Black Harvard Professor arrested after breaking into his own home?

We do as its in the police report.

[rquoter]Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report.

Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.
[/rquoter]

Whoops see that info was posted already.

 

Oh, OK. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Well according to the cops report, they were leaving, but he followed them out of the house and kept yelling that he was a racist and people started gathering in front of the house. I say he should have kept going and left but I guess it's "disorderly conduct" to be mad at a police officer.

I do agree that Gates made a big deal out of it and was wrong to direct his anger at the officer who just showed up to the call, but it's not illegal to be mad and annoyed.

 

Fixed.

 

Looking at the story it seems to me there were a few mistakes.

The first is women who called in the report. Assuming this woman is a neighbor of Dr. Gates and probably has met him it seems to me that if she was close enough to observe what they were doing she should've looked to see if it was Dr. Gates before jumping the gun on a break in. He isn't some huge hulking guy.



The cop should've taken Dr. Gates info and once he realized he was who he said he was he should've left it at that instead of pressing him further.

Finally Dr. Gates himself should've acted calmer and not jump to playing the race card. My own guess was that he was tired and irratable after a long flight and coming home to find his door jammed. I think many of us would've been pissed to have to deal with a cop then showing up and accusing you of being a robber. That said he still should've kept his cool than start crying racism.

 

did you read the scribd link i posted? some good stuff in there. he pulled the "you don't know who you're messing with" card. he also had the sweet line where he told the cop "i'll speak with your mama outside" lol. the cop sounds like he acted pretty calmly even though gates was flipping out on him.

 

I haven't read the entire transcript, but I will say this, I have a lot of respect for Gates, but on the flip side, having seen him on television he seems fairly eccentric. I really don't have a problem with this either way, seems like a none story.

the neighbors should get to know each other, that's a shame

 

That was the police report so it should be no surprise that the police report paints Dr. Gates in the worst light while painting the officer in the best one. While I don't think the officer is lying I suspect there is some spin. From Dr. Gate's side there is spin too. Taking both into account it sounds to me like Dr. Gates was irritable when the officer came to his house. The officer felt Dr. Gates was disrespecting him, which he was but that isn't a crime, and things escalated from there. From my own speculation I'm guessing both cop and Dr. Gates probably could've done things to diffuse the situation but didn't.

 

winner

 

According to the report, there was a crowd forming outside his house. Not saying it's right, but I'm pretty sure other people have been arrested for lesser reasons....

 

True, but most of the report is full of things that should corroborate the report. I.e. - multiple reports from different people, 7 public witnesses, the officer calling in to the ECC multiple times.

Either a whole bunch of witnesses and people are lying, or it happened the way it did.

I'm not one to usually dismiss claims of racism. I actually know of people who have had, in their history, uncles, grandparents, fathers who were police officers and also admitted KKK members. It's pretty clear there is a long history of racism in America's police forces.

That said, short of a bunch of people lying, it is also pretty clear Gates was acting like a moron and did everything in his power to continually and repeatedly make the situation worse and basically try and get himself arrested.

I think Ronny's quote sums it up best:

 

I don't think it has much to do with racial profiling and more to do with cops being buttholes.

DD

 

That's the smartest thing anybody has said in this thread.

 

It sounds like all involved were acting like d1cks. The cop is going to regret this. The professor will have all his friends in high places support him and all the big guns from the civil rights groups will be after the officer. Should be fun.

 

I agree - the absolute strangest thing about this story is that one neighbor wouldn't recognize another. I don't know how long Gates or the person who called the cops have lived there, but you would think it would be in their (and all their other neighbors) interest to at least know what they all look like.

That being said, Gates seems to have caused this situation to escalate by overreacting. If he had said "There's no break-in here officer - I live here. When I arrived home earlier, the door got jammed and I was trying to force it open." Instead, he pulled the race card immediately. If he had put himself in the officer's shoes for two seconds, he would have realized that it wasn't about racism - it was about following through on a call.

However, I think arresting him was overkill - all the officer had to do was say "Hey I'm just doing my job - I don't need your BS. Next time there's a call about someone breaking into your house, I'll just ignore it. Would that make you happier?"

The worst thing is that there are still legitimate acts of racism occurring daily, but it's dumb crap like this that get the press.

 

lol you sound like gates.

 

agree 100% especially about the neighbors.

 

Agreed. There is something distinctly ironic-idiotic about a distinguished black Harvard professor ranting about "this is what happens to black men in america".

He wins a "twit of the week" award from me.

 

Charges dropped:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/21/massachusetts.harvard.professor.arrested/index.html

 

Straight out of Dave Chappelle's stand-up. "Case closed, Johnson!"