Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Harvard African-American prof arrested in his own home
Here is what you need to know about my bias in this story. There is a picture of Henry Louis Gates on my wall. He is standing at a lectern; I’m behind him and just introduced him at a high-school assembly (for a number of years I corrupted young minds as an English teacher).
My introduction of the professor, who had just accepted a position at Harvard University, was the type of claptrap you get from folks who fawn a bit too much. I have a Gates section in my book collection and can’t think of a time when I didn’t defend him (for those not in the know, Gates is a controversial figure to a few African-American Studies scholars).
With my preconceptions out in the open here is the tale: Gates was arrested last week for thinking he could be “loud and tumultuous” in his own home. After returning from China, where he was filming a documentary for PBS, the scholar gets to his home door. It’s not working and he is leaning into it to get it open, with the assistance of his cab driver. A neighbor sees this, is worried a crime is being committed and calls the police. When an officer arrives, Gates is on the phone calling the leasing agency about the broken door. The constable demands the professor come outside. Gates declines. The policeman enters the home, but even after proving he was in the right place, Gates still gets the handcuffs.
According to the police report, Gates comes off as uncooperative. He yells at the officer and accuses him of racial bias. Some will say this whole incident is Gates’ fault. If he had only followed police orders, everything would have turned out fine. The taking orders from the police line works for a small-time political blogger (freelance at that); however, a Harvard scholar, with books and such behind him, has the right to get funky when his very existence is called into question after he gets home from a trip. Sure that standard should apply to everyone, but we live in a world that rarely matches our rhetorical skills.
The debate about this will more than likely turn predictable. Those convinced America is now in some post-racial hue, will see this as an unfortunate encounter that could have been defused. Others, and I include myself in this camp, will marvel that even a black man with a PhD has to account for his status. In his own home (walking the streets is a whole different matter). Freedom papers anyone?
UPDATE: The charges against Gates have been dropped. The professor and the Middlesex District Attorney’s office issued a joint statement calling last week’s mess “regrettable and unfortunate.”
UPDATE 2: Gates is interviewed by The Root (he is the site’s editor-in-chief) and contradicts much of the police report. Says it was impossible for him to have yelled at the officer due to “a severe bronchial infection” he contracted in China.
It’s interesting how upset everyone got when the police harassed the lesbian holding the campaign fundraiser in Southern California and defended her against attacks that she got what was coming to her because she failed to yield to an officer’s questioning.
Now, here we are, unable to see that a black man should have a right to peace in his own home, claiming he got what was coming to him because he failed to yield to police questioning.
Really? You really think that’s what happened?
Well, I’m sure Cambridge city officials and police officials are horrified by this whole situation. Cambridge prides itself on its liberalness and sense of fairness. And they really don’t want to piss off Harvard.
I think there was a lack of understanding on both sides, and overreacting by both Gates and the officer. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know the tone that the officer was using with Gates, but to instantly call the officer a racist when he was just doing his job (he had to respond to the call), I’m sure the officer felt it was an attack. And Gates probably felt that he had no need to prove who he was in his own home, but eventually he provided the information. At that point, I really think the officer should have let the matter drop. And considering how quickly they dropped the charges, the police department felt the same.
I really don’t think it was racial profiling, but I can understand how people of color might feel that way.
I’ve never heard of a robber who went so far as to forge a fake drivers license and work badge making them appear identical to the actual owner of a home. Did the cops think he was wearing a mask or something? I know dark skin makes cops think things like TV remotes and wallets look like guns, maybe thats what happened. If I had just got of a long flight from China and wanted to get home and go to bed I would be pissed and arrogant too if police showed up and accused me of being a robber in my own home. I don’t think ‘there is a guy standing at the door’ constitutes reasonable cause to even search a home. He had no reason to push furthur when someone answers the door and proves who they are and they own the house and the house is in fact not being robbed.
My partner and I came home from the movies one evening to find our home had been ransacked. There was a noise complaint about our neighbors yelling but they misidentified the unit, and the actual neighbors who had been loud lied to the police and said it was coming from our place. All the furniture was knocked over, mattress tossed, contents of fridge and cabinets moved around, closets and luggage tossed and gone through, we thought we had been robbed until we found the little card the police left. Another rediculous over the top response by the police, especially since the neighbors had a history of multiple domestic disputes.
How is it that all of you who deny that race was involved ignore that he was arrested AFTER he identified himself?
Oh and for those commenters who say that anyone would be arrested for being uncooperative/yelling at the officer….maybe so, but you see, for those of us with a slightly pinker hue, the officer would not have seen us trying to ID ourselves as uncooperative and it would likely never have progressed to yelling because we’d likely have been listened to. I’m assuming most commenters on this site are queer. So with the recent incidents of arrests/roughing up of gay men by security guards/police, the argument of the people in uniform has been that the queers were uncooperative. Well of course they were, they were harrassed and pushed to be uncooperative…this doesn’t make the police right.
Even if you refuse to see the racial bias here, do we want to live in a country where the police can burst into your home, accuse you of being a burglar, then arrest you for not having the right attitude when you prove that you own the place? Is that America?
I can understand if he were trying to run away or behaving in a physically threatening way, but his crime seems to have been not kissing ass eagerly enough. He did cooperate to the extent that he showed his ID and proved that he wasn’t a criminal. Anything else should need a warrant.
The police work for US, not the other way aroud. When they come to the door, they should be courteous. If there is any suspicion of a crime it can be investigated, but the arrest happened AFTER the police knew that he was the lawful owner.
No. He was in his home and proved his right to be there. He proved it was his home AND THEN was asked to come outside. How is he doing anything wrong when a police officer confirms his right to be in his own home AND THEN wants to arrest him for being “uncooperative” about leaving his home? How do you get arrested for coming home from a trip? Yes, I understand concern, and yes, I can understand stepping outside the door to finish details on a police report–but where and how does this morph into meriting arrest? Those of you who are so ready to blame Gates–you’re saying that, in the same circumstances, you would’ve done anything differently? It’s not a Bull Connor moment, but if Gates proved his identity (and therefore his residency–remember the leasing agency was on the phone), why does he need to leave his home? What in any of this merits arrest?
Doesn’t matter whether this man has a PhD or not…he was in his own home and was able to prove it. Sounds like the officer was being uncooperative. For Jay, why would you assume he was drunk? Nothing to indicate he had been drinking (unless of course you run with the tired old stereotype about all Harvard PhDs on their way back from China getting loaded on the way home). And again, so what if he was – he didn’t drive, the cab driver helped him get the door open. Freedom papers indeed.
Mr. Withers
I’m a white guy, and don’t know anything about the professor in question.
What I do know is that raising your voice in anger at a police officer will result in arrest. Even if you’re white.
I won’t deny the appearance of racism in this episode. But to think that one can yell at a police officer and NOT get arrested is lunacy. Might not be right, but it’s the way things are. As someone who has experienced plenty of racism/homophobia from African Americans (I’m from Detroit, I’m white, I’m gay: do the hard math and you’ll understand), I don’t doubt that there’s still plenty of racism to keep all Americans consumed for another couple of generations. I’ve seen African-Americans discriminate against gays, Haitians, Jamaicans, Hispanics, whites, Jews, etc. I’ve seen whites discriminate against gays, Catholics, Protestants, blacks, Asians, Democrats… the list on either side is lengthy. I don’t think any gay white man is convinced that we’ve moved beyond racism, for that would mean that we’ve moved beyond bigotry – which quite clearly we haven’t, though we’ve tried harder than any country I’ve lived in (4 continents, 12 countries).
The US is a rough n tumble, bigoted country that (laudably) airs all of its dirty laundry in public. And among our problems is a de-facto police state in guise of a democracy (I’ve lived in a real police-state, so I know what I’m talking about in that respect).
While you rightly raise the issue of race in this case, you do a disservice by not reminding readers that they too will be arrested for vocal or agitated responses to police officers. As a white guy, I can no more easily mouth off to a police officer than can a Harvard prof.
There are 2 stories in this episode: one of racism (if the prof “looked like” a Harvard prof – that is WHITE, wizened, and tweed-clad); and one of angrily questioning the police officer’s authority. It is the latter that will cause any citizen a headache. Don’t matter if you’re black or white.
For god sakes, the officer responded to a burglary in progress, arrived at the scene to find the door broken, and then the suspect refused his lawful order to exit the premises.
Nobody, no matter the colour of their skin, has the luxury of “declining” the order of a police officer. A PhD does not impart higher authority than the law.
In that instant Mr. Gates proved that while you can earn an education, common sense is something you’ve either got or you don’t.
I am always amazed at the amount of denial that exists among Caucasians (including presumably glbt ones, who should know better!) about the existence of racial profiling among far too many police. This has been well-documented across the nation, folks, it’s not a myth.
The whole debacle with Prof. Gates being humiliated and arrested for no reason makes me sick, but not as sick as the predictable interpretation that it was somehow his “fault,” if only he had acted “nice,” none of this would have happened. I wonder how many of us would feel “nice” if we were arrested in our homes for the “crime” of trying to get in when a door jammed.
Wake up, people and take off those rose-colored glasses. Just because we have elected Obama president does not mean that racism and profiling do not still impact people’s lives.
If he had listened to the officer and followed his directions, I’m sure it could have played out more amicably. As for the racial bias, as a white man, I have to kiss ass when dealing with police too. Unfortunately I think it’s far too easy for a cop to get drunk with power and throw his weight around. We may never know if there was bias, because from the inital reports it sounds like the officer had some reasons to treat him as uncooperative. Also just because someone has a PhD, doesn’t mean they don’t have to cooperate with the cops.
Jay,
Shocking, just shocking, that a Harvard prof of Gates’ standing would feel the need to be arrogant. In his own home. After he has proved it was his home.
Sincerely,
James
Jay, he identified himself with his Harvard ID and driver’s liscense. If there was any uncertainty about his identity or ownership of the house, the university could have been contacted. Also, he had just taken a taxi back from the airport after doing academic work in China. You think he was drinking on the way home?
Maybe he was irritable and rude, but it was his own house. The fact that you automatically assume that he was drunk and there was no racial bias is a little disturbing.
Had he been a robber and the police just took his word that he lived there, Gates would no doubt be complaining that the racist police did not care about black people’s property. It is very unlikely that there was any racial bias here. Just an arrogant (probably drunk) man who refused to answer legitimate questions from the police.