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Cambridge cops take black, disabled professor away in handcuffs. Read the police report here.

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FURTHER UPDATE: Here is a joint statement that would seem to end the matter:

Joint Press Release from City of Cambridge, Cambridge PD, Middlesex County D.A., and Prof. Gates

The City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Police Department have recommended to the Middlesex County District Attorney that the criminal charge against Professor Gates not proceed. Therefore, in the interests of justice, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office has agreed to enter a nolle prosequi in this matter.

The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate. This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.



UPDATE: Channel 7 reports that all charges against Prof. Gates will be dropped.  Good.  This photo is from Channel 7.

There’s lots of commentary over the Cambridge police’s arrest of well-known Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Kudos to JimC for drolly dubbing the episode “Gatesgate.”

Let’s just assume that there was non-ideal behavior on all sides.  The caller (identified by the Herald as Lucia Whalen of Malden), who observed two black men (Gates and his driver) trying to open the front door, obviously jumped to an entirely unwarranted conclusion when she called the cops on suspicion that a break-in was happening.  And, assuming that everything in the police report is accurate (which is no doubt a matter of controversy — see Gates’s lawyer’s statement here), Gates probably yelled a bit more than he should have.  But look, the guy was apparently just off a plane from China, and he returned to find that he couldn’t open his front door.  He was no doubt exhausted and frustrated, and suddenly the cops are asking him if he’s breaking into his own house.  Who can blame him for getting a bit cranky?  (UPDATE:) Further, as David Bernstein over at Volokh correctly notes, “yelling at a cop isn’t a crime.”

Which brings us to the cops.  Of course they had to respond to a 911 call.  But did they really have to arrest, handcuff, and take down to the police station a disabled professor who is obviously no threat to anyone, and who was just upset about being challenged about being in his own home?  “Disorderly conduct”?  Please.  Can’t the cops have a bit thicker skins about stuff like this?

Here’s another weird aspect of this.  When I read the Globe story this morning, they had helpfully posted a redacted PDF of the police report.  Now it has been removed.  I have no idea why.  BMG to the rescue.  UPDATE: Boston.com has restored part of the police report, including some additional documents, but apparently without Officer Crowley’s original statement.  Still not sure what’s up with that.

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  1. Difernce between Gerry Leone and Dan “Search and Avoid” Conley. Conley, as we all know, is a fully funded public relations office for the Boston PD.

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    p>Leone knows what he is doing.

    • I think this was all a big misunderstanding. Obviously late at night, you see two guys trying to break open a door in the back of a house you might call the police regardless of their skin color. Gates made the mistake of showing his Harvard ID and hoping being from Harvard would give him a break and immediately condescending and talking down to the cops with his ‘do you know who i am rhetoric’ that said the cops should have left him alone as soon as they saw it was his house, perhaps slapping him with a misdemeanor for harassing cops. By the way judging from the picture he is calling black cops racist as well. I know a lot of black policeman, many in the CPD, and the CPD has a black Commissioner, it must be insulting to them to be called racist simply because they are responding to a call and trying to help their community. Again was it professional for them to overreact that way-no, but I can understand where people on both sides are coming from. I just hope it gets resolved peacefully and quietly without calling in the Sharpton/Jackson parade and making a mockery of the whole thing.  

        • Shows you how crappy the cambridge chronicle is that they said it happened at night.

          • The police commissioner is white, not african american.  New commissioner was hired at least 2 years ago.

            • The last Commissioner I met was African American, but I haven’t been involved in local government in Cambridge for a few years now.  

      • I don’t understand the 911 call. Maybe I just don’t understand the neighborhood, but in my neighborhood, I either know who the neighbors are or I don’t. If I know the neighbor and I see someone I don’t recognize messing around with their house, I would probably call that in to the police, because that’s suspicious. If I don’t know the neighbor, I’m not going to call 911 because it could very well be the owner. Even if it’s someone struggling with their door, I’m not going to call it in unless I think something about it doesn’t make sense.

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        p>Ask yourselves, would you call 911 if you saw a white person, 50-ish, reasonably well dressed, was using his shoulder to open a front door in an unfamiliar neighborhood you were walking in? Or if you lived in the neighborhood, but had no idea who lived in the house because you never saw or met them, would you call 911?

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        p>I can appreciate Gates’ reaction because I think that his skin color was a factor in 911 being called, and he probably realized that. Although this one incident doesn’t justify his behavior, a lifetime of similar incidents does.

        • Likely someone visiting. If it were 2 white men, likely to have still called the police. If it were 2 elderly white women, may have gone over and offered assistance.

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          p>Some years our community had a police report of a complaint that a stranger had knocked on their door claiming to be a new neighbor wanting to introduce himself. Police responded and found a new neighbor wanting to introduce himself.

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          p>I can appreciate Gates’ annoyance as he has probably experienced similar incidents, but the cop was just doing his job…up to the point where he arrested Gates.

          <

          p>On the other hand there was a white woman just a few weeks ago arrested at the airport after telling the cop, “Do you know who I am?” It seems to annoy them to no end.

          • What’s in it for her? What’s motivating her? Is it fueled by racial animus?

  2. Hurray, David.  The CPD report was removed from sources I noted this AM … the Globe and the NY Post.  My guess — pressure from Harvard and Charles Ogletree.  Thank you for posting it.

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    p>Read the police report.  It refutes Ogletree’s statement, for example, that the cop refused to give his name.  It’s clear in the report that the cop gave his name repeatedly.  Supported by Officer Figueroa’s account, too.

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    p>It also reads as if Gates was uncooperative — immediately belligerent — from the moment Sgt. Crowley uttered his first word.  What if it were a break in?  What if it were an ARMED break in?  I’m amazed at Crowley’s restraint in the face of all the unknowns before them.

    <

    p>I have questions, as do you, whether an arrest was warranted.  But I think had a white professor acted in the same way, Crowley would have cuffed him too for a ride downtown.  Furthermore, I think a black CPD officer would have arrested Gates.

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    p>The cops are responding to a potential felony break in, possibly having to confront armed criminals.

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    p>”His own house,” stuck doors, trips to China, frustration, exhaustion … that’s all camouflage.

    • Gates showed his ID.  All the police report says is that he acted like a jerk in his own home up until that point.  Not illegal.

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      p>As soon as the officer saw the ID and was satisfied that Gates actually did live there, he should have apologized and left.

      • Unfortunately we live in an overly lawyered world where the courts resolve differences instead of civility. The CPD should issue an apology for arresting Gates and mistaking him for a burglar, the Professor should issue an apology for calling the cops racist, including according to the picture a black cop, and for being generally belligerent and condescending towards people just trying to do their job. And the biggest apology should come from his neighbor. Its terrible that in the 21st century neighbors don’t even recognize one another. Whats worse is reports are circulating that she is also a Harvard employee and should have known one of the University’s best professor.

        <

        p>I just hope this doesn’t go to court and the Sharpton/Jackson squad doesn’t come to Cambridge. I have met Gates and Ogletree and both men come across as incredibly intelligent and reasonable-and its a shame they are letting their emotions get the best of them. Wonder what our President will say?

        • Harvard Magazine offices are down the block from the professor’s house.  The “Neighbor” was probably walking past on way to/from lunch.  There’s no expectation that she should know Gates except that she apparently works in fundraising for Harvard Magazine and he’s one of the University’s better known professors.  

          <

          p>I don’t want to belabor the issue now that it is apparently resolved, but I find it extremely odd that the thing you seem to think is the most unfortunate part of the whole situation is that it might bring Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to town.  

      • Gates initially refused to open the door.  Then refused to identify himself.  Then hurled racial slurs at the officer.  In the first 30 seconds.

        <

        p>Meanwhile, Sgt. Crowley responds to a B&E.  How’d he know this guy wasn’t an armed criminal?

        <

        p>Police have certain obligations to obtain all the facts including who is this guy, is this his house, does he have a right to be here, is this the person that was reportedly breaking into the premises, and so on.

        <

        p>Instead, he has this guy, according the CPD report, yelling at him and impeding his duty to investigate the report and ensure nothing is wrong.  You think he should turn away and leave?

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        p>All Gates can think of — Auto-racism ON — is I’m being hassled by The White Man.

        • Even if every word in the police report is completely 100% true, the officer STILL GOT THE ID before the arrest took place.  At that point, the officer no longer had any reason to be in the house, even with Gates being a dick to him.

          • and neither were any of you, but it’s my understanding that the cops had left the house and were going back to their car. The professor followed them out to the street and was yelling at them as they were leaving. This is not the most productive thing to do when dealing with cops, who are always inclined to push back harder than they get pushed. In an ideal police force, they would have ignored the yelling professor and driven away. Apparently, Cambridge has not managed to field such a force.

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            p>If I found myself yelling at cops in the street, I would not be surprised if they arrested me.

            <

            p>I agree that everyone involved should apologize.

            • Just because we can’t know exactly what happened doesn’t mean we can’t know what happened.  There’s a police report and a statement from Gates.  In neither of them does Gates follow the cops to the street — and in both of them the officer requests that Gates leave his house.  It seems clear from photographic evidence that Gates at most was on his porch and did not go down the steps to the street.

    • I seriously doubt that if Gates had been a white professor, he would have been arrested and cuffed, but even if it had been a white professor arrested under the same circumstances, it would have been wrong.  I think Prof. Gates has a right to verbally express his displeasure with the cops’ behavior.  We still have free speech in this country, especially in our own homes, and there is no law against telling a cop that his or her behaviour is out of line.  It may be a little stupid because some cops think they have more authority than they do (and I am not talking about the many really good cops), but as far as I know it is not illegal.  Some people sound like they think Professor Gates should have said “Yes Master” or words to that effect, and grinned broadly.  The cops involved should be disciplined and/or be required to attend some training on how to deal with people and what constitutional rights we have.  

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      p>  

      • I think Prof. Gates has a right to verbally express his displeasure with the cops’ behavior.  

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        p>Where is the limit of this “expression of displeasure”? Can he yell and scream? Can he call them names, curse… ? If he were white and the cops were black (which some were) could he use racial epitats and still not be arrested for disorderly conduct? When I go to the RMV and they make a mistake, can I start yelling and screaming at the moron working there?

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        p>

        We still have free speech in this country, especially in our own homes,

        <

        p>He was outside of his home.

        <

        p>

        and there is no law against telling a cop that his or her behaviour is out of line.

        <

        p>Really. So when a cop pulls you over for speeding can I start calling him/her a stupid Mother&%^ A-hole who is only alive because his mother hung out near a Navy base? Is that legal?

        <

        p>

        Some people sound like they think Professor Gates should have said “Yes Master” or words to that effect, and grinned broadly.  

        <

        p>Are you serious? We ALL know how to act when cops or other people of authority are handling a situation. Gates should have properly identified himself and maybe told the officers they made a mistake or that he was going to file a complaint. He didn’t need to say “Yes Master”.

        • he was cuffed on his porch, which obviously is his property.  Further, the police report is clear that he went into his home to retrieve his Harvard ID from his wallet.  Having done so, why didn’t the cop just apologize for the inconvenience he had caused, and leave?

          <

          p>And so what if Gates was yelling at him.  So freaking what?  Like a cop can’t handle someone yelling at him.

          • It is also clear the police were ready to leave without any arrests until Gates “left his home” and followed the police outside to continue his rant. I think the cops should have apologized and left but Gates obviously needed to “get it out” and did so… but got arrested.

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            p>The picture showing him cuffed on his porch means nothing other than the picture was taken while cuffed and standing on his porch. Would a picture of him cuffed while on his sidewalk prove anything?

            • You think, what, they cuffed him on the sidewalk, then walked back up onto the porch, and then back down and into the car?  No.  They either cuffed him inside the house or on the porch.

          • Let them do their job.  

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            p>They get a B&E call.  Until they verify everything, ensure nothing’s wrong, let them do their job.  It’s their duty to be sure.

            <

            p>Maybe he’s the armed felon breaking in.  How did Crowley know he wasn’t?  Get the ID, assure it’s his house or that he has the right to be there, call Harvard housing to check, verify he/they was the person(s) reportedly entering the house forcibly, check the rest of the house, too.

            <

            p>It’s easy in retrospect to make an unbiased call with all the facts in hand.  

            <

            p>It’s a whole lot different walking up to the front door answering a B&E radio call.

            <

            p>Sgt. Crowley did his job.  Gates tried to interfere.

            • They saw his ID well before he was arrested.  The arresting officer in his police report says he was led to believe that Gates lived there.

              <

              p>Any honest reading of the police report alone yields the following information:
              1) Gates was confrontational with the officer, but eventually showed his ID.
              2) Even before he showed an ID the officer twice noted that he believed that Gates was a resident of the house they both were in.

              <

              p>The officer also notes that he asked Gates to step outside of the foyer on to the porch where the ‘acoustics’ were better.  If I were a cynical man, I’d believe that the officer was sick of being yelled at and wanted to lure Gates out in ‘public’ where any yelling could be met with a disorderly conduct charge.  Good thing I’m not cynical.

                • 1) Gates claims he showed his MA Drivers License as well as his Harvard ID.  The police report is silent on the question of the license.  It stands to reason that if both cards were in his wallet, he would have shown both given that this was is, as I understand it, a Harvard-owned residence.

                  <

                  p>2) Even if Gates is lying about the proof of residence and only showed his Harvard ID, it doesn’t matter because Crowley states in his police report that he believed that Gates lived there.  This also makes sense because a quick glance around peoples’ homes will often reveal that they live there, even if you only know their names (pictures, incoming mail, etc).

            • The officer checked Gates’ driver’s license, which has the address on it. Are you seriously suggesting that’s not enough?

              <

              p>

              Sgt. Crowley did his job.  Gates tried to interfere.

              <

              p>This is stupid. Gates was in his own home. The officer knew (or should have known) this after checking the ID. Without a warrant or consent to enter the home, the police have no right to conduct anything. “Interfere” my ass.

                • but if I were a burglar, why would I forge an ID for the very same house I plan on robbing? I mean… really?

                • “Officer Crowley also asked the suspect to provide President Obama’s ‘missing’ birth certificate.”

        • Your tag quote seems to be contradictory to your comments on this story.  

  3. He was arrested for disorderly conduct which is exactly what he was doing. The event was an event which happens thousands of times a day. The police investigate a call and determine is going on. Then they decide on arresting people or going home. It sounds to me like the police were ready to go home but his asshole had to keep yelling at the cops. They had decided to leave him alone and file a report but this guy had to act like the jerk he is. He should have been arrested but lucky for him he is a celebrity of sorts and will get his ass kissed.

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    p>For all those who feel strongly that he was unjustly arrested I suggest you act similarly the next time you see a cop. Start cursing and yelling at the cop. Call him/her a long list of names and insults and see what happens to you.

    <

    p>I called a good friend of mine who is a black Police officer in Cambridge and he said this was a “by the book” arrest. This will not be the last time we will hear of problems with this moron.

    • If the charges were to remain, then the DA would be faced with a unwinnable circus trial, and the City of Cambridge would be defending a lawsuit while getting heckled by every black leader in the country.

  5. he caller (identified by the Herald as Lucia Whalen of Malden), who observed two black men (Gates and his driver) trying to open the front door, obviously jumped to an entirely unwarranted conclusion when she called the cops on suspicion that a break-in was happening.

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    p>”Unwarranted conclusion”?  If I see two people trying to break into a house, I think the warranted conclusion is that something is wrong.  I think that if you have any street sense, you don’t stroll up and say howdy, because burglars react poorly to being interviewed while on the job.  I think that if you try to pretend that you have every face in your neighborhood memorized from a distance, your not doing much for your neighborhood.

    <

    p>If I see any of you trying to break into your house, I’m calling the cops.

    • It’s not like they were taking a crowbar to the window or jimmying the lock.  The door was stuck.  Our witness

      <

      p>

      told [the policeman] that her suspicions were aroused when she observed one of the men wedging his shoulder into the door as if he were trying to force entry.

      <

      p>He was trying to push the damn door so that it would open, Gates having already entered via the rear door to turn off the alarm.  If you can’t try to shove your stuck front door open around here without having someone call the cops…

      <

      p>Do you really think she’d have called the cops if the two men were white?  Really?

      • for climbing in windows when I have locked myself out without my keys, which I am ashamed to say I have had to do a number of times.  (I am white.) Prof. Gates wasn’t even doing that.  Apparently he had let himself in the back door and was trying to unstick the front door.  I have little doubt that if he had been an old crabby white guy with a cane, he would not have been arrested.  

      • I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, though I found it odd that she stuck around to watch the spectacle until I noticed that the officer told her to.

        <

        p>Two men attempting to force entry to house carrying bags, car still running in the driveway with truck open.  Maybe you’re not sure what’s going on, but you call anyway because you have faith that if they’re really supposed to be there everything will be fine and no one gets dragged away in handcuffs and you can all laugh about it later.  I’m sure she never expected it to turn into a huge clusterfuck if they were really supposed to be there.

        <

        p>Did the fact that they were black tip her internal calculations from don’t call to call?  Maybe, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t deserve all the hate email she’s likely getting, though.

      • So if I grab some tools, get out and leave a car running, hang around your front door, work on the lock and slam my shoulder into your front door, you don’t want your neighbors calling the cops?  How much time do I get, David?  That’s hilariously naive.  

        <

        p>However, your desperate eagerness to project racism on to somebody else because she reported suspicious behavior — based on zero evidence — is puerile.  

        • $25 word.  You must be a teacher or something.

          <

          p>”Grab some tools”?  “Work on the lock”?  What does any of that have to do with the story we’re talking about?  Even the police report says nothing more than that they were trying to lean on the door to get it to open.

          <

          p>And no, I don’t want my neighbors calling the cops if it’s me trying to open my own damn door.

          • The police asked for Professor Gates’ permission to allow a person on the scene to secure and repair the door while he was detained.

            <

            p>As it also states that the problem with the door was due to a previous break in I’m surprised Professor Gates was not appreciative of the cops vigilance.  

          • So, your presumptions are:

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            p>- Everyone recognizes everyone in their neighborhood regardless of distance or angle.
            – There’s a 15 minute grace period to break into a home before you should be viewed with suspicion.
            – If you see someone shoving against a front door and it’s not your neighborhood, you shouldn’t call the cops.
            – If a white person calls the cops because of something an African-American is doing, they should be publicly labeled a racist with zero proof.
            – Long words like puerile are bad.
            – Hysterical imagery (“Cambridge cops take black, disabled professor away in handcuffs.”) is good — like that poor  black teenager in DC who was hauled around in handcuffs, too, just for buying a used police car down in Virginia.  (See, I can spin things too!)

          • And no, I don’t want my neighbors calling the cops if it’s me trying to open my own damn door.

            <

            p>And I don’t want people who aren’t my neighbors calling the cops if they see me or my family doing things on my own property — unless the activity is reasonably suspicious.

            <

            p>I don’t understand what would be reasonably suspicious here to a complete stranger who did not know who lived in the house to cause her to conclude it was a breaking & entering. Pushing your shoulder into a stuck door is not suspicious behavior to a complete stranger, particularly when you are middle-aged, well-dressed, it is the middle of the afternoon, and you’re not acting furtively.

            <

            p>What’s next — if someone is climbing a ladder to clean out their gutters, is that a “potential breaking & entering” to a complete stranger? What about someone carrying a TV set out the front door of a house — again, to a complete stranger, does that look enough like a crime to call 9-1-1?

            <

            p>Those actions are only suspicious if you have enough knowledge to know that they should not be happening.

        • Like TOS, I’ve broken into my own apartment twice by climbing into the back window from an overturned garbage can in broad daylight.  The first time, about a month after I moved in, somebody was leaving the building — yet nothing happened.  I want someone like Lucia Whalen in my neighborhood.

        • First, Gates and the driver were trying to get the door open for 15 minutes.

          <

          p>Second, Gates was dressed in a blue blazer and leather shoes. The driver had a black uniform on. (And although the Washington Post doesn’t say it, presumably there was a towncar in the driveway or in the street).

          <

          p>Third, Gates’ suitcases were next to the door.

          <

          p>Fourth, the caller identified both men as being black with “backpacks” on. There were no backpacks, and the driver was Moroccan, not black.

          <

          p>Fifth, it’s stated elsewhere on the internet that the woman works for Harvard Magazine and lives in Malden. So she’s not Gates’ neighbor, but it’s not unreasonable for her to recognize one of Harvard’s preeminent professors. Again, all this took place around noontime.

          <

          p>More info here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

          • How could she have made the stupid mistake of calling the driver a black when he was so clearly Moroccan? Didn’t she notice the scent of couscous on his breath? What kind of witness was she???? Plus she didn’t recognize “e one of Harvard’s preeminent professors.” Could most of you pick Drew Faust out of a crowd, from behind, on a covered porch…

            • So no, I would not be able to pick out Drew Faust. She, on the other hand…

              <

              p>Oh and by the way, Moroccan is Arabic, not black. But I guess in her mind they’re just dark-skinned folk engaging in criminal activity.  

            • But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that she could have. I’m sure he must have been featured in the alumni magazine.

              <

              p>All I’m saying is that what she reported to the police and what she likely saw do not match up. There’s something there. That’s all.

      • if Ms Whalen was walking by.

        <

        p>There are those who do not get involved – there are too many cases to list of horrible crimes that happen in front of numerous witnesses that do not wish to get involved.

        <

        p>Then there are those who put themselves out there taking both the time and risk. They are generally those who care about others.

  6. Just a wild guess… Maybe the Globe is worried about a defamation lawsuit.   I read the police report, and I still find this whole incident disturbing.  For example, if someone is claiming to live at a residence wouldn’t you ask them for id first, instead of asking them if anyone else was in the house?  And it is curious that the officer does not explain in his report how he ended up in the kitchen of the house.  I always thought the police do not have a right to enter anyone’s house without a warrant except under very limited circumstances.  Also, why did the officer even need the presence of the Harvard University police after Gates gave him his id? Those are just a few of the things in the report that seem a little strange.   I am not a criminal lawyer, but would love to hear what a criminal lawyer or civil rights lawyer would do with the police report on cross-examination.  

      • I am not a libel attorney, but apparently a newspaper can be held libel if it knowingly republishes defamation of public figures.  For some reason I cannot insert the hypertext link into this post (maybe I am out of practice), so here is the web address for a law review article on the topic.  
        http://www.law.uiowa.edu/journ…

        <

        p>So it is a possibility, although the “knowingly” standard  makes it harder to prove.  Not sure if if it has been applied to any blogs.  

        • for journalists publishing government reports. No liability if no malicious intent exists.

          • I was taking a wild guess and I am not a libel attorney.  Thanks for the info.  

    • It is curious that the officer doesn’t explain how he ended up in Gates’ house in the first place.  

      <

      p>However, I’m fairly certain Massachusetts law would justify an officer entering a house not to do a search but in order to perform a “protective sweep.”  This seems consistent with the officer’s asking if there was anyone else in the residence.  Since the caller said there were “two black males,” the officer had reasonable belief that another “co-conspirator” could have been in the house and could possibly be destroying evidence or pose an immediate risk to the safety of the officer.

      <

      p>Or there might have been consent given by Gates.

      <

      p>On a related note, everyone should know that it is illegal (assault) to forcibly resist even police who go beyond their legal rights in entering and/or searching your residence.  You may only resist if it is reasonable to believe that you may be seriously injured or killed by an officer. Otherwise, the only remedy that you have for the illegal entry and search of your home by peace officers, is to file a lawsuit for damages.

      • Based on being told that there were “two black males?”  I am no criminal law attorney, but doesn’t there have to be a reasonable belief that evidence could be destroyed or of some danger of attack before a protective sweep takes place? Surely, the fact that someone said there were “two black males” is not sufficient to establish a reasonable belief that evidence was being destroyed or that the officer was in danger of attack.  

        <

        p>Maybe there was tacit consent given by Gates, but one also could infer from the police report that the officer walked in uninvited.  

        <

        p>Your comment about the “two black men” raises another question. What happened to the driver?  Was he there when the police arrived?  And if he had left, why didn’t the person who reported the incident, who the police report appears to state was there when the police arrived, tell the police that the driver had left?              

        • But I think it’s safe to assume that if he knocked on the door and an elderly-looking man answers calmly (at first), the officer’s suspicions might be lessened, at least to the point of foregoing the protective sweep for the time being and asking for ID.

          • It does appear he may have answered less than “calmly” (even at first).

  9. then maybe he would not have flipped completely and endlessly out at the officer.

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    p>I bet he’d have a lot fewer lawsuit dollar signs in his eyes now, too.

    <

    p>

  10. This has nothing to do with racism.

    <

    p>It has all to do with cops on power trips protected by their unions.

  11. The interview can be found here. According to Prof. Gates, he asked for the officer’s name and badge number repeatedly and was ignored so he stepped outside to ask the other officers for it, and he was arrested.  

  12. and the neighbor is a red herring. She did nothing wrong, and I agree with Sabutai that I hope a passerby would do the same in my house. That’s not the point — the issue is all that happened after it should have been glaringly obvious to the police that all was well. The right thing to do was for the officer to look at the ID (surely a license and Harvard ID was enough), tip his hat, apologize for the confusion, smile, and walk away. If the resident asked for a name and badge number, give it — offer to write it down if desired. If the officers had done nothing wrong, then they had no reason to be defensive — except their own feelings of guilt.

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    p>The man was standing in his own home. He had already shown his ID. The officer involved had already refused to identify himself. If I was in Dr. Gate’s position, I would be outraged, and I hope he files a high-profile complaint.

    <

    p>These cops acted like racist pigs.

    <

    p>This time, it happened to be a well-connected Harvard professor. What do you think happens in minority neighborhoods all the time?

    <

    p>I’m eager to hear Arthur Conquest’s opinion of all this the next time I see him. This behavior is certainly not limited to Cambridge.

    • yeah racist pigs all of them-especially that black one-whats that? oh sgt. bars I guess he was in charge. a real bull connor that guy was.  

  13. What bugs me most about this whole incident is not just that Henry Louis Gates is a black man, but that he’s an academic superstar who has gained some measure of celebrity status: he was returning from China on a trip to trace Yo Yo Ma’s history and ancestry in the same way he traced the history and ancestry of Oprah Winfrey’s family. He’s written for the New Yorker and other magazines.  He’s on TV a lot. He’s written books.  Who doesn’t know of Skip Gates?  Who, among the CPD, isn’t at least aware of Harvard and MIT and Boston as the intellectual hub of the universe, which employees black people?  I’m fairly certain that, ten minutes after the story broke nationally, he got a phone call from Michelle Obama offering to come up north and flex her biceps at the CPD.  

    <

    p>The point, though, isn’t that he’s VIP and ought, therefore,  to be treated differently but that the officer ought to have known he was heading into VIP rich territory and therefore ought to have been alert and or trained to handle the possibility of a pompous Harvard prof…

    <

    p>I think the worst that might be said about Prof Gates is that he may have been hyper-sensitive to issues of profiling and called out the officer too quickly.  This can only be true with the most generous reading of the police report.   While regrettable (if true, and I have my doubts) this is no crime and certainly not ‘disorderly’… and further only reveals that the officer might be altogether too thin skinned.    

    <

    p>On the other hand, the best that can be said about the officer is that he bungled a routine call and failed to properly deal with an irate citizen. At best he was really really insensitive to the situation. The question of whether or not he said or did anything to raise Prof Gates’ ire is left unanswered… but I suspect he did. How and under what circumstances he entered the house, and how long he was there, are likewise unanswered and are probably central to how and why Gates went ballistic.

    <

    p>I too have repeatedly heard initial 911 call described as ‘a neighbor’, which, as we all now know, is patently untrue.  This bugs me no end.

    <

    p>I do not think that the original 911 call was in error. I probably would have done the same thing if I saw two men attempting to forcibly enter a house… trusting that what I would expect would be a small inconvenience was outweighed by the damage done had this been an actual break-in, or a domestic dispute.  It turned out to be a huge inconvenience for Skip Gates.

    <

    p>And, while Gates’ account and the account of the arresting officer differ in significant aspects in neither account did Gates ever leave his home until he was in handcuffs.  This seems to me a breach of both the letter and the spirit of ‘disorderly conduct’ laws. I’m neither cop nor lawyer so I can’t speak with certitude on the law here.  

  14.  It is not common practice to break and enter into a home. Even your own. The police should have been called. If you had told them the reason why, and provided your identification, all would be well. Perhaps you may have baited the cop into his action. The cop should not have to apologize for doing his job and doing it well. If he is made to apologize to you, I hope you have the cookies to apologize to him.
    A side question if I may: just how is Mr. Gates disabled?

    • It may look like it, but it’s not. Gates can do whatever he wants to his own house.

      <

      p>The cop didn’t do his job. He didn’t seek consent to enter the home, he didn’t provide his name and badge number upon request. He treated a homeowner with contempt and disrespect.

      • I am going to do my ultimate best to disable you. I am not going to thoroughly investagate it is only a toy. When someone is committing a robbery, there is not time to properly investigate. While you diligently investigating, the crook is escaping. I am a firm believer in the bill of rights.  

        • an elderly-looking, well-dressed man and another man in a black uniform futzing with a door while a town car is in the driveway and suitcases are in the porch. for 15 minutes. not exactly criminal-like behavior.

          <

          p>in addition, the officer did not barge into the house. presumably he knocked. presumably he asked Gates who he was. no protective sweep was done. there was no swat team surrounding the house.

          <

          p>let’s not turn this into something it’s not.

    • “If you had told them the reason why, and provided your identification, all would be well.”

      <

      p>I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what happened (except the ‘being well’ part).

    • Gates walks unsteadily because of a large difference in the lengths of his legs, the result of an injury suffered when he was a kid.  He pretty much always uses a cane.  More here.

  15. DEA raids Jackson doctor’s Houston clinic

    <

    p>”Federal drug agents searched the Houston clinic of Michael Jackson’s (a black man) doctor Wednesday, according to a news report, even as investigators in California sought more information from the man (a black man) .”

    <

    p>Obviously this white organization (the DEA) has singled out both Michael Jackson and his Doctor (Dr. Conrad Murray) because they are black. We can have a black President but we still can’t have black pedophile, color morphing, drug abusing freaks or their empowering Doctors. Someone please call Rev Sharpton and tell him of this injustice. When you get hold of him, could you please tell him about Sen Wilkerson and Chuck Turner since they are also black and any charges against black people are simply punishment by “the man” and purely Racism.

    • you wrote about being deferential around cops.  I partially agree.  I am very deferential around cops partly because I try to be respectful in general, I think they have a difficult job, and I am very aware of the fact that they have a lot more power than I do.  This only adds to my respect for Professor Gates’ willingness to call out a couple of cops who seem to have done their jobs badly.  They are public servants who should use their power wisely.  At best, these cops merely overreacted when Professor Gates lost his temper.  At worst, they were pushing him around.  Perhaps it is prudent to be deferential.  But it is not against the law to yell at a cop.

      • Like the adults they briefly forgot to be the CPD apologized for the arrest and Gates apologized for being disrespectful to the cops. I toured the Chicago Police Academy today and the Officer in charge told me that this incident was just a fairly in policing. At the end of the day cops should be courteous and respectful even if the guy they are dealing with is the rudest mf on the planet. Its so they can calm him down, get him to think rationally, and also not be resented in the community. No question the cops were at fault for the arrest but also no question Prof. Gates was being a jackass.  

        • Is Harvard kicking out two black students and preventing them from graduating just because they might have been friends of the teen who was killed on Harvard property in May who might have been a drug dealer. But if its poor black students whose lives were ruined instead of a rich black professor who was inconvenienced for a day I guess its not as important…

          • But if its poor black students whose lives were ruined instead of a rich black professor who was inconvenienced for a day I guess its not as important…

            <

            p>17 ware street, cambridge, Mass is rent controlled.

            <

            p>Where’s the outrage? Rich guy taking the cheap housing away from the needy. It all makes sense; there’s the source of the police attitude.

            <

            p>/Random, I know

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