None of that happens until he refuses to step out of the dwelling. By his own account. And it’s also not clear whether his address was on the ID. Neither here nor there. Professor Gates assumed that he could read the officer’s mind and decided that he was viewed as a suspect. Just as likely that he was viewed as a potential victim or hostage. The shame will be when a black person actually is the victim and loses his or her life because a white police officer hesitates for that split second from taking charge in protecting him or her.</p>
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Why wasn’t he afraid that someone was still around? And glad as heck to see the police officer who would make sure it was safe?</p>
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This is Professor Gates own reporting of the first question out of the officer’s mouth. More likely that he was making sure that Professor Gates could speak freely than that he was going to arrest him.</p>
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This is just ludicrous. Perhaps the police officer responding knew something he didn’t. Had he stepped outside where the officer knew they were both safe he might have gotten all that courtesy and more.</p>
<p>Sigh. The officer STILL doesn’t know that there isn’t someone on the premises who has threated the homeowner, is perhaps holding a family member hostage elsewhere in the house, and the homeowner has no choice but to say “here’s my ID, I’m fine.” The fact that it didn’t turn out to be true doesn’t mean that the officer is supposed to ASSUME that it’s not true. </p>
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<p>Again, sigh. Who said that the officer thought that Gates was the one doing the B&E? Remember, two men were seen “breaking in.” Don’t you think he wanted to ascertain where the other person was?</p>
<p>And besides, do you REALLY want to go there in terms of “well, he’s a university professor so he’s on the low end of the probability scale of b&e”? Do you REALLY want people making judgments about other people based on the probabilities of their groups as a whole? Isn’t that the whole point that this thread was about?</p>
<p>As you can see in the 22 minute interview I linked, Sgt. Crowley, from the moment he saw Gates, concluded that this did not look like a breaking and entering suspect. The Sgt. was simply trying to resolve a burglary call, something he said he would normally expect to take about 14 seconds. He wanted to find out who Gates was and determine that he was the rightful inhabitant of the house and he wanted to determine that there were not, indeed, burglars in the house that, perhaps Gates did not know about.</p>
<p>The problem for the officer, was that Gates began berating him for racism from the moment Crowley stepped to the door and never stopped.</p>
<p>The only logical explanation for this is that Gates never figured out that someone had REPORTED a burglary intrusion and the Crowley was responding to a 911 call, not just strolling down the street looking for black people to harrass in their homes. Gates, apparently, jumped to the racist conclusion that the police officer, being white, must have been a racist and there only to persecute him. It apparently never occurred to Gates that Crowley was just some poor schlub trying to do his job, which at that moment was to make sure that Gates’ house was not being robbed.</p>
<p>“The person answering the door is an aging black man who walks with a can and says he is both a Harvard professor and that he rents the space from the University; an entirely plausible scenario.”</p>
<p>Correction:</p>
<p>The person answering the door is an aging black man who walks with a can and says he is both a Harvard professor, and that he rents the space from the University… yet initially refuses to show indentification thereby making his statement a suspicious scenario.</p>
<p>Look, it’s easy to paint a broad brush. I’ve heard the jokes that a Harvard man doesn’t steal from you by forcing in your door- he does it by swindling your accounts. The joke would imply educated men all steal like Bernie M. recently did rather than burglaries. But that is a broad brush, intended as a joke, and is not a good real-life representation of educated persons.</p>
<p>While all would agree some racism still exists, and racial biases, and racial job discrimination(I know some firefighter victims recently in the news), this isn’t 1619, 1819, or 1949. I hope all young parents are teaching their children about today’s improving nation; with a historical perspective is fair. Those who teach children today, not to trust police enough to show i.d. are not only doing their child a disservice but worse- they are encouraging an us against them mentality that will further the racial problems.</p>
<p>BTW, Gates has a pressing problem at the moment. His house could be robbed in broad daylight today or burned to the ground, and no officer from the Cambridge police or fire departments is going to respond to a call at that address, knowning that they will instantly be berated as racists and accused of being rogue officers.</p>
<p>I-Dad, that was the first thought I had after this incident was made public. That and the fact that the door was jammed … indicating the possibility of a prior attempt to break and enter in Gates’ house during his absences.</p>
<p>As far as responding to a distress call, I think that the police and the fire department would ultimately respond because that IS their job. However, chances that the neighbors would MUCH less interested to keep an eye and help a neighbor that exhibits such volatile behavior and is so prone to throw the race card in the face of everyone who happens to be a mild irritant. His neighbors, if they did not know it before this week, surely know by know “who he is” and “that people should know better not to mess with him.” Calling 911 to help Gates? Could not blame the neighbors to look the other way!</p>
<p>And, to all the people who are so intent to establish that Gates was somehow correct in berating the police officers, what would remain of this incident if there had not been an arrest on the porch? Up to the moment the handcuffs were placed on Gates, was there much negative to say about the intervention of the police? </p>
<p>And then ask yourself about what Gates himself had done up to the moment of his arrest!</p>
<p>Nice point! I never thought of it that way. I would have been very confused if I had been in my house for a good amount of time (20-30 minutes) when a police officer rushed at me and asked me to step outside. Furthermore, if I had negative experiences in my life and had focussed on African American history through my profession, I probably would have reacted the same way. What he did, racial profiling, is still wrong though. Hopefully this experience will tame his notion of a very racist society in today’s America. Not all cops are bad people, and since they constantly put their lives on the line for others, I don’t think they (the good cops) deserve to go through this crap. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, what harm was done? Seriously, people are dying because they cannot afford health care, and, at the same time, we are crying because a social elite had to take a trip to the police station only to be returned home shortly after? For Gates personally, this places him at a greater risk of a successful robbery/fire occurring at his house (see posts #786 and #787)</p>
<p>@zoosermom, when the facts come out, and all the apologies are made, there will hopefully be a greater degree of understanding between police officers and African Americans. Both the police department and black citizens will learn from this example. Officers will learn how to approach a black man in a similar situation, and African Americans will learn to hold their assumptions/emotions until the situation is diffused.</p>
<p>Right now, we are only divided due to our instinctive assumptions regarding the vague details of the case (whether to believe the police report or whether to believe Gates.</p>
<p>Extrapolating to a larger issue, one of the real impediments to meaningful progress in many hard-hit urban neighborhoods is that the police simply will not engage as fully in neighborhood policing as they could. Multiply the aggression and hostility towards the police accross an entire neighborhood and you end up with a situation where the police simply cannot provide the services effectively.</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer. One would think that the debilitating anger of Gates’ generation would ease with each passing generation, but I’m not sure that’s happening. It’s seems that the anger and hate is being passed along from generation generation with no community leadership to break the cycle, so we end up with the head-scratching scenario of a Cambridge educated black Harvard professor, Harvard educated black Governor, and a a Harvard educated black President railing against the lack of respect for black men in language so heated you would think they were talking about the days, a half a century ago of Bull Conner blocking the doors to opportunity.</p>
<p>I know the world is not a perfect place, but is sure seems like a little “glass is half-full” rhetoric and leadership would be a positive change. As we can see in the Gates microcosm, the belligerent hostility and knee-jerk charges of racism isn’t working out so well.</p>
<p>I’m not up on police procedure (except as shown on Law and Order), but why is it that the police never tell you anything? When I was stopped by a police once for a traffic stop, he didn’t tell me what it was that I did wrong. I sat on the side of the road for 25 minutes. Another police car came. He filled out the ticket and had me sign. Still, nothing about what the infraction was. I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to be seen as arguing with the police…you don’t want to get involved with a touchy one.</p>
<p>Finally, he told me what the infraction was. It was nothing that couldn’t have been said in the first 2 minutes of the stop.</p>
<p>So police come to your door and ask you to step outside. "Why? What’s up? the homeowner asks. Why not tell him then about the report of the burglary? When I reported lights on at a neighbor’s house when there should have been none, the police went inside and checked all the closets to make sure that no burglar was there. (Turns out the daughter had come earlier in the day to put something in the garage and had left the lights on.) The policeman will ask to come in and check the house to make sure all is safe.</p>
There was no racial profiling by the officer. He simply repsponded to a 911 call to that address. If anything, he “profiled” the opposite direction when he immediately concluded that Gates did not look like an intruder. His assumption, from the moment he saw Gates, was that Gates belonged in the house. It was only Gates immediate berating of him that was unusual and unexpected, as there had been nothing to provoke such an attack.</p>
<p>The behavior I have modeled for my boys, when I have been stopped by police (speeding, whatever) is COMPLETE, RESPECTFUL, COOPERATION. </p>
<p>I rolled down the window before the officers got to the car, and when they arrived at the car, had both my hands on the wheel in plain view. And I verbally explained to my boys that this is what I was doing, and why. </p>
<p>My responses to any questions were “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” or “Yes, Officer,” or “No, Officer,” in a respectful tone of voice. My reaction to any request would be Yes, sir, and CLEARLY keeping my hands in view, methodically, respectfully obey the request.</p>
<p>That is what I have told my boys to do as well. I have explained that they might fit the description of the murdering rapist who just fled the scene. You don’t argue. You cooperate, and make it CLEAR that you are cooperating. At least that’s what I do, and what I HOPE my kids do. And they will one day be (horrors!!!) White Men.</p>
<p>"'Im not up on police procedure (except as shown on Law and Order), but why is it that the police never tell you anything? "</p>
<p>@Elle, we do not know if that is how the situation really occurred. There are differences in the police report and Gates’ story. Right now, we should not assume that Crowley instigated this whole conflict without any hard evidence.</p>
<p>Sorry, I meant: “accusing the cop of racial profiling”. I was speaking of Gates, and I agree, Gates’ views toward white policemen can be considered racial profiling (if my assumptions about how the situation occurred are correct).</p>