Let’s see if I’ve got this right. You are seen breaking into your front door in the middle of the afternoon, and when the police arrive you decide to be an a-hole. Well guess what? You get what you deserve no matter what color your skin is.
A picture is worth a thousand words!!
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, author, friend to The Oprah, and chronicler of African American culture, was arrested for disorderly conduct Thursday at his home in Cambridge, Mass., according to the AP.
On Thursday, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department stated that he responded to a call from a woman who said she saw “a man wedging his shoulder into the front door” at Gates’ home near Harvard. According to reports, Gates refused to identify himself to a police officer, claiming the officer was a racist. Alledegely Gates then said to the officer, ”This is what happens to black men in America.”
Crowley wrote in his report that Gates was warned two times he was becoming disorderly. After Gates continued to yell and accuse him of racial bias, Crowley wrote he arrested Gates for “loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space.”
A statement by Gates’ lawyer and fellow Harvard professor Charles Ogletree said that the incident occurred when Gates returned to his home after a trip to China.
Gates and a driver found the front door damaged, and couldn’t open it.
Gates then went to the back of the house and entered the home through the back door. Then he and his driver went and forced the front door open, Ogletree said in his statement.
Ogletree wrote that when Officer Crowley arrived Gates identified himself at the officer’s request.
“He [Gates] turned to walk into the kitchen where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer,” Ogletree wrote on The Root.
Ogletree’s statement also said that Gates asked Crowley for his name and badge number several times without success.
Then when Gates followed Crowley to the front door, Crowley said, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request, “and then placed him [Gates] under arrest, Ogletree said.
The Cambridge Police Department would not release any information regarding the incident.
Remember, as you read my opinion that follows on this matter, according to the officer Henry Gates was asked to produce identification twice and he refused to do so. He was belligerent and called the officer a racist repeatedly. Gates was warned twice that he was becoming disorderly. I could be wrong in my opinion, but why would the officer arrest a Harvard professor, have to fill out all of the paperwork, and have to answer to his superiors in the police force, who have to answer to the powers in Cambridge, who have to answer to the people at Harvard who employ this man, just because he’s black? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
The arrest has caused a big stink in the ‘I can get my face on TV screaming that the police are racist crowd’ that includes Al Sharpton and his ilk.
I’m not black and I’ll not sit here and tell you that I know anything about being black, or about experiencing racial profiling which I know does occur, but if something suspicious is going on at your house, and the police show up, shut the f*** up and do what they say.
The police never know what they are getting into when they respond to a call. Gates drew suspicion to himself when he was forcing his way into his front door.
I’ve accidentally tripped the alarm at my home more than once, and when the cops show up I know the three magic words that all people need to learn and remember when confronting the police. Those words are yes, no and are always followed by sir.
When the police have responded to an alarm at my house, the scene has been acted out the same way every time. The officer walks up to my door with his hand on his gun. I greet him in a friendly manner and explain the situation. He then asks for my ID as he checks out the premises. He or she only takes their hand off of their gun when the story checks out and they know it was a false alarm. Whether you are black, white, green or yellow there is no reason to bow up to the officer for God’s sake. The officer is just doing his job to protect you and your property. He doesn’t need your smart mouth getting in the way of him doing his job. Don’t be a jackass, or he will carry your butt off to prison.
I could be wrong, but if Gates did anything but be polite and courtious to the officer, then he got what he deserved.
If it turns out that I’m wrong about this, then I’ll be the first to apologize.
Maybe Officer Crowley touched Gates’ radio, and Chris Tucker taught us, “Don’t you ever touch a black man’s radio, boy.”
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Frankly, I don’t think Gates or the cops are the biggest jerks here. I think it’s the woman who called the cops in the first place. If Lucia Whalen is Gates’s neighbor, and if she actually works at Harvard — which she does — then how could she not know who Gates was. Don’t you know who your neighbors are? I do.
She is the big problem in this story, as far as I’m concerned. Haven’t we all been locked out of our house at one time or another? I know that in my experience the neighbor has come over to ask if she can help. In that moment Whalen didn’t see Gates as a colleague. She just saw him as a Black man, and for her a Black man couldn’t possible live near her, and he couldn’t possibly be her colleague.
The irony is that as a Harvard fundraiser I am certain that she has used Gates’s name, his work, and his reputation to solicit donations to the college.
Alas, she will probably never be held accountable for her role in this debacle.
Great angle!! I agree 100%
Big Ed,
Your take on the incident at hand certainly demonstrates that you have interpreted these events from a position of white privilege which is always an antagonistic agent to black emancipation efforts and black self-determination. None of us know what happened at the home of Dr. Gates but he and the officer, but there are centuries of historical data that document how the police have been a rogue force persecuting and murdering black men simply because they are black men.
If Dr. Gates responded to the officer with 4 centuries of domestic terrorism weighing prominently on his mind, then I would advance that a white guy like you is in no position to mock or scoff at how that type of horrific experience could affect what you perceive to be as a simple and routine interaction. Before you allow the ignorance of your white supremacist sponsored privilege to be recklessly spewed again, please take your own advice and, “SHUT THE F*** UP!”
In resistance to foolishness,
Olokun Shangol Olugbala
“I’m not black and I’ll not sit here and tell you . . . “
———
I am black and I’ll tell you, if the police officers do stop you for whatever reason . . . STFU. Sure being questioned, pulled-over, stopped and frisked often is humiliating and some times emasculating especially if you’re in a questionable neighborhood but just learn how to use those 3 magic words or STFU.
Who knows, maybe the professor didn’t get the memo?
Sorry, but the Chris Tucker joke isn’t funny. Good post!
I have the right to call the officer a racist, a fat doughnut eating pig, or whatever else I want. I can be as discourteous to him as I want to be. None of these should be arrestable offenses. Since the incident took place at Gates’ home, it’s not a public disturbance issue either. According to Gates’ lawyer, Gates produced identification proving that he lived in that house. So apparently, no prosecutable offense took place. The DA agrees, and has decided to drop all charges. Either that, or he bowed to political pressure. In any case, law enforcement has acted in less than an exemplary manner in this case.
Also, I am not a regular follower of your blog, but don’t you think a healthy disrespect for police is a good thing?
I agree with you completely on the main blog here.
I really disagree with blaiming the neighbor. You’re saying its wrong to call in a cop to investigate when you see something suspicious. She didn’t recognize him, saw suspicious behavior and did the responsible thing of calling to have it *investigated*. It’s not her fault at all everything blew out of control, and I much rather have a neighbor being overly cautious than one that watches someone break in and says nothing.
Setting aside that it’s rediculous to assume that all neighbors know each other (there could be a million reasons why she didn’t know him) you are simultaneously saying that she knew her neighbor as a black man, but didn’t know a black man lived near her? So somehow she was so racist she forget her wits? Doesn’t it make much more sense to assume that either she didn’t know him that well, OR she couldn’t see him that well?
I see you removed my comment, Big Ed, so I guess we can surmise that you are not as interested in free speech and the bartering of ideas as your “libertarian” tag purports you to be.
I must be a “real dick” too for being a black man with the audacity to voice a perspective that counters the drivel of white supremacy.
@Black on Campus:
What if the neighbor knew Gates was out of the country? What if she thought she was helping out a neighbor by reporting suspicious activity? What if she was too afraid to get a closer look so that she could have seen it was Gates himself?
I have no idea what she said to police when she called, but there’s a possibility she couldn’t even make out whether it was a black person or white person “breaking in.” From a far enough distance, race can be indistinguishable.
So many of us are so ready to assume the worst of people. Makes me sad.
A libertarian who believes being an asshole is grounds for being arrested? Now I’ve seen everything. For a libertarian, you seem to have a hard-on for authority.
The only thing this professor, or should I say “black professor, or should I say racist had to do was show his i.d. to the police and say, “I own this home and couldn’t get in, but thank you for coming because the next time it could be an emergency…”, but NNNNOOOOOO…he had to start with the racial crap. If the police didn’t come prompt and try to get to the bottom of it then we would be hearing, “the police only come quick to help white folk”. This moron got exactly what he deserved for acting like an animal!
Some libertarian. Since when do libertarians defend cops for arresting people in their own homes just because the person in their own home was mouthing off to authority? Oh right, I forgot, after the cop learns that you do, in fact, live there, and you start getting indignent, its perfectly OK for the cop to just arrest you for getting too uppity. Libertarians think there is nothing wrong with arresting people for having the audacity to be rude to the police in your own home! Liberty, yeah, go liberty!
Gus’ post wins the thread. I don’t care if Gates was being an asshole. Is it right for anyone to be arrested on their own property just for having a bad attitude?
I thought libertarians most highly value freedom of speech and freedom from unwarranted detainment, particularly because this occurred on Gates’ own private property.
The author needs to explain why he thinks this arrest was fine or I don’t see how he can call himself a libertarian at all. After all, libertarians ought to allow people the freedom of being assholes as well.
I’ve spanked my son a total of about 3 times in his decade in this earth, and that’s because nothing else was working. Gates wouldn’t shut his mouth and he got spanked.
Big Ed, the role of the police is not to punish people for having big mouths, but to arrest people who have broken laws and are a threat to the police or the community.
Even reading the policeman’s own statement of what happened, it seems clear to me that Gates’ arrest was unnecessary. It looks to me that the officer was pissed off by Gates’ attitude and wanted to use the power vested in him by the city to assert control. Not a very mature or professional way of handling the situation. He should grow up. So should you.
I often wonder in times like these what Dr. King would do. I doubt very seriously that Dr. King would say (as Gates did), Do you know who you are messing with etc….
Gates was apparently trying to be a big shot and I wonder what really did he mean by what he said to the policeman? Did he mean that if he was just a regular brother, the officer could push him around but because he’s a VIP, that he deserves some special treatment?
This appears to be an abuse of power by Mr. Gates. No one wants people like him representing us black folk with elitism like this.
[...] I first chimed in on Henry Louis Gates, Jr and the Cambridge police matter on Tuesday. You can read what I wrote here This Guy Sounds Like a Real Dick. [...]
The racist here is Prof. Gates. What a joke of a man. Claims to be 56% white, but calls himself black. Gee I wonder why. Check his employment records. Check his school records. This piece of fecal matter most likely checked African/American so he could suck from the tit of all left wing social programs.
Crowley should’ve peppered sprayed him THEN tazed this piece of craps ass.
Obama aka Barry Soetero, Gates and Deval Patrick may have well just put white robes on and called themselves the Black KKK.
You morons voted for a racist and his racist wife and YOU KNEW they were a racist pile of garbage.
Many LEOs wear a very small digital recording device during their shifts, using it like an audio extension of their dashcams. This enables an officer to defend themselves against a false ‘officer said/citizen said’ complaint. It is not something the officer advertises right away when a situation blows up, but is often kept back until a later date in the timeline of a complaint. The fact that the Cambridge Police Department is reacting so assertively to the allegations against the officer makes me wonder if Sgt. Crowley or his partner were wearing such a device and the audio recording proves the police officers acted appropriately during the call. Also, depending on how the responding units parked, all or part of the incident could have been captured on dashcam equipment. I don’t agree that no matter what the situation is, you should without exception bow down to LEOs, but I strongly believe that a “Be courteous to everyone, but friendly to no one” attitude should be used.
We have three observations about the Harvard professor incident:
1. We find it interesting that the fact that this was the professor’s home was evidently not established early on way before the dispute escalated;
2. We find it fascinating that the versions of two members of society, who most would ordinarily view as responsible and honest citizens (this obviously does not include politicians), would vary so dramatically from a factual point of view.
3. Finally, considering that the reading and viewing public were not present at the scene (and thus have no first hand knowledge), and that there is no video tape to our knowledge of the sequence of events and what was said, how so many have formed conclusions, and made assumptions, about who did what and who was wrong.
There are some things which Professor Gates might have considered upon the arrival of the police, no matter how incensed he may have been.
Small suggestion to the owner of this site: Find a new domain name that more accurately reflects your political leanings and let a true libertarian with a sense of humor make use of this one. I was doing a search for libertarian-leaning blogs covering this story and came across this one. Talk about false advertising.
I belive gates and jhermia wright are from the same mold both trouble makers and no matter what goes wrong in their lives its the white mans fault, i think if the truth be known if there was past video of gates we would find out this guy is just like wright
If one believes that a person can get arrested for shouting and yelling uncontrollably at authorities (not being polite and courteous to the officer) on their own property
Then you would have to agree that those Iranian protesters are all guilty of “disorderly conduct” , not showing proper respect to the police….and therefore deserve to be arrested.
They obviously were acting unruly on PUBLIC streets , impeding traffice and shouting threats like “Death to Ahmadjindab”.
Like Gates, these Iranian protesters were uncooperative, acted provocatively, yelled threats,showed disrespect towards the police and thus deserve to be arrested and punished.
Agreed?
Ace, they are shooting and killing their people in Iran. Did someone beat Prof Gates.
Everything should have been done not to arrest the professor, but at some point you have to do what you have to do.