Henry Louis Gates is a renowed African American critic and scholar who teaches at Harvard University. He locks himself out of his house and forces his way in. A girl walking by sees two guys breaking into a nice house and call the cops. They come, and by that time he’s in. Here’s where accounts diverge, but the police report basically says that when they appeared at the scene to investigate, he started screaming “racist racist racist” at them and was arrested for being disorderly. I think his account is that he showed them ID and explained what happened but they kept on his case because they are racist and he’s black.
Getting the story straight seems crucial, because by one reading he was victimized by racist police and in another – I confess, the one I find a mite easier to believe – he acted like an obnoxious prima donna, a famous wealthy dude screaming at working class stiffs who were just doing their job.
Luis Tiant (famous black Cuban baseball player for Red Sox) lived in a rich suburb of Boston in the '70s. One morning he is out running in a track suit and gets stopped by the Police for being “suspicious”. Would that have happened to a white athelete?
I worked with a moon-lighting police officer from the same city Tiant lived. He used to brag that he’d pull over mixed race couples and give them a hard time.
I’m not black, but I imagine that it’s tough to tell when you are being hassled because of your color and when it’s for other reasons. Racism probably plays more of a role than most white people think and less than most black people think.
Put a different way, though, if a white person in the same situation (say, Ben Stein) started yelling at police and got arrested, would people consider him a victim? I doubt it. Which doesn’t prove anything, mind you, because the situation is different, but people here seem to be quick to assume the police were in the wrong, based on nothing but the fact that Gates is successful and black.
The truth is probably in the middle. I guaran-damn-tee the cops were being at least as assholish as Gates. They probably didn’t like it that they didn’t have a bust. They were probably talking to him in arrogant, condescending tones (because that’s what they always do to everybody), Gates got pissed and started popping off back at them, and it turned into a pissing contest. I don’t believe the cops when they said he refused to show them his ID. That sounds like bullshit to me. I think they just didn’t like it that he had some.
I don’t know exctly what the story is, but I do know better than to take the cops’ account as gospel.
Here’s something from the link that made me curious:
How do they know she was white?
I also have to think that whoever called must have been a neighbor, and must have known Gates lived there, so it’s not out of the question that they called the cops just to harrass him.
“Hassled” is a subjective term. I assume that most people who are seen breaking into a house would be questioned. It’s not like the cops know it’s their house.
Because I know Gates’ work and he’s a blowhard? Not that I called him a liar or an agitator.
A better question might be why cricetus automatically assumed that the police officer’s description of the event was the accurate one ("…a white person in the same situation (say, Ben Stein) started yelling at police and got arrested"; bolding mine). Gates claims otherwise.
Actually, Gates doesn’t “say otherwise.” His own lawyer says he did “express his frustration at being subjected to the threat of arrest in his own home," which is a lawyerly confirmation of at least some of what the police report says. Not many of the people rushing to his defense are disputing it.
Police respond to investigate a possible robbery. Okay so far. They knock on the door and a man answers. That by itself should have been enough to conclude that the man who answered wasn’t a burglar. Outside of Hollywood, what rational burglar is going to answer the door of a house he’s burglarizing?
I could see asking “We received a report of a possible burglary, are you okay?” To ask the man for proof that he lived in his own home was unacceptable. To arrest him for disorderly conduct after he chewed them out was complete B.S.
WTF planet do you live on? If I broke into my own house and the cops saw it I’d be happy to prove that I live there. Yeah it’s better if they don’t try to make you prove it that way the person robbing me blind can just pretend like they live there as they move my TV out the side door. :rolleyes:
It’s sad that in America it doesn’t matter how successful you are. If you are a black man, you will still be arrested when you break into a house and scream at police when they ask you questions.
Cite? I mean this is simply wild conjecture. There are cases where stuff like this has happened, but there are plenty of cases where it didn’t. I don’t think there’s much reported so far that would lead me down this road.
I agree with 99% of what you wrote, but for this I think it’s just a case of someone listening to a voice and assuming the race of the caller. Not sure if this experiment has ever been done, but if you had someone take calls from 50 white people and 50 black people, I bet they could identify the race of the caller correctly over 90% of the time.
Frankly this seems like one of those cases where the cop has to swallow a little bit of pride and leave the guy alone even if he’s being somewhat obnoxious because there was no crime.
Was the cop being a racist or treating Gates unfairly? I have no idea. Whether or not racism was involved, I’m not surprised Gates objected to being questioned in his own house. He probably responded more harshly than was necessary. But there’s no reason an arrest should have been made here.
What an absurd incident. Aside from whether or not racism was a factor, I think the policeman should be fired. In addition, I think the professor should have some claim against the police department (note, I’m using should in the preferences sense, not making a factual claim).
The Boston Globe has the actual police report: (PDF).
According to the police report, it was the middle of the afternoon — he wasn’t waking or keeping people up. He was yelling at an officer while standing on his porch. The report makes no mention of vulgarities or obscenities (though in fairness, it seems that a “Yo Mamma” was dropped). The policeman was leaving the area when he turned around and made the arrest.
Again, this to me is separable from the racial aspect. A pillar of our society is founded on the right to be offensive to authority. That this wasn’t a polite note penned on scented paper is irrelevant. On his porch, he was ostensibly in his home. That others “appeared surprised and alarmed by Gates’s outburst” is irrelevant, especially as the officer is presuming the cause rests in the vocalizations, not the content. This was a malignant arrest, repugnant to our society. Crowley is not suited to be a mall cop, let alone a police officer.
(Oh, by the way, the police report mentions that he met with the caller; that’s how her race was known.)
The more I’m reading it seems more likely that the officer made some mistakes. And I can’t say that Gates wasn’t right to be upset but it seems a bit premature to make this about race. But once the ID was presented the officer should have exited the scene, no matter how much Gates was ranting.
There’s also an elitist streak here, underlined by the colleague’s claim that “this wouldn’t happen to a white PROFESSOR” (emphasis mine), that he understands the police need to investigate break ins, but their offense was not recognizing and respecting Gates’ status as an elite. I don’t doubt him. There is a certain entitlement to being wealthy and important, and a well-dressed white man would be more readily believed. But the outrage here is that Gates has earned that wealth and importance, and yet was treated like an ordinary man by mere public servants. This is clear from the Boston.com commentary, rife with calling the police stupid and illiterate for not knowing who Gates was.
When I’ve locked myself out and considered letting myself in by unconventional methods, I worried the police would come and that I’d have to explain myself. Almost anyone would assume that in this situation, unless they have enjoyed special status for a while and don’t think the way ordinary people think. Maybe Gates was tired, cranky, off his game, whatever; I’m willing to cut the guy some slack. But the quickness to cause foul doesn’t prove the folks in the stands are not racist. It might prove they are racist – they can’t see past Gates’ skin color to just see a self-important windbag who thought he was too good to deal with a routine police call. Or perhaps they are not racist, but just see where the class line is drawn and are as upset as Gates that a dignitary would be troubled by mere peasants.