Black Harvard Professor arrested after breaking into his own home?

It's not like the cop rang the doorbell and got Gates up off the sofa where he was watching television. Neither are civilians above cops. Gates could have handled this with an appropriate sense of humor and appreciation for the care and trouble taken by his neighbor and the police respectively rather than with outrage.

 

To me I could understand the way Gates reacted more than that of the cop. At the point when he knew that it was a false alarm, mission accomplished. There was no need for further escalation.
I am sure Cambridge police department has procedures to go about this sort of situation once the alleged suspect is confronted and appears to be the property owner. I don't know what the circumstance was, such as the tone of the cop at initial questioning. Question like "Is there anyone else in the house" out of blue to me is very upsetting.
Of course Gates overreacted. But arresting him after finding out it was a false alarm from the get go, comm'on.
By the way, I used to live not very far from that neighborhood. Very safe community.

 

WHo do you think furthered the escalation? The cop was leaving and Gates continued ranting

 

Well, from the police report, he says Gates grabbed a phone started calling people acting upset. No burglar does that obviously. He knew that very well too and radioed his station saying this appears to be a false alarm. At that point, if the cop could just explain a little better , I think that would have been the end of it. There is no need to act like he is dutiful cop, while I think he is trying to show Gate who's the b****. If that's true, it is uncalled for.

 

Well, is this abuse of power? If it is, then Gates should sue the police. He has not done so. If it's because the law allows the officer to arrest Gates, then Gates should petition for the county/city to change the laws. If it truly is BS.

Again, this is in context with my previous statement that the police has to be given "some leeway" in terms of handling citizens giving them grief. Yes, in a perfect world such things should not happen. But despite how we may look down on police officers and their egos, the reality is that they are incredibly necessary in society and their work is quite dangerous and unappreciated.

 

I think you've nailed it accidently with your observation about "procedure." It is very hard to pinpoint when you know what you know especially when you are in a situation where there could be motivation to bamboozle you. Asking about other people in the house is, I'm sure, strict procedure for safety's sake... and not "out of the blue."

As citizen's we need to be able to appreciate that. When you get stopped for a traffic offense, they routinely look at your driver's license for ID and then carry it off to dig deeper for outstanding warrants, etc. Since I have no worry there, I just cooperate. If I start to berate and belittle the officer, there should be consequences.

 

Volvoing while *******, and there's an Aggie angle!

[rquoter]Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality for Harvard Faculty Assholes


Guest Opinion
by Professor John Evans Evans-John
Harvard School of Harvard Faculty ******* Studies
Harvard University

When I first learned of the arrest of my colleague Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates after he stood up to the fascist jackboots of a declasse, ill-educated Cambridge police officer, I was of course angered -- but scarcely shocked. L'Affaire Gates simply aired, in public, the dirty 100-thread-count table linen of an American culture where Harvard faculty assholes still face a daily struggle against profiling, abuse, and insolence.

It will come as no surprise that Skip's arrest was the talk of the Douchebag Room at the Harvard Faculty Club last Friday. I and a group of colleagues had assembled for our weekly lunch; I opted for their competently-prepared Ahi Tuna Tartare and an amusing glass of '05 Hospices de Beaune Premier Cru Cuvee Cyrot-Chaudron. I had noticed that the Franz Fanon Memorial Booth -- Skip's long-reserved lunch spot -- was uncharacteristically empty, and asked our waiter Sergio for an explanation.

"Professor Skeep, he no is come today," said Sergio. "I tink he is in the jail."

Our table exchanged knowing glances, for we knew immediately that Skip was only the latest victim of a system that singles out the Harvard faculty ******* for stigmatization and unequal justice. It is a system that all of us knew too well, and provided an opportunity for an open conversation about our shared experiences as Harvard faculty assholes in America while waiting for Sergio to bring the dessert cart.

One after one came the cascade of stark stories: the rolled eyes of our department secretaries. The Spanish language mockery of our office janitors. The foul gestures of drunken strap-hanging Red Sox lumpenproles aboard the MBTA. The frequent police stops on the highway to Cape Ann and Martha's Vineyard for "Volvoing While *******." And then there are the insulting media stereotypes, where we are routinely caricatured as pompous, effete, self-important, irrelevant elitists. All, I might add, by a motley collection of lowbrow inferiors, few of whom have ever published in a peer-reviewed journal. Let alone edit one.

Sometimes it even comes at the hand of self-styled "peers" from D-list state ampersand institutions. One colleague recounted the tale of his restroom confrontation with a Texas A&M professor at a national academic conference last year. After relieving themselves at adjacent urinals, my colleague noticed the oaf leaving hastily for the plenary session and decided to gently point out his hygienic forgetfulness. "A Harvard man washes his hands after urinating," he said. "And an Aggie don't piss all over his hands, *******," came the reply.

A female colleague from the English department recalled a recent incident along the Charles River jogging path during her regular morning run. A confused passer-by rudely interrupted her progress and requested directions, as if my colleague were some sort of lowly campus guide or untenured adjunct. "Where does this street go to?" she demanded. Naturally, my colleague took the opportunity to correct her, noting that "at Harvard we do not end our sentences in prepositions."

"Okay, Where does this street go to, *******?" barked the interloper. Needless to say, my colleague's daily morning runs have since been replaced with tear-filled visits to the Faculty ******* Self Esteem Counseling Center.

For untold hundreds of Harvard faculty assholes such indignities are, sadly, still part and parcel of being "The Other." As Associate Director of the School of Harvard Faculty ******* Studies, I have worked to institute policies to insure that Harvard maintains a nurturing environment for all assholes in our community, be they faculty, students, or alumni. Some progress has been made, such as Harvard's mandatory sensitivity and deference training program for all incoming freshassholes. But such internal programs do little to address the impertinence and discrimination we still face outside campus. Some have suggested that we involve the Cambridge Police Department in an educational outreach program, but in my experience the CPD is among the worst offenders.

Case in point: last winter I was slated to deliver the keynote address for an intradepartmental ******* colloquium at Lowell House. Running late, I temporarily parked along Plympton. As I emerged from my Audi, I discovered that I had captured the unwelcome attention of a CPD officer. "Hey Buddy, is that your car?" he barked.

"Why? Because I'm a Harvard faculty ******* in America?" I cleverly retorted.

"No *******, because this is a snow route and you can't double park here," he sneered, concocting a flimsy excuse for his continued harassment. "You have to move it now."

"That's Professor ******* to you, you fascist townie," I explained, tossing him the Audi's remote-start key. "Need a valet? Call your mother at the brothel."

It doesn't take an experienced ******* rights activist to tell you what happened next: my Audi was on its way to impound while I rode to the Cambridge Police Station in the unheated vinyl rear seat of Bull Conner's squad car. To add insult to injury, the desk officer refused my request for a dignified background bookshelf for my booking photos.

Thankfully the Constitution still allows even Harvard Assholes a bare modicum of human rights, so I used my allotted phone call to alert the Dean and the Faculty Grievance Committee to my plight. In those 35 excruciating minutes I wasted away waiting in that stark cell, I wrote the opening chapter of "Letters From a Cambridge Jail," my forthcoming scholarly magnum opus on the grim legacy of ******* oppression in America.

Eventually my arrest record was expunged and I agreed to meet the loathsome arresting officer at President Faust's office for a conciliatory off-record "beer chat." As the University Counsel had predicted, the lure of free limitless alcohol proved irresistible to the simpleminded Irishman, and he was soon happily signing confessions of guilt and abject apologies. Still, even after he was fired, I was left to pick up the pieces of my shattered psyche.

As I recounted the details of that unpleasant encounter to my colleagues, a few wondered aloud if we were not better served by changing the system gradually. Then our eyes turned to the stately historic portraits of the Harvard faculty assholes who came before us, hanging in silent judgment on the Douchebag Room walls; Schlessinger, Galbraith, Leary, Cornel West, Alan Dershowitz, Theodore Kaczynski. Would these great assholes have accepted complicit silence in the face of crude police insolence? How will we be remembered by future generations of Harvard faculty assholes who will battle future generations of Cambridge police and parking enforcement officials? Where is Sergio with the damned dessert cart?

Some suggest that the election of President Obama proves that America's prejudice against Harvard assholes is a quaint relic of the past. But for those of us who live with it every day, the evidence shows the opposite. And it isn't just Harvard assholes suffering the cold, rude hand of uppity townie privilege. Other, if less endowed, ******* faculties suffer similar oppression; in the southern Lacrosse fields of Duke, in the west coast arugula farms of Stanford, at Northwestern, where ever Northwestern is.

No, we must not be silent. That is why I have used a portion of my class action windfall against the Cambridge Police department to produce a shocking new documentary film, "******* Like Me," detailing the courageous plight of the tenured Sphincter-American community. It premiers this Friday at the Science Center. Get your tickets now -- with free beer on tap, demand will be high![/rquoter]

 

And the office provided that information multiple times.

I think Gates went beyond berating to making a public scene. you can berate a cop, but if you make a public scene and appear out of control, and you are also making threats, the cop should arrest you for disorderly conduct - which is what happened.

 

Every time I think this thread is going to go away it is revived. The only thing I am interested in seeing now, is how the meeting between Obama, Crowley, and Gates goes. When is that meeting to take place?

 

Uncalled? So screaming racism and "your mother" phrases are called for? The cop was doing his job. If Gates would have simply cooperated from the start, there would have been no problem. Instead he had a chip on his shoulder and it looked to me like he wanted to start something.

 

I can tell you how the meeting will go. It will go fine. I am curious to hear the tapes.

 

Except that the charges were immediately dropped, meaning that it was determined that Gates did not commit a crime.

That said, this is an issue of both sides escalating a situation - neither is blameless. Gates was apparently out of control and angry; but at the same time, the cop could have and probably should have walked away knowing that the original reason for his being called was resolved.

One thing to consider though - we do hold cops to higher standards than the public because cops are specifically trained to handle these types of situations. The general public is not, so we have higher expectations of cops - staying level-headed and rational is an expected part of the job.

 

Did he? I might be mistaken but from what I read of the incident he didn't provide his name or badge number until after Gates was arrested.

That is a highly subjective standard. Dr. Gates wasn't being violent and while he was making a scene that could've been remedied by the officer simply leaving.

I've seen police walk away many times from people heaping abuse on them. When I was in college people would frequently try to verbally bait the police and the police wouldn't always take them in custody. Last week at my neighborhood bar a woman got very drunk and obnoxious outside the bar. The police showed up and didn't take her into custody they allowed a friend of her's to take her home. In a case where the person in question is an elderly person, crippled, of small stature in his own house I highly doubt he constitutes a threat or a disturbance requiring him to be taken into custody.

I will add again none of this excuses Dr. Gates though. He should've shut up but the Officer Crowley's hands weren't forced. This was a judgement call that he made. Dr. Gates was disrespectful but not criminal.

 

.... or that it was worth prosecuting.

 

According to his report he did.

 

Of course they are but that doesn't mean that police shouldn't also show restraint in the use of their power.

In Ireland I saw a drunk on a train physically harass an officer without being taken into custody. I'm not saying that we need to go to that point where police are effectively neutered but at the sametime I think where a police takes someone in custody, from their own home, just because they think their authority is being undermined is too much.

Having known police officers and training with them I definately think they deserve respect and recognize they do a very tough job. That said we still have a right to free speech and that does apply to publicly criticizing the police.

 

To summarize how I feel: Gates was arrested for being loud, belligerent, and annoying, not for being black. There is no racism here. While I think the arrest wasn't a good idea for those reasons, I also think Gates is being stupid for making it an issue of race.

 

I second that.

 

I see. According to the account that Dr. Gates lawyer relayed he didn't. This could be a case of poor hearing on the part of Gates.

 

The report said he gave his name twice, but never said he gave him his badge number. It's really hard to hear anyone talk when you're yelling yourself though, I suppose.