>[USNews.com:</a> Political Bulletin: Friday, July 24, 2009](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_090724.htm]USNews.com:”>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_090724.htm)
Obama’s Comments On Gates Arrest Spark Controversy</p>

<p>Media reports cast the controversy regarding President Obama’s comments Wednesday evening on the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates as a public relations problem for the White House. The story led all three network newscasts Thursday evening. Some reports say the controversy is overshadowing other news – thereby undercutting the White House’s message push for healthcare reform.</p>

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<p>I think this is a remarkably fair assessment of the situation and one with which I completely agree. Before howling that it’s the Wall Street Journal and can’t be viewed seriously, please give it a look.</p>

<p>[Best</a> of the Web Today: Pride and Prejudice - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306162620043236.html#mod=rss_opinion_main]Best”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306162620043236.html#mod=rss_opinion_main)</p>

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<p>I don’t think Obama should have made the remark, but I agree with him. They acted stupidly. I was really glad to hear the “ly” on “stupid” too.</p>

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<p>I think the professor acted stupidly. According to the police report, he immediately started yelling that the cop was racist. That’s BS. If he’s an example of what comes out of the Ivies, God help us all. He was asked to prove he lived there and he went off on a tirade. The cop was leaving and he followed him outside, still shouting racist. The prof was warned to stop the harangue, but didn’t. Then he was arrested. Sorry, no sympathy from me. And I’m glad to see the cop has no intention of apologizing. He did nothing wrong but the professor sure did. And Obama stepped in it by opening his mouth before having the full story. </p>

<p>Are there cases of police misconduct? Absolutely. Is there racial profiling? Yep. But this incident was neither. I think the cop should sue the prof for slander.</p>

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<p>The Police Department is now considering releasing the real-time tapes of the incident. That could be interesting.</p>

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<p>zoosermom, I thought it was a good article too.</p>

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<p>There’s a lot to be said for a police officer behaving with restraint. That’s paramount in my view. It would be interesting to see on the tapes if that’s what happened.</p>

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<p>I like the WSJ article, too.</p>

<p>Slightly off-topic, if anyone is interested–Some years ago I read Gates’s book about growing up in the 1950s in an African American community in West Virginia that was settled before the Civil War: Colored People: A Memoir. It’s beautifully written and very illuminating (he and I are roughly the same age). And because I have relatives who now live about two miles from there, I knew all the places he was writing about. A little historical perspective–not just about Gates, but about growing up black in the 1950s–goes a long way. Sometimes I sense a real generational difference in conversations about race.</p>

<p>Just a minute ago I Googled the book because I wasn’t sure I had the right title. It turns out that it’s this year’s selection for the Cambridge public library’s community book club, Cambridge Reads. That should make for some interesting dialogue.</p>

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<p>I was pleasantly surprised by the WSJ article. I can’t wait to hear what a friend of mine – who is a former Chicago cop – who used to be the front page editor of the WSJ, and the highest ranking black person there – says about it. </p>

<p>From the article: "The more we think about last week’s confrontation between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass., policeman James Crowley, the more we think that Crowley was more in the wrong than Gates. We argued Tuesday that both men should have backed down, and we’ve heard nothing since to change that view. But Crowley was on duty as an officer of the law and thus had a professional obligation not to let his pride get the better of him.</p>

<p>Crowley had no business remaining on the scene once he had ascertained that Gates belonged in the house. Even by the Crowley’s account in the police report, Gates had done nothing at that point to justify arresting him. He had disrespected a policeman’s authority, which may be rude and foolish but is not a crime.</p>

<p>So we were pleased to hear that President Obama, in his press conference last night, said more or less the same thing we had been thinking:</p>

<pre><code>I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they [sic] were in their own home; and, No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
</code></pre>

<p>Let’s dispense with one common criticism of the president: that he should have refrained from commenting on the subject at all. “It’s the kind of question to which a president would normally reply with something like: ‘That’s a local police matter, I don’t know the details and I know it will be worked out responsibly,’ and move along,” says National Review’s Yuval Levin. “Very odd behavior for a president.”</p>

<p>True, this started as a local police matter, but by the time Obama was asked about it, it had become a contentious national debate. As he is the first president who is black, Obama’s views on a subject involving race relations were bound to be of interest and to carry considerable weight. And Obama evidently did have a strong interest in the matter. "</p>

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<p>What will never be known about this case is why people insisted to make this an issue of racial confrontation. Does anyone believe that a black or half-black police officer would have been more patient with Prof. Gates and been more willing to listen to his endless tirade about name and badges? Does anyone believe that Prof. Gates would have been any less tired, irritated, and obnoxious if approached by a minority police officer? </p>

<p>Before answering that rhetorical question, please consider the released picture of the arrest, and the fact that Prof Gates followed the first officer and was dismayed by the great number of police officers standing outside. Why did he not approach the black police officer that is clearly visible in the picture? </p>

<p>It is clear why this issue became one of race, and that reason is only known by Prof. Gates and entirely created by him to satisfy his by-now admitted agenda. He is the only one who knows how well the situation fit the “racial narrative” he had on his mind. </p>

<p>And if progress in racial interaction is what is sought, it is extremely clear that such incidents will do absolutely nothing to ameliorate the crisis. A bombastic academic diva with an agenda confronting an intolerant group of cops does not offer lessons to anyone.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification on time. I had thought it was 1244 am. My mistake.</p>

<p>Still, I see nothing wrong with the neighbor calling the police - whether it was in the afternoon, evening or morning.</p>

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<p>Of course, it is more convenient to ignore the FACT that there were witnesses of the egregious behavior of Gates outside his house and that his original press release admitted the insistence by Gates to obtain the cops’ identification. </p>

<p>And does Gates want us to believe he did not follow the racial narrative HE described?</p>

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<p>I agree with this part of the WSJ article, too. Given his background including his being in the Ivy League from college on, I doubt that Gates has had many opportunities to hear about the challenges of police work from friends and relatives in that field. I think that both men could learn a lot from each other.</p>

<p>“But a true scholar devotes his life to acquiring knowledge, not just imparting it. Crowley may have something to learn from Gates, but Gates may have something to learn from Crowley, too–about the challenges of police work and the vulnerabilities, both physical and psychological, that sometimes lead cops to act overzealously–even stupidly–when citizens challenge their authority.”</p>

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<p>The President of the United States did indeed have a very strong opinion on the matter. An opinion formed entirely by his friendship for Gates, and not based on any knowledge of the facts. This explains why, in a subsequent interview with Terry Moran, the POTUS waffled on his earlier position and admitted he did not have the facts and relied on his general perception of what “might” happen to blacks and latinos when facing the police. </p>

<p>Obama’s intervention was a blunder of collosal proportions, and one that ensures that he’ll lose more early supporters. Notto mention one that will only help deteriorate the fragile racial interactions that exist in areas of the United States that have absolutely nothing to do with the rarefied air one breaths in the ivory towers of Harvard. </p>

<p>Angrier cops and people who now believe it is OK to mouth off at the authorities is not a recipe for success. Now, real victims will pay the consequences that a well-connected scholar could easily make vanish.</p>

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<p>I don’t know the facts of this case. Mostly, because I’ve heard it discussed on NPR and on the Glenn Beck show. </p>

<p>For those of you who’ve heard neither program, allow me to catch you up.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>NPR - Professor Gates is the victim of a racial profiling case that’s gone unexpectedly high profile. Mr. Gates presented ID and sufficient evidence that was, in fact, legally in his own home but was still cuffed, booked, and humiliated in front of his neighbors.</p></li>
<li><p>Glenn Beck - Professor Gates is an elitist, Jeremiah Wright wannabe. He holed up in his house refusing to cooperate with the police. It took multiple officers to subdue Gates who tried to play the “race card.”</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>zoosermom, good article. Thanks for posting.</p>

<p>To me, where the story goes awry is when Gates is dismayed about being asked to step outside (after already having presented proof that he is the homeowner). He sees that as proof that the police officer has a racist narrative in mind and wants to hassle him. I see that as the police officer simply doing his job.</p>

<p>To me, it’s just common sense that part of an investigation of a potential home invasion is that you ascertain that the homeowner is not under duress.</p>

<p>That’s why my security system has a code such that if someone were to hold a gun to my head and tell me to disable the system, I can enter in a code which appears to disable it but actually sends a message to the local police that they need to come, and they should arrive quietly, NOT with sirens and lights blaring, so that the person holding me hostage doesn’t shoot me upon hearing the sirens.</p>

<p>That’s why, if my alarm goes off by accident and the police arrive, even if I tell them everything is fine, they still search the property, because for all they know someone has broken in, has a gun and has instructed me to tell the cops that it’s a false alarm. </p>

<p>That’s why they have me sign a paper that it was a false alarm, because that would be my opportunity to communicate in writing “HELP ME! BURGLAR INSIDE!” in a way that I couldn’t say out loud if the burglar had threatened to shoot my loved one being held upstairs the moment I said anything to the police.</p>

<p>That’s why if they asked me to come outside even after ascertaining I was the homeowner, their goal would to be “isolate” me from the burglar so that I could whisper or otherwise communicate that indeed someone was in the house, in a way that I couldn’t if I were standing in my foyer and the burglar could hear what I said.</p>

<p>I appreciate how Gates might be sensitive to it, as a black man, and I readily admit my lens is that of a white woman who has no inherent reason to distrust the police.
But I see the “step outside” as part of the officer doing his job to ascertain the homeowner wasn’t under duress, not as an attempt to Get The Uppity Black Man. I would have complied with it in a heartbeat. </p>

<p>What’s the alternative? Suppose indeed a gunman was inside and had instructed to tell Gates to tell the police it was a mistake. Gates’ only chance to have communicated that to the policeman would have been to get outside with the policeman and somehow whisper or communicate that he was really in trouble. </p>

<p>I expect policemen to take nothing for granted. And that seems to be what this police officer did. </p>

<p>Remember the Petit family in Connecticut - dr, wife, 2 teenage daughters - held hostage in their own home? Just imagine if a policeman had come to the door; under duress, they would have said everything was fine – but if the police asked one of them to step outside, they could have communicated that they were in trouble. Indeed, didn’t the mother try to do that when one of the invaders took her to her bank to withdraw money? That’s all the narrative <em>I</em> need to say that if the police officer asks me to step outside, I do it. Even if it really is a false alarm or malfunctioning-front-door situation.</p>

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<p>Those two possibilities can exist together. For hellojan.</p>

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<p>For those of you screaming racism, please give the facts; not the assumptions, the stereotypes and the hypotheses which show that this is racism.</p>

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<p>PG, I’m with you on that. But it may be a woman thing. My first thought would have been to be glad the police came and made sure I was ok.</p>

<p>I know police misbehavior exists. We have a lot of it on a small scale here. My community has many, many police and their families. Many of the women carry miniature gold badges that they whip out at convenient times and get away with things that others couldn’t. I believe black men have reason to be extremely wary of police. No question about that. But I just think in this case, when his safety and property were being protected appropriately, Professor Gates might have been gracious. But I’d still be interested in hearing the tapes and I still believe that if the officers lied in their reports, they should be fired. If Professor Gates misrepresented in public what happened? he should apologize and be a little less condescending to the officer.</p>

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<p>It’s not a local police matter. It should be a national matter. Barack Obama presented legislation here in Illinois to stop the rampant racial profiling. It slowed it down some. Now the same legislation is need for the country. There are other parts of the country where this is still going on and Professor Gates should have a national platform to address the problems that led to the saying " driving while black". It’s not just police stopping people it goes into all the other services , businesses, and opportunities that avoid the demographics of the " zip codes with diversity" or worse take financial advantage of zip codes with diversity.</p>