Harvard Professor Claims Racism Over Arrest

[DeletedUser]

Wow, I'm amazed that after all I wrote up, you folks are hung up on the college ID.

 

[DeletedUser]

I'm amazed that this thread is still going, I long ago realized that nothing would change anyone's opinions here. There is personal history and bias involved, and this is accomplishing nothing

 

[DeletedUser]

Wow, I'm amazed that after all I wrote up, you folks are hung up on the college ID.

Hellstromm, what you're basically saying is that you're amazed that the same group of people who never learn anything or don't become any more informed after these discussions didn't become any smarter or more informed than they were before.

I don't get why you're so surprised.

 

[DeletedUser]

This was a good article and summed up a lot of what I thought about this case. I'd agree with the author that there was probably SOME amount of racism that influenced this case, but the majority of it was a power struggle.

Pique And the Professor

If race were the only issue, there would be much less hyperventilation about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s unpleasant run-in with the criminal justice system. After all, it would hardly be the first time a black man had unjustly been hauled to jail by a white police officer. The debate -- really more of a shouting match -- is also about power and entitlement.

This is a new twist. Since the triumph of the civil rights movement, minorities have been moving up the ladder in politics, business, academia, just about every field. Only in the past decade, however, has a sizable cohort of African Americans and Latinos broken through to the tiny upper echelons where real power is exercised.
I'm talking about President Obama, obviously, but also Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons, entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and many others -- a growing number of minorities with the kind of serious power that used to be reserved for whites only. In academia, the list begins with "Skip" Gates.

He's a superstar, one of the best-known and most highly acclaimed faculty members at the nation's most prestigious university. A few years ago, when he made noises about leaving, Harvard moved heaven and earth to keep him. The incident that led to his arrest occurred as he was coming home from the airport after a trip to China for his latest PBS documentary. Following the traumatic encounter, he repaired to Martha's Vineyard to recuperate. This is how the man rolls.

Obama's choice of words might not have been politic, but he was merely stating the obvious when he said the police behaved "stupidly." Gates is 58, stands maybe 5-feet-7 and weighs about 150 pounds. He has a disability and walks with a cane. By the time Sgt. James Crowley made the arrest, he had already assured himself that Gates was in his own home. Crowley could see that the professor posed no threat to anybody.

But for the sake of argument, let's assume that Crowley's version of the incident is true -- that Gates, from the outset, was accusatory, aggressive and even obnoxious, addressing the officer with an air of highhanded superiority. Let's assume he really recited the Big Cheese mantra: "You have no idea who you're messing with."

I lived in Cambridge for a year, and I can attest that meeting a famous Harvard professor who happens to be arrogant is like meeting a famous basketball player who happens to be tall. It's not exactly a surprise. Crowley wouldn't have lasted a week on the force, much less made sergeant, if he had tried to arrest every member of the Harvard community who treated him as if he belonged to an inferior species. Yet instead of walking away, Crowley arrested Gates as he stepped onto the front porch of his own house.

Apparently, there was something about the power relationship involved -- uppity, jet-setting black professor vs. regular-guy, working-class white cop -- that Crowley couldn't abide. Judging by the overheated commentary that followed, that same something, whatever it might be, also makes conservatives forget that they believe in individual rights and oppose intrusive state power.

There was a similar case of collective amnesia at the Sotomayor hearings. Republican senators, faced with a judge who follows precedent and eschews making new law from the bench, forgot that this is the judicial philosophy they advocate. The odd and inappropriate line of questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about Sotomayor's temperament was widely seen as sexist, and indeed it was. But I suspect the racial or ethnic power equation was also a factor -- the idea of a sharp-tongued "wise Latina" making nervous attorneys, some of them white male attorneys, fumble and squirm.

Is a man of Gates's station entitled to puff himself up and remind a police officer that he's dealing with someone who has juice? Is a woman of Sotomayor's accomplishment entitled to humiliate a lawyer who came to court unprepared? No more and no less entitled, surely, than all the Big Cheeses who came before them.

Yet Gates's fit of pique somehow became cause for arrest. I can't prove that if the Big Cheese in question had been a famous, brilliant Harvard professor who happened to be white -- say, presidential adviser Larry Summers, who's on leave from the university -- the outcome would have been different. I'd put money on it, though. Anybody wanna bet?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701907.html

 

[DeletedUser11019]

The guy probably did have an attitude...but then, he had cops showing up and accusing him of breaking into his own house.

He was then ARRESTED for showing attitude towards the cops...in his own house.

I find it telling that the charges were dismissed so quickly.

The guy should never have been arrested in the first place. Yes, the cops had a right to be there to investigate the original call, but for them to lose control of the situation so badly that they have to arrest someone whom they have already confirmed did not commit a crime and is on his own property, is a little sad...

erm ...i dont agree...if you talk nice to the police,,they can be very helpfull....if you start talking badly..
book em..
drag em off the streat and bring him back to the station for questioning.

you cannot threaton a police officer.does not matter the situation...he is just being racist himself..playing the race card and sucking money outa the system.

last time i spoke badly to a police officer,,i ended up with a black eye,blue balls, a broken thumb,,a smashed police car window(that i had to pay for)
..but lucky i live in a small town and i know the officer (we buds)
point is.....dont harras police.....they are in more stressfull times that a cambridge teacher.
and in britan they can lock em up for a week.(they should have,,untill he sobered up)
its an abuse of the law..trying to worm himself and his big mouth outa things...he should be respectable and ...shut up.

bottem line.
he is breaking a few more laws.
abusing the camunity to get himself a get outa jail card,/malcalvian prince tactic...
waisting police time/and mocking
wainsting jusdicial time/and mocking
and threatoning the integraty of the arresting police officers........he did instigate the arrest.
slandering the police officers at hand
disturbing the peace
lude conduct to a police officer.

ive locked my self outa my house plenty o time..a "high guys can you help me out" would have been fine...all they do is look em up on that computer thing..and alls fine.

oh and he distracting the police from a real crime..called interfearing with justice..

 

[DeletedUser]

Stupid arrest. I have the right to be a butthead on my own porch!

 

[DeletedUser]

I have taken a change in sides considering my city has a law against "Harassing" bikers who are in your way, even if you are on foot. 500 dollar fine 3 months in jail... To hell with the PoPo.


The man should have just taken a piss on the cop from inside the house and laughed about it, he wouldn't have been able to do anything. The Pig was tresspassing on that mans property, HE should be arrested. As for racism, I think that may be a little to far, but with cops, you never know...

 

[DeletedUser]

What I think should happen is the police department should offer a public apology to the professor and the officer should be reprimanded, and have to take a class on conflict resolution. I don't think there is any need to get courts involved since it doesn't look like race was much of an issue.

 

[DeletedUser11019]

the drunk should have been a little more respectful.....its abuse of power from his side.he is acting like a jerry springer show..shouting and cursing...
face it....they wouldnt have done anything if he had only kept his cool.

eg.some drunk was hanging round the parking lot on tuesday..cops were called..he became abusive...then they dragged him off in the van...
must they let him free coz he poor?

the 8 year student pluss an extra 3 years tobecome profesorr should have known better....the race card is giving the universaty a bad stigma..
the british police are exillent....a mature perone would realize that ,,and not resort to childlike behavour ,,of an adolecint.

 

[DeletedUser15816]

Right. It's not the professor's indignant self-empowered attitude that caused the friction, no. It wasn't a simple misunderstanding that escalated into something more, no. It was the cops that screwed up completely. What an idiot, man.

What's idiotic is to believe the police report, because this report was filed by the offending officer himself.

Some cops are wonderful community-building people who go out of their way to treat all citizens with courtesy and respect. Some cops are complete jackasses who use "suspicion" and authority as a license to be disrespectful and abusive. With any type of officer and police report, what you will never read is something like:

"I arrived at the scene pissed-off at having my doughnut and coffee interrupted during a quiet hour of the night. After speaking to the witness, I noticed two [racial epithet]s attempting to break into a house. This immediately put me into a belligerent frame of mind, so I didn't bother to consider the possibility that people like them might actually belong to the Harvard faculty. With an angry sneer, I spun the guy at the door around by his collar and, in a hostile manner, demanded that he show me his identification ...."

To me, this whole thing just reeks of an indignant plush who has a racial chip on his shoulder.

There was nothing in the police report or stated afterward to indicate that Officer Crowley had been drinking.

Professor Gates, either.

Something tells me that this wouldn't have happened if the professor had just cooperated and didn't have a horrible attitude about the whole situation

That's your guess. Mine is that the attitude of the cop may have triggered the situation. Had he simply seen the ID and gone the hell away, it might not even have become an issue.

To add more annoyance to the situation, Obama originally made the comment that he couldn't comment on the situation because he didn't have all the information -- because he wasn't there. After a brief phone conversation with the professor, Obama stated that the cops acted stupidly.

Yet it is not annoying for you, who also was not there, to also comment on the situation without all the information. The only difference is, after briefly reading an article, you conclude the professor acted stupidly.

People scream that racism is such a huge problem and that race shouldn't matter but those very same people need to STOP PULLING THE GODDAMNED RACE CARD.

Racism is a huge problem, and it shouldn't matter. However, using a handy phrase like "playing the race card" doesn't lessen how awful it feels to have someone dislike, mistrust, and even wish you dead for being what you never chose and cannot ever change.

And as long as people keep posting these kinds of inflaming articles that are guaranteed to divide opinion along racial lines, the screaming will never end.

 

[DeletedUser11019]

i dont believe the artcle.
written to hype the people.
and its one sided.........ps i know about this ,he came home after the pub and couldnt find his keys....

i 100% dislike racism....but this man is a malcom x learned fanatic....racist himself.
not only is he getting the book thrown at him...but being questioned by the unaversity board.....for several acts of misconduct

this is cambridge........not your local deli taco salad bar.
the ongoing investigation is into weather he is fit enough to teach after the bad stigma he has conducted apon the unaversaty vs oxford.

the guy does not teach anymore. that answer the question?


he is now in a lawsuit against the state for giving himself a bad name in the press

 

[DeletedUser]

black penny, that is simply not true. Harvard University did not put together a panel to review Gates' actions. Nor should they. Also, he was not intoxicated.

Stick to the facts.

 

[DeletedUser15816]

i dont believe the artcle.
written to hype the people. and its one sided.........ps i know about this ,he came home after the pub and couldnt find his keys....

i 100% dislike racism....but this man is a malcom x learned fanatic....racist himself. not only is he getting the book thrown at him...but being questioned by the unaversity board.....for several acts of misconduct

this is cambridge........not your local deli taco salad bar. the ongoing investigation is into weather he is fit enough to teach after the bad stigma he has conducted apon the unaversaty vs oxford.

the guy does not teach anymore. that answer the question? he is now in a lawsuit against the state for giving himself a bad name in the press

You are entitled to your opinion. But this post contains so much innuendo and negative speculation that it's hard to know where to begin.

• He didnt come home from a pub, he was returning from China.
• Gates is a "Malcolm X learned fanatic" only in that he has learned about him. He counts as his mentors a number of European scholars.
• There is no record of him being questioned by the Board of Harvard University about misconduct or anything else.
• Not only is there no "ongoing investigation", but the Mayor of Cambridge called him to apologize for his arrest.
• "bad stigma he has conducted apon the unaversaty vs oxford."? It is Oxford University Press that is publishing his eight-volume work!
• "the guy does not teach anymore"? "At Harvard, Gates teaches undergraduate and graduate courses as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, an endowed chair to which he was appointed in 2006, and as Professor of English."
• "he is now in a lawsuit against the state for giving himself a bad name in the press"? The only talk of lawsuits was when Gates said "that he has not ruled out the possibility of filing a lawsuit".

 

[DeletedUser11019]

my fault...thought you ment cambridge uk.

reading up onit now...(forget the deli taco thing then)


now he want barak obama's help
hmm coward...

 

[DeletedUser11019]

read this...knew there was booze

U.S. President Barack Obama was asked a question about the incident at a July 22 news conference on health care reform and replied "Now, I've – I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; 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. That's just a fact."[2][3] Obama's apparent siding with Gates,[4] without having all the facts of the incident, drew criticism from members of law enforcement across the country.[5][6] Two days later, Obama stated that he regretted that his comments exacerbated the situation, and hoped that the situation could become a "teachable moment". He also gave his opinion that both the officer and Gates "overreacted" to the situation.[7][8] On July 30, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with Crowley and Gates at the White House for a conversation over beers.[9]

so..as we all say..wrong from both sides..no need for overeacting

 

[DeletedUser]

So, are you trying to be funny or serious? You do realize the sitting down and drinking of beer was something that happened weeks after the incident, and was far more a publicity stunt than anything even remotely substantive.

 

[DeletedUser15816]

read this...knew there was booze
so..as we all say..wrong from both sides..no need for overeacting

Ah, the infamous "Beer Summit". "Thumbs Up" for a good sense of humor! :laugh:

 

[DeletedUser11019]

drinking a beer with the president...that pretty cool
but more i think a way for the president to calm the people down.

and i think the subject of beer is a normal humanistic one..a uniting factor
something they can all relate to