<p>I’m sorry, but to me this is just like the “don’t tase me, bro” incident–you don’t fight the police. The police may have been obnoxious, but I can’t believe that they would have arrested Gates if he had behaved reasonably. Even Ogletree’s version shows that Gates was only arrested when he came out of the house and continued to confront the police. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the police to investigate when somebody reports a door being forced open.</p>
<p>It’s terribly distressing to me to see some people on this thread, people whom articulate their thoughts clearly, nevertheless rationalize the completely inappropriate response of the policeman. To Black Americans, such rationalization seems to regularly occur and is almost always a loud howl when an incident like this happens with police officers when the Blacks envolved are by most objective observations, guilty of no wrong doing.</p>
<p>Yes, Professor Gates got annoyed and apparently offered some choice words to the officer. But that is his right as he stands in his OWN HOME. What upsets many fair-minded Americans is that, this officer and some here on CC won’t give Professor Gates the same perogative that would be permitted a white homeowner under the exact same circumstances; the right to be annoyed, to voice an opinion, and the right to demand appropriate deference ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY. Once it was clear that a misunderstanding occurred, the officer should have told Gates to ‘have a nice day’ and went about his way preventing illegal parking and actual malicious [i.e. illegal] activity in this apparently crime ridden Cambridge neighorhood (yes, that’s sarcasm you hear). I long to hear the answer to the question, ‘…after inspecting Professor Gates’ I.D., after realizing there was indeed a cab and driver at the scene (wow, burglars hailing taxis to haul their loot; Harvard Square criminals are quite innovative!!!), how and why did this “incident” continue?’ Oh gee, say some on CC, the cop was insulted. That’s just what we don’t need in a public servant whom carries a gun; a short fuse. Decent and just people are not going to let these myriad rationalizations continue to be used to demean [and worse] their fellow citizens. That is not just.</p>
<p>For the sake of argument:
If the professor was white and the police officer was black, I would still think the professor was being an arrogant, disrespectful jerk.</p>
<p>
what was completely inappropriate? responding to the call?</p>
<p>
No, it’s not and he was NOT in his home. Again he was out in public, showing off for an audience.</p>
<p>
what is it with you cop-haters?</p>
<p>Justamomof4, I see that it’s easy and simplistic for you to dismiss concerns about the officer’s conduct as coming from “cop-haters.” You should do better when we’re talking about a man being arrested and held in custody for no good reason. And since you’re so familiar with the facts of the situation, please share with us the position where the Professor was standing when he was arrested. Apparently it makes a difference to you that he was arrested in front of his house or on the curb at his property, rather than in his doorway. More rationalizations.</p>
<p>In Gates’ account, he stated that he wanted to know who the officer was - that is what he said but the officer wouldn’t produce identification. The officer stated in his report that he told Gates his name several times. It sounds like Gates expected the officer to produce identification when he was asking for his name. It seems to me to be a gray area. I think that it is reasonable to ask to see an officer’s identification. And that an officer asked his name could produce his identification to both show it and confirm that he is an officer.</p>
<p>It may be that Gates has hearing problems too (I find that people that have hearing problems often talk louder) and that an ID would have been easier for him to use.</p>
<p>Professor was on an ego trip. I’d love to pose this question to him:</p>
<p>“If the officer had been African-American, would you have responded the same way?”</p>
<p>Police overreacted, got caught up in the context of the confrontation and let it escalate. Once they saw Prof. Gates’ ID, they had no legal right to be in his house and the correct police procedure would have been to leave. </p>
<p>Police are trained not to allow a heated context to escalate. That’s in their job because almost every situation can escalate and can even become dangerous. </p>
<p>Police are also trained to recognize the legal context of their actions. They were at and inside the house of a man who had ID that showed who he was. That should have told the officer the correct context but he missed it and acted like Prof. Gates was out in public where different rules apply. This was not a domestic situation - such as a domestic argument - and no Court would ever find the police had probable cause to do anything more than ask for ID. The police misread the context and lost it. </p>
<p>People need to understand that police deal all day long with people who swear or get angry. That’s part of the job. If you can’t take that, then being an officer is not for you - and you shouldn’t have made it through training. Calming people down is part of the job. </p>
<p>My read is the officer did a lousy job by not respecting this homeowner’s rights and then let the situation escalate. Bad job. Reflects poorly on the officer’s training and skills.</p>
<p>apparently he eventually was in his own house, and eventually presented his id.
He really was forcing his way into the home.
According to the article I read, he was seen as a man that appeared to be breaking into a house(turns out that was true, but that it was his own house).
Upon initial questioning, he refused to identify himself, got loud, yelling, using the race card. All that before he even identified himself.
AFTER all that, then he identified himself and showed proof.
Let’s remember- he wasn’t arrested for B and E</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because I’m white, but if I’d lost a house key or car key and was breaking into my own property, and a cop came up to see what was going on, the very first thing I’d do would be to say who I was and that the property was mine. Am I somehow wrong with that? Should I say “don’t you know who I am…”?</p>
<p>Agree with post #29.</p>
<p>I am married to a Police Officer. I work with the Police Department. The behavior of the po would have him being brought before a trial board, found guilty with sanctions.</p>
<p>Neither life nor property were in imminent danger, short of Dr Gates having stroke from the encounter. No riot was being started. Just the PO feeling dis-respected. Cambridge PO’s must be very soft if they are insulted so easily.</p>
<p>A case of TTEMHWB
Trying To Enter My House While Black</p>
<p>Justamom, </p>
<p>The PO may have had a right to be annoyed. They did not have the right to arrest the man. You know it; I know it. The sad thing is Cambridge will likely end up making a substantial settlement, the PO will get a slap on his wrists. Shouting on your own door step does not normally get one arrested. It is the PO who thinks he is above the law. Just becuase your a PO does not give you the right to arrest anyone who pi**es you off.</p>
<p>Some may think Dr. Gates was arrogant. I prefer to think he did it to stand up for the many African Americans who can not afford to respond as he did, and have to grovel when they see a PO. </p>
<p>I am not African American. When I was 8 years old, my mother was driving with 3 small children through Mississippi. We stopped in a greasy diner. The type place you go when you have kids with you. Every table was marked reserved. She asked politiely – could we get a seat, and was told yes, that was just to keep the colored out. My mom gave us a look to be quiet (that was back in the day parents could keep kids quiet with a look) and we ate quietly and left. When I asked her later that day why we didnt go somewhere else – she said there was PO there and she was afraid. I cried myself to sleep that night – why should my mom who never hurt anyone have to be afraid. It wasnt until I was 20 that I realized every african american child had expericence a fear of PO from an early age.</p>
<p>While the story is probably somewhere in the middle and there definitely could have been some racial profiling going on-as a black male who’s over 6 feet tall, if a policeman in uniform asks you to do something you shut up and do it. No questions, no yelling, no anything. If the officer is behaving in an inappropriate way take it up later with a formal complaint. Cops have shot innocent black males before and not gotten into any serious trouble over it under the pretenses of a tense situation-in a way Gates is lucky that all that occurred was embarrassment. Surely this “Harvard Professor” (I put this in quotes to question his intelligence) should know after spending so many years on this earth what an 18 year old knew by the time he turned 13.</p>
<p>Gates clearly has some frustrations in life: he uses a cane, he might have hearing problems (I do and I’m probably ten years younger), and has to deal with his house being broken into. There are lots of reasons as to why he could have been in a bad mood. I think that it would have been wiser to do the shut-up and listen thing myself but my history is nothing like his.</p>
<p>I guess you could make the case for community policing here. It’s also a shame that people in the neighborhood don’t know each other. In my neighborhood, we watch out for the property of others which means that you have to at least know a little bit about your neighbors.</p>
<p>I would hope that the charges just get dropped or dismissed.</p>
<p>[Charges</a> Dropped Against Harvard Scholar - Education News Story - WCVB Boston](<a href=“http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20129361/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_break&ts=T&tmi=bos_break_1_11100107212009]Charges”>http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/20129361/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_break&ts=T&tmi=bos_break_1_11100107212009)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>"Northstarmom - you are calling the two police officers who responded to the scene liars?
They just made up this stuff? It was somehow a consipiracy? "</p>
<p>I’m saying that I believe there is much more to the story and that yes, the police could be lying, something that has been known to happen.</p>
<p>There also are ways that police can approach the public that are respectful, and there also are disrespectful ways. One can be polite and ask for ID and why a person is at a house or one can act condescending, rude and act like one is talking to an word or an obvious criminal.</p>
<p>I mentioned earlier about a neighbor calling the police on my son because the son thought my son – who was waiting at the bus stop behind my house in a residential neighborhood on a Sat. morning-- was a suspicious person. My son identified himself to the policeman, who then brought him to my house and asked if my son lived there. The policeman was courteous the whole time, and also was black and even looked embarassed at having to ask such a question about a young man who wasn’t doing anything wrong.</p>
<p>It was right for the policeman to verify things since the neighbor had reported a suspicious person. However, another policeman may have approached my son or me in an impolite, condescending or threatening way, which might have justifiably ticked off my son or me.</p>
<p>Probably the majority of black people in this country – myself included - -have been approached by police or have had loved one’s approached by police in a rude manner even though the people were doing absolutely nothing wrong. </p>
<p>When Princeton Professor Cornell West was a Harvard professor, he was stopped whiile driving in NY State by a police officer who called him the “n” word, asked why he was driving, and laughed when West said he was a Harvard professor. You can read about this in West’s book “Race Matters.” I’m sure that if asked about the incident, the police officer would have told a different story than West did, but I believe West. A lot of black people have been stopped by police for no other reason than driving while black. </p>
<p>Now, with Gates, we have a person who was arrested for being in his own home while being black.</p>
<p>I have to say I do like the bit about the driver helping Gates carry his luggage INTO the house. Normally, burglars carry things OUT of houses. :)</p>
<p>Piterbizon said: “Looks like both Gates and the cop were having ego trips. Either of them could have defused the situation, neither did.”</p>
<p>wow, I didn’t knwo that having an ego trip - or even acting like a jerk - was now illegal!</p>
<p>The end of the story should have happened right after Gates presented his ID: postive ID as house owner = officer then leaves.</p>
<p>Marite and post #35; Thanks, I needed that.</p>
<p>I think there is no doubt that there was racial profiling going on in this incident. Perhaps, Gates was arrogant or maybe a bit exhausted from a long trip to China; but that in no way justifies this arrest. At any point in time the officer could have easily diffused this situation. Instead, he escalated it because his “authority” was being questioned. A couple of years ago, my husband who is white and in his late fifties at the time was arrested (also, in Massachusetts) for causing a disturbance and failure to stop. He had been pulled for an expired inspection sticker and because it happened in front of our house, he chose to pull into the driveway. It was the wrong decision, because it was perceived as threatening by the local cop. My husband compounded the problem by getting out of the car to hand over a pizza and soda to our 12 year old son. Next thing he knew, he was up against the car and handcuffed. He had realized his oversight on the inspection sticker and was fully prepared for a citation and never thought his actions were going to lead to his arrest.</p>
<p>^^ It has been. Nobody comes out of this episode smelling like roses.</p>
<p>So would this have happened to a white old man with a cane?</p>