Harvard Professor Arrested At Home
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| Tue, 07-21-2009 - 10:28am |
Police Report Says Henry Gates Called Officers Racist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072001358.html?nav=hcmodule
Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent African American scholars, was arrested last week at his home near Harvard University after trying to force open the locked front door.
According to a report by the police department in Cambridge, Mass., Gates accused police officers at the scene of being racist and said repeatedly, "This is what happens to black men in America." The incident was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.
Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, has been away from his home much of the summer while working on a documentary called "Faces of America," said Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and friend of Gates who is working as his lawyer. Gates returned from China last week and had trouble opening the front door with his key.
Gates, 58, was arrested Thursday by police looking into a possible break-in for disorderly conduct "after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior" at his home, according to the police report. Officers said they tried to calm down Gates, who responded, "You don't know who you're messing with," according to the police report.
Ogletree said Gates was ordered to step out of his home. He refused and was followed inside by a police officer. After showing the officer his driver's license, which includes his address, Ogletree said Gates asked: "Why are you doing this? Is it because I'm a black man and you're a white officer? I don't understand why you don't believe this is my house." Ogletree said Gates was then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and racial harassment.
Gates did not return calls to his office Monday, and the police department would provide no further details on the arrest. He was released four hours later, and arraignment has been scheduled for Aug. 26, but Ogletree said they hope to resolve the case sooner.
Gates is resting on Martha's Vineyard, according to Ogletree, and will soon resume traveling. He is scheduled to interview cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whose genealogy he was researching in China.
Gates, is a founder of the Root (http://www.theroot.com), a Web site owned by The Washington Post Co. He is also host and co-producer of "African American Lives," a Public Broadcasting Service show in which he uses genealogical resources and DNA testing to trace the family lineages of prominent black Americans. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1981 and was among Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans" in 1997.
Gates's arrest points to broader racial disparities in the criminal justice system, said Ryan S. King, a policy analyst at the Sentencing Project, a think tank that researches incarceration rates.
"If you look at every stage of the criminal justice system from initial police contact all the way through sentencing and incarceration, you see that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by each stage," King said. "What we ultimately see as disparate incarceration rates are contributed to by all of these factors."
As news of the arrest spread Monday from Harvard into broader academic circles, one professor who follows Gates's work said the arrest was both "not surprising" and "disheartening."
"I felt bad that I would hear about something like this happening, especially to someone as recognizable and distinguished as , but in the academy we still sometimes encounter that. I've been in situations where I encounter people who don't believe I'm a college professor," said Jelani Cobb, an associate professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta. "We have obvious signs of progress, but we're not there."



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I don't think this is such a clear case as to say whether it's a racial issue or not.
You know,
Very well said.
zz
Since we weren't there, it's unfair to ascribe emotions and feelings to the men who were--who knows whether Gates was tired after the flight but it's unfair to assume he was and find him guilty of his actions as a result.
Have you ever experienced
"Front door bolted, garage door immovable, only access to house through man door in back of garage which is inside a high block fence backyard. No key to backyard gate either. So I climbed the fence."
"IF Gates had been a bit more thoughtful, he could easily have called the police first"
Shouldn't you have been "more thoughtful" called the police & notified them you'd been locked out? A passerby, as in Gates' case,
Gates didn't submit his identity proofs until tempers had frayed badly on both sides.
Yes, I've experienced racial discrimination and bullying. Guess it could be called "reverse" discrimination because the situation was a white female (me) in the minority and the majority of the other officeworkers were African American. There are all kinds of discrimination, not limited by any means to white dominance of other minorities. Heck, I'm a probably a minority in the state where I live now since many of its inhabitants are either Hispanic or Indian in ancestry and I'm a WASP.
The African American officer in the picture was apparently either a partner of the arresting officer or part of another responding squad. In either event, it's going to be tough to paint the police department as dominated by bullying bigoted whites.
What irks me about reactions thus far are the assumptions that Gates must have been a victim. Why? What would have precluded someone looking just like him from being a burglar? Would Gates have wanted his house burglarized? If it had been, would he have claimed that the police knew a black owned the house and chose to not respond because blacks don't matter? And does he really want to continue the persecuted, impotent and victimized black man shtick? Or does he want to act bravely, acknowledge his role in escalating the affair, and show himself for being not only committed to justice but also to true colorblindness?
Am guessing, based on words and actions thus far that he'll insist on the victim role. What a wasted chance to show integrity and courage.
Jabberwocka
Had a key to the door locks but couldn't achieve ingress through any doors which weren't behind fences. So over the fence I went.
Actually, I HAD called the police on the return trip to my house because at one of the bus stops, had seen a stalled car totally block the intersection for cars going straight or turning right (other lane had been blocked for median work). Saw at least two cruisers in the vicinity but neither responded to the car issue. Just before the bus came, a couple of other motorists got the car and its driver out of the traffic lanes. Given the police response (or total lack thereof) figured I'd manage on my own getting back into the house and handle whatever arose in terms of fallout with profound apologies for having screwed up in the first place! When you live on your own as I do, asking for help too many times or looking incompetent is no fun. Am trying to save my embarrassments or pleas for help in the event of really serious SNAFUs.
There's a police substation about 2 miles from my house. If the police had showed up and told me to account for my actions or go with them, as I said earlier, I would have done so without hesitation and been grateful. There have been two household invasions in the past year in my neighborhood.
Which leads to my earlier point about the sanctity of our homes. Do we bitch and moan about the indifference of neighbors and the callousness of those who don't want to get involved? Do we want to have to procure weapons and be armed to the teeth, with the subsequent escalation which will almost certainly follow? Or do we want to use a measure of intelligence when responding to our police force and save the "sturm und drang" for times when they really do abuse our public trust? Discrimination does indeed appear to play a role here--Gates showed none in deciding he had been victimized.
From what I have read, Gates was difficult at best and belligerent at worst towards officers who were only doing their job. IMHO, he should think carefully before he indulges in public recriminations as he has done so far.
Jabberwocka
If you go back and read my posts, you'll note that I wrote "best guess", "what if" and other conditional words/phrases about Gates' reasons for acting as he did. I was actually giving him benefit of the doubt for behaving badly by both his own account and that of police (except that Gates seems not to have understood that he was being needlessly confrontational).
It's not irrelevant to point out that a neighborhood which has had break-ins without an arrest is quite probably at risk for more. I'm guessing that Gates house hadn't been burglarized or he would have been quite a bit more careful about either the lock (forcing it or having it in disrepair) or his response to those whose job it is to enforce laws and catch criminals. And I'm wondering who he will turn to if he's ever in a situation where he's actually threatened by criminal actions. Will he acknowledge police vital need for citizen cooperation then? It might be that he would have an entirely different mindset under such circumstances.
We have facts about Gates' attitude towards police:
<“I wanted them to see my black face,’’ Gates said. “I would be driving home late from Harvard. I had a Mercedes. I didn’t want to be stopped for ‘driving while black.’ . . >>
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/gates_considers.html
Don't know about you but that sounds defensive and chip-on-the-shoulder to me.
Nor is it necessarily true that the dropped charges indicate innocent behavior by Gates. Heck, the Cambridge police department could well have hoped that least said, soonest mended. Instead, they might just as well have called in Rev. Al Sharpton, from the sounds of Gates latest words.
YouTube? Oh my goodness! There was a piece on BBC World News last night about CCTV and its efficacy. Britain has one of the greatest densities in the world. In fact, Europeans seem amazingly blase about being watched in so many different settings. Not sure I feel similarly.
Some police departments actually require their personnel to use minicams. On the other hand, the camera may see more of what's going on but wouldn't necessarily be all-seeing. Could create misplaced faith in the lens. Have to think about that a bit.
Jabberwocka
If you go back and read my posts, you'll note that I wrote "best guess", "what if" and other conditional words/phrases about Gates' reasons for acting as he did. I was actually giving him benefit of the doubt for behaving badly by both his own account and that of police.
I didn't feel your telling him to get a grip based on your suppositions was giving him the benefit of the doubt.
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