A guy comes home.
He can’t get into the front door of his own home, apparently because of some previous damage.
He and the driver of his taxi try to force the front door open and then wind up forcing their way into a rear door.
A neighbor calls the police reporting a suspected break-in.
The police arrive and do what police everywhere are required to do – check for ID to make sure that the person in the house does indeed live there.
By all accounts, the homeowner becomes irate and initially refuses to produce ID, then accuses the police of racism, racial profiling and follows the officer out onto his front porch to continue the harangue.
The police try and calm the homeowner down and then warn him that if he continues his verbal abuse he’ll be arrested for disturbing the peace.
The homeowner continues his harangue and is arrested by the police and the charge of disturbing the peace (a relatively minor offense) are dropped.
End of “story”...or it SHOULD be.
So why’d the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates warrant so much media attention and a jump to the conclusion that he was “right” and the police “wrong”?
In FACT, Professor Gates was treated no better or worse than any other citizen, which is what he deserved, his Harvard professorship notwithstanding.
Police have a DUTY to respond to calls of suspected criminal activity.
The police have a duty to protect Mr. Gates’ home by asking for ID from the occupant, which COULD HAVE BEEN an intruder, for all they knew.
If Mr. Gates felt mistreated there’s a venue for that – the local Civilian Complaint Review Board, the local Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the local courts.
The street is NOT the proper venue for such complaints.
A driver irate over being stopped for speeding has no right to argue that ticket with the officer on-scene.
I presume that the reason Mr. Gates did not proceed along that route was because he KNEW that the cops were actually protecting his property by demanding ID after a neighbor reported a possible break-in at Mr. Gates’ home.
Mr. Gates had no reason, nor any right to challenge those officers.
If he had ANY legitimate grievance, it was with his neighbor who reported the suspected break-in to the police.
I can only guess why the diminutive Mr. Gates chose not to confront his neighbor, as that could’ve resulted in him getting his lights punched out rather than merely being taken down town and booked for disturbing the peace.
The only irony in this story I that far from illustrating “the nightmare of being a black man in America”, the Gates encounter with the Cambridge Police illustrates just how privileged the lives of the likes of Henry Louis Gates are!
He can’t get into the front door of his own home, apparently because of some previous damage.
He and the driver of his taxi try to force the front door open and then wind up forcing their way into a rear door.
A neighbor calls the police reporting a suspected break-in.
The police arrive and do what police everywhere are required to do – check for ID to make sure that the person in the house does indeed live there.
By all accounts, the homeowner becomes irate and initially refuses to produce ID, then accuses the police of racism, racial profiling and follows the officer out onto his front porch to continue the harangue.
The police try and calm the homeowner down and then warn him that if he continues his verbal abuse he’ll be arrested for disturbing the peace.
The homeowner continues his harangue and is arrested by the police and the charge of disturbing the peace (a relatively minor offense) are dropped.
End of “story”...or it SHOULD be.
So why’d the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates warrant so much media attention and a jump to the conclusion that he was “right” and the police “wrong”?
In FACT, Professor Gates was treated no better or worse than any other citizen, which is what he deserved, his Harvard professorship notwithstanding.
Police have a DUTY to respond to calls of suspected criminal activity.
The police have a duty to protect Mr. Gates’ home by asking for ID from the occupant, which COULD HAVE BEEN an intruder, for all they knew.
If Mr. Gates felt mistreated there’s a venue for that – the local Civilian Complaint Review Board, the local Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the local courts.
The street is NOT the proper venue for such complaints.
A driver irate over being stopped for speeding has no right to argue that ticket with the officer on-scene.
I presume that the reason Mr. Gates did not proceed along that route was because he KNEW that the cops were actually protecting his property by demanding ID after a neighbor reported a possible break-in at Mr. Gates’ home.
Mr. Gates had no reason, nor any right to challenge those officers.
If he had ANY legitimate grievance, it was with his neighbor who reported the suspected break-in to the police.
I can only guess why the diminutive Mr. Gates chose not to confront his neighbor, as that could’ve resulted in him getting his lights punched out rather than merely being taken down town and booked for disturbing the peace.
The only irony in this story I that far from illustrating “the nightmare of being a black man in America”, the Gates encounter with the Cambridge Police illustrates just how privileged the lives of the likes of Henry Louis Gates are!
