<p>It is hard to remember everything on this one, but I seem to remember one of the Boston television stations mentioning that there had been an attempted break in at the Gates’ house while he was in China. Did anyone else pick up on that? I heard it yesterday (perhaps Ch. 7?).</p>
<p>Dogwood, I thought I heard that too, but was unsure and confused. Could some such thing be why the door wouldn’t open?-</p>
<p>Let’s be clear about what the police report said happened (assuming for the moment that it was accurate, a point on which we have no direct information). Gates is screaming at the officer, demanding his name. Officer tells Gates he’s leaving, and that if Gates wants to talk further they can talk outside. First question: What’s the alternative at this point? Just walk away and not allow Gates to continue? Then he’s accused of disrespect.</p>
<p>So we go out on the porch. Gates continues screaming and insults, now in public. Second question: What’s the alternative? Same problem as no. 1. After repeatedly trying to get Gates to stop creating a public disturbance, officer arrests him, brings him to the station and then drops charges.</p>
<p>You know something? If my 21 year old white son came whining to me with this story, I would tell him he got off easy.</p>
<p>Now, the report may not be true. It may also be true that the officer should have thought, “Hmm, no matter how I would react to a young white man, if I arrest this African-American big shot there is going to be hell to pay. So I’ll just walk away, let him scream at my back, and deal with the allegations of racial profiling that are inevitably going to come anyway.”</p>
<p>But let’s be clear. EVERYONE–white or black–knows that if you keep screaming at a police officer in public and will not stop after repeatedly being told to, something like this is going to happen.</p>
<p>I give Obama credit for trying to cut his losses and move on. But I would also observe that most prominent establishment African-Americans are really stuck on this one. Even if they are thinking “oh, Henry. What the hell were you doing?” they would lose all credibility with their core constituency if they were sided with the police against a man like Henry Gates.</p>
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<p>But however well known he is, he has no real duty to act in a dignified manner. He has the right to make an ass of himself if he wants to, even if that makes him an ass. Surely the greater responsibility lies with the guy being paid to handle the situation in a just manner, the guy that’s been entrusted with a gun.</p>
<p>I have sympathy with the cop in the initial situation, but once it was clear nothing was really happening and he was going to leave, it was his job to be the bigger man.</p>
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For me that’s the bottom line unless the tapes present something different. The officer is a professional in these matters.</p>
<p>Here is the police report (I posted it on another thread, but I’m not sure if it has been mentioned here yet): <a href=“To visit View from the Right, go to”>To visit View from the Right, go to;
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<p>While I agree it is good protocol to have the subject step outside, this is not what happened according to the report. The sergeant went well inside the house to speak to Gates and attempt to verify his ID. Once he had done that and was leaving the house, Dr. Gates was yelling and asking for the sgt’s name, but not allowing him to answer. So the sgt said “if you want to keep talking, lets do it outside”, and proceded to leave.</p>
<p>I maintain that he should have just left it at that and drove off, leaving the professor to yell at the air if he wanted. This would have been the professional and mature thing to do. He certainly knew that a DC charge would never stick to a man on his own property yelling at a police officer (whom courts have ruled cannot be victims of such crimes). This just became a ****ing match between two men not accustomed to losing.</p>
<p>calmom, thanks for your post. It was the most cohesive and informative that I have read.</p>
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That’s not what the police report or Professor GAtes’ account says.</p>
<p>Both accounts said that Officer Crowley first asked Professor Gates to step outside and he refused.</p>
<p>This wasn’t a case based on race. Gates brought race into the situation, as it sounds from the reports I have read. Gates was arrested because he was acting like an a–hole, not because he was black. I don’t know if he should have been arrested (I am thinking no) but I hate that people think this officer must have been profusely racist. </p>
<p>Everything was according to protocol until the actual handcuffs, as far as I am aware. Obama was stupid to comment on this subject. Figures he would since Gates was a longtime friend of his. If Gates did not happen to be black, this story would not have even made the local newspaper. Most people don’t say “Why, cause I’m black” when the police officer asks you for identification to protect your home.</p>
<p>“If Gates did not happen to be black, this story would not have even made the local newspaper.”</p>
<p>Definitely not true. A top Harvard professor’s being arrested at his home for allegedly causing a disturbance would have been a national story regardless of race.</p>
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<p>Yes, at first - but at some point (and its not specified in the report), the Sgt entered the house alone, which it where he received the professor’s ID, and where he was joined by the back-up officer.</p>
<p>Did they have permission to enter the house?</p>
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<p>Not illegal - and not rising to the level of disorderly conduct, especially when on one’s own property and addressed to a peace officer.</p>
<p>Again, Gates likely would have had no problem at all with going outside, had the officer asked him in a manner consistent with having concern for his safety. But Gates clearly states that the officer demanded it in a way that signalled to him that he was in danger.</p>
<p>*So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.’</p>
<p>My lawyers later told me that that was a good move and had I walked out onto the porch he could have arrested me for breaking and entering.*
[Professor</a> Henry Louis Gates Jr. speaks out on racial profiling after his arrest by Cambridge police.](<a href=“http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,1]Professor”>http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,1)</p>
<p>Now, you folks are going to simply dismiss this. But I actually predicted that this is how it went down, and I did it before ever reading Gates’s account. The fact is, vast numbers of black guys could have just as easily predicted the same thing because we have actually had white cops barking at us in the same way that makes us feel we are in danger. This is why I am convinced that Gates is telling the truth. His response was exactly the response I would have had, and it would have happened automatically. Gates is not lying here, however much you wish to believe it. The cop is lying, and his lie is transparent, relying on 1970’s caricatures of blacks to marginalize the guy. “Yo mama” indeed.</p>
<p>Had that cop expressed concern, Gates would have undoubtedly exited the house without any problem at all. The cop’s demeanor is what caused Gates to bristle initially. What ultimately angered Gates is that the white cop stayed around probing for answers to questions after having received confirmation that Gates belonged there and was fine. What really unhinged Gates was that when he tried to exercize his right to get the cop’s name and badge number, the cop denied it, and he did so because he knew that with his being white and Gate’s being black, he could get away with it. In my earlier guess about how the events occurred, I had Gates repeatedly demanding the name and badge number. And that is exactly what Gates did. It was ultimately not much of a fictitious account after all because I was able to sense Gate’s motivations even before reading about them. As the white officer used his race and office to push Gates around, Gates used whatever tools that were available to him to push back. And THIS is why the white cop arrested the man, though Gates had broken no law. The cop simply wished to use the last tool in his arsenal to humiliate the black man.</p>
<p>Now, the ball is in Gates’s court. I suspect his lawyers are developing a case that will show that even by the white guy’s own account, Gate’s broke no law and was therefore falsely arrested. My guess is that if a case exists, they are going to use it as a cudgel against the CPD. Gate’s won’t need Crowley to apologize if the entire city of Cambridge is willing to do it, also demanding that the CPD alter its procedures for dealing with people. I suspect this is how Gates will win this battle of egos.</p>
<p>“Definitely not true. A top Harvard professor’s being arrested at his home for allegedly causing a disturbance would have been a national story regardless of race.”</p>
<p>It would not have been the same story as it is today. Do you think Obama would really be having press conferences and CNN would talk about this story like it is another Michael Jackson story if the professor had not been black?</p>
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Right and Professor Gates was cranked up at that point and followed the officer out of the house accusing him of racism. Personally, I think the officer should have left, but I don’t know what the regulations would be on walking away in a situation like that. I also wonder if he had walked away anyway, whether Professor Gates, who made the threat, would have made his life hell anyway just for the fact of showing up.</p>
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I will be very surprised if Professor Gates files suit because, as has been pointed out, he’ll be dining out on this for a long while.</p>
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<p>Oh yes, I remember the extensive national coverage and presidential commentary of this incident last month:</p>
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Are you sensing any lottery numbers Drosselmeier?</p>
<p>I really do hope the tapes are released and as I said before, if the officers lied or misled they should be fired. If Professor Gates’ public statements don’t match the facts, he should apologize.</p>
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<p>Exactly - it would be extremely odd if they didn’t record this incident. I don’t know a single police officer (and I know a lot of police officers) who doesn’t always have (most times required by department policy) an audio recorder on them at all times. Some even have micro video cameras attached to their shirt pockets so they can show in court exactly what they were seeing.</p>