SubscribeThe is Police SOP everywhere I've been, whether the parties are white, black or romulan. Cops lurve it when you follow them around yelling at them for doing their job and accusing them of being a racist while playing the special privilege card.Oh, for God's sake, if you can't be a cop and deal with someone following you around screaming that you're a racist for you doing your job, get a new job.
Henry Louis Gates references Clarence Major’s Dictionary of Afro-American Slang, which compares signifyin(g) to the “Dirty Dozens,” “an elaborate game traditionally played by black boys, in which the participants insult each other’s relatives, especially their mothers. The object of the game is to test emotional strength. The first person to give in is the loser” (qtd. in Gates 68).This tradition of black vernacular in mind, I’m especially tickled at Gates’s strategic use of a "yo mama" joke to goad the officer into losing his cool and breaking out the cuffs; Gates’s taunting forced a move that will likely cost this officer his job.
That's racist. So is the lady who called them, who also works for Harvard.Anyone else get the feeling if the woman had been black they'd have been calling her an uncle tom? She phoned police when she saw two people forcing the door of a residence. Even Gates statement collaborates this sequence of events. How does she win here? If it had been criminals breaking into the house there would have been much teeth gnashing about how no one called the cops because the woman was racist and it was a black man's house being burglarized.
Gates didn't like the fact that the cops showed up to hassle him about having to break into his own house, which almost certainly would not have happened had he been white.Ya. Because when a white woman phones the cops because she sees two white guys breaking into a white home white cops don't even bother responding. *eyeroll* Can these people not hear themselves over the distrust?
No, not even the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, in the sanctuary of his own home, which is itself practically in the middle of the most prestigious university in the world, which is Gates' employer and playground, is immune from getting hassled because he isChrist sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. These people live in a very disturbing world.black.not a cop. FTFT.
Are we still go for lynching?Did you really think it was appropriate to use that word in this discussion? Really?
I again told Gates I would speak with him outside. My reason for wanting to leave the residence was that Gates was yelling very loud and the acoustics of the kitchen and foyer were making it difficult for me to transmit pertinent information to ECC or other responding units.
Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The well-known neuroscience professor, who is also black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.(Armchair polar explorers might be interested in Counter's book North Pole Legacy, about his meetings with descendants of Matthew Henson and Robert Peary in Greenland and his attempts to get Henson's remains transferred to Arlington National Cemetery.)
should he not hold himself to a standard above immature verbal abuse?Gates devoted many pages and scholarly documentation about why signifying isn't just "immature verbal abuse." Then you and your ignorant mama come along to say you know better.
"Early in this century, Gates writes in [Colored People: A Memoir], black entertainer Bert Williams observed that 'it's no disgrace to be colored. But it is awfully inconvenient.'"*
I doubt that the officers involved are members of some Neo-Nazi Klan; and I'm sure they work and are friends with people of diverse racial profiles. But that does not preclude the fact that a police officer may have engaged in racial profiling in this instance.So no, really, saying that the officer probably wasn't a member of a "Neo-Nazi Klan" is NOT actually the same thing as saying that "race played no part in this."
"Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch."
"Gates is a founder of the The Root, a Web site owned by The Washington Post Co."From The Root:
What Do You Call a Black Man with a Ph.D.?
"Gates described his driver, whose car service Gates uses regularly, as a large, Moroccan man. The driver brought Gates's three bags to the front door, but when the professor tried to turn the lock, it would not budge. After going around and unlocking the rear door, Gates returned to the front, which still would not open.
'I thought it had been latched from the inside by my secretary who comes to get the mail,' Gates said, 'but the lock had been tampered with. I said, "Let's just push it."'
He was wearing a blue blazer and leather shoes, he said. The driver, dressed in a black uniform, began to lean his shoulder into the door to try to force it open. They pushed for 15 minutes and got the door free. The driver then left. Gates said he would later find out that a neighbor called to report two black men wearing backpacks were breaking into his house.
Gates's home is owned by Harvard so he picked up the phone to call the university's real estate maintenance office. Before he could finish the conversation, a police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house.
'Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside,' Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification
'I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house,' Gates said. 'This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering.'
After handing the officer both his Harvard and Massachusetts state identification, which included his address, Gates said he began to ask the officer this question, repeatedly. 'I said "Who are you? I want your name and badge number." I got angry.'
....But Gates did keep asking for the officer's name and said he began to feel humiliated when his question was ignored. He then said: 'This is what happens to black men in America.'
The officer left and Gates followed him outside. There were about a half-dozen police officers standing in his front yard.
'I stepped out on the porch to ask them his name,' Gates said.
He was immediately arrested -- his arms pulled behind his back in handcuffs. Gates said he was in pain, explained he was disabled and needed a cane to walk. The cuffs were removed, Gates was given a cane and his hands were cuffed in front of his body."
“The police report is full of this man’s broad imagination ... I said, ‘Are you not giving me your name and badge number because I’m a black man in America?’... He treated my request with scorn ... I was suffering from a bronchial infection. I couldn’t have yelled ... I don’t walk around calling white people racist. Hell, first of all I'm half white myself ... my wife of 25 years is white and my children are half-white.”
___________
^ | | |
| | A | B |
Certainty |-----|-----|
| C | D |
|_____|_____|
Belief that the cop was wrong -->A and B would rightly be at each others' throats because it's a pretty fundamental break in worldview between the two. The As think the Bs are race-baiting bleeding hearts, and the Bs think the As are a bunch of racists and fascists."And of course, the white female neighbor who called the cops because she saw two black guys at her neighbor's house is completely blameless. She's not making judgements base on race at all. She's a fabulous neighbor who just can't tell what her neighbor looks like. Cause all those black guys with backpacks look alike."
The officer walked into the house, through the foyer and into the kitchen without his gun drawn and without any backup. A cop just doesn't walk into a house with two unknown men who he suspects are burglars without backup and without drawing his weapon unless, to the contrary, he is quite sure they really aren't criminals.Yet we have the cop's report that he did in fact enter Gates house with the suspicion, after interviewing a witness to the apparent break in, that someone had broke in. He did indeed call for back up but in his words "I asked that she [the witness] wait for the other responding officers while I investigated further." None of the reports linked here have anyone saying the cops pulled their guns so I think we can safely assume they didn't. So obviously the cop did actually engage the man without pulling his gun, even though he wasn't quite sure he wasn't a criminal. Now whether the officer _truly_ believed Gates was a criminal or not I guess only the officer knows but I don't think I'm giving the cop much of a benefit of the doubt in thinking he did. My experiences with cops lead me to believe they basically think everyone is a criminal. Especially if they are standing in what has been reported to the cop as the scene of a B&E.
"The driver, dressed in a black uniform, began to lean his shoulder into the door to try to force it open. They pushed for 15 minutes and got the door free. The driver then left....Gates's home is owned by Harvard so he picked up the phone to call the university's real estate maintenance office. Before he could finish the conversation, a police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house.
'Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside,' Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification
'I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house,' Gates said."
"Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’s luggage into his home.
Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained."
"'The best motto for a police officer is that sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me,' says George Kirkham, a former police officer and now a professor of criminology at Florida State University. 'People wind up venting, and you have to let them vent.'
Moreover, police officers should be particularly aware of historical injustices suffered by African Americans, he adds: 'Blacks have had experiences with bullhorns and dogs in the South, and those wounds go deep – they're more sensitive and we need to realize that.'"*
"What she sees are a couple of guys trying to break into a house. She calls the police.
By this time, you are on the phone in your own entry hall, asking Harvard to come and fix your front door. When you see the police officer on your porch, you assume it's someone to help you. When he sees you, a man at ease, chatting on a cordless phone, does the Cambridge police officer conclude things look okay? Does he take note of the fact that you make no attempt to run, as a robber might? Does he say, We got a call, sir. We're just making sure everything's OK, sir? Have a lovely day, sir?
Most certainly not. Instead, he goes into your Harvard Square home with his radio and his gun in the middle of the day and acts like he's dealing with some perp in a back alley at 3 a.m. He wants your identification. The police officer says you get upset right away, yelling, 'Is this because I am a black man in America?'
The way you remember it, you hand over your ID, and not until he insists you go outside with him do you get upset and accuse him of treating you this way because you are black.
You've given him your driver's license. You've given him your Harvard ID. Instead of leaving, he has called the campus police.
What would you do in Gates's situation? Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there? Most people might not be bold enough to say the things Gates was accused of. (Alas, the magnificent 'I'll speak with your mama outside' attributed to him in the police report was never uttered, he says). But any normal person would have trouble keeping his cool.
So Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct."
"I am very pleased that the charges of disorderly conduct levied against Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been dropped. The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates have released a joint statement that acknowledges '….the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate.' As the parties involved have placed this matter behind them, it seems appropriate for our community to do the same.
The incident did illustrate that Cambridge must continue finding ways to address matters of race and class in a frank, honest, and productive manner. Two months ago, I hosted a town hall meeting in City Hall in which community members were asked to discuss how race and class issues have impacted Cambridge. It was noted that bigotry, misunderstanding, and fear have continued to play a role shaping how we interact with one another – but it was also noted that continued community-wide discussions represent an important step in changing this pattern. I genuinely believe that by bringing people together, by airing our differences, and by challenging our attitudes, we can foster a more tolerant, more inclusive society. I shall continue my efforts to help bring that about, and while we will never have a perfect society, we should never stop striving."
"....Gates apparently took umbrage at the officer’s line of questioning, at one point suggesting that the police presence could be explained by the professor’s race. The conversation escalated; the report depicts Gates as haughty and insulting. He was cuffed and charged with disorderly conduct.
Gates told the Globe yesterday that the report is full of the officer’s 'broad imagination.' Once the officer established that Gates was indeed standing in his own home, the encounter should have ended. Objecting to an officer’s presence in one’s residence should hardly be grounds for arrest.
Still, confrontations with police seldom end well, even if officers are in the wrong. If Gates believed he was being treated discourteously, he could have filed a complaint with the police department’s section for professional standards. Ultimately, though, it was the officer’s responsibility to de-escalate the situation, even by walking away. Police are trained specifically to ignore verbal provocations that come their way.
Cambridge police are well-regarded in the profession for dealing sensitively with the public, according to Northeastern University criminologist Jack McDevitt, a national expert on racial profiling. But even that department needs a reminder that its job is to keep the peace, not to spar with citizens who pose no risk to public safety." *
"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," said Cambridge Police Department Spokeswoman Kelly Downes in a prepared joint statement by the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department and Mr. Gates. "All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances," said Downes.
At a press conference this afternoon Downes went on to say that she still believed there was "probable cause" for Gates' arrest. "I think what went wrong personally is that you had two human beings that were reacting to a set of circumstances, and unfortunately at the time cooler heads did not prevail," said Downes. "I think both parties were wrong," said Downes. "I think that's fair to say. It wasn't Professor Gates' best moment and it was not the Cambridge Police Department's best moment."
I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.’I had no idea before this thread how important it could be to refuse to step out onto my own porch.
My lawyers later told me that that was a good move and had I walked out onto the porch he could have arrested me for breaking and entering.
the lack of giving a person the benefit of the doubt, the assumption that a black person is somehow a threat are things that are so common there isn't even any thought involved when they are activated. . . . Had Prof. Gates just been Henry Gates, a nobody and certainly had he been a poor man, not only would this not have made the news, but it's likely that Henry Gates would have ended up being convicted of disorderly conduct and either having to be locked up, pay a fine or both for having the unmitigated temerity to believe his home was his castle, that no policeman has the right to order him to do anything on his own property if he isn't bothering anyone.Slightly different take from Melissa Harris-Lacewell:
Many are portraying him as a radical who easily and inappropriately appeals to race as an excuse and explanation [but] he is no race warrior seeking to right the racial injustices of the world. He is more a collector of black talent, intellect, art, and achievement. . . . he celebrates and studies blackness, but does not attach a specific political agenda to race. For those who yearn for a post-racial America where all groups are equal recognized for their achievements, but where all people are free to be distinct individuals, there are few better models than Professor Gates. . . . Gates is invested in black life, black history, black art, and black literature, but he has managed to achieve a largely post-political and even substantially post-racial existence.
Then he was arrested in his own home. . . . In a moment of overzealous policing a young officer in Cambridge managed to handcuff and detain the living embodiment of post-racial possibility.
You've given him your driver's license. You've given him your Harvard ID. Instead of leaving, he has called the campus police.I am also reading in the police report itself that the officer intended to leave the house with his ID to convey more information to "ECC", and not leave the scene altogether.
What would you do in Gates's situation? Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there?
Police officers may legally enter residential premises when they believe in "good faith" that a crime is being committed there. This is known as the crime-in-progress exception. In such cases, the police have the discretionary power to enter the premises in order to investigate the crime in progress and to arrest suspects without warrants. Later, the police may let the suspect(s) go free if it turns out that they were not involved in the commission of a crime.They were confirming that he was not perpetrating any crimes by breaking into his own house. And unlike allen.spaulding, I don't have to stretch my own imagination thinking of ways some scumbag HAS actually done something wrong in this way (say violating a restraining order from a recently divorced ex).
"No, when I was arrested I was not read my Miranda rights. I clearly was arrested as a vindictive act, an act of spite. I think Sgt. Crowley was angry that I didn’t follow his initial orders—his demand—his order—to step outside my house because I was protected as long as I was in the house because he didn’t have a warrant. I think what he really wanted to do was throw me down and put handcuffs on me because he was terrified that I could be dangerous to him and that I was causing violence in my own home—though obviously he didn’t know it was my home."
"Whether he’s an individual racist? I don’t know—I don’t know him. But I think he stereotyped me.
And that’s what racial profiling is all about. I was cast by him in a narrative and he didn’t know how to get out of it, and then when I demanded—which I did—his name and badge number, I think he just got really angry. And he knew that he had to give me that, and his police report lies and says he gave it to me. If he had done that I would have simply taken it down and wrote a report! I was definitely going to file a report, now—just not as big as the one I’m about to file!"
"....The incident itself set off a series of other troubling incidents.
For starters, police used an investigatory exemption in the public records law to bar the public’s right to view Gates’ police report. Even after the charges against Gates were dropped, police were unwilling to release the report and, mysteriously, a leaked copy that appeared on Boston.com’s Web site was replaced the next day with a less complete version. Globe editors declined to explain to the Chronicle why the documents were swapped, while the department said it was conducting an internal investigation to find out who leaked the arrest report.
Meanwhile, one has to ask: Where has Commissioner Robert Haas been? Investigating a leaked report should be the least of their worries. Haas should be front-and-center either defending or apologizing for his department. So far he’s been hidden from view.
This was clearly the most controversial moment in Haas’ two-year tenure. But when it came time to answer questions from the press this week, legal adviser Kelly Downes — not Haas — stood in front of the cameras.
Haas and City Manager Bob Healy might hope this goes away. It won’t, even if Gates ultimately chooses not to pursue the matter further.
Our city’s reputation has been damaged.
The public’s confidence in the men and women patrolling our streets will need repair.
It will take years to heal from the incidents of the past few days."
"Apparently, this nigger broke in and hung up pictures of his family everywhere. An open and shut case."
"Wouldn’t it have been much easier for the police to figure out who lives there before you knock on the door? And don’t give me that nonsense about a crime in progress. If the officer had time to meet the 911 caller outside of Gates’ home (as he stated in the police report,) he had time to do a little more due diligence before he knocked on the door."*
Under the City's Plan E form of government, "interference with [the] City manager by [the] council [is] forbidden." The penalty is "a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or ... imprisonment of not more than six months, or both, and upon final conviction thereof his office in the city council shall thereby be vacated and he shall never again be eligible for any office or position, elective or otherwise, in the service of the city.There has been a very close (revolving door) relationship between city government (community planning dept) and Harvard/MIT for nearly that long. The "People's Republic" myth actually has a core of truth in the central-planning power concentrated in the City Manager, who has a three-cornered constituency -- 1) the non-taxpaying educational institutions (Harvard, MIT, Leslie), 2) large bio/tech in Kendall Sq, and 3) cops and construction (the detail symbiosis). Cambridge police salaries are in the 99th percentile and cop quality in Cambridge has actually improved a lot from the 60's and 70's.
So you're saying that as soon as Gates showed his driver's license and Harvard ID to the officer, the officer was required to leave immediately? If you think that's correct, I'm not sure why.I'm not sure why this even matters since it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not he should have been arrested for something unrelated after it had already been established that it was his house. It's a complete derail.
Sadly, the answer to some of these is probably "yes." But it's improper to read things into the situation that you can't possibly know, and then treat them as fact. That's not a reasoned or reasonable approach by any measure.That's absurd. No one applies that standard to things they think about or do in their daily lives. It's not "improper" to make reasonable inferences given the various likelihood of different possibilities. If the cop didn't want people to think he was being a racist, then he shouldn't have arrested an old man in his house (or on his porch).
"For starters, police used an investigatory exemption in the public records law to bar the public’s right to view Gates’ police report. Even after the charges against Gates were dropped, police were unwilling to release the report and, mysteriously, a leaked copy that appeared on Boston.com’s Web site was replaced the next day with a less complete version. Globe editors declined to explain to the Chronicle why the documents were swapped, while the department said it was conducting an internal investigation to find out who leaked the arrest report."*
"Allegations of racial profiling continued to mount after the arrest of prominent black Harvard professor Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates, Jr. last week, but students and faculty interviewed Tuesday were cautious about leveling blame, even while acknowledging the possibility of police misconduct.
...Nevertheless, Spencer H. Hardwick '11, president of the Black Students Association and also a Crimson news writer, said that 'the situation clearly requires an investigation into the motives of the officers involved and the policies and procedures of the Cambridge Police Department' in order to 'prevent further incidents of arbitrary and unfair treatment against innocent citizens.'
Students interviewed were wary of passing judgment on police or the professor without more definitive information...
...Faculty in the department of African and African American Studies interviewed Tuesday commented more explicitly about the persistence of racial profiling in American society, noting that the police actions were indicative of a lapse of communication and racial understanding plaguing much of the country.
...The University has grappled with racial profiling issues a few times in recent years, although those cases involved the Harvard University Police Department, not the Cambridge Police Department. Last summer, HUPD officers, in a confrontation allegedly 'laced with obscenities,' approached a young black man attempting to remove a lock from a bicycle who turned out to be a Boston area high school student working at the University for the summer. The incident helped trigger a University task force review of community and police relations, and prompted HUPD to reach out to the community, drawing praise from black student organizations.
...Not everyone reflecting on the incident immediately concurred that the arrest exemplified on-going societal prejudices. Gates' lawyer, law school professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., has declined to say whether he believes the incident was racially motivated, and Cambridge police representatives carefully kept to their prepared statement, which said that the dropping of charges was 'a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.'
Damaris J. Taylor '12, alumni and public relations chair for the Harvard Black Students Association, said that based on police reports, he personally didn't think the arrest was racially motivated and that 'the officer was just doing his job.' But he also said that while the professor may have overreacted or even acted rudely, the police should not have issued an arrest.
Harvard President Drew G. Faust said in a statement Tuesday that she continues to be 'deeply troubled by the incident,' although she is gratified that the charges have been dropped. She added that 'legacies of racial injustice remain an unfortunate and painful part of the American experience' and that, as U.S. President Barack Obama has remarked, 'we can and must do better.'"
"Or is this a case where she started the giant rock rolling down the hill and could do nothing but stand and watch once the force of gravity took over?"Gates's has said in his statement yesterday and in his interview today with his daughter:
"We depend on the police—I’m glad that this lady called 911. I hope right now if someone is breaking into my house she’s calling 911 and the police will come!"I'd love to hear her interviewed: what she thought she saw, what she said to the police, how she feels the incident played out, etc. You've got to believe that ABC, CBS and NBC are courted her for such an interview.
Any further investigation of Gates' right to be present in the house could have been done elsewhere. His decision to call HUPD seems disproportionate, but we could give him points for thoroughness if he had made that call from his car while keeping an eye on the house.Which would have struck an appropriate balance between continued presumption of guilt, and respect for someone's right to be unharassed in what was probably (based on the just-viewed ID) his own home.
"Gates said Crowley walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.
Crowley said Wednesday that he won't apologize.
President Barack Obama, during a prime-time news conference Wednesday, said he didn't know what role race played in the incident but added that police in Cambridge, a city outside Boston, 'acted stupidly' in arresting Gates even after he offered proof that he was in his own home.
'I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry,' Obama said. 'Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact.'"*
"'To stop a pedestrian -- it's kind of a joke,' says Lieutenant Jack Albert, traffic commander for the Cambridge Police Department. 'Do you know what it would cost the community to prosecute that violation? It's like $75 or $80 to prosecute. But there is a law on the books.'"As well, many believe that if a pedestrian refuses to pay, they can't be identified, as they are not required to produce an I.D.
"Gates said he has gone out of his way in the past to avoid run-ins with police. When he first arrived at Harvard in 1991, he moved into a large house in the mostly white suburb of Lexington and promptly visited the police station to introduce himself.
'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." ...I should have done that with the Cambridge Police Department.'"*
She had chosen to stay at the scene and continued to stay while the officer investigated.
That's what I'm curious about. If she "stuck around" in the vicinity of the house (across the street, etc.), didn't she then see the door opened, then the driver -- who was dressed in a livery outfit -- get the bags from the towncar (likely parked in Gates's driveway -- visible in all photos of 17 Ware Street), walk up to the porch, bring the luggage in, see the driver drive away? Could she see Gates making a call from the foyer? Was the door still open, or was it now cloased? When police arrived did she inform them of those details?
"Cambridge residents are strongly encouraged to apply as residency preference is given during the hiring process."
delmoi: "Well, first of all the charges have already been dropped. But it's pretty clear that the cop knew he was in his own home (or on the porch) when he was arrested. The question about whether he "broke in" or whatever is totally irrelevant. It's just an attempt to muddy the water. We don't need a "complete understanding" of everything, only the facts that pertain to whether or not he was conducting himself in a disorderly manner."Even if Gates considered it, it doesn't matter now, since he was never charged with B&E, he provided his ID to Crowley, etc.
The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.On the one hand, this would seem to exonerate Crowley of racist intent and racial profiling. On the other hand, it raises more questions about how he could not realize that arresting Gates for some yelling looks just like racial profiling.
In my decades of practice as a state prosecutor, I have never seen "disorderly conduct" charged for acts which did not originate and occur in a public setting. I cannot conceive of a case in which a prosecutor would pursue a charge of "disorderly conduct" occasioned by tone or speech in one's own home. Nor have I seen tone or content of speech as a basis for charging disorderly conduct even in a public place. At the risk of restating the obvious, "disorderly conduct" aims to penalize what it says: conduct. Disorderly conduct is something more than "disorderly speech." In my opinion, the criminal prohibition would be fatally and unconstitutionally overbroad were it to be deemed to apply to pure speech. What citizen then meaningfully would be on notice to what speech would be viewed as "disorderly" and risk criminal prosecution and penalties?
"And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed. That's my suspicion."
Interesting as it is to speculate about Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge Police Department, the attention the case is generating reflects an unfortunate feature of American public discourse: you've got someone like Radley Balko who spends the bulk of his career documenting the most grave instances of police misconduct imaginable -- including cases that involve the incarceration of innocent people for years on end -- and most of even the egregious cases he writes about never break into mainstream conversation, whereas a minor altercation involving a Harvard professor who isn't even being charged with a crime spawns wall-to-wall media coverage.--
Isn't it notable that six months into his presidency, the most prominent advocacy President Obama has done on behalf of minorities mistreated by police is to stand up for his Ivy League buddy? Somehow I imagine that Professor Gates would've fared just fine absent help from Harvard's most prominent alumnus.
"And for that reason the story is on the front page of the Washington Post this morning and prominent all over the airwaves. As it should be. But Gates, as he told me yesterday, knows 'that what happened to me, happens over and over and over to black men in America, and you sure don’t read about it on A1.'"*
How many black and brown men and poor white men are the victims of police officers who are carrying racist thoughts?Gates' buzzword about the story seems to be that Crowley had a "broad imagination." I would say that, from the perspective of a disinterested third party, calling him a racist with the facts we know now is a bit of broad imagining on Gates' part. And I think that in today's day and age, that accusation is a badge of shame (rightfully so) that should not be applied so lightly.
...
What I would not want is to be presumed to be guilty. That's what the deal was. It didn't matter how I was dressed. It didn't matter how I talked. It didn't matter how I comported myself. That man was convinced that I was guilty.1
Now it’s clear that he had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone’s house, probably a white person’s house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me. [Or: There was a report of a black man breaking into this house. There is a black man in this house. Turns out he was the black man who broke and entered.]
...
He didn’t say, ‘Excuse me, sir, is there a disturbance here, is this your house?’—he demanded that I step out on the porch, and I don’t think he would have done that if I was a white person.
...
And he handcuffed me right there. It was outrageous. My hands were behind my back I said, ‘I’m handicapped. I walk with a cane. I can’t walk to the squad car like this.’ There was a huddle among the officers; there was a black man among them. They removed the cuffs from the back and put them around the front.2["There was a black man among them?" What is that about?]
But really it’s not about me—it’s that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. [Why anybody black? Why not just anybody?] And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior. [Was it because you're black? Or out of spite?] He didn’t follow proper police procedure! You can’t just presume I’m guilty and arrest me. He’s supposed to ask me if I need help. He just presumed that I was guilty, and he presumed that I was guilty because I was black. There was no doubt about that.3[Or he presumed you're guilty because you WERE "guilty"--in the sense that you did in fact break and enter into the home, regardless of the fact that it was legal--of the ACTIONS reported by a 911 caller, maybe?]
I just don’t want to be arrested for being black at home!4
My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved, and the way they would have liked it to be resolved," Obama said. "The fact that it has garnered so much attention, I think, is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America, and -- you know, so to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate. What I would like to do, then, is to make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are two decent people.
"The woman who made the 911 call that led to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. never referred to race when she contacted authorities for what she thought was a potential break-in, her attorney told CNN on Monday.Also:
Attorney Wendy Murphy also categorically rejected part of the police report that said her client, Lucia Whalen, talked with Sgt. James Crowley, the arresting officer, at the scene.
'Let me be clear: She never had a conversation with Sgt. Crowley at the scene,' Murphy said. 'And she never said to any police officer or to anybody "two black men." She never used the word "black." Period.'
She added, 'I'm not sure what the police explanation will be. Frankly, I don't care. Her only goal is to make it clear she never described them as black. She never saw their race. ... All she reported was behavior, not skin color.'
Calls to the Cambridge Police Department about the issue have not been returned. In the police report, filed by Crowley, he says he spoke with Whalen outside the home before he approached Gates' house.
'She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of Ware Street,' the report says. 'She told me that her suspicions were aroused when she observed one of the men wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.'
Murphy's comments add yet another layer of intrigue to the July 16 arrest that has prompted heated discussion across the nation on race relations in America."
"The commissioner acknowledged that in the police report the caller is said to have observed 'what appeared to be two black males' on the porch, but he said the report was a summary and not necessarily based on the initial call."Is it possible Crowley lied in his report? Ya' think?
"The long-awaited 911 tape and audio of the controversial July 16 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have been made public today where the arresting officer tells the dispatcher to 'keep the cars coming' - he’s dealing with an 'uncooperative gentleman.'
Gates can be heard on the tapes talking in the background, but his exact words cannot be made out. It is difficult to say if the professor is screaming or not."
"One thing the tapes didn't show: any obvious background sound that indicated Gates was shouting during the incident. An officer can be heard at one point describing the person in the house as 'uncooperative' and a second person can be heard saying something unintelligible in the background as the officer transmits.
Crowley said in the report he filed after the incident that Gates became disruptive during their encounter. Gates has denied that he was disorderly."*
One thing is clear: We owe Whalen an apology. Relying on Crowley's report, we called her a racist for dialing 911 just because she saw two black men struggling to open a front door. It's obvious from the call that she didn't know that they were black, that she was calling out of an excess of caution, and that she expected that if it was their home, then a police officer would simply check their ID and be on his way. Which is what should have happened.Yeah. I think there are quite a few people in this thread who owe her an apology as well.
"When I arrived at17Ware Street I radioed ECC and asked that they have the caller meet me at the front door to this residence. I was told that the caller was already outside. As I was getting this information, I climbed the porch stairs toward the front door. As I reached the door, a female voice called out to me. I looked in the direction of the voice and observed a white female, later identified as Lucia Whalen. Whalen, who was standing on the sidewalk in front of the residence, held a wireless telephone in her hand arid told me that it was she who called. She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of17Ware Street. She told me that her suspicions were aroused when she observed one of the men wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry. Since I was the only police officer on location and had my back to the front door as I spoke with her, I asked that she wait for other responding officers while I investigated further."
"The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not describe their race, acknowledged they might just be having a hard time with the door and said she saw two suitcases on the porch.
Cambridge police on Monday released the 911 recording and radio transmissions from the scene in an effort to show they had nothing to hide, but the tapes raised new questions about how and why the situation escalated."
"I don't walk around calling white people racist. Hell, first of all I’m half white myself. I'm 56% white in my DNA. My father is 75% white. My wife of 25 years is white, and my children are half white. Give me a break. Nobody knows me as some lunatic black nationalist who's walking around beating up on white people.”*
Female dispatcher: Respond to 17 Ware Street for a possible B and E in progress. Two SPs (suspicious persons) barged their way into the home, they have suitcases. R-P 5 - SP. Stand by, trying to get further.
Officer 52 (Crowley): 52. Ware Street right now, 17?
Dispatcher: 17 Ware Street ... both SPs are still in the house, unknown on race. One may be a Hispanic male, not sure.
Officer 52: Is there an apartment number there?
Dispatcher: Negative on the apartment. Single family yellow house.
Officer 52: Stand by. Can you have the caller come to the front door?
Dispatcher: I’m sorry, repeat?
Officer 52: Can you have the caller come to the front door?
Dispatcher: It’s not her house, she doesn’t live there. She’s a witness in this.
Officer 13: C-13 to patrol im on broadway (inaudible)
Dispatcher: Received
Officer 52: 52
Male patrol: Answering 52-
Officer 52: I’m up with a gentleman who says he resides here (background voice) but uncooperative. But uh, keep the cars coming.
Male patrol 1: Copy.
Officer 52: Can you also send the Harvard university police this way?
Male patrol 1: We can send ‘em in.
Officer 17: 17 to 5-2, when you get a chance I need to talk to you.
(14-second pause)
Officer 52: 52 to patrol
Male patrol 1: Answering.
Officer 52: He gave me the ID of a Henry Louis Gates. ...
Male patrol 2: Answering 52.
Officer 52: He gave me the name of the resident of Henry Louis Gates Jr. (background voice) on Harvard property.
Male patrol 2: Sir can you repeat?
(14-second pause)
Male patrol 2: Patrol to 52.
Two simultaneous voices: Try calling him again— (inaudible) to 52.
Male patrol 2: Patrol to 52.
Male patrol 2: Patrol to car 52.
(inaudible)
Male patrol 2: 52 go back to channel 2.
Officer 1-R: 1’s on.
Male patrol 3: Let’s see 12-52.
Officer 18: 18’s on 2.
Male patrol 2: 18 I didn’t copy 52’s last uhh, when he came on 2.
Officer 18: Right, stand by.
Male patrol 3: Patrol to 1-R.
Officer 1-R: (background voice) I’m off on Ware Street with 52.
Male patrol 3: Alright received.
Officer 2: (inaudible) to patrol. Do we have a wagon coming through to the location?
Male patrol 3: Patrol to wagon.
Wagon: Wagon.
Male patrol 3: 17 Ware Street.
Wagon: Copy.
"....The incident itself set off a series of other troubling incidents.
For starters, police used an investigatory exemption in the public records law to bar the public’s right to view Gates’ police report. Even after the charges against Gates were dropped, police were unwilling to release the report and, mysteriously, a leaked copy that appeared on Boston.com’s Web site was replaced the next day with a less complete version. Globe editors declined to explain to the Chronicle why the documents were swapped, while the department said it was conducting an internal investigation to find out who leaked the arrest report."
"Gates has said he was immediately taken aback by Crowley's tone.
'It was clear that I was in danger,' Gates has said, describing his reaction to Crowley coming to his door and asking that he step outside. Gates refused to leave his home and instead walked to his kitchen to get his identification.
'I weigh 150 pounds and I'm 5-7. I'm going to give flak to a big white guy with a gun? I might woof later, but I won't woof then,' Gates said in describing his approach to the encounter.
Crowley described Gates's reaction to his request as belligerent, and the officer is heard on radio transmissions saying, 'I'm up with a gentleman who says he resides here but is uncooperative.'
Crowley never mentions Gates's race on the radio calls and the professor's voice is not audible, though the officer described Gates as 'loud and tumultuous' in his police report."*
Dispatcher: 911. The line's recorded. What's the exact location of your emergency?
Caller: Hi, I'm actually on, um, Ware Street in Cambridge. The house number is 17. Ware Street.
Dispatcher: 17. OK, ma'am. Your cell phone cut out. What's the address again?
Caller: Sorry. It says 7 Ware, that's W-A-R-E Street.
Dispatcher: The emergency's at 7 Ware Street, right?
Caller: Well, no. It's 17. I'm sorry. Some other woman is talking next to me. But it's 17, 1-7 Ware Street.
Dispatcher: What's the phone number you're calling me from?
Caller: I'm calling you from my cell phone number.
Dispatcher: All right, what's the problem? Tell me exactly what happened.
Caller: Um, I don't know what's happening. I'm just having, uh, an elder woman standing here and she had noticed two gentlemen trying to get in a house at that number, 17 Ware Street, and they kind of had to barge in and they broke the screen door and they finally got in. And when I had looked, I went further, closer to the house a little bit, after the gentlemen were already in the house, I noticed two suitcases. So I'm not sure if these are two individuals who actually work there, I mean, who live there.
Dispatcher: Do you think they might have been breaking in?
Caller: I don't know, 'cause I have no idea. I just noticed.
Dispatcher: Do you think the possibility might have been there ... What do you mean barged in? Did they kick the door in, or?
Caller: No, they were pushing the door in like, um, like a screen part of the front door was kind of like cut.
Dispatcher: How did they open the door itself, with the lock?
Caller: I didn't see a key or anything 'cause I was a little bit away from the door. But I did notice that they pushed their...
Dispatcher: And what do these suitcases have to do with anything?
Caller: I don't know. I'm just saying that's what I saw. I just...
Dispatcher: Do you know what apartment they, uh, broke into?
Caller: No, it's just the first floor. I don't even think that it's an apartment. It's 17 Ware Street. It's a house. It's a yellow house. Number 17. I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key. But I did notice they kind of used their, a shoulder to try to barge in and they got in. I don't know if they had a key or not cause I couldn't see from my angle. But you know, when I looked a little closely, that's when I saw.
Dispatcher: White, black or Hispanic?
Caller: Um.
Dispatcher: Are they still in the house?
Caller: They're still in the house, I believe, yeah.
Dispatcher: Are they white, black or Hispanic?
Caller: Um, well there were two larger men. One looked kind of Hispanic, but I'm not really sure. And the other one entered and I didn't see what he looked like at all. I just saw it from a distance and this older woman was worried, thinking, 'Someone's been breaking in someone's house. They've been barging in.' And I, she interrupted me, and that's when I had noticed. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, to be honest with you. So I was just calling 'cause she was a concerned neighbor, I guess.
Dispatcher: OK, are you standing outside?
Caller: I'm standing outside, yes.
Dispatcher: All right, well, police are on the way. You can meet them when they get there. What's your name?
Caller: Yeah, my name is (deleted).
Dispatcher: All right, we're on the way.
Caller: OK, all right, I guess I'll wait. Thanks.
Dispatcher: All right, bye.
"I'm not even sure this is a racial situation because I don't know if this cop is racist. But I have to say it seems to me more like a police situation. I think Henry Louis Gates was arrested for the crime of not kissing the behind of the police officer."
"You are a hot little bird with minimal experiences in a harsh field. You are a fool. An infidel."Whoa! An infidel! Good grief. Did he think this e-mail was anonymous?
posted by milarepa at 2:23 PM on July 20 [3 favorites]