Last Thursday night (July 16), reputable scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was charged and arrested for “disorderly conduct” outside his Cambridge home. Gates, also the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, was trying to get into his house at the time – apparently his door had been jammed – when Cambridge police officers approached him. Reportedly investigating a break-in at Mr. Gates place of residence, of which had been called in by an anonymous female, the officers arrived and questioned Gates, asking for his identification.
Gates responded saying the questioning officer had “no idea who he was messing with,” and that he had only been targeted as he was “a black man in America.” Furthermore, Gates called the officer a racist, after which he was handcuffed and charged for exhibiting “loud and tumultuous behavior.”
Now, several days later, some faculty at Harvard are claiming Gates was a victim of racial profiling. One professor, S. Allen Counter, said, “He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,” further remarking, “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.”
Counter, himself, had been the victim of a similar fate only a few years prior. Stopped in 2004 by two Harvard police officers, he was threatened with arrest when he could not produce the proper identification. Apparently he had been mistaken for a robbery suspect.
Here’s a copy of Gate’s incident report.
UPDATE: Since this story went to post, new facts of come to light. Continue following the story with, Henry Gates Louis Round Two: Boris Kodjoe Edition
Hard to say without being there, knowing the intentions of the officer and Gates, etc., but from the report, it doesn’t sound too bad. I mean, the racial profiling would seem to be more from the perspective of the female caller than the officers. They were just doing their job.
Still, maybe the officers said some crude things that didn’t make it into the report. Who knows.
Your account is sketchy and partial. It even excludes significant detail from the police report itself. For example, Gates did not overreact until the police officer continued to question him even after Gates produced TWO versions of his ID at the officer’s request (which had his address on it). The cop appears to have had a bit of a chip on his shoulder and did not treat Gates with the dignity that any officer should treat a law abiding citizen in his own home. What really set up Gates’ reaction was when the cop refused to produce his badge upon request. Gates says he repeatedly requested the badge, but the officer ignored him (witnesses corroborate this). In his report, the officer says only that Gates kept asking him “for his name.” So Gates complied with the officer’s request for his ID, but the officer did not comply with the request that he show his badge, as he would be required to do in the circumstances. I think it is understandable that Mr. Gates, who was ill, disabled and exhausted from just getting off the plane from a week in China, would get upset at this point, if not earlier. I read the police officer’s account, and it is sketchy and has numerous suspicious details. I believe he is attempting to cover up the fact that he refused to show Gates his badge.
It’s just a crackdown on that horrible Tumultuous Behavior crime wave.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/tumultuous-behavior-crime-wave-in-cambridge/
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.
He is an idiot like Obama and just as racist as Obama…He wanted to cause a scene…Now that there is a black man in office that he knows personally he thought he could be an idiot like he is and get protection from Obama….and you democrats had to go and vote for an idiot president who is ruining this country by being a disgrace…by apologizing for america, he is arrogant and he is predigious against rich people…get rid of Obama Hopefully you democrats have learned from your mistake and won’t give Obama a second term….He is the devil leading a good country that is going in the dump….and for you Mr. Gates grow up and get real…….act your age and obey the law…that could of been handled so much different if you would of showed your leadership and just been a nice citizen and showed your ID and have been helpful instead of mean and racist like you are…..you pathetic worm..