Skip Gates and the Post-Racial Project

Over the past several days a strange characterization of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has emerged. Many are portraying him as a radical who easily and inappropriately appeals to race as an excuse and explanation. This image of Gates is inaccurate. In fact, more than any other black intellectual in the country Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was an apolitical figure. This is neither a criticism nor an accolade, simply an observation.

Gates is the director of the nation's preeminent institute for African American studies, but he is no race warrior seeking to right the racial injustices of the world. He is more a collector of black talent, intellect, art, and achievement. In this sense Gates embodies a kind of post-racialism: he celebrates and studies blackness, but does not attach a specific political agenda to race. For those who yearn for a post-racial America where all groups are equal recognized for their achievements, but where all people are free to be distinct individuals, there are few better models than Professor Gates.

Gates is largely responsible for the institutional investment in African American studies made by premier universities over the past two decades. Student activists and faculty advocates led the massive black studies movement of the 1960s; a movement that created substantial changes in course offerings, faculty recruitment, administrative structures, and student retention at many state universities. But the country's most privileged institutions remained largely untouched by this populist era of race and ethnic studies.

Rather than relying on techniques that mimicked the Civil Rights Movement, Gates helped innovate and perfected a market strategy for African American studies.

Gates used the inherent competitiveness of Ivy League institutions to create a hyper-elite niche for the very best black academics. His strategy improved the market value of black intellectuals throughout the academy and the public sphere. At one point Gates assembled a "dream team" at Harvard that included professors Cornel West, K. Anthony Appiah, Michael Dawson, Lawrence Bobo, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Lani Guinier and William Julius Wilson.

For a fleeting moment Gates was the curator of the world's best living museum of black intellectual life. His Harvard cohort sent other prestigious schools into a competitive scramble to assemble their own collection, initiating a gilded age of black academia.

Some individuals would have approached this task as a racial mission; a chance to influence public policy and discourse toward progressive racial ends. This was not how Gates approached it. His style is more deliberate and more detached. By my reading, Gates is tremendously proud of his racial identity, history, and legacy, but he has no particular political agenda beyond the collection and display of black greatness, regardless of its political valence. For example, although their ideologies are profoundly oppositional, Gates finds both Colin Powell and Louis Farrakhan emblematic of black manhood and greatness.

Gates frequently compares himself to W.E.B. Du Bois for whom his institute is named. Aspects of the comparison are apt, but Du Bois, unlike Gates, was first and foremost, a race man with a political agenda. In the course of his long, prolific, academic and activist life Du Bois pursued every imaginable strategy to address America's racial inequality. He advocated education, research, patriotic military service, interracial coalitions, direct advocacy, legal strategies and journalism. He was first a staunch integrationist and later a socialist. His self-exile to Ghana was a final expression of his disillusionment with the American project.

Professor Gates is not disillusioned with the American project. He is enamored of it. His home casually mixes classic Americana with protest art of the black Diaspora. His dinner table is rarely segregated and his Rolodex certainly isn't. Even his more recent commitment to genealogy and fascination with the human genome project is prompted by his delight in uncovering the messy, unexpected, deeply American stories embedded in black life.

Du Bois was a product of the American racial nadir. He lived at the hardest moment in our history for black citizens. He was deeply suspicious of white America and constantly vigilant in his interactions with white Americans. Gates is possible only in our present moment.

Du Bois deplored the double consciousness the ripped at the black soul. Gates is remarkable, in part, because he doesn't wear a mask during interracial interactions. Gates is precisely the same man with an all-black crowd as with a predominately white one. Though he certainly perceives color he does not make the subtle rhetorical, political, or self-presentation adjustments that most African Americans consider both necessary and ordinary.

Gates is invested in black life, black history, black art, and black literature, but he has managed to achieve a largely post-political and even substantially post-racial existence.

Then he was arrested in his own home.

The Cambridge police and Professor Gates tell somewhat different versions of the story. But both sides agree that Gates came home to find his front door jammed. He used his key to enter by the back door. He and his driver then pushed at the front door until it opened. Witnessing this, someone called the police and indicated there may be a breaking-and-entering in progress. While Gates was on the phone with a property management company a police officer arrived. The officer requested identification. Gates produced it. Even after ascertaining that Gates had not illegally entered the property, the officer arrested him for disorderly conduct. The police report asserts Gates yelled and behaved aggressively. Gates denies this. The charges have been dropped. In short, Gates was arrested even though the police officer was fully aware that Gates lived in the home.

In a moment of overzealous policing a young officer in Cambridge managed to handcuff and detain the living embodiment of post-racial possibility.

And although Gates maintains "I thought the whole idea that America was post-racial and post-black was laughable from the beginning," as if in a testament to his apolitical sensibilities Gates said in an interview to TheRoot.com "I would sooner have believed the sky was going to fall from the heavens than I would have believed this could happen to me."

It is hard to imagine many other African American men who would indicate such surprise. Even President Obama has spoken of the difficulty in hailing a cab and First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed her understanding of black men's vulnerability to random violence. But Gates seems genuinely surprised and deeply hurt. His sense of violation and humiliation evokes great empathy, but also some incredulity about his astonishment with racial bias in the criminal justice system.

I like and respect Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Although we have had intellectual and political disagreements he has always welcomed dissent and encouraged individuality. Our personal connection is not why I was so devastated to see his mug shot or images of him handcuffed on his front porch. I was not even distressed because of class implications that reasoned, "If this can happen to a Harvard professor then no one is safe."

My distress is squarely rooted in feeling that I watched the police handcuff American possibility.

Comments (287)

1. The fallibility of man.

   and Murpy's Law.

   Posted by Benchrest at 07/21/2009 @ 8:16pm

2. I have a duality of feelings, while it is bothersome on the other hand his cocoon needed shattering.

   Posted by Lalareina at 07/21/2009 @ 8:47pm

3. There is a tide of emotion and reason that flood my personal thinking upon reading this writing. My respect for Henry Louis Gates is solid and long historied. However all of the 'founding father' principles attributed to him by Ms. Harris-Lacewell are not apt. The establishment of Harvard's prestigious African American Studies program is indeed a high benchmark for the field, but there are more than a few others which provide/d the foundation built upon by Dr. Gates.

   Our progress forward in becoming a recognized integral part of U.S. and world history is one told from many points of view on campus, in kitchens, and on occasion, from the mountaintop. Dr. Gates has been very good at seizing the time to tell the story from his point of view. We do well to listen to other variations on the theme.

   But just to be perfectly clear...in this writer's opinion there is no better example of "the living embodiment of post-racial possibility" than our 44th president of these United States. As a former 60s agitator and now grandmother of a three year old who speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Marvin Gaye, (neither parent is Chinese) there is a whole lot more to look forward to even in this imperfect world - and it is our president who embodies that future. What happened to Dr. Gates is wrong. But time to move on without deification.

   'Nuff said.

   Posted by vaucluse88 at 07/21/2009 @ 9:40pm

4. I'm not going to dissect what may or may not have happened. Whatever happened between that officer and Dr. Gates, it is incredibly stupid that it took this long for the charges to be dropped. No charges should have been filed after he was released after being detained. Considering the work Dr. Gates has done with African American studies, I don't know that I would use the term post-racial, but rather apolitical.

   As I previously posited, I suspect this was a clash of authority figures, neither Dr. Gates or Officer Crowley felt they were getting the respect they deserved or that they are used to in their professions.

   I too have laughed off all this talk of "post-racial" because of one election. This country has a long way to go to remove racism....but part of that process is to remove the idea that a color blind society is even possible. Humans are a tribal creature by nature and looking at how other countries deal with the different divisions in their society, its clear in America we will always have certain issues. The KEY is that in politics and economics, these issues are removed. That whatever any of our differences, we are all allowed the same opportunities as one another and are provided equal protection.

   Posted by manostorgo at 07/21/2009 @ 10:05pm

5. MH-L: "Student activists and faculty advocates led the massive black studies movement of the 1960s....."

   A part of the history of the 1960s I missed out on!

   Now, can we draw the conclusion that while LBJ orchestrated the downfall of black society with his well-named Great Society (just like BHO's `New Era of Responsibility') programs, the black studies movement was the black elites' own way of ensuring their own `Great Society' while doing little to actually help the average black?

   Can't blame them much since black college graduates DID NOT have as many opportunities in the private sector (pre-reverse discrimination days).......so, creating black studies depts. was in fact, providing themselves jobs, as Ms. MH-L said: "Gates helped innovate and perfected a market strategy for African American studies."

   Suggestion for blazing a new academic dept.: Department of Bi-Racial Studies! Given that there must be hundreds of Bi-Racial folks, just think of how many professors will be needed!

   If I only had a dollar, for every..........

   Posted by Happy at 07/21/2009 @ 10:09pm

6. Welcome to my world professor. I will not say "the real world" since that would imply that your world was less real than mine. Welcome to the world where you can get pulled over for doing exactly the speed limit or for going five mph below it. Each time you get pulled over there is the very real possibility of getting arrested or shot by the police. Welcome to a world where whenever you go into an upscale store the store detective is one aisle over. Or go into a grocery story and little children peek at you from behind their mothers as if you came from Mars. The best thing about President Obama getting elected is that much of the bigotry and hatred that have been hidden for so long is coming out into the open for all to see. I had stopped telling my white friends a long time ago that bigotry and prejudiced are live and well in our Northern liberal city. Do not get me wrong. I appreciate how far we have come just in my life time let alone since the time of the Middle Passage. Yet in my world it is easy to see how far we have to go before my son and his children that are yet to be born will see the Promise Land that Martin Luther King spoke of on the Mall all those years ago.

   Posted by bascaville at 07/21/2009 @ 10:13pm

7. Posted by bascaville at 07/21/2009 @ 10:13pm

   You ever had that feeling driving in white areas that you really don't want the car to stop since...hmmm.....you might get car-jacked? Or when walking, that you might get mugged by whites for what's in your wallets?

   Is profiling NOT a legitimate means to screen for trouble? Should statistical facts be banned anytime race and/or gender are factors?

   Quiz: You are a black/Asian/Hispanic store owner, who will you pay more wary attention to when faced with both black and white customers, if they look/dress relatively the same, other than race?

   Posted by Happy at 07/21/2009 @ 10:29pm

8. Welcome to my world professor. I will not say "the real world" since that would imply that your world was less real than mine. Welcome to the world where you can get pulled over for doing exactly the speed limit or for going five mph below it. Each time you get pulled over there is the very real possibility of getting arrested or shot by the police. Welcome to a world where whenever you go into an upscale store the store detective is one aisle over. Or go into a grocery story and little children peek at you from behind their mothers as if you came from Mars. The best thing about President Obama getting elected is that much of the bigotry and hatred that have been hidden for so long is coming out into the open for all to see. I had stopped telling my white friends a long time ago that bigotry and prejudiced are live and well in our Northern liberal city. Do not get me wrong. I appreciate how far we have come just in my life time let alone since the time of the Middle Passage. Yet in my world it is easy to see how far we have to go before my son and his children that are yet to be born will see the Promise Land that Martin Luther King spoke of on the Mall all those years ago.

   Posted by bascaville at 07/21/2009 @ 10:13pm

   If it's your world, then I question how you are living in it.

   I will not dispute that racism still rears it's ugly head. However, it is not as rampant as you suggest.

   I have 3 black sons, the youngest is 30. They live in very mixed areas, including one in Orange County CA, and one in San Diego. Both areas known as more conservative, and predominantly white. Yet none of my sons has ever been pulled over. None has had a cop harass them. They have unfortunately had a few bad experiences in their life; but that is the exception, not the rule

   Posted by antisocialist at 07/21/2009 @ 10:42pm

9. 40 years have past between yesterday and the day humans from the planet earth first walked on the surface of the moon.

   Where were we as a racially divided society 40 years ago? This is barely enough time to count one generation. Yet in that time the fabric of American society became less patchwork and more plaid.

   Now we have a person of color as our President. Nobody who went to bed on April 4, 1968 could have imagined the sight when they woke on January 20, 2009. This seemed like such a fanciful concept for a segregated America then.

   To what degree has Gates' arrest affected racial relations in the US? Like the thousands who came before him in the effort to bury racial divide in this country, Professor Gates is in attendance at a funeral for racism- perhaps a final pallbearer, watching as the coffin is lowered into a waiting grave.

   It is common for white people to have a romantic view and share in the ideology of post-racial America. I have this notion of a post-racial era. Mostly it is because I do not experience the discrimination, blatant racism, prejudice and the like that comes along with being Black in America. It is so easy for me to say that we live in a post-racial era because my President flies in the face of any kind of reason that racism has claimed to have.

   I supported Obama from day one because his words at the 2004 convention inspired me. He gave me hope that there was still an America somewhere out there that somebody else believed in. The fact that he was black meant to me that perhaps we had reached a 'celebration of individuality' period.

   But that is just not how it is. I think what we find is final proof that the idyllic post-racial America that I thought I lived in is still a long way off.

   Or it's closer than it ever was.

   Posted by richard.wertz at 07/21/2009 @ 11:25pm

10. Happy is nothing more than a f* racist!

    For the more than the white people despise them, Afros want to reaffirm themselves and find their souls with all these Afro American studies. Where were your great grand parents from? Germany, Ireland? I bet you don't even remember their folk traditions or even know them. Probably you're so Mc Donald!

    Posted by Frank42 at 07/21/2009 @ 11:29pm

11. Happy just wants attention. Why else would he be on this website? Happy is masquerading as an intellectual yet he has only Fox News Smarts. He's a real authority of the how Blacks are dragging down his clean society. Has Happy ever even known a single Black person? No not one of the cartoon characters he sees on TV. Well I know many Black and White people and have several observations beyond one-sided stats of how blacks score poorly on standardized tests, or the problem of black households with absent fathers. I guess I could bring up stats of who is most likely to have kiddie porn under the bed or what color and sex would be more likely to molest a 9 month old baby or the hypocrisy of married "Family" men who think it's perfect ok to use hookers and strippers during a business trip and then come home to the suburbs and kiss the wife and kids. My observation: people I know and know well are just people with different tendencies, etc. But most of all are just honest, hardworking people period. No matter their color. One more thing-- Liberals are not into being victims and are honest, ambitious and successful people. OOPS! I spent too much time even typing this. I have to work for a living and take care of my family. Do you have a job Happy?

    signed Happier

    Posted by tjs4159 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:06am

12. I was kind of with you, Professor Harris-Lacewell, until you based your argument on Gates's "surprise" and "astonishment" at this incident. Your POV is so myopic that it halts any "post-racial" movement as much as the foolish cop. A black person has to either sadly accept racism OR be astonished? Can it be both? Can we please be allowed the same complex spectrum of human emotions as everyone else? I perfectly understand and agree with Gates's finding the "post-racial" idea laughable AND with his astonishment at getting arrested in his own home. Isn't it his prerogative to maybe get lost in his own success and "forget" that the color of his skin can hold him back? Why does that mean anything more than his having a complex personality? I don't actually believe he forgot but I think that's what you're assuming he did for him to be so shocked at his arrest. And "deeply hurt"? I'd like to think we're all deeply hurt when abuse occurs no matter if it's expected or systematic.

    While I know the risks and stakes of simply being black in America, and even though I've both witnessed and experienced first hand moments of outright bigotry and discrimination (before the age of 30) please believe me I have and will always express shock at such moments. I get both shocked, surprised, hurt, disappointed and all the while knowing this happens all the time. I should be allowed that, especially if the alternative is numbly shrugging it off -- which only serves to strengthen racism. I'd think you would feel various possibly conflicting emotions, too, BUT if you didn't I wouldn't make any less or more out of it, certainly not about what ideals you may "embody." I'd think you were human.

    Posted by ldc219 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:10am

13. Our progress forward in becoming a recognized integral part of U.S. and world history is one told from many points of view on campus, in kitchens, and on occasion, from the mountaintop.

    Posted by vaucluse88 at 07/21/2009 @ 9:40pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOjxBuwBUEE

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:18am

14. What happened to Dr. Gates is wrong.

    Posted by vaucluse88 at 07/21/2009 @ 9:40pm

    if i saw anyone doing what these fellows were doing, i would call the police.

    it's the nice thing to do.

    now, let's take a look.

    THE CAMBRIDGE POLICE AND PROFESSOR GATES TELL SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE STORY.

    •• mais, oui. what else could be expected?

    BUT BOTH SIDES AGREE THAT GATES CAME HOME TO FIND HIS FRONT DOOR JAMMED.

    •• shut tight.

    HE USED HIS KEY TO ENTER BY THE BACK DOOR.

    •• a wise move.

    HE AND HIS DRIVER THEN PUSHED AT THE FRONT DOOR UNTIL IT OPENED.

    •• elbow grease.

    WITNESSING THIS, SOMEONE CALLED THE POLICE AND INDICATED THERE MAY BE A BREAKING-AND-ENTERING IN PROGRESS.

    •• as i hope you would do, too.

    •• i doubt a neighbour would call because i'm surish that a neighbour would know the distinguished mr. gates in his distinguished neighbourhood. so i imagine it might have been a person driving by.

    WHILE GATES WAS ON THE PHONE WITH A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY A POLICE OFFICER ARRIVED.

    •• double headache. my "property management company" is the lady downstairs.

    THE OFFICER REQUESTED IDENTIFICATION.

    •• good move. i bet mr. gates looked like he lived their.

    GATES PRODUCED IT.

    •• good move #2.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:45am

15. EVEN AFTER ASCERTAINING THAT GATES HAD NOT ILLEGALLY ENTERED THE PROPERTY, THE OFFICER ARRESTED HIM FOR DISORDERLY CONDUCT.

    •• seems like there's a lot of information missing in this sentence.

    THE POLICE REPORT ASSERTS GATES YELLED AND BEHAVED AGGRESSIVELY.

    •• did he?

    GATES DENIES THIS.

    •• i'm sure.

    THE CHARGES HAVE BEEN DROPPED.

    •• harvard, no less.

    IN SHORT, GATES WAS ARRESTED EVEN THOUGH THE POLICE OFFICER WAS FULLY AWARE THAT GATES LIVED IN THE HOME.

    •• i live in my home. it's nice. if a police officer comes to my home and i'm a jerk, i suppose i might be arrested, too. charges dropped, don't be a jerk.

    •• i live in my home. it's nice. if a police officer comes to my home and insinuates nasty things about me, i suppose i would get riled up.

    •• what does the driver say?

    •• i short (heheh) we do not have any idea why whatever transpired. of course, racial stupidity happens all the time, but hey, humans can be really dumb (SPOCK/UHURA '012 -- please). but we don't know if that is the case here.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:45am

16. I too have laughed off all this talk of "post-racial" because of one election.

    Posted by manostorgo at 07/21/2009 @ 10:05pm

    just imagine trying to go post-goldmansachs.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:46am

17. You ever had that feeling driving in white areas that you really don't want the car to stop since...hmmm.....you might get car-jacked?

    •• yep.

    Or when walking, that you might get mugged by whites for what's in your wallets?

    •• oh, yeah.

    Is profiling NOT a legitimate means to screen for trouble?

    •• all [insert something that refers to you] should be screened for boorishness.

    Should statistical facts be banned anytime race and/or gender are factors?

    •• ask your grandkids.

    Quiz: You are a black/Asian/Hispanic store owner, who will you pay more wary attention to when faced with both black and white customers, if they look/dress relatively the same, other than race?

    •• BOO!

    Posted by Happy at 07/21/2009 @ 10:29pm

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:49am

18. The best thing about President Obama getting elected is that much of the bigotry and hatred that have been hidden for so long is coming out into the open for all to see.

    •• actually, i think the best thing is it exposed how venal the system is.

    •• the bigotry is obviously not hidden judging from your experiences.

    I had stopped telling my white friends a long time ago that bigotry and prejudiced are live and well in our Northern liberal city.

    •• make even more "white" friends. the growth becomes fractal. ask your grandkids. and go forth and hybridize! humans are nuts.

    Do not get me wrong.

    •• i don't think i do. i just feel like typing.

    I appreciate how far we have come just in my life time let alone since the time of the Middle Passage.

    •• but who are "we"? where does one race begin and another end? this is all so silly. SPOCK/UHURA '012 -- Let Logic Reign!

    Yet in my world it is easy to see how far we have to go before my son and his children that are yet to be born will see the Promise Land that Martin Luther King spoke of on the Mall all those years ago.

    •• o.k. ask your great-grandkids.

    Posted by bascaville at 07/21/2009 @ 10:13pm

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 12:59am

19. They have unfortunately had a few bad experiences in their life; but that is the exception, not the rule

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/21/2009 @ 10:42pm

    yay!

    sometimes you don't even have to wait to talk to your great-great-great grandkids.

    sometimes you do.

    SPOCK/UHURA! '012 -- The Future is Closer!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 01:01am

20. Probably you're so Mc Donald!

    Posted by Frank42 at 07/21/2009 @ 11:29pm

    The Culture of Mush.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 01:03am

21. I, for one, am so sick of hearing about racism in America. Talking about it and formulating policy to level the playing field have done nothing to erase the stigma attached to being black in America.

    Blacks have come a long, long way since the sixties. As a race, they have made huge strides in education, politics and the arts with the help of affirmative action, raised awareness, (thanks to people like Rosa Parks), and race based endowments.

    Fifty years ago, blacks had to sit at the back of the bus, drink from a seperate water fountain and used seperate rest rooms. They even had to suffer the indignity of fighting in segregated units in WWII, and they distinguished themselves proudly despite the bigotry. All of this was an abomination and a stain on this great nation.

    Blacks have risen in the ranks of the military, captured dozens of House seats and executive positions in major cities and now we have the first president with black blood in him. Blacks feel as though the country owes them something and whites resent paying for the sins of the slave owners.

    So, having said all of that, when does the problem of race in America end? Will it be when blacks finally out populate whites? I think not. It seems to me that every individual should look into their own hearts and ask themselves what the problem really is because it's a problem that may eventually destroy our great country if a solution is not found.

    We all bleed the same color blood after all.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/22/2009 @ 01:27am

22. when does the problem of race in America end?

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/22/2009 @ 01:27am

    when goldman sachs declares america over.

    then they'll buy china.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 02:11am

23. Some white people don't like what they see in the mirror. The mirror can be oh so cruel. But some people don't get a reflection when they look in the mirror. It's what I call the vampire effect. You either don't see what you really are, or you have delusions of grandeur and see a magnificent being. They say the devil is extremely vain. It thinks it is the most beautiful creature in the universe, even above God. I feel that anyone who shares that sentiment is possessed by demons. Nazi storm troopers were possessed. They were heartless and would crush humans under their feet. No one of Jewish blood could move without their approval. This is how I feel these steroid, Nazi cops in our new police state are. They have been given the go ahead to "storm troop". Of course black people are like the Jews were in Nazi Germany. Anybody knows that. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have accomplished -- you are a suspect first. Many people are comfortable with the notion that all black people are criminals. They actually think it's in our genetics. People that think like that share the vampire effect or the devils delusion of grandeur. These are the types that feel they're supposed to police every brown person on the planet. They will go to foreign lands and subjugate people in their own lands. Thus is the mentality that shoots innocent people claiming they had a weapon when they didn't. They will shoot 50 thousand volts into pregnant women who posed no threat. They demand you lick their boots just like Nazi storm troopers. And our government has unleashed them on, not only blacks, but Americans. It's to protect the Corporate/Fascist structure from the masses while they fleece us and slowly poison us to death. You're not immune either. It's evil.

    Posted by Opinionated at 07/22/2009 @ 03:05am

24. You ever had that feeling driving in white areas that you really don't want the car to stop since...hmmm.....you might get car-jacked? Or when walking, that you might get mugged by whites for what's in your wallets?

    Is profiling NOT a legitimate means to screen for trouble? Should statistical facts be banned anytime race and/or gender are factors?

    Quiz: You are a black/Asian/Hispanic store owner, who will you pay more wary attention to when faced with both black and white customers, if they look/dress relatively the same, other than race?

    Happy- I have lived and traveled through many places in the world, including a 4 year stint in one of the poorer and more crime ridden South American countries, and I have NEVER felt as scared as I do driving through/walking around 100% White Gloucester City N.J.

    The rest of you guys missed something, though. To talk about Du Bois' time as "the hardest moment in our history for black citizens." seems to ignore a little detail called slavery. Or am I wrong?

    Posted by Fako at 07/22/2009 @ 03:27am

25. Does he really "frequently compare himself to W.E.B. DuBois"? Really? My God, that tells you all you need to know.

    Posted by stannardo at 07/22/2009 @ 03:59am

26. "Things are not perfect, but they're getting better."

    A truism of history on topics as various as poverty, war, disease, even racism.

    And yes, I fully expect to be slammed against the virtual wall of the blogosphere for saying that, because EVERYBODY thinks (Left & Right) from their subjective historical perspective that "things are worse than they've ever been" or "just as bad".

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 07:43am

27. Melissa Harris-Lacewell "reports", "Then he was arrested in his own home."

    I don't think this is litterally true. One account I read said that Gates followed the police officers outside and continued to berate them. Because of this he was arrested outside his home for disorderly conduct.

    So, he and the police were in the home. The police ascertained that he had not broken into the home and exited the house. Then Gates followed them outside to continue yelling at them and accusing them of being racists. Then Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct.

    It seems to me that Gates picked a fight for no reason at all. Two men (Gates and his driver) pushed their way through his front door. It doesn't matter what color they are, that looks suspicious. The police show up to do their job and Gates picks a fight and is arrested for disorderly conduct.

    Stuff like this happens in white trailer parks all the time. This has nothing to do with race.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 08:13am

28. "... he celebrates and studies blackness, but does not attach a specific political agenda to race. For those who yearn for a post-racial America where all groups are equal recognized for their achievements, but where all people are free to be distinct individuals, there are few better models than Professor Gates. "

    Black Studies seems to contradict the "people are equal recognised for their acheivements .." clause of common sense..

    I can't think of a single reason to hire someone because of their race at all... other than their acheivements or qualifacations for the posisiton open...and I could never hire someone for a posistion if his or her main qualifacation was Black Studies, Gay Studies, Hispanic Studies, White Studies, Feminine Studies, Womens Studies...for none of these prepares the "Graduate" for anything in the real world other than Acedemia...or...a political job....which begats more of the same problem...victimhood and focusing on race rather than acheivement potential.

    AS far as being arrested...I promise you, in my neighborhood, if you follow the police out the door of your own house and berate the cop, you would be arrested for disorderly conduct and so would I.....there is a place to settle things like this and an inch from the cops face screaming ain't it.

    Posted by YourJomamma at 07/22/2009 @ 08:50am

29. What has been missing from this article and others I've read are the larger issues: 1) Why do police departments continue to hire poorly educated young white men from segregated backgrounds for their police forces? 2) The nation's law enforecment agencies need to have testing to determine an individual's capacity for racism. 3) Why are white people so quick to assume criminality when it comes to black men?

    The white female who made the 911 call made some assumptions that were stereotypical. If she saw an elderly white man with a cane, would she have called the police? The answer is no. I find it amazinbg that she has the same employer, but had no idea who Gates was. He is one of the most recognizeable African-Americans in America.

    Police lie every day in police reports. Black men go to jail daily thanks to these lies. Why did he walk into Gates' house? He did not have a warrant. Gates gave him his ID. The episode should have ended right there. There is no defending this knucklehead. He needs to be fired. End of story.

    Posted by jpose at 07/22/2009 @ 08:56am

30. What this episode shows is white supremacist assumptions at work. It's midday. Two black men are breaking through the front door of a house. What could they be but burglars?

    We can brush off this event as highly unlikely. "Well, that's certainly not going to happen to ME. If MY front door is stuck, I won't take matters into my own hands, I'll call the landlord and have professionals come to fix it. This was all just a comedy of errors."

    Nope. What this episode shows is white supremacist assumptions at work. Usually, these assumptions do not result in false arrests, or even faulty racial profiling. Indeed, most of the people who act under these assumptions are not police officers.

    They are people of all colors who assume that all Blacks whom they do not know are lazy, underqualified people with criminal tendencies, until they demonstrate otherwise. Their thoughtless, prejudicial actions daily deprive Blacks of equal opportunity, whether it is in education, in the corporate world, or in government.

    Black people know this, which is why they regard Henry L. Gates's recent experience as symbolic of thousands of similar experiences of their own, most of them not involving officers of the law. But they all hurt, and they all add up. They also contribute mightily to black underachievement, though it must be reminded that the vast majority of Blacks are not, in fact, criminals.

    'Stuff like this happens in white trailer parks all the time.'

    There are two problems with this statement, "Darin": (1) As usual, you have no evidence for your claim. (2) This incident did not happen in a trailer park.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 09:01am

31. Any reasonable person of any color should realize that we are not living in a "post-racial" America. Cambridge is not too large for the police department to know it's well-known homeowners and citizens.

    Hopefully some good will come out of this in the exposure of the social prejudices that we have not yet solved.

    Posted by Dave_C at 07/22/2009 @ 09:02am

32. 1) Why do police departments continue to hire poorly educated young white men from segregated backgrounds for their police forces? 2) The nation's law enforecment agencies need to have testing to determine an individual's capacity for racism. 3) Why are white people so quick to assume criminality when it comes to black men?

    The white female who made the 911 call made some assumptions that were stereotypical. If she saw an elderly white man with a cane, would she have called the police? The answer is no. I find it amazinbg that she has the same employer, but had no idea who Gates was. He is one of the most recognizeable African-Americans in America.

    Police lie every day in police reports. Black men go to jail daily thanks to these lies. Why did he walk into Gates' house? He did not have a warrant. Gates gave him his ID. The episode should have ended right there. There is no defending this knucklehead. He needs to be fired. End of story.

    Posted by jpose at 07/22/2009 @ 08:56am

    You are an incredible bigot. What make you assume the cop is "poorly educated"? What makes you assume that the cops lied? What makes you think they assumed criminality because of race?

    They went to the house because of a report that two men were pushing in the front door. They saw the color of the men and left knowing no burglery occurred. It was the disorderly conduct, (or yelling depending on whether you belive the polices' version or Gates' version) that occurred after the cops went outside that lead to the arrest. There was no "assumption" of criminality only the witnessing of it.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 09:03am

33. 'Stuff like this happens in white trailer parks all the time.'

    There are two problems with this statement, "Darin": (1) As usual, you have no evidence for your claim. (2) This incident did not happen in a trailer park.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 09:01am

    Last weekend, I watched a movie titled, "Trailer Park Boys" so you are correct regarding #1. I have no evidence. Just the sterotypes I harbor from watching COPS and movies like "Trailer Park Boys".

    I guess I mentioned trailer parks because of the sterotype I hold that they are littered with the types of people who seem incapable of controlling themselves in the face of frustration or minor inconvenience. Invariably, you see these types of people lashing out at the police when the police are just doing their thankless jobs.

    I guess I assumed that since the sterotype applied to "white trash"-type people that it would be okay becase reverse discrimination seems acceptable here.

    Whether it is a sterotype or not, this is what Gates did. Because he was frustrated, he lashed out at the police for behaving in a completely reasonable manner and got arrested for it.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 09:14am

34. Hopefully some good will come out of this

    like a settlement in the inevitable law suit.

    Posted by emile duBois at 07/22/2009 @ 09:17am

35. This is how I feel these steroid, Nazi cops in our new police state are. They have been given the go ahead to "storm troop". Of course black people are like the Jews were in Nazi Germany. Anybody knows that. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have accomplished -- you are a suspect first. Many people are comfortable with the notion that all black people are criminals. They actually think it's in our genetics. People that think like that share the vampire effect or the devils delusion of grandeur. These are the types that feel they're supposed to police every brown person on the planet. They will go to foreign lands and subjugate people in their own lands. Thus is the mentality that shoots innocent people claiming they had a weapon when they didn't. They will shoot 50 thousand volts into pregnant women who posed no threat. They demand you lick their boots just like Nazi storm troopers. And our government has unleashed them on, not only blacks, but Americans. It's to protect the Corporate/Fascist structure from the masses while they fleece us and slowly poison us to death. You're not immune either. It's evil.

    Posted by Opinionated at 07/22/2009 @ 03:05am

    You are emblematic of the worst kind of citizen in our country. You live in a permanent victim mentality and to call police men and women "Nazi storm trooper" relegates you to the fringe of the fringe in our society.

    Go back into your dark hole

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 09:34am

36. Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 09:34am

    Opinionated's post was so far over the top I assumed it had to be the charicature of Black paranoia by an immature Conservative-type. Maybe I was wrong.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 09:38am

37. I just always find it fascinating these white guys like Darin, Maasch, Happy who are the "real experts on racism in America today!"

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 09:40am

38. posted by MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL on 07/21/2009 @ 8:03pm

    I sincerely hope that most of your readership at TN is not reflected by the boobs who comment under your web log entries. While someone may not agree with this- or that- conclusion you come to in your writing, I sincerely hope you are paid enough to put up these entries because frankly if you are not being paid enough you're wasting your time writing seriously in front of an audience that mainly warrants tabloid writing.

    Posted by syfriendly at 07/22/2009 @ 09:41am

39. posted by MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL on 07/21/2009 @ 8:03pm

    And on the topic of your writing, this country will a) never be 'post-racial' simply because b) socioeconomic inequality in all its forms manifests mainly along racial lines, in terms of broad trends. When you have a sub-culture of despair and poverty, wherein a quarter of the men end up in prison at some point their lives because they never had much opportunity or good role models, and this sub-culture also is strongly racially defined, you have an overall culture that will always be 'racial' as opposed to 'post-racial'.

    Posted by syfriendly at 07/22/2009 @ 09:47am

40. Where did I say or imply I was an expert on racism? I'm not even an expert on police. I've just seen people scream at police on COPS, and get arrested. I've know people (very rich and successful people, and others not so much) who can't control their tempers.

    The only thing I'm close to an expert on is Actuarial Science. I know a few black actuaries. I can say with confidence, that if you are black, have an IQ of 125, are hardworking, and enjoy math, there are no impediments to becoming an actuary.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 09:49am

41. I find it unlikely that this incident was Dr. Gates's first experience of racism. Harris-Lacewell's theory that he lost his temper out of a sense of shock and betrayal does not convince me. I believe that Dr. Gates, like any other black man in America, is very familiar with the thousand minor insults that racism throws at Blacks every day. His anger probably exploded because this police action was the straw that broke the camel's back of his customary reticence.

    I also believe that Gates's approach to black history, as I understand it (and I am not very familiar with Gates's work) is not so much at odds with the "protest" school of W. E. B. DuBois, but a necessary complement to it. If white supremacist assumptions about Blacks are to be undermined, the BEST way to do this is to catalogue black achievement, often in the face of overwhelming odds. Progressive historiography must do more than record injustice, in the spirit of the "protest" school. It must also celebrate personal triumphs in the face of injustice. After all, we need to believe that victory over injustice is ultimately possible.

    There is of course a danger in the assumption that every person of color can simply join the "talented tenth" and succeed as an individual despite the injustice of a still racist society. I believe a few reactionary Blacks, notably Ward Connerly and Clarence Thomas, have let themselves be misled by this self-flattering assumption, which in effect blames the persistence of racism upon the inability of ordinary Blacks to overcome it, while exempting Whites from responsibility. However, I would hesitate to lump Dr. Gates together with these black elitists, just as I would hesitate to assume that he has been somehow "sheltered" from racism all of his life.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 09:50am

42. Finally, I want to indicate to commenters here that a lot of the commentary on the topic of race written under this web log entry - in particular the commentary from the self-proclaimed "conservatives" - is particularly nauseating less in its ignorance or lack of depth, though the ignorance is painful, but more nauseating in terms of how a serious topic like race in America is just another excuse to blow hot air and wandering rants.

    Posted by syfriendly at 07/22/2009 @ 09:51am

43. Sorry, I won't be joining you at the barricades for this one. It seems like the police mostly did what they were supposed to do when answering this kind of call, and Professor Gates' has confused his bruised ego with a civil rights violation. I do agree that Gates is a significant scholar but this blog entry overstates this as well.

    This blog entry raises a question: why is it that The Nation is increasingly crowded with Ivy League "establishment progressives"? How about some humble activists and journalists writing for a change who don't all go to the same class reunions?

    Posted by Killoranz at 07/22/2009 @ 09:53am

44. I am only familiar with the work of Melissa Harris-Lacewell from her television appearances, but my daughter knows I am a great admirer of her apparent intelligence and wit, and of the depth and breadth of knowledge she brings to her commentaries. For that reason, I suppose, my daughter directed me to this article, and interesting "read" of the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates. The ensuing "conversation" among readers of this article makes me tremble for the future of my country. If nothing else, both Gates and Harris-Lacewell are models of civility. Why cannot a group of intelligent Americans express their views in a dialogue seeking truth rather than in rants expressing deep rancor?

    Posted by giaco at 07/22/2009 @ 09:58am

45. I also believe that Gates's approach to black history, as I understand it (and I am not very familiar with Gates's work) is not so much at odds with the "protest" school of W. E. B. DuBois, but a necessary complement to it. If white supremacist assumptions about Blacks are to be undermined, the BEST way to do this is to catalogue black achievement, often in the face of overwhelming odds. Progressive historiography must do more than record injustice, in the spirit of the "protest" school. It must also celebrate personal triumphs in the face of injustice. After all, we need to believe that victory over injustice is ultimately possible.

    There is of course a danger in the assumption that every person of color can simply join the "talented tenth" and succeed as an individual despite the injustice of a still racist society. I believe a few reactionary Blacks, notably Ward Connerly and Clarence Thomas, have let themselves be misled by this self-flattering assumption, which in effect blames the persistence of racism upon the inability of ordinary Blacks to overcome it, while exempting Whites from responsibility. However, I would hesitate to lump Dr. Gates together with these black elitists, just as I would hesitate to assume that he has been somehow "sheltered" from racism all of his life.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 09:50am

    Jakob, you present the stereotypical leftist condescension of African Americans.

    For you the only worthy AM's are those who pursue progressive academia, journalism, politics, or activism.

    Entrepeneurs, business executives, justices, journalists, and politicians of color who to be denigrated. Yours is just another type of racism clothed in the dogma of "liberalism".

    And you have many on the left who are like you.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 10:19am

46. (this is a parody)

    PRICELESS AFRICAN ARTIFACTS STOLEN

    A break-in at the Cambridge home of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has resulted in the theft of famous bronze figurines. Police were called last night when a neighbor reported two men forcing the door of professor Gates' house. When they arrived, a man came to the door claiming to be the owner. Asked why he forced the door open he said the door was stuck and asked the officers to leave the property. The officers said when they asked for his name, for their report, he sarcastically replied "Samuel L. Jackson! Didn't you see the movie Amos 'N Andrew? [ a movie in which a man is mistaken for a burglar in his own house]" He threatened to, "nail your white asses with a lawsuit that will cost your jobs and pensions" if they did not leave the property.

    Professor Gates reported the theft on his return from a trip to China. "How stupid can these racist cops be?" he said in an interview with the university newspaper the Harvard Crimson, "Did they say, 'all you people look alike to me'?"

    The Cambridge police department said the officers, whose names were not released, had never met professor Gates and so, "have no idea what he looks like."

    The figurines, often referred to as the "Benin Bronzes," were brought from the West African nation (then called Dahomey) to, as he said at the time, "preserve Africa's cultural heritage from destruction at the hands of the colonizers." He has said in the past that he intends to return them to "the appropriate authorities" but had not done so at the time of the theft.

    Professor Gates reported that, in addition to the figurines, a laptop computer, his wife's jewelry, and his grandmother's collection of silver spoons were also missing.

    (this is a pqrody)

    Posted by Mistral at 07/22/2009 @ 10:34am

47. Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 10:19am |

    I don't think your 'analysis' of Jako's post could be further from the truth...though you've done an excellent job of putting words in his mouth to prop up your strawman argument.

    At least 'the left' doesn't vote in lock-step with openly racist ideologues, as you do, every single election.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 10:55am

48. A truism of history on topics as various as poverty, war, disease, even racism.

    And yes, I fully expect to be slammed against the virtual wall of the blogosphere for saying that, because EVERYBODY thinks (Left & Right) from their subjective historical perspective that "things are worse than they've ever been" or "just as bad".

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 07:43am

    of course things are getting better.

    we'll "slam" you for other reasons.

    RAPTOR/LIGHTING (II) '012 -- Front Line for America!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 11:17am

49. I am emblematic of the worst kind of citizen in our country.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 09:34am

    you got that right, prophet.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 11:20am

50. CAN YOU FEEL THE RIGHTWING RELATVISM?

    THE NAKED GRAB AT OPPORTUNISM?

    THE SICKLY CYNICISM OF THE AVOWED RIGHTWING "SAY ANYTHING (REGARDLESS OF WHAT I JUST SAID)" SHITBUM?

    ONE DAY (JULY 20), ANTI-SOCIAL DENOUNCES THE LEFT'S PROJECT TO "KILL EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THEIR TOTALIARIAN GOALS".

    THEN, TWO DAYS LATER, ANTI-SOCIAL RAILS ALL WILD-EYED AGAINST THE "VICTIM MENTALITY" AND SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY INSTRUCTS THE POSTER TO DOMICILE IN A "DARK HOLE".

    YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS SHIT MOST FOUL IN ORDER TO BELIEVE IT.

    THIS...

    "I've said it repeatedly, the left as epitimized by people like Nichols and the leftist bloggers who applaud this junk are engaged in good old fashioned Stalinist style marxism.

    They not only want the power to run the country, they want to imprison and/or kill everyone who disagees with their totalitarian goals."

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/20/2009 @ 11:09am

    ...IS FOLLOWED WITH THIS...

    "You are emblematic of the worst kind of citizen in our country. You live in a permanent victim mentality and to call police men and women "Nazi storm trooper" relegates you to the fringe of the fringe in our society.

    Go back into your dark hole"

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 09:34am

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 07/22/2009 @ 11:24am

51. this country will a) never be 'post-racial'

    Posted by syfriendly at 07/22/2009 @ 09:47am

    sure it will.

    around the 900,000,000 mark there will be so many "races" (i.e. hybrids) that nobody will be able to pull this stupid shit anymore.

    go forth and hybidize; it's fun.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/22/2009 @ 11:25am

52. Always keep this quote in mind, when Larry goes off on one of his "all you liberals are...." rants-

    "however leftist bigots tend to stereotype Republicans by those kind of images so as to reinforce their own bigotry"----Posted by antisocialist at 05/11/2009 @ 09:41am

    but remember...

    "it's okay when HE does it!"....heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 11:40am

53. I have read various opinions on the recent Gates incident expressed on this as well as on other sites and in my opinion they all, regardless of their position, ignore a fundamental reality about all human beings and that reality has to do with the way the human evolutionary brain works. The reality I have in mind is our ability to quickly generalize from limited bits of information. ("Profile" - if you will!) Survival is the purpose of such a skill. Here's an example: I hike in the woods with my dog most days and the area is home to at least one poisonous snake. There are lots of exposed roots and rocks on the trail and the light coming through the overhead canopy is constantly changing. It is just amazing how often I "see" what appears to be a snake. This is especially true in the autumn when fallen leaves often match the Copperhead's colors. The fact is that, in seven years, I have never seen a real snake on this trail but, almost daily, I see what could be a snake. I can't help making this generalization and it would be foolish to disregard it. We all do it all the time when faced with "new" or "different" or potentially "dangerous" stuff. "Generalization" is a normal and unavoidable human survival mechanism. Yes, white people are guilty of racial profiling - but so are blacks. We need to work, not on the "profiling" per se, but on 1) the conditions that feed it and 2) finding ways to remain calm and rational until we get the full measurement of the situation we find ourselves in. Any of our strengths or skills as human beings can be misused but we would be ill-advised to rid ourselves of them. We need to try and understand why we might do certain things (e.g. "profiling") and find ways to both accept and go beyond it.

    Posted by thinkingdave at 07/22/2009 @ 11:56am

54. If nothing else, both Gates and Harris-Lacewell are models of civility.

    Posted by giaco at 07/22/2009 @ 09:58am

    He was arrested for disorderly conduct. That is pretty much as far away from "civility" as you can get. How do conclude that someone arrested for disorderly conduct is a model of civilitiy?

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:06pm

55. At least 'the left' doesn't vote in lock-step with openly racist ideologues, as you do, every single election.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 10:55am

    Really? Care to name what "openly racist ideologues" you think that I and my wife of color, and our conservative family of color have voted for?

    I'd love to read your response.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 12:13pm

56. "however leftist bigots tend to stereotype Republicans by those kind of images so as to reinforce their own bigotry"----Posted by antisocialist at 05/11/2009 @ 09:41am

    but remember...

    "it's okay when HE does it!"....heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 11:40am

    It continues to amaze me that you believe this tautology is somehow revealing.

    Read the third word through the sixth word:

    bigots tend to stereotype

    No shit Sherlock. Isn't that the definition of a "bigot"?

    So Leftist bigots stereotype Republicans; Right wing bigots stereotype Democrats; Racist bigots stereotype minorities; Christian bigots stereotype atheists; heterosexual bigots stereotype gays; Elitist bigots stereotype rednecks; Northern bigots stereotype Southerners; American bigots stereotype foreigners.

    No shit! That's the definition of a bigot! How is this statement revealing?

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:14pm

57. Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 12:13pm |

    That you have, specifically, voted for?

    Likely none, unless you're willing to confess that Reagan fits the bill, which I highly doubt (nor would you confess that his embrace of the likes of Trent Lott is no less worrisome than Obama's association with Bill Ayers).

    But I'm betting that you've voted Repuglican more often than not, though that's more from lack of viable libertarian alternatives.

    And that is the party of Strom, Trent, and their ilk.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:16pm

58. Really? Care to name what "openly racist ideologues" you think that I and my wife of color, and our conservative family of color have voted for?

    I'd love to read your response.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 12:13pm

    Would you vote for Sotomayer? She's openly racist with her "wise latina" comment and some accuse her of being an ideologue.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:17pm

59. Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:16pm |

    I'll bet you voted for Nixon as well...

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:17pm

60. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. That is pretty much as far away from "civility" as you can get. How do conclude that someone arrested for disorderly conduct is a model of civilitiy? Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:06pm |

    It has not been unheard of for cops to take offense at someone who doesn't "obay my author-i-tay" and trump up minor charges to "teach em a lesson".

    In other words, innocent until proven, Darin.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:19pm

61. It's amazing how people looking at the same picture can see such different things.

    To many of the posters here, they see a representative of the black race being oppressed by a representative of the white race.

    I see a guy named Gates who lost his temper and took it out on a cop and I see a cop who appropriately arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.

    Remind me again which one of us is the racist?

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:21pm

62. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:21pm |

    Hopefully, neither, since I'll admit either scenario is possible (I've seen both, personally).

    Can you? Will you?

    If not, and you can only see one possibility, then it's you.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:29pm

63. In other words, innocent until proven, Darin.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:19pm

    Snowball, there are two accuseds here: Gates is accused of disorderly conduct, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell has accused the Cambridge Police Department of turning back the clock on national race relations half a century.

    Occam's razor and all. Two guys were trying to force open a door to what I assume is a very expensive home. Someone reported it to the police. The cops showed up, asked for ID and exited the home. Gates was arrested outside of the home for disorderly conduct.

    Do you know what a pain in the ass it is to arrest someone and book them and fill out all the paperwork? Why would you do this if Gates wasn't yelling?

    Oh, that's right: because all cops are racist.

    Remind me again who the bigot is?

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:29pm

64. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:29pm |

    No matter how many times you intimate that I'm a snake, I can't help but notice my feet.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:32pm

65. I'll bet you voted for Nixon as well...

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:17pm

    I regret my vote for Nixon. Not because of Watergate. I regret voting for him because he ran as a conservative and governed as a liberal.

    He listened to Kissinger in surrendering Vietnam to the Communists.

    I was against the trip to China.

    In pure leftist fashion, he brought us the EPA and OSHA.

    He implemented wage and price controls.

    Nixon was more of a Democrat than most Democrats

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 12:44pm

66. Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 12:44pm |

    But you DID vote for him and he WAS a racist.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 12:51pm

67. For our Pug 'friends'...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8vIE6GkLH8

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 1:09pm

68. I'm guessing that's the last time Professor Gates' neighbors in Cambridge police what's going on at his house for him.

    Que sera.

    We should know better by now.

    Posted by quidditas at 07/22/2009 @ 1:24pm

69. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 12:14pm

    Uh, but Darin...the point is that Larry DOESN'T include HIMSELF in that, as you tried to do with your "Right wing bigots stereotype Democrats" throwaway line to try to defend him.

    If he did?....he wouldn't be a hypocrite, would he?

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 1:24pm

70. Can we please stop saying "post-racial"? Anybody with a clear vision of the present knows this is a ridiculous term. That progressives and leftists keep using the term reifies it.

    Posted by Ehibiwana at 07/22/2009 @ 1:31pm

71. Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 1:24pm

    What you have in this new far left liberalism in the US is a shadow of European socialism.

    It is a disease against liberty and our concept of limited govt.

    There is no stereotyping involved on liberalism. It is simply a danger to freedom loving people and thus are all of those also who embrace it.

    The founders well recognized the danger that this kind of "progressive" politics brings to our nation.

    "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."

    Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 15:332

    "The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion."

    Thomas Jefferson to William Gordon, 1826. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 10:358

    "We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute."

    Thomas Paine

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 1:54pm

72. Posted by Mistral at 07/22/2009 @ 10:34am

    Mistral brought up the movie "Amos 'n Andrew", which I have seen. Nicholas Cage has a great line in the movie when Samuel L Jackson is complaining about racisim and Cage says something like, "Blah, blah, blah it's cuz I'm black. If it rains on your birthday it's cuz your black. If the supermarket is out of beer it's cuz your black."

    In Gates's mind he was only arrested because he's black, as if white people scream at the cops all the time and don't get arrested. I supposed if Gate's saw the Cops drive up, recognize Gates as the owner of the house and then drove off without demanding identification, I'm sure that would have been because he was black too because cops don't care if a black man gets robbed. Blah, blah, blah, it's cuz I'm black.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/22/2009 @ 2:28pm

73. Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 1:54pm

    Larry, you're not going to provide those "Abraham Lincoln/Thomas Jefferson" "quotes" whereby they supported libertarian/conservative/Reagan economics....that were really William J. H. Boetcker, are you???

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 2:45pm

74. Progressives, is Detroit ahead of the curve in shunning big corp. stores...and filled with Frosties, Darlas and Antis? Or, is it because they are (heavily) blacks?

    ======================= A city without chain grocery stores

    National retailers are steering clear of Detroit, leaving independent grocers to serve the city's hard-hit residents.

    By Sheena Harrison, CNNMoney.com contributing writer

    Last Updated: July 22, 2009: 10:22 AM ET

    DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit is one of America's largest cities, but there isn't a single grocery chain store within the city limits. Spurned by national retailers, Detroit's nearly 1 million residents instead rely on independent stores run by local entrepreneurs for their most basic needs.

    But for those entrepreneurs, staying in business can be a struggle.

    Running a grocery store "requires a lot of working capital up front, and small problems early on can escalate," says..."It's like any small business, but it has added complications because you're selling a highly perishable product that has very little collateral."

    Such was the case for Zaccaro's Market...that opened in April 2008 with much fanfare from local media before closing down just 10 months later....

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 2:47pm

75. Hey, HAPP....as of Monday, it's been six months-

    "Here's a BIG prediction....Magic and his team will find, in 6 months or less, that he will have to have a real tax cut aimed at the top 20%, dramatically cut corporate taxes, extend Bush's tax cuts or waive capital gains on 2009 (& perhaps 2010) investments. "----Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/22/2009 @ 8:49pm

    After Inauguration, Obama Celebrates with His Network posted by Ari Melber on 01/22/2009 @ 5:25pm

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 3:00pm

76. Larry, you're not going to provide those "Abraham Lincoln/Thomas Jefferson" "quotes" whereby they supported libertarian/conservative/Reagan economics....that were really William J. H. Boetcker, are you???

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 2:45pm

    I haven't used the Boetcker quotes.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 3:10pm

77. Larry, you're not going to provide those "Abraham Lincoln/Thomas Jefferson" "quotes" whereby they supported libertarian/conservative/Reagan economics....that were really William J. H. Boetcker, are you???

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 2:45pm

    BTW Mask,

    the only two Lincoln quotes I've posted were 1) his speech in the House (1848) and 2) his reply to New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association" (March 21, 1864), pp. 259-260.

    Posted by antisocialist at 07/22/2009 @ 3:25pm

78. 'Jakob, you present the stereotypical leftist condescension of African Americans.'

    "Antisocialist," I'm not sure what you "present," but what you regularly DEMONSTRATE is that you CANNOT READ.

    And you have many on the right who are like you.

    Come on. Nothing that I said was REMOTELY condescending in ANY direction. Do I condescend when I call reactionary Blacks "elitist"? Wow, THAT's a new one. Since when is it "condescending" to call somebody an elitist?

    I'm sure we'd have seen a lot of liberals complaining about all the "condescension" that they get from conservatives who accuse them of "elitism" -- except that they don't, probably because liberals know what the word "condescend" MEANS.

    We cannot "condescend" to "elitists" any more than we can "look up to" "lowlifes." It just doesn't work. You're confusing the simple directions UP and DOWN here.

    Not to mention that liberals also know what "elitist" means, that is, one who defends privilege, ergo, NOT a liberal.

    But trying to explain things like this to incorrigibly illiterate conservatives is a waste of breath. They respond like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures through the Looking Glass":

    '"When *I* use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

    "The question is," said Alice, "whether you CAN make words means so many different things."

    "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."'

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 3:49pm

79. I believe the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates demonstrates primarily the effect of what we might call sins of omission, rather than sins of commission.

    Calling the police when you see what looks like suspicious activity is not wrong. However, it is wrong not to recognize your own neighbors; it is a sin of omission. How many white folks know their black neighbors? How many might mistake them for criminals if they had to force open the door to their own house?

    Similarly, responding to a call as a police officer is not wrong. However, it is wrong not to recognize as an upstanding citizen someone in the community you serve. This happens because too many police don't have regular beats and don't know many of the citizens they serve. Once again, we have a sin of omission.

    Much of the structure of racism, I believe, is built upon sins of omission. In comparison to many other cases of police abuse, very little harm was done to Dr. Gates. Therefore, what his arrest reveals is not so much the HARM that we do to each other as the GOOD that we continue to FAIL to do for each other - because racism keeps us apart.

    Simply getting to know our neighbors, particularly those whose skin color differs from our own, would be a good start.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 07/22/2009 @ 4:07pm

80. Hey, HAPP....as of Monday, it's been six months-

    "Here's a BIG prediction....Magic and his team will find, in 6 months or less, that he will have to have a real tax cut aimed at the top 20%, dramatically cut corporate taxes, extend Bush's tax cuts or waive capital gains on 2009 (& perhaps 2010) investments. "----Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 01/22/2009 @ 8:49pm

    After Inauguration, Obama Celebrates with His Network posted by Ari Melber on 01/22/2009 @ 5:25pm

    Posted by Mask at 07/22/2009 @ 3:00pm

    Know something, I'm quite HAPPY that prediction did NOT come true. I want his failures to deepen since he has that Magical audacity to say, just 2 weeks ago, he wouldn't changed anything.

    The Repubs should package that up in ads across the country each and every time the Unemplyment number is announced, deficit numbers go up, and raising taxes are on His Majesty's lips....LOL!

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 4:30pm

81. Posted by antisocialist at 07/21/2009 @ 10:42pm |

    "I have 3 black sons, the youngest is 30. They live in very mixed areas, including one in Orange County CA, and one in San Diego. Both areas known as more conservative, and predominantly white. Yet none of my sons has ever been pulled over. None has had a cop harass them. They have unfortunately had a few bad experiences in their life; but that is the exception, not the rule."

    The woman who lives next door to me has a dog. It is very small. So small it would fit in a breadbox. I conclude that all, or at any rate, most dogs would fit in a breadbox.

    Posted by oisin at 07/22/2009 @ 4:47pm

82. It's good to know that driving while Black is now in second place to entering your own home when Black!

    There seems to be a pattern of Black men returning to their homes after work, a night out, or after going to the supermarket or shopping mall. They come home to their homes expecting to enter normally as the white folks do but thanks to their scared to death good White neighbors who call the police they are handcuffed, arrested and prevented from entering. Whatever made Black men think they had a right to enter their own homes without being harassed by the police?

    The good news is that they are eventually released so the same police can stop them when they are in the cars for driving while Black. Thankfully, the cops are able to prevent Black men from entering their own homes now too. What a color blind society we live in! Makes you feel glad these same folks are our front line in the war against terrorism, doesn't it?

    Posted by mjkoch at 07/22/2009 @ 4:59pm

83. The Repubs should package that up in ads across the country each and every time the Unemplyment number is announced, deficit numbers go up, and raising taxes are on His Majesty's lips....LOL!

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 4:30pm

    You really must have expected some 'magic' the mess Obama was handed was greater than any other president has been handed in at least 70 years.

    Biggest global recession since the 30's, two active losing wars abroad, N. Korea firing rockets, and threatening everyone, Iran political instability, etc. Combine this with the greatest corporate power dominance our country has seen and you actually thought Obama would be able to effect any real change in less than 6 months. Wow! that is incredibley obtuse. I cannot imagine how much worse we would currently be if McCain had been elected or if we were still under that dumb monkey 'W'.

    What would our unemployement rate be without the stimulus package? 20% or more? Should we really have done nothing?

    Posted by Extraneous at 07/22/2009 @ 5:10pm

84. Posted by mjkoch at 07/22/2009 @ 4:59pm

    I think the solution is for cops to ignore blacks breaking into black homes.....the Nazi cops think they all look the same so it's best to assume all suspicious characters are the owners....that'll fix things YOUR way!

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 5:12pm

85. Posted by Extraneous at 07/22/2009 @ 5:10pm

    You have no idea what it's like to deal with buying a home with 12 .875% interest nor inflation & Unemployment running in double-digits....nor the `joy' of watching Ted Koppel every night showing us what Iran wanted to strut.

    In case you didn't know, Nightline was born during that crisis and Koppel's star was born.

    Magic has it pretty easy....and I knew his solutions won't work. Proof is now in the pudding!

    Had I mentioned that this is the best Recession ever since I am the least anxious about this one....it panning out almost exactly as I foresaw. I can even afford to lose my part-time job for the charter school outfit...LOL!

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 5:42pm

86. Wow! Poor Professor Gates gets arrested while trying to enter his own house and the police humiliate him. It is terrible, accidents happen, we could forgive the police and move on. This is not the end of the world. I had a similar experience with the police. They woke us up about 2am and I ran down to open the front door in my night wear. Policeman was surprised to see a brown skin coming out of a decent looking house and wanted to know whether I live there. That hurt my feelings and when I described this outrage to my white friends, they said it nothing to be angry about. So these occasional insults happen and we should not make a big deal about it. Using words like post-racial is juvenile. Big words are not needed.

    Main complaint should be about our society as a whole has not civilized that much, our sensibilities are coarse. Mothers raise their children with love I assume but 90% of them support any given war at the start, they become war-weary only when we lose. That shows that as humans our ideal and real selves are diametric. So my advice to Prof. Lacewell, it is not worth your while to talk about this minor incident and make a big deal. Let us save our outrage when we kill some one be it black, brown, white, Serbian,Arab, Somali. We are a killer nation no better than any other despite electing a President who pretends to be a peace maker and it is only a pretense.

    Posted by rnagisetty at 07/22/2009 @ 6:10pm

87. "You ever had that feeling driving in white areas that you really don't want the car to stop since...hmmm.....you might get car-jacked? Or when walking, that you might get mugged by whites for what's in your wallets? Is profiling NOT a legitimate means to screen for trouble? Should statistical facts be banned anytime race and/or gender are factors?"--Happy

    So nice of you to show the flaw in your argument. What did Gates do wrong? Nothing. Yet he was treated as if what he did was, in fact, wrong. How many times has this happened to other non-whites? If you cannot provide an answer, then no, profiling is not legitimate.

    I wonder what would happen if I was arrested and I said to the officer, "This is life for a white man in America."

    Posted by onthehelm at 07/22/2009 @ 7:28pm

88. I too, do not know the truth of what ocured.

    HOWEVER:

    STATISTICAL PROBABILITY ---- knowledge that black's commit a disproportinate amount of crime.

    AND LOGICAL INFERENCE ---- seeing a black man forceing a door in a predominantly white neighborhood.

    IS NOT RACEISM !

    DEMANDING ILLOGICAL THOUGHT , ON THE OTHER HAND IS RACEISM !

    White Oboma Voter

    Posted by Tekphobe at 07/22/2009 @ 7:48pm

89. Posted by Tekphobe at 07/22/2009 @ 7:48pm |

    Given statistical inference, one should assume that they weren't breaking in...since most black crime is perpetrated upon other blacks (where there's also, statistically speaking, a lower chance of having a cop car respond in the first place).

    You seem like someone who thinks an integrated circuit is a place where people of all colors can race in harmony, Tekphobe.

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 8:09pm

90. This article is so much drivel. Because the writer respects Mr. Gates professionally, she immediately discounts the context for the police officer's actions. They were not unreasonable and had nothing to do with race. A disturbance was reported, and it was his responsibility to check on it.

    What is happening here, and what is happening in many other pieces I have seen about this incident, is worse than a race issue--it is a class issue. The policeman was "ignorant," and "racist" and "overzealous." But the educated, learned man was a model of restraint and reason. That's what many people who are writing, even though they weren't even there at the time! If this isn't a classic example of class bias, then I'd like to know what is.

    It is elitist. And it is dehumanizing. Exactly what the writer of this opinion piece deplores. Yet she is the poster child for it.

    Posted by dfgrayb at 07/22/2009 @ 8:09pm

91. Proof is now in the pudding! Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 5:42pm |

    Actually, the proof, of the aforementioned puddin', is in the tasting...are you tasting `Magic's puddin', Zippy?

    Posted by snowball777 at 07/22/2009 @ 8:42pm

92. Not in BOSTON it didn't !!!!

    Karma can be a biotch.

    Posted by bleedingheart at 07/22/2009 @ 8:42pm

93. Paul Mirengoff's take:

    Gates told The Washington Post: "I studied the history of racism. I know every incident in the history of racism...I haven't even come close to being arrested. I would have said it was impossible."

    PM: Gates is actually admitting plenty..if he has lived as a black man in America for 58 years without ever being mistreated..to the point that he believed being arrested was an impossibility..that speaks rather well for the police forces of America.

    There seems to be no dispute that Gates..A neighbor then called the police...

    The Post reporter characterizes these events this way: "The sight of two black men forcing open a door prompted an emergency call to the police." But the reporter has no basis for claiming that race played any part in the call. Indeed, Gates himself says he is "glad that someone would care enough about my property to report what they thought was some untoward invasion." Whatever else one might say about Gates, he is more rational on the subject than...the Washington Post.

    What happened after the police officer arrived is in dispute...Gates' account as reported by the Post:

    The white officer...found Gates in the house (the driver was gone) and asked him to step outside. Gates refused, and the officer followed him in. Gates showed him his ID, which included his address, then demanded that the officer identify himself. The officer did not comply...[Gates] then followed the officer outside, saying repeatedly, "Is this how you treat a black man in America?"

    The police deny that the officer refused to identify himself. But notice that even in Gates' version, the officer merely confirms that Gates owns the house and then withdraws. Gates keeps the matter alive by following the officer and repeatedly accusing him of racism....

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 8:56pm

94. By the way, no MSM account had mentioned that Gates was returning from a trip to China (probably a bit jet lagged and in foul mood). What was he doing in China?

    Glad you want to know! He was researching the genealogy of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Personally, I had no idea Yo-Yo Ma (btw, an incredible Cello player...my son #2 played cello for ~3 years) would come under Harvard's African-American Studies Dept.!

    No wonder Harvard's costs are running out-of-control! Does anybody give a f*&k about YYM's genealogy? I know I would, if somebody is paying for me to go to China.

    Posted by Happy at 07/22/2009 @ 9:04pm

95. 1. Boston is by far the most racist city I've ever lived in, and that certainly includes the townie parts of Cambridge/Somerville.

    2. Seems to me the real problem hasn't been sufficiently emphasized and that is the expansion of police powers and erosion of due process that resulted from 8 years of the Bush administration's contempt for the rule of law. It's always been inadvisable to debate a cop on the beat who has you in his sights, but after 9/11 law enforcement adopted the credo: "by any means necessary"...

    I'm running down the railway track Could you help me? Police on my back They will catch me if I dare drop back Wont you help me find the speed I lack

    I been running Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Runnin Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

    What have I done? What have I done

    Posted by vlinties at 07/22/2009 @ 9:10pm

96. The truth is that black people say the same sort of things that Happy was saying all the time, and not just "self-hating Republican" types.

    People simply have to be able to acknowledge the fact that one of the social sicknesses in this country is a widespread hypermasculine misogynist nihilism among working class black men. If we don't the problem persists, "profiling" continues out of necessity, and both the problem and the attempts to treat it destroy black lives.

    It's also true that racism persists, and way too many cops do have that "respect my authoritay" attitude that snow referred to.

    For liberty-lovers, Gates shouldn't have been arrested. He had the right to act like an asshole within legal limits.

    This should not be used to widen the gap between liberals and the civil servant type Rinaldos and Kowalskis of the nation. Spank the cops for overstepping the situation, without demonizing them where it's not warranted, which only leads to retreat into the tribalist ethos.

    Oh, and we need more black cops.

    Posted by gangpapist at 07/22/2009 @ 10:35pm

97. The part where a passer-by or neighbor calls the cops is reasonable. The part where the cops show up and ask for identification is reasonable. The part where Dr. Gates is surprised at being asked for ID in his own home is reasonable.

    The part where it gets unreasonable, in my mind, is what happens next. Once he has shown his ID to the cops, this is where they say their apologies and go on their way. They didn't do anything wrong in showing up and asking, but even if you haven't done anything wrong, when you've embarrassed someone inadvertently, you apologize.

    "So sorry, Dr. Gates, regret the misunderstanding."

    Done.

    As a white woman, if I were seen crawling in my own window because I locked my keys in the house, and the cops showed up, I can't quite picture how it would end up with me being arrested. I would be upset and embarrassed, but I picture that the cops would get the point, apologize for the mistake, and politely leave. Even if I got a little flustered. Because that's how the police deal with people they consider "one of them."

    And that's not how they deal with people of color.

    Posted by EvelynU at 07/22/2009 @ 11:23pm

98. Posted by rnagisetty at 07/22/2009 @ 6:10pm

    The problem is your assumption that the "only" reason the cop asked you if you lived there is because you are brown.

    When I was in college a mental patient escaped from the state hospital in town, stole a car and ran over the street sign on the corner I lived on.

    Later, I was alone in the house in the shower when I heard a pounding on the door. I wrapped a towel around my waist and went to the door to see a police officer standing there. I looked at his badge and said, "Hey, you're Leo's brother." (Leo was one of my fraternity brothers.)

    "Yes, I am" he replied. Then the cop asked, "Do you live here?"

    I'm white. I was dripping wet, wrapped only in a towel, and the cop asked if I lived there. It's a pretty standard first question with no racial overtones what-so-ever.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 07:06am

99. Oh, someone stole the knocked down street sign which is why the cop wanted to know if I saw who took it.

    I did. I actually loaned the guy an allen wrench so he could steal it. I didn't rat him out, though. I told the cop I wouldn't give up the name, but I could retrieve the sign for him and I did and brought it to the cop shop later that night.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 07:09am

100. I'm sure I won't be able to communicate this thought adequately, but the racism displayed in many of the posts above is the racism of affirmative action.

     We all agree that it is wrong to treat someone badly because they are black. But we differ as to where it's okay to give someone special consideration ro special treatment because they are black.

     For instance in a dispute between a black man and a white cop many of you are eager to ignore as many of the relevant facts as you need to in order to presume the black man is in the right and the white cop is in the wrong.

     The undisputed facts are:

     Gate and his driver pushed in his front door. Gates conceeds this warrents a call to the police. (No racial overtones.)

     The police responded (No racial overtones.)

     The police requested that Gates step out side and he refused. (No racial overtones.)

     The police entered and asked Gates to show ID. He did listing his address (No racial overtones)

     The police exited the house. (No racial overtones.)

     Gates injected race into the matter by hectoring the police about how they were treating a black man. (Injection of racial overtones on Gates's part.)

     Gates followed the police outside continuing to hector them and accusing them of being racist. (Injection of racial overtones on Gates's part.)

     Gates created an implict threat by demanding to know the officer's name.

     After following the police outside he was arrested for disorderly conduct.

     Even President Obama shares this affirmative action view by saying the police acted stupidly. Presumably, the police need to give blacks special consideration and excuse their disorderly conduct because of past racism.

     I say that is racism.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 07:39am

101. It's getting a lot hard to ignore the inconvenient fact needed to give Gates the benefit of the doubt. The arrest report has been made public.

     http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police %20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF

     Here's an article about how the Boston Globe wrote an article and provided a link to the report, but felt it was so embarssing to Gates that they removed the link.

     http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick /2009/07/23/boston-globe-scrubs-henry- louis-gates-arrest-report-website

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 08:02am

102. I see Darin is back at it again this morning.

     Is this kind of like your thing by which you "support gay rights" you just don't like the WAY that gay marriage is being enacted?

     heheh

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 08:12am

103. Is this kind of like your thing by which you "support gay rights" you just don't like the WAY that gay marriage is being enacted?

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 08:12am

     Point 1) I like the way gay marriage was enacted in VT. I don't like the way gay marriage was enacted in Iowa. To me legislative action vs. judical activism matters.

     Point 2) I think people should be treated as individuals and judged by their behavior and deeds. Everything I've seen tells me Gates acted like a total jerk. He leveled baseless acusation of racism. He threatened Sgt. Crowley by telling him, "You don't know who you're messing with". After Sgt. Crowley gave up trying to calm him down and left, Gates followed him outside to continue yelling at him. Gates deserved to be arrested.

     And it bothers me that so many here believe the Gates should be treated like a black man not an individual, meaning that his disorderly conduct should be excused becuase obviously he's had to deal with racism his whole life. Gates said that in his 58 years he's never come close to being arrested so he was surprised to see such blatent racism.

     I think Happy's point is interesting as well, that Gates had just flown back from China and was probably tired and jet lagged and cranky. I can understand occationally being unable to control your temper when you are dead tired. I can't understand people who say it has to be the white officer's fault because you know they're all racists.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 09:52am

104. who cares, leave gates alone, and let's not read too much into this episode.

     Posted by darladoon at 07/23/2009 @ 10:02am

105. Gates is right; an apology is called for but Gates is the one who needs to apologize. I would want my neighbors to call the police if they saw someone forcing my door open. And instead of yelling "this is what happens to black men in America", he showed his identification to the police and explained the situation, none of this would have happened. Shame on you Mr. Gates!

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 10:33am

106. Gotta go with Abell on this one....

     great story on the cop... link through Drudge...worth reading...I don't think the cop is the problem this time....

     this is not as bad as Sharpton and the Twana Brawley fabrication, ....

     but the the cop did his job..

     Posted by YourJomamma at 07/23/2009 @ 10:42am

107. Posted by YourJomamma at 07/23/2009 @ 10:42am | ignore this person | warn this person

     no, he didn't. it was his job to defuse the situation. cops deal with distraught persons all the time. they should manage the situation without arresting someone on trumped up charges. how do I know they were trumped up? they were immediately dropped when the bright light was focused on them.

     this will cost the town some money.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 11:19am

108. Well, I for one am glad to see all the bipartisanship, with Darin, Happy, abell, and Maasch all agreeing with each others.

     LOL

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 11:21am

109. 'but the the cop did his job...'

     No, the cop lost his temper and arrested a man who was obviously no threat to anyone. It was fine for him to question Dr. Gates, but not fine for him to charge the professor with a misdemeanor. I note with some satisfaction that this charge was soon lifted.

     Dr. Gates lost his temper, too, which was not fine, because the cop was just doing his job. But here's the point: Dr. Gates didn't violate any cop's rights, so his failure of self-control rates lower on the scale of justice than the cop's failure.

     It doesn't surprise me that conservatives have a hard time working this out. Comparisons of all kinds are not their strong suit. If they were more adept at making comparisons, they'd have better concepts of fairness, justice, and meritocracy than they do.

     The other general failing of conservatives of all stripes is their failure to see context. Every unique event, viewed through a conservative lens, takes place in its own separate universe. You have to look through a lens like this in order to avoid seeing things like racism, sexism, environmental degradation, economic injustice, civilian casualties, et cetera.

     Posted by JakobFabian at 07/23/2009 @ 11:24am

110. how do I know they were trumped up? they were immediately dropped when the bright light was focused on them.

     Posted by emile duBois

     Or they were dropped because of his political connections.

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 11:25am

111. 'Or they were dropped because of his political connections.'

     Of course, "abell12ct." But from this, it does not follow that the charges were justified in the first place.

     I repeat that Dr. Gates did not pose a threat to anyone, nor was he a public nuisance -- the police met him inside his own house, for heaven's sake. The misdemeanor charge was uncalled-for. Any cop who feels threatened when a 68-year old black academic gets angry at him needs to look into another line of work.

     I freely admit (and have already admitted in a previous posting) that the abuse of Dr. Gates is mild compared to many other police abuses, many of them racially motivated. In many of these cases, the charges stick, and not because they were justified, but because the victims are not as politically well-connected as Dr. Gates.

     Posted by JakobFabian at 07/23/2009 @ 11:32am

112. Actually he was arrested because he created a public disturbance outside of his house by yelling and calling the cops racists to a crowd that had formed.

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 11:41am

113. ever since 9/11 the cops have gone berserk. in my city they have claimed the right to search bags on the subway, something which would never stand up to supreme court scrutiny.

     they also do 800,000 stop and frisks a year. my son is regularly stopped, a white kids who wears his jeans below the butt, he's been stopped twice in one night.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 11:41am

114. Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 11:41am

     How many in that crowd? Just curious.

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 12:04pm

115. 8-10 people.

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 12:07pm

116. Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 12:07pm

     Was it 8 or was it 10? And, just so we know, what's the minimum complement of "a crowd"?

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 12:31pm

117. I was just about to ask that. Is it a crowd or a gathering. Is it a gaggle or a small dinner party. Webster says "a large number of persons especially when collected together" Of course it doesn't make a difference. For 8-10 strangers to gather in front of someone's house in the middle of the night, he must have been yelling pretty loud and causing a public disturbance.

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 12:44pm

118. Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 12:44pm

     Even though that would be smaller attendance than your average pool party or yard sale?

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 1:30pm

119. Even though that would be smaller attendance than your average pool party or yard sale?

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 1:30pm

     What the hell are you doing?

     A Harvard professor acted like a total ass and you're quibling about whether 8 or 9 or 10 is a "gathering" or a "crowd" or a "pool party"?

     What do you hope to accomplish with your sophistry? The author describes a situation where racist police broke down the door and waterboarded Gates before arresting him and it turn out Gates was being a asshole because he was tired for a return flight from China and you think quibling over definitions will do what exactly?

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 1:36pm

120. Gates was waterboarded?

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 1:45pm

121. Gates was waterboarded?

     Posted by abell12ct at 07/23/2009 @ 1:45pm

     A little exaggeration, such as when MHL cliams that America will never be post racial if a black man can be arrested for disorderly conduct when he is screaming, yelling, threatening, and acting like a total ass.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 1:55pm

122. Don't you just love how the "Racist in Chief", the Obamanation that makes desolation ,took the time to take the racebaiter's twist on a lawful police officer doing his sworn duty to safeguard the public and their property?

     How is that helpful, and why is it any business the Pres. of the U.S.A. the chief law official should take Jesse Jackson and Al Sharptons perverted racial baiting and extortion laced issues and publically demean and denegrate local law enforcement officers?

     This is B. Hussien Obamanations ideal of America and one of the reasons he is the worst figurehead we have ever had! How petty!!!!

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 2:15pm

123. This whole dust-up was Gates's own fault. Instead of being rude, insulting and uncooperative, he should have politely thanked the policemen for doing their job and answering the suspected break-in call so quickly. Had Gates behaved in a civilized manner, like a good citizen should, there would have been no problem. His phony cry of racism should be condemned; and he should apologize to the policemen.

     Posted by Montedoro at 07/23/2009 @ 2:26pm

124. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/23/2009 @ 1:36pm

     The opposite of what abell was trying to do with his "crowd" statement, Darin.

     Which was to try to say that Gates was causing some "mob scene" in front of house, and therefore justify the cop's reaction. Trying to turn a few interested, possibly supportive neighbors into the Rodney King riots.

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 2:38pm

125. Why do police departments continue to hire poorly educated young white men from segregated backgrounds for their police forces? Someone asks. Because these are the people who respect authority, hierarchy, militarism. Who take orders well and are not paid to think or to contextualize. Who worship the flag but have no idea what it stands for. The gung-ho who want to be cops and soldiers. They are also the people most citizens want for their cops and soldiers. Until a Gatesian episode happens to them, they figure it's good having tough guys on their side fighting the tough criminals. Why is the odious Joe Arpaio so popular? For this very reason. Law-abiding citizens believe it will never happen to them. But it does, every day of the world, and if you think the ordinary cop is scary, wait until you meet the FBI, DEA & company, who target white collars. This should never have happened to Prof Gates. But if he wandered innocently into a Federal entrapment scheme involving fake child porn, terrorism, illegal aliens, recreational drug use, or any of a dozen other federal "crimes" of conspiring to attempt to abet, etc., no network of powerful friends and institutions would save him. And the feds, unlike the dumb-hick local cop, are scrupulously race-neutral.

     Posted by dhdunlap at 07/23/2009 @ 2:39pm

126. they also do 800,000 stop and frisks a year. my son is regularly stopped, a white kids who wears his jeans below the butt, he's been stopped twice in one night.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 11:41am

     Interesting admission. I have 5 sons, between the ages of 30 and 38. 3 are African American. Yet none of them have ever been stopped by the police.

     I wonder what conclusions I should draw from this comparison with Emile?

     Posted by antisocialist at 07/23/2009 @ 2:43pm

127. No question incidents of improper racial profiling and discrimination occur. However, it's tiresome to hear the accusation of racism every time an incident involves a black individual. Whether or not Gates was disorderly and provoked the police officer is disputed, and third party witness accounts (one report indicated that there were people on the street watching the incident)might help to clarify the facts. But few individuals are waiting for the facts. Instead, most are ranting and raving based on their ideological predisposition to such matters, without regard to the actual facts and details.

     could the cop have chosen to walk aweay. You bet. Should he have. I think so. Would the cop have handled the exact same incident differently if Gates was white. No one, including Gates and the cop, will ever know for sure.

     Posted by gren at 07/23/2009 @ 3:07pm

128. Posted by antisocialist at 07/23/2009 @ 2:43pm

     NONE of your 5 sons has ever gotten a speeding ticket?

     That cause Dad is in the auto insurance biz?...heheh

     Posted by Mask at 07/23/2009 @ 3:23pm

129. "But few individuals are waiting for the facts. Instead, most are ranting and raving based on their ideological predisposition to such matters, without regard to the actual facts and details. "

     Posted by gren at 07/23/2009 @ 3:07pm

     "We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round."

     Posted by FLaim at 07/23/2009 @ 3:36pm

130. Everyone who commented and has not done so, needs to go read the police report which has two statements, the lengthy one by Sgt. Crowley, the protagonist & expert on Racial Profiling, and a shorter one by a fellow officer.

     Sorry to the `sensitive' types reading this, Prof. Gates came across in the reported facts as the worst kind of n*&&^%, the educated Wise Negro.....NOT the kind any one should "mess" with...cause he's entitled and priviledged!

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 3:49pm

131. This is an OUTRAGE!!! The real criminals are in the Cambridge Police Dept. Why aren't they in jail for false arrest. It's fortunate that Mr. Gates is a Harvard employee or he may still be in prison!

     Racist cops are the bulwark of the bourgeois Capitalist state. Hands off Black Community! Just say No to racial profiling!

     Posted by twistedboomer at 07/23/2009 @ 4:27pm

132. Unless wholly unanticipated fact come to light, Professor Gates talked back to a cop. Even if he was unduly rude -- and we don't know yet -- he was not breaking the law. If the police thought he was out of line, they had a whole range of responses they could have used other than arrest.

     In this case, a cop believes he's aiding a citizen and gets a negative response, and he acts vindictively. Leaving aside for the moment the racial aspect, this incident shows the capricious nature of police response. I've seen obviously intoxicated people berate the Washington DC police and their usual response is to say something unpleasant and then drive off. Here, the police for no reason related to law or order try to teach Mr. Gates a lesson in respect for the police. As usual, it didn't work.

     There are few reasons to arrest someone in their own home: domestic violence, outstanding warrants, reason to believe a serious crime is about to be committed. As far as we know, this was none of these.

     The cop refused to apologize because in his own mind he was justified. Rather than just the unequal application of the law, maybe we should also look at the assumptions of the police and the power we give them.

     Posted by alecdubro at 07/23/2009 @ 4:56pm

133. The cop refused to apologize because in his own mind he was justified.

     Posted by alecdubro at 07/23/2009 @ 4:56pm

     How would a non-racist feel to be accused, in public in front of 7~8 ordinary citizens, by a fucking asshole who screams "You don't know who you're messing with"?

     Try that shoe on for size...if you're not a racist. IF Sgt. Crowley did NOT arrest the fucking asshole, I'd say he would damage police's credibility and impartiality more....it becomes a racial issue anyway!

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 5:07pm

134. the sin of this whole mess is that it is making a laughing stock out of a real & serious issue of being being harassed for not being white. this whole mess comes down to one thing a fifty-eight year old man who doesn't have a wife currently flies from china, total jet lag, can't get in his house cause the door is probably swelled up with all the rain & he totally bitches out at the police officer who primarily was doing his job. skip flipped end of story!! he needs to make this go away or he will do so much damage to race relations, set on the way backmachine. the cop was not a racist he just wasn't going to submit to skips bitchfest. it happens to people everyday black or white. just like you don't argue with a building inspector except at your own peril you don't bitch out on a cop without getting arrested Skip is making a bad scence worse & he is going to come out bad.

     Posted by thompain at 07/23/2009 @ 5:09pm

135. the sin of this whole mess is that it is making a laughing stock out of a real & serious issue of being being harassed for not being white. this whole mess comes down to one thing a fifty-eight year old man who doesn't have a wife currently flies from china, total jet lag, can't get in his house cause the door is probably swelled up with all the rain & he totally bitches out at the police officer who primarily was doing his job. skip flipped end of story!! he needs to make this go away or he will do so much damage to race relations, set on the way backmachine. the cop was not a racist he just wasn't going to submit to skips bitchfest. it happens to people everyday black or white. just like you don't argue with a building inspector except at your own peril you don't bitch out on a cop without getting arrested Skip is making a bad scence worse & he is going to come out bad.

     Posted by thompain at 07/23/2009 @ 5:09pm

136. the sin of this whole mess is that it is making a laughing stock out of a real & serious issue of being being harassed for not being white. this whole mess comes down to one thing a fifty-eight year old man who doesn't have a wife currently flies from china, total jet lag, can't get in his house cause the door is probably swelled up with all the rain & he totally bitches out at the police officer who primarily was doing his job. skip flipped end of story!! he needs to make this go away or he will do so much damage to race relations, set on the way backmachine. the cop was not a racist he just wasn't going to submit to skips bitchfest. it happens to people everyday black or white. just like you don't argue with a building inspector except at your own peril you don't bitch out on a cop without getting arrested Skip is making a bad scence worse & he is going to come out bad.

     Posted by thompain at 07/23/2009 @ 5:18pm

137. I liked what thompain said.

     You show belligerence to a cop, he automatically takes you into custody. That's how it goes.

     You don't show belligerence to a cop.

     If you do, and he does what he has to, you don't make it out to be something big for the Nation, and the Moonwalking Bruno-ettes, to expostulate englessly about, gurgle gurgle

     Personally, I think it's some sort of fake hate scenario, for to make glorious 'we love blacks and Al Jolson" abololitionism for Lincoln.

     Posted by jones at 07/23/2009 @ 5:46pm

138. A black man forgets his keys....a burglar A white man forgets his keys....has memory problems

     A black man argues with police....disorderly conduct A white man argues with police....he has been provoked

     A notorious black man gets arrested....no problem, who is he anyway?

     A notorious white men gets arrested....you better watch out who you are messing with.

     A white policeman asks a black for his ID at his home... routine police work

     A black policeman asks a white for his ID at his home... has never happened.

     A white policeman hears a black shouting at him....he arrests him to teach him a lesson

     A black policeman hears a white shouting at him.... I 'won't arrest him but rather shout back.

     If there is no racist ingredients in this....then what is racism?

     Posted by Frank42 at 07/23/2009 @ 5:50pm

139. Try that shoe on for size...if you're not a racist. IF Sgt. Crowley did NOT arrest the fucking asshole, I'd say he would damage police's credibility and impartiality more....it becomes a racial issue anyway!

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 5:07pm

     settle down guy, nobody's coming into your house to steal your buffalo wings!

     Posted by A.D.H.D. at 07/23/2009 @ 6:05pm

140. Obama is no post-racial, he's fully our Racial President....pity the blacks being edumycated by the likes of Gates!

     Thursday, July 23, 2009

     Not a Fan, Now More than Ever [Jay Nordlinger]

     Obviously, I am not a fan of President Obama and his policies. ("Obviously," because I am a National Review person.) But never before, until his comments on the Cambridge, Mass., cops, have I had the following thought: What a jerk.

     It would be good if the president called those men and apologized -- and apologized to the nation for what he did to them, in the course of his press conference. Imagine: singling out those officers, on national television, using the office of the president, etc., etc.

     Obama should go back to condemning radio-talk-show hosts. (Or maybe tyrannical regimes that jail, torture, and kill innocents, willy-nilly?) (Seriously, if only he were as tough on the Castros as he is on the good policemen of Cambridge, Mass.)

     P.S. And the students of Harvard pay Henry Louis Gates for such lectures?

     P.P.S. I have a touch more on Gates in today's Impromptus.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 6:08pm

141. just like you don't argue with a building inspector except at your own peril you don't bitch out on a cop without getting arrested Skip is making a bad scence worse & he is going to come out bad. Posted by thompain at 07/23/2009 @ 5:18pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     this is nonsense. a building inspector cannot arrest you and cannot shoot you, cops can and do. with appalling frequency in my city NY, NY

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 6:10pm

142. a fifty-eight year old man who doesn't have a wife currently

     what the hell does THAT have to do with ANYTHING?

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 6:12pm

143. This is a simple problem. The officer did his job and followed protocol. He had no idea who was in that house and asked for I.D. The police report, which is online, describes Mr. Gates as becoming extremely belligerent in screaming that officer Crowley was a racist cop to anyone within shouting distance, which was backed up by other officers on the scene as well as neighbors.

     President Obama was way out of line to describe the police work as 'stupid'. Obama is only one who is owes an apology here. Not just to Officer Crowley and the other officers on the scene but to all police officers across America. It's a no-brainer. A President simply cannot go in front of a national audience a make that charge without having all the facts. When you have the bully pulpit, you don't abuse it that way. Aparently, he doesn't know Mr. Gates as well as he thinks he does.

     Police work is difficult, to say the least. When officers are accused of police brutality, they are investigated and pay the price. This is an isolated incident where someone of reknown and color got out of line and tried to use the incident to cast dispersion on an innocent police officer. That officer didn't know Gates from Adam. Apologize Mr. President.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/23/2009 @ 6:44pm

144. Racist cops are the bulwark of the bourgeois Capitalist state. Hands off Black Community! Just say No to racial profiling!

     Posted by twistedboomer at 07/23/2009 @ 4:27pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     Sure, why not! Let them kill each other in peace without police interference, right! The majority of crime is black on black, except when the easy target is white, right!

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 6:46pm

145. Typo above. Second paragraph, second sentence should read, Obama is the only one who owes an apology here.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/23/2009 @ 6:55pm

146. As is evidenced by several of the comments here, racism is alive and well in America, from both sides. President Obama inflamed the situation by sticking his nose where it didn't belong. He should have deferred the question, claiming ignorance of the facts. It is now up to him to realize the damage he's caused and issue a prompt, unambiguous apology to Officer Crowley and police forces in general.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/23/2009 @ 6:59pm

147. This incident is one of those Joe Plumber moments that really tells us who BHO is....as well as who Gates is!

     Obama stirs racial passions in Harvard case

     Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:41pm EDT

     By Jason Szep

     BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plunged his presidency into a charged racial debate and set off a firestorm in one of America's most liberal bastions by siding with a black Harvard scholar who accuses police of racism.

     .....But many in Massachusetts said he crossed a line by passing judgment on police while acknowledging he did not have all the facts. Online polls in Massachusetts show strong support for the white arresting officer. A police union and his department's chief also came out strongly in his defense.

     "Based on what I have seen and heard from the other officers, he maintained a professional decorum during the course of the entire situation and conducted himself in a professional manner," Cambridge Police Department Commissioner Robert Haas told a news conference.

     ......"I may have voted for him, but I'm really disappointed he's decided to inject himself into the middle of this BEFORE getting both sides of the story. And to do so by making such an outrageous accusation against the police," wrote one Boston Globe reader on the newspaper's web site in a comment that was ranked most recommended by fellow Globe readers....

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 7:27pm

148. A POTUS who campaigned on post-racial, bi-partisanship, transparency and all that "Yes We can" Hopey Dopey Changey, has shed his cloth......

     Sorry, No, You Can't! You just ain't got the Right Stuff....emptier than an empty suit.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 7:30pm

149. in the tumult harvard security (on the scene according to reports) failed one of its own misearbly...if the harvard cop didn't know gates he could have called his supervisor or shief and had the matter settled without forthwith.

     ecco

     Posted by nurrevir at 07/23/2009 @ 7:49pm

150. Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 7:27pm |

     So lemme get this straight...

     A poll, conducted with people who weren't there, his boss, who will probably be fired if his charge wasn't on the bubble, the commish, also presumably saving face, and one Boston Globe reader think the cop was in the right.

     Uh,...so what?

     But Obama is being taken to task for expressing his opinion, though he admitted he didn't get both sides (but, in all likelihood, knew the facts)?

     Am I also to believe that you would have given him any quarter had he professed not to be intimately knowledgeable about the facts of the case and recused himself from judgement?

     Pull the other one.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/23/2009 @ 7:56pm

151. Posted by thompain at 07/23/2009 @ 5:18pm |

     So the Boston PD is letting Skip..well, skip...because why?

     If they're just "letting cooler heads prevail", why wouldn't they do that on Gates' doorstep?

     If not, then they're tacitly admitting it was a bad bust, full stop.

     Any cop that doesn't know how to talk down an angry, innocent man doesn't deserve to be on the force anyway.

     As I said above, I've seen this from both angles, personally, and, in my experience, smart cops defuse the situation and move on to more important calls unless there's something which warrants arrest.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/23/2009 @ 8:03pm

152. Posted by gren at 07/23/2009 @ 3:07pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     good until the end. we have over 200 years of evidence on that regard.

     it's a case of ipso facto.

     that the charges were immediately dropped speaks volumes, and yes we all project.

     remember the film "In the Heat of the Night"

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 8:11pm

153. While it seems a little bit too much that the President intervened while acknowledging "he did not know the details on the facts", this problem has two faces: the racial issues and the police culture.

     Police Culture: almost everybody that I am reading from the right says that the police acted as it was supposed to, I disagree. The reality is that the police culture all over the country asks for the excessive use of force. We see it everywhere and all the time. These people are just eagerly waiting for someone to commit an error to act in response, correction, overact completely, like arresting someone or drawing a gun.... and even shooting as has been the case not infrequently. Besides they don't treat people with urbanity. If the situation was already cleared, yes it was stupid to arrest the professor. If he said something out what an educated man is supposed to say then he was wrong, but hey, was it not the policeman that was provoking him unreasonably with more and more demands? Any person can have a bad day, but there is no reason to make it miserable or to humiliate people just because the cop has gotten the gun. I would suggest in general to the police more psychology and patience, they should listen more and act more reasonably.

     The race issues: I imagine the town is a pretty middle town where basically people know each other. I don't picture neighbors not knowing that an African lives nearby and that he is a well known professor. Right from the call there was this racial ingredient of suspicion to someone not white. Then the policeman, instead of trespassing he could had shouted from outside asking for entrance and for the name of the owner. But he entered convinced that if there was an African involved "it had to be serious". Finally, when he saw him mad

     Posted by Frank42 at 07/23/2009 @ 8:18pm

154. he saw an opportunity to humiliate him, when actually it was him the provoked the Professor with more and more demands for identification. If this is consciously or not (that means instinctive) racism, what is it?

     Yes, I don't know the factors either, but it seems very plausible that a situation like that occurred.

     Obama's participation was based on his experience with these incidents. We are not supposed to live in a police state; on contrary, the police is here to serve the people and not mistreat them in any way.

     Posted by Frank42 at 07/23/2009 @ 8:24pm

155. Pretty clear here on TN, few will call out Magic....but around the blogs, there are some Obama voters who see black and white as it should be seen:

     =============================

     Posted by Nuffsaid July 23, 09 02:00 PM

     The President of the United States should not comment on anything until he has all the facts. Oh because it was his friend he could comment before knowing the facts? I look at the President differently now and I voted for him. My head spun around when I heard him comment on the whole Gates issue, I know there are more important things going on in this day and age, than getting involved in someone ranting and raving over the police, when all the police were doing was their job. He got mouthy with the officer and everyone knows you don't do that, and he was told a few times to calm down or he would be arrested. If he just showed the officer his license and didn't mouth off this wouldn't be such a side show.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 8:25pm

156. Posted by mws July 23, 09 02:29 PM

     The Cambridge Police may have acted stupidly...I may have acted stupidly, as well, in November.

     ============================

     Posted by Mary July 23, 09 02:39 PM

     Everyone keeps saying they were 'in the house'....they were NOT in the house. Gates FOLLOWED THE POLICE OFFICER INTO THE STREET....at that point, Gates was just asking to be arrested. Who the hell does Gates think he is?

     ... I'm getting sick of this entire thing. THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ARE NOT RACIST ...iF THEY WERE THERE WOULDN'T BE A BLACK GOVERNOR, AND BLACK MAYOR, AND A BLACK POERSIDENT IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 8:39pm

157. the cop should have walked away, even if there was verbal abuse. his job is to suss the situation and not make it worse. the arrest was punitive and therefore unprofessional. the prof did not present any threat to anyone. what was the arrest supposed to solve?

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 8:40pm

158. This is an unfortunate incident and I don't think the cops shouls have made an arrest.

     But as someone who gives a shit about people, can anyone not see that the sum of all police misconduct, racism, shootings, is a drop in the bucket compared to the destruction that racial grievance/ racial "authenticity" bullshit has wrought on black people? Now one of the premier black intellectuals can be placed in that camp (maybe undeservedly, he had one bad night and should have been left at home with his thoughts) and that's sad.

     This was a non-event that the self-congratulating white media had to turn into a weapon, and it will have bodies on it. The myopia of ethnocentrism is a mass murderer.

     Posted by gangpapist at 07/23/2009 @ 8:48pm

159. Why do you think they call them pigs? We confuse matters when police misconduct is mislabeled as a race problem. In fact all working class people are also subject to police bullying. Anyone not clearly in a position of obvious power who dares exercise the right to request badge number and name is likely to be abused across the nation.

     Note the photos of other cops watching Crowley illegally detain Gates. He was obviously over the line but blue brotherhood trumped the law. They should have drawn pistols and taken him down--kidnapping and assault being worse crimes then yelling yo mama on one's own porch.

     By and large all cops are hypersensitive bullies who get away with hurting citizens at will. Obama should rise above the racial rhetoric and work to withhold federal funding from any force that lacks assertive civilian oversight and control. This is a rogue profession not isolated rogue cops.

     Posted by Truffledog at 07/23/2009 @ 8:55pm

160. Posted by Pat Ventura July 23, 09 02:42 PM

     I was very surprised that a so called educated man and being a professor would have the proverbial chip on his shoulder which has kept black people down for ages....This is exactly what Bill Cosby was talking about Black people not progressing because every thing is a racial issue to them. Until they get over themselves and loose the attitude they will never be a successful member of society.

     =========================

     ......the destruction that racial grievance/ racial "authenticity" bullshit has wrought on black people? Now one of the premier black intellectuals can be placed in that camp...

     Posted by gangpapist at 07/23/2009 @ 8:48pm

     Your comment led me to post the one by Pat Ventura above and my own comment below.

     The problems of the black community are caused in large part, by liberal "premier black intellectuals" such as Gates and Ms. Harris-Lacewell. They made their careers and living purely by being educated blacks in academia filling quotas for black faculty members.

     Ask yourself, are there many black professors in the sciences, mathematics, biology, medicine? Those are real and weighty subject matters that impact all of humanity. Now, think about Afro-American Studies and its goal.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 10:12pm

161. I had no idea who the heck Henry Gates is.....based on his behavior, I'd say he's dime-a-dozen, just more seniorty (ie, older) and (likely) another AA beneficiary along the lines of Sotomayor and Obama himself.

     For a real black intellectual, there is none other than Thomas Sowell.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 10:16pm

162. I had no idea who the heck Henry Gates is.....based on his behavior, I'd say he's dime-a-dozen, just more seniorty (ie, older) and (likely) another AA beneficiary along the lines of Sotomayor and Obama himself.

     For a real black intellectual, there is none other than Thomas Sowell.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 10:16pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     LOL... You have a Klan meeting later Happy ..?? Is it apple shine night ..?? Put a few back for me k..??

     Listen, Gates didn't get arrested for any other reason than he was being an asshole. The CPD showed up on an possible b/e call in good time, Mr. Gates produced ID, and that should have ended it ... No ..??

     'The officer requested identification. Gates produced it. Even after ascertaining that Gates had not illegally entered the property, the officer arrested him for disorderly conduct. '...... Harris-Lacewell...

     Ms. Harris-Lacewell, do you think Prof. Gates might have been a little 'edgy' with the police ...?? Maybe a little...?? Do you think he might have gone a little Nat-X (ala Chris Rock) on the Cops..?? I do...

     Im not buying Prof. Gates whole "I didn't cross the line with the cops" story... Not for a second...

     My point... YOU DONT GET ARRESTED FOR JUST SHOWING PROOF OF RESIDENCE.... He went bullshit on the cops... WHite/Black/Yellow/REd... If your an asshat to a cop, you might end up in cuffs...

     Drop It. This is a non-story.

     Posted by Vvf1969 at 07/23/2009 @ 11:07pm

163. did Gates get violent? no he didn't. that is the only reason for an arrest. mouthing off at the cops is not illegal and is not cause for arrest. again the cop's job is to defuse a situation. had he walked away, he would have left the prof haranguing no one. that would have been the professional thing to do.

     what could possibly been the downside of walking away?

     there is and will be much posturing by the right, and by the police union, which is a knee jerk reaction, that is their job.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 11:12pm

164. "A well-regarded officer who is himself an expert on racial profiling, Crowley responded to a call at the Cambridge home of Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week to investigate a report of a burglary. Confronting Gates and another man who appeared to have forced open the door of the homne, Crowley asked Gates to show him identification.

     Gates at first refused and accused Crowley of racism. The professor, a close friend of Harvard alumnus Barack Obama, was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday, and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley.

     In a four-minute interview outside his home, Crowley revealed that:

     Gates escalated the situation by yelling and refusing to calm down, calling Crowley a racist, and referring to his mother.

     He was the police officer who tried to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis, a black man, who collapsed and died during an off-season workout at Brandeis University. Crowley said he was still very shaken by that event.

     Crowley said he didn't vote for Obama, but supports the president 110 percent. He also suggested that the president was siding with his friend Gates, and he probably would have done the same in a similar situation.

     Though he said he would do everything exactly the same way again, Crowley did express regret at the media attention and pressure the event has brought on his friends and family.

     "I acted appropriately. Mr. Gates was given plenty of opportunity to stop what he was doing," Crowley said in the interview. "He didn't. He acted very irrational, and he controlled the outcome of that event."

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 11:15pm

165. we weren't there.

     move on.

     Posted by frosty zoom at 07/23/2009 @ 11:20pm

166. "There was a lot of yelling. There was references to my mother," Crowley said. "Something you wouldn't expect from anybody who should be grateful you're there investigating the report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."

     The reporter then referred to the death of Lewis, explaining he worked the scene that night when Crowley tried to save the player's life.

     "I was a police officer at Brandeis University at the time and I was responding to a medical call and had the unfortunate experience of trying to revive somebody who was probably already gone," Crowley said. "It was very tough emotionally dealing with that as well."

     The reporter than asked him to respond to the charges that he is a racist.

     "It almost doesn't warrant a comment. My friends, my family my colleagues – those people whose opinions mean the most to me – they know who I am, they know what I am and what I am not. It's an unfortunate thing that the professor other other people even mentioned that."

     Asked what he thought of the president's comments, Crowley immediately replied, "I didn't vote for him," and then smiled.

     "When he said the Cambridge police acted stupidly, he was talking about you," the interviewer asked. "What was your reaction to that?

     "My only reaction, somebody had told me what he said. I didn't hear the press conference but I did listen afterwards and I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as himself stated before making that comment so again, I don't know what to say about that. I guess a friend of mine would support my position too."

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 11:23pm

167. Are you able to do your job, Crowley was finally asked.

     "Sure. I absolutely will. This will not distract me from doing what it is I do. And if a similar call came in tomorrow, I wouldn't shy away from responding and I'd do what I have to do."

     Asked if should have done anything different, Crowley responded bluntly: "No."

     Intresting to hear from the ACCUSSED!

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 11:24pm

168. Who but the Obamanation that makes desolation profits most from this ridiculous escapade?

     "One reason Barack Obama may think the Cambridge Police Department is "stupid" is that he has a grudge against the law enforcement agency.

     Obama, who attended Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991, lived in Cambridge, and apparently didn't like the fact he was frequently hit with parking tickets.

     In all Obama received 17 tickets for parking violations -- and never paid 15 of them until he was exposed by a local Massachusetts newspaper as a scofflaw.

     According to a 2007 Associated Press story, Obama was a parking ticket deadbeat for more than a decade -- and only felt the need to pay the 15 outstanding parking tickets as his presidential campaign began in earnest in 2007.

     The Illinois Senator shelled out $375 in January – two weeks before he officially launched his presidential campaign – to finally pay for 15 outstanding parking tickets and their associated late fees.

     Obama received 17 parking tickets in Cambridge between 1988 and 1991, mostly for parking in a bus stop, parking without a resident permit and failing to pay the meter, records from the Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation office show.

     He incurred $140 in fines and $260 in late fees in Cambridge in all, but he paid $25 for two of the tickets in February 1990.

     Revenge is sweet when you can label a white campus policeman racist isn't it Changy and Hopey man?

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/23/2009 @ 11:36pm

169. What does this whole mess have to do with Racial Profiling.

     Everything reads like a call was made concerning what appeared to be a break in. A cop responded and went about his business in a determined manner and got to the bottom of the problem. The house owner, after being found to not have broken into his own house, proceeded to work himself into a fit of rage and berate the cop and in general cause himself major problems. The home owner was arrested for disturbing the peace.

     I've taken the time to read this entire discussion before adding my two cents. I am shocked at the degree of hate and confusion expressed by the responders. I believe that President Obama should never have given his opinion concerning this incident. Obama has Health Care to tackle right now and this is a distraction.

     The praise about Professor Gates is pouring in from all sides. I'm sure he is a fine and noble man and well respected in his field. But a premier intellectual may be going to far. His behavior in this matter is deplorable. He has shown a monumental lack of common sense. What was he thinking?

     It is said: "One picture is worth a thousand words." The picture in the doorway says it all.

     Posted by blindhog at 07/23/2009 @ 11:46pm

170. BP... Your lil' Obamanation phrase is so lame... Please.. Dosent Rush or Savage have any other phrases you can parrot..???

     And Emile... Yes you can get arrested for being an asshat... I grew up in Mass, and had many a caucasian friend arrested for "disorderly conduct"... You don't need to be violent, just irrational.

     When your an ass to the cops, you get arrested. Period. This was never a B/W thing.

     Its this Shite that gives Liberals (myself included) a bad rap...

     This is a non-issue.

     Prof. Gates owes us an apology.

     Posted by Vvf1969 at 07/24/2009 @ 12:53am

171. this is nonsense. a building inspector cannot arrest you and cannot shoot you, cops can and do. with appalling frequency in my city NY, NY

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 6:10pm

     The building inspector can do much worse than that. He can delay completion of your building project for a year and a half costing you and extra eighteen months of interest on your construction loan.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:22am

172. Think about that, Emile.

     The fine for disorderly conduct is $500. The "fine" imposed by the building inspector on a $400,000 project is $36,000.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:24am

173. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:24am |

     But if you put some unmarked Jacksons in an envelope...

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/24/2009 @ 06:32am

174. Any cop that doesn't know how to talk down an angry, innocent man doesn't deserve to be on the force anyway.

     As I said above, I've seen this from both angles, personally, and, in my experience, smart cops defuse the situation and move on to more important calls unless there's something which warrants arrest.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/23/2009 @ 8:03pm

     Officer Crowley tried. The arrest report has comments from the second cop stating Crowley was trying to calm Gates inside the home. When he wasn't able to get Gates to stop screaming the Crowley was a racist, Crowley tried to defuse the situation by leaving. He exited the house to leave and GATES FOLLOWED HIM OUTSIDE TO CONTINUE SCREAMING AT HIM.

     If leaving doesn't defuse the situation what will?

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:35am

175. the cop should have walked away, even if there was verbal abuse.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 8:40pm

     He DID WALK AWAY. He left the house leaving Gates inside.

     How come no one is criticizing Gates saying, "When the other guy walks away, you should let him go rather than pursuing him so that you can continue screaming at him for no reason"?

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:43am

176. By and large all cops are hypersensitive bullies

     Posted by Truffledog at 07/23/2009 @ 8:55pm

     Racist cops are the bulwark of the bourgeois Capitalist state.

     Posted by twistedboomer at 07/23/2009 @ 4:27pm

     [Officer Crowley] saw an opportunity to humiliate [Gates]

     Posted by Frank42 at 07/23/2009 @ 8:24pm

     Look at all the bigoted speculation that is required to contort yourself into a position of supporting Gates.

     To support Officer Crowley all you need to do is rely on the facts that boths side agree to.

     A report of possible forced entry was called in by a women who didn't live in the neighborhood.

     Office Crowley entered Gate's home when Gater refused to comply with Crowley's request to speak with him on the porch.

     Gates produced ID inside the home.

     Gates Accused Crowley of being a racist.

     Crowley left the home.

     Gates pursued him outside the home and continue to scream that crowley was a racist.

     Gates was arrested ouside the home for disorderly conduct.

     You don't need to speculate about anything to know that Gates broke the law against disorderly conduct.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:55am

177. For a real black intellectual, there is none other than Thomas Sowell.

     Posted by Happy at 07/23/2009 @ 10:16pm

     I was familar with Gates. I knew who he was and his reputation for brilliance.

     Yeah, he had a bad day. He got arrested and the charges were dropped. I think he should have been appropriately embarrassed and left it at that rather than trying to turn this into the next Selma, Alabama.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 07:00am

178. The questions are who said what, did what and in what order. I would love to see a timeline of actions and dialog in this incident. I think Obama unwisely prejudged this issue. I had a brilliant Marxist professor (and Nation contributor) who once said, "The outraged reaction of many white campus radicals in the 60s was often the reaction of middle class suburbanites who always regarded the police as subservient domestic help."

     Posted by Bopalou2008 at 07/24/2009 @ 07:43am

179. Ya ever get the feeling, that if it happened today, that some (yes, "some" not all) of the Right-wing bloggers would actually say...

     "Who's to say ...Abner Louime didn't deserve it?"

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 08:08am

180. Typo...it's "Louima". Sorry.

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 08:08am

181. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 06:43am |

     IF, and only if, these are the facts, then it was a righteous arrest and they shouldn't have dropped the charges and should have made Gates pay the fine like anyone else.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/24/2009 @ 08:41am

182. (this is a parody)

     VICTIM OF LATEST IN A STRING OF BURGLARIES IS RENOWNED HARVARD PROFESSOR

     July 22, 2010 (AP) Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates returned from a book-promotion tour trip to Koala Lumpur, Australia this Wednesday to find his home burglarized. Professor Gates, who holds the Clarence Thomas Distinguished Professorship at the Harvard Law School expressed the outrage that many in the neighborhood have also been feeling after a sequence of almost three dozen unsolved burglaries in the neighborhood since last summer. "They took everything but the kitchen sink!" he told reporters, "My precious Bahadurs, and my silk Sikkim rug!"

     Police say they believe the theft took place Monday afternoon at about 1PM because that was the time the private security company logged an alarm from the house's system. They had no comment and referred reporters to their legal counsel. Police are attempting to locate any witnesses and have expressed surprise that none have come forward considering the time of day of the burglary and the fact that the perpetrators apparently gained entrance by forcing the front door, which faces on a busy street.

     (this is a parody)

     Posted by Mistral at 07/24/2009 @ 08:42am

183. (this is a parody) Posted by Mistral at 07/24/2009 @ 08:42am | ignore this person | warn this person

     no it isn't. a parody is funny.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 09:04am

184. Posted by Mistral at 07/24/2009 @ 08:42am |

     Mar 5, 2010 (AP)

     The Boston Police Department celebrated the anniversary of the Boston Massacre by cracking a ring of clever burglars targeting Cambridge townhomes.

     Their modus operandi appears to have been impersonating local residents by wearing cardigans and speaking in an erudite manner about a wide range of topics.

     "I thought they were taking the African masks to be appraised", said resident Orson B. Livious.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/24/2009 @ 09:04am

185. IF, and only if, these are the facts, then it was a righteous arrest and they shouldn't have dropped the charges and should have made Gates pay the fine like anyone else.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/24/2009 @ 08:41am

     I don't disagree with dropping the charges. Arrest was the only way to diffuse the situation after Crowley tried to leave but Gates wouldn't let him.

     Furthermore, it eliminates the "he said/he said" element by creating an arrest record and quite probably witness statments from the people that had gathered.

     Conviction, although quite probable given the evidence I've seen, would not serve justice; it would only further inflame racial animosity.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 09:08am

186. I read a brilliant essay by Dr. Boyce Watkins:

     http://www.thegrio.com/2009/07/i-am-not-al-sharpton.php

     I might be kicked out of "The Black scholars club" for saying this, but the truth is that I don't feel sorry for Henry Louis Gates. America is far more capitalist than it is racist, so a distinguished Harvard University Professor like Gates is likely to get more respect than the average White American. The idea that he is somehow the victim of the same racism that sends poor Black men to prison simply doesn't fly with me, and Gates should be careful about appearing to exploit the plight of Black men across America to win his battle of egos with the Cambridge Police Department.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 09:23am

187. "At one point Gates assembled a "dream team" at Harvard that included professors Cornel West, K. Anthony Appiah, Michael Dawson, Lawrence Bobo, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Lani Guinier and William Julius Wilson."

     Hey, five of these scholars are men and only two are women. Once again, Gates promotes male privilege. YUCK!

     Posted by ktrig at 07/24/2009 @ 09:24am

188. Their modus operandi appears to have been impersonating local residents by wearing cardigans and speaking in an erudite manner about a wide range of topics.

     better

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 09:25am

189. A few observations on this issue:

     First I was disappointed for the first time in the President: He should never had gotten involved in this realitivly unimportant issue. If we wanted someone who appears to "go to bat" for the "oppressed" every time there's a misunderstanding regarding race we would have elected Jesse Jackson.

     His comments about a "long history" of disproportionate attention given to Blacks and Latino's by Law Enforcement will only inflame and agitate, not something he should do, especially since many know what he cannot say, namely that there is a "long history" of disproportionate crime attributed to those groups, although perhaps unfairly. It's the reason why racial profiling persists; State Statistics in Baltimore some years ago declared that 65% of the Black population in Baltimore was either in jail, had been in jail or was on some sort of probation. Whether or not this is a result of injustice and what can be done to change it is another arguement, but with stats like that it is little wonder RP persists.

     As far as the cop goes, he made the comment "If (they're) looking for an apology it's not gonna come from me"

     Good for him.

     Posted by william.harry13 at 07/24/2009 @ 09:27am

190. Sorry, that's "something he should NOT do"

     Posted by william.harry13 at 07/24/2009 @ 09:28am

191. The cop should sue

     Posted by YourJomamma at 07/24/2009 @ 09:29am

192. I accidently speed dialed 911 at 3:00 AM while reaching for my cordless phone in the dark. It was my married daughter summoning her mom. Because my wife did not respond immediately to call waiting, a White Lumberton (NJ) police officer rang my doorbell within 3 minutes. He asked me from the porch to signal if I were being held captive by any intruders. He left immediately after I assured him that I was the clumsy Black 60-year-old instigator.

     Posted by tswangin at 07/24/2009 @ 10:23am

193. The cop should sue Posted by YourJomamma at 07/24/2009 @ 09:29am | ignore this person | warn this person

     for what?

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 10:30am

194. the prof should sue. if he does he will not be suing the cop personally, but the dept and the town. dat's how it works.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 10:31am

195. If you want to prove this is not about race you dont compare to a whites at trailer park cause then you are bringing class into it. Instead you compare it to what happens to a distinguish white male Ivy league professor and you ask them about their experinces with the law. Thats how you prove this has nothing to do with race.

     Carol

     Posted by harriscrl3 at 07/24/2009 @ 10:52am

196. Hey let's stop beating around the bush on this one. We keep getting glimpses of what it is like to be black in present day America. A black unarmed kid was recently gunned down by a bunch of plain cloths cops on his wedding night, a black man was run down by a cop on horse back and beaten for asking where he could find matches in New Orleans. We white crackers don't have a clue. And the Lou Dobbses keep feeding the xeno0phobic flame fear and hate while billionaires keep shopping in china for cheaper labor.

     Posted by julien38 at 07/24/2009 @ 11:03am

197. Defamation

     Posted by YourJomamma at 07/24/2009 @ 11:11am

198. I'm presently watching a media circus event right now presenting a public defense for Crowley in the matter. They all look like over weight" WHITE" mafia dons. There is a speechless Asian looking gentleman and several blacks that seem to be forced and furtive. This is an MSNBC breaking news event. If these characters represent the I Q level of Americas' cops, we are in deep doo doo. I most certainly would not buy a used car from these characters. Is there politics and race in this? yup. The Cambridge police did act stupidly!!! You arrest a man in his own home for disorderly conduct is stupid. You cite him for yelling at a cop, ok, but hall him off in cufs is stupid. Crowley may not be racist, but a bit arrogant maybe.

     Posted by julien38 at 07/24/2009 @ 11:31am

199. I largely agree with Harris-Lacewell on the Gates affair. I find Obama's involvement more interesting. Some thoughts:

     1. My impression of Gates is that he is a prima donna at an institution specializing in prima donnas. There are a great many African-American scholars doing better, more insightful work elsewhere. Gates is a great promoter and popularizer (needed in their own right, but not scholarship).

     2. If Gates were the edgy radical that some want to condemn him as, he would not be at Harvard, which is notoriously hostile to independent thinking. It is an essentially conservative, money-driven institution. This point is best illustrated by the case of Cornel West, driven out of Harvard by the intolerant bigotries of then-president Lawrence Summers who is now -- surprise! -- a member of the Obama administration. So much for Obama's concern about bigotry. (Summers has repeatedly express revolting positions regarding women, blacks, Arabs and all who criticize Israel.)

     3. Let's be blunt. Racism is rampant in the US. Arab-Americans can best attest to this today. But Gates and Obama both enjoy singular privilege. By no stretch of the imagination do they instantiate anyone's common experience. To me, Gates has appeared eager to appear a victim (which he may indeed be, but his reaction is a distinct phenomenon in its own right).

     5. More interesting, Obama's reaction --(A) Were this a white person victimized by standard police excesses (as were many in NYC by Mayor Bloomberg's totalitarianism during the '04 RNC), Obama wouldn't dream of criticizing the police. --(B) Were this a black man in Harlem shot by cops for Living While Black, Obama would be silent. And worst --(C) Obama has actively rejected justice in the case of Bush et al., greatest war criminals in 30 years.

     Posted by hsansom at 07/24/2009 @ 11:33am

200. Stand by for the rhetoric to get ratcheted up by the Right....the new line?

     "Obama is trying to DESTROY this fine police officer!"

     (Yes...they're that desperate!)

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 11:35am

201. To accuse a black man of being dangerous or a criminal simply because he is black is profiling and profiling is wrong.

     To accuse a white cop of being racist simply because he is white is profiling and profiling is wrong.

     We don't know if Crowley was profiling, we do know that Gates was.

     Posted by wredner at 07/24/2009 @ 11:36am

202. 1. My impression of Gates is that he is a prima donna at an institution specializing in prima donnas. There are a great many African-American scholars doing better, more insightful work elsewhere. Gates is a great promoter and popularizer (needed in their own right, but not scholarship).

     this is irrelevant. he could have been a black plumber or someone who cleans office buildings.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 11:51am

203. SSANSOM

     Lets be even more blunt. Racism is a tool used today by real or would-be (and has-been) wielders of power to promote guilt and get what they want for their constuients. This has been the case for many years. When the dirtbag in Texas dragged a black man to death by chaining him to his truck, America was condemmned as a racist nation. Bullshit. People are prejudice. All people. The dirtbag in Texas is a racist. Hitler was a racist.

     When Insurance companies like Aetna initially balk at paying out indemnities over insurance policies written on slaves 150 years ago, they are accused of being racist. Bullshit. They owe today's ancestors of slaves nothing and the ancestors deserve nothing, yet these practices continue to be perpetrated.

     One of the reasons I voted for Obama was in the hope that this nonsense about America being a racist nation will finally be discarded in favor of the more enlightened understanding that America is a good nation made up of good but flawed humans some of whom can't keep their prejudices in check.

     Posted by william.harry13 at 07/24/2009 @ 12:12pm

204. "...after Crowley tried to leave but Gates wouldn't let him. "---Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 09:08am

     I missed that part I guess. How did Gates prevent Crowley from leaving again?

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 12:42pm

205. if the cop had walked away, the result would have been a guy ranting on his porch, not exactly a threat to the public safety.

     the cop, who held ALL the power in this situation, acted unprofessionally.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 1:21pm

206. I'll preface my remarks by stating that yes, there are indeed countless episodes of racial profiling and police brutality towards people of color, including the color WHITE, that have been evidenced over the decades. I have personally witnessed such episodes.

     Having said that, all the evidence in this particular episode reflects very, very badly on Prof. Gates and like minded people of color who walk this earth with huge chips on their shoulder because of the previously mentioned episodes. Police departments can't claim that their members are all squeaky clean, although great strides have been made in police/minority relations as of late.

     However, President Obama relit the match that his election extinguished. Was this intentional? I think not.

     Obama should now say this: I'm afraid that I may have mis-spoke when answering the question presented to me regarding Prof. Gates arrest. Although racial profiling remains a problem in this country, this was not such a case. I believe that officer Crowley handled himself correctly and I apologize to all police for what was construed as an insensitive remark on my part. I hope that Prof. Gates will also issue an apology to the Cambridge police department and to Officer Crowley in particular for verbally abusing him while he was in the process of leaving the scene.

     Will the President be man enough to issue that statement? We'll see. Will he learn from this? I doubt it. When you expose yourself to daily television coverage, sometimes several times a day, you are bound to say something STUPID. President Obama will be wise to stick to the script and the teleprompter or else continue to give the right fodder for the 2010 elections. This will also cause his approval polls to fall even further.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:23pm

207. if the cop had walked away, the result would have been a guy ranting on his porch, not exactly a threat to the public safety.

     the cop, who held ALL the power in this situation, acted unprofessionally.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 1:21pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     I believe you are incorrect. As the evidence and eye-witness acounts suggest, Prof. Gates was extremely abusive of a police officer, ranting and raving and shouting slanderous remarks in front of several citizens and other members of law enforcement. He was arreated for disturbing the peace and could have been found guilty in front of a judge. If it wasn't for his stature in the community and a probable phone call either from Obama himself or from someone in the Governor's office, (Gov. Patrick also critized the police), he would have spent the night in jail and ended up paying a five hundred dollar fine.

     You and others like you are quick to condemn police officers. Maybe you have reason to be personally offended, I don't know. But in this case, a no-brainer, we would all be wise to feel grateful for all the fine officers who protect us daily in the face of false accusations and extreme stress. The President and the Governor and, as I understand, the Mayor all need to issue public apologies to the Cambridge police dept. immediately.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:33pm

208. Obama just issued a half-assed apology.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:36pm

209. Posted by william.harry13 at 07/24/2009 @ 12:12pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     pablum

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 1:37pm

210. Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:33pm

     How did you prove emile's statement wrong?

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 1:37pm

211. Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:33pm

     How did you prove emile's statement wrong?

     Posted by Mask at 07/24/2009 @ 1:37pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     It's not a matter of proving the statement wrong. If you or I or Mr. duBois himself abused a police officer in public the way that Prof. Gates did, we surely also have been arrested. Remember, Gates presented him with an I.D. from Harvard. Officer Crowley had already decided to leave the scene. It was Gates who incited the situation and actually caused his own arrest. I'ts plain to me, as I said, a no-brainer. It should be to others as well, unless there is an agenda here or as I said in duBois case, a personal reason.

     Obama really screwed up and he issued a statement moments ago, trying to extract himself from the problem which he himself created by calling the Cambridge PD stupid, a gigantic error in judgement.

     Maybe something good will come out of this case but it won't be good for the President.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:53pm

212. Gates painted himself into a corner and Obama made things worse. As the President just said, this is a teachable moment. It remains to be seen who need the lesson.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:56pm

213. Also, it may be instructive to the black community to listen to the comments that Bill Cosby made after he heard Obama's remarks calling the Cambridge PD stupid. He said that he was SHOCKED by the President's comments.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/24/2009 @ 1:59pm

214. The police did not handcuff "American possibility." Obama is the reality of that possibility. He quickly elbowed himself into the situation lambasting a police officer he did not know and proving himself reckless and partial.

     The police handcuffed a screeching loud mouth, too full of himself and his dignity to speak calmly and sensibly, like a Harvard professor. He refused at first to identify himself. His instincts was indignation and self pity for falling under suspicion as a burglar and being asked for ID in his own home. He could not contain his outrage long enough to consider that the officer was summoned by a neighbor who said the house was being burgled, and was doing his duty. Instead he lashed out with a reference to the officer's mother.

     Gates is one of those people, Obama is another, who has been living off blackness. But for that he would not have a career as a professor in a prestigious university. Academia is filled with 3 pieced suits who own their jobs to their color.

     Gates's "dream team" would have been a hell of a lot dreamier had its achievements been in chemistry and physics, architecture and medicine. There are blacks in the sciences but the percentages are tiny.

     Why are the standards of critical thinking and rigorous scholarship so low in black studies, and those dep'ts invariably so bloated; why is their output so repetitive, ritualistic, predictable? Why so little interest, for instance, in Mauritania where up to a fifth of the population are blacks Moors, or haratin serving the "white Moors", or bidhan, as slaves?

     If only Gates, and for that Obama, directed a little of their outrage in the direction of the Arabs who have so far murdered 270,000 Darfurians and are yet herding 3 million into refugee camps.

     Posted by Hugo_Pirovano at 07/24/2009 @ 2:05pm

215. EMILE

     Bland yourself old boy. You find that on Dikipedia?

     Posted by william.harry13 at 07/24/2009 @ 2:12pm

216. Obama's telephone call to the police officer, his acknowledgement that his public words were not sufficiently calibrated, and his vouching for the character and professionalism of the police officer, again demonstrates why Obama is three cuts above any of the other presidents in my lifetime. It is a cursed fate which requires him to deal with a comprehensive and fundamental financial crises which threatens to overwhelm his presidency. Obama is an individual who can model intelligence, civility, authenticity and reason while being efficient and effective. What a terrific legacy that would be. It would be a tragedy if in response to a rising unemployment rate that is beyond anyone's control, the populace and media turn on Obama, make him the fall guy, and ignore all the rest.

     Posted by gren at 07/24/2009 @ 2:32pm

217. Obama's comments today, may bring some closure with regard to this incident. One of my first courses in college during the sixties was a Black History course. Of course, if Harvard has a program, they must be socially acceptable.

     Posted by pjcasey at 07/24/2009 @ 3:09pm

218. Obama is three cuts above any of the other presidents in my lifetime. Posted by gren at 07/24/2009 @ 2:32pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     agreed

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/24/2009 @ 4:54pm

219. To deny that there is discrimination in the system of law is to deny fact. Anyone can just look at the statistics realistically and see that the system of law leans more heavily on minorities in everything from arrest rates to sentencing. Now you can accept one of two scenarios. Either all the stereotypes are true and minorities are typically no good criminals. Or the attitude of accepting racial profiling as a legitimate standard of law enforcement has led to this disparity. I would probably lean towards the latter.

     For instance why is it blacks are arrested more for drug related crimes but the majority of hard drug distributors are white? Or why do blacks typically incur much harsher sentencing than a white person committing the same crime?

     Do I think it is as rampant as intentionally racist as people on here are making it out to be? No. But I think to pretend it doesn't exist is to choose ignorance.

     Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/24/2009 @ 5:10pm

220. For all the people who say that African America Studies courses are racist, you are jokes. This is replete with stupidity. A. there are also Irish American, Asian American, Native American, Latino American, German American studies. There are studies and courses for every race so why is it you focus only on African American studies being racist? Generally speaking the reason you have racial studies courses is because some people would like to study the history of a group in depth in their class environment. The only history you really get in this country is that of the founders and the wars. Some people would like to know more about the contributions of specific people or groups. All you really hear about African American contributions in a typical classroom is slavery, and the 60's. That's skipping over a huge amount of history, some people would like to learn about that history.

     Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/24/2009 @ 5:16pm

221. The honeymoon is over, and i hope obama keeps showing his true colors. I want him to continue being himself. A racist, a marxist, and, in my humble opinion, a cradle-to-grave loser! Please continue speaking, without a tele-prompter, a much as humanly possible. He's already alienated half the country, caused racial tensions to rise to a level not seen in decades, and turned police officers around the nation against him (as if they were ever with him). Please, please, please continue to show your true colors, and that goes for all dems/libs/msm. What a pathetic excuse for not only a president, but a human being.

     Posted by barry25 at 07/24/2009 @ 6:55pm

222. Why are all those close to him racists, america-haters, unrepentant domestic terrorists/professors or felons? This guy is diiiirrrrrty!

     Posted by barry25 at 07/24/2009 @ 6:58pm

223. Ayers, Wright, Michelle Obama, Rezco, Prof. Gates and sotomayer (although I don't think he's very close to her, other than their shared racist philosophy) etc.

     Posted by barry25 at 07/24/2009 @ 7:01pm

224. Take care, that's my drive-by!

     Posted by barry25 at 07/24/2009 @ 7:03pm

225. Before the end of the day Monday, after the Sunday morning round of TV shows:

     Could Gates end up under the Magic bus? Probably NOT.....not enough hard videos of Gates doing his "God damn the white man" rants (yet)....LOL!

     Could HusseinO offer up a real apology to Sgt. Crowley and police departments around the country? 51%!

     Would the Cambridge PD release the recordings of this delicious Cursing-Gate? No, not just yet.

     Posted by Happy at 07/24/2009 @ 11:46pm

226. how do I know they were trumped up? they were immediately dropped when the bright light was focused on them.

     Posted by emile duBois

     sounds just like many conservatives talking about sotomayor's judicial record a couple weeks ago: "how do i know she's a bad judge? her case overturn rate is high."

     Posted by urmygyro at 07/25/2009 @ 02:49am

227. the cop should have walked away, even if there was verbal abuse. his job is to suss the situation and not make it worse. the arrest was punitive and therefore unprofessional. the prof did not present any threat to anyone. what was the arrest supposed to solve?

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/23/2009 @ 8:40pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     you're living in a dream world. it's punitive to arrest a drunk driver if they're simply pulled over w/out creating an accident. it's punitive to arrest someone who tries to shoplift but gets caught before leaving the store and the merchandise is returned. we can go on and on...

     read the arrest report. gates was a jerk to the cop immediately. the cop left the house and gates kept yelling at him. you think the cops are just gonna get in their cruisers and talk off when someone's being verbally abusive to them? no. he was told to settle down, and he didn't. i do this, i guarantee you the charges aren't merely dropped and I'm probably doing community service in a pre-trial diversion program.

     Posted by urmygyro at 07/25/2009 @ 03:02am

228. First off. Barry25 has some compulsive issues.

     Imagine if the situation were reversed and a black Sgt. rolled up on Jeff Sessions who had been locked out of his home. The black police Sgt. orders Sessions out of his home, despite the fact Sessions had already ID'd himself. Sessions starts to rant and rave about the indignities of being harassed in his own home, but the cop, competitive, arrogant, slighted, and eager to dominate, repeats and orders Sessions out of his house, only to slap handcuffs on him to humiliate him because he dared stand his ground IN HIS OWN HOME!

     It hits the news complete with Sessions perpwalk photos constantly being looped on national TV for the sake of further embarrassment. What do you think Rush Limbaugh's baiting would sound like? What outrage would the media be focusing on? And would they even question Sessions outrage and tirade? No. It wouldn't even be an issue. The black Sgt. would be WRONG and RACIST. PERIOD.

     He would've been suspended from the pressure put upon the police department to can this uppity "N" and put him in "his place".

     But in this scenario, despite the fact the charges had to be dropped, somehow we're to believe that Gates was wrong. That somehow he acted like Sherman Hemsley aka George Jefferson, and it's against the law to strut around in your house and resist a false arrest of somehow breaking into your OWN HOME.

     You can't get more racist to think that you're justified in arresting a man in his own home for mouthing off. What was it? Loud and Tumultuous behavior. Oh, I guess that's because they couldn't actually put down "Arrested for being an Uppity N**ga". 100 years ago he'd been whipped.

     In Nazi Germany, the jack booted SS imposed such a tyranny on the Jews! Now it's the Patriot Act!

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/25/2009 @ 03:39am

229. First off. Barry25 has some compulsive issues.

     I suppose you mean compelling.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/25/2009 @ 08:26am

230. oops, I guess it's compulsive after all. easy on the Nazi Germany stuff. the holocaust is an issue so large that it dwarfs all comparison.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/25/2009 @ 08:29am

231. interesting letter to the NYTimes today on this subject. the writer states that by law a disorderly conduct requires the presence of other people. since it was just Gates and the cops, that charge was specious, and rightly dismissed. Obama of course finds a way to give a nod to both sides of the conflict. that's why he has my admiration.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/25/2009 @ 08:59am

232. interesting letter to the NYTimes today on this subject. the writer states that by law a disorderly conduct requires the presence of other people.

     Posted by emile duBois at 07/25/2009 @ 08:59am

     I read that the woman who made the 911 call was present, and a few other neighbors, but I read it on the Internet so I wouldn't bet my life on it.

     I read the legal requirements regarding the charge of disorderly conduct on Slate yesterday and it did change my opinion. Although Prof. Gates' conduct was clearly "disorderly" by the general definition of the word, I think it was at most a technical violation of the law; similar to driving 56 in a 55. It creates a legal pretext for arresting someone, but invariably, the charges are dropped.

     But given the information that has been released relating to Crowley's teaching of a racial profiling class, it is clear to me that Gates was arrested for being an asshole -- wait a minute. Scratch that. Gates was arrested for ACTING like an asshole because he was tired and frustrated that day. And the color of his skin had nothing to do with it (on Crowley's part).

     On Gates' part, he was the one engaged in racial profiling. He copped and attitude because the color of the officer's skin made Gates presume that Crowley was racially profiling him. It turns out he was wrong.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 09:41am

233. Comfy,

     You make a number of excellent points in these two posts. I would like to offer a couple of things for you to think about.

     First, regarding racial profiling, I am convinced it occurs a million times a day in the US. I am convinced that it plays a part in the racial disparity in the US prision population. I am also convinced that it played no part in the decision making process for officer Crowley.

     The thought I wanted to offer here is that far too many people talk about racial profiling when the really mean cultural sterotyping.

     Consider this: You arrive home from work and you see the word "Fuck" spray painted in big orange letters on your garage door. The police are there and the have detained four people who were in the vicinity of your home. One is a 16-year old black girl, one is a 16 year old white boy, one is a 70-year old black woman, and the last is a 45-year old white man. Who do you think is going to have orange spray paint on his fingers?

     Here is some additional information: The girl is wearing the white shirt and plaid skirt uniform of the private catholic school down the street. The boy is tall and thin with glasses and has a band uniform on and is carrying a trumpet case. The woman is tall and thin, is wearing a smart purple dress and has a diamond necklace with matching earings. And the man has urine-soaked pants and the "wife beater" dirty t-shirt, and army jacket, tennis shoes whith holes, and a shopping cart with garbage bags that seem to accompany most homeless people. Now who do you think is going to have orange spray paint on his fingers?

     The visual information we use to make assumptions contains so much more information than race. It is wrong to attribute all assumptions to race alone, ignoring age, sex, dress, etc.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 10:15am

234. Friday, July 24, 2009

     Massachusetts Burning (Out) [Carol Iannone]

     ...Gates continues to behave disgracefully and without dignity...call the respected and conscientious Sergeant Crowley, who taught racial profiling...and who was trying to protect Gates's house, a "rogue cop." Gates is also saying that as a white man, Crowley couldn't stand seeing a black man standing up for his rights. This is an outrage. Gates is embroidering an incident in which he behaved boorishly -- "out of control," as one of the witnesses outside of the house put it -- into a racist fantasy out of Mississippi Burning...

     Now the black policeman who was on the scene has corroborated that Gates was acting erratically and was declaring that this is what happens when a white woman calls the police, a black man gets arrested. (But Gates has gone out of his way to appear to be thanking the woman for her alertness.)

     Gates and his lawyer, Harvard professor Charles Ogletree, should realize how bad they look...And the fact that they are using this to rile up black men everywhere, to encourage them to see their own difficulties with the police in Gates's manufactured situation, is unconscionable. They are not only trying to con white America but black America as well. And they have emerged as arrogant elitists at odds with America's working-class first responders, who are of all races and put themselves on the line every day.

     ....Ogletree is now putting out that the problem was not racial profiling -- as Gates has been loudly proclaiming...it's that Sergeant Crowley should have been more polite. The issue of race was injected, Ogletree says, when the 911 call about two black intruders was made. No, the issue was injected when Gates accused the white policeman of being racist.

     07/24 06:02 PM

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 10:28am

235. Continued to Comfy

     Here is the second point to consider: I just finished reading Predictibly Irrational. It is a book on behavioral economics. Classical economics posits that humans act in a rationally self-interested maner to maximize utility. That doesn't fit with reality because people do economically irrational things. For instance, say you were buying a refrigerator that cost $2505 and someone told you not to buy it because the same refrigerator is on sale across town for $2500. Are you going to leave the store and drive across town for $5? No, you probably wouldn't. So you buy the fridge and get in your car and you need gas. This station has it for $2.59 a gallon, but the station across town has it for $2.39 a gallon. Does this make a difference? On a 20 gallon tank you are only talking about $4. Less than the $5 for the refrigerator, but most people would buy the cheaper gas. This is economically irrational.

     Anyway, one of the ways we are irrational is called the "availability heuristic" and it says that one's judgement of the likelihood or probability of an event is influenced by how readily an example comes to mind. I've never experienced an earthquake or a hurricane. But growing up in the mid-west, tornados were a very common occurance. So if I've just bought a house and I'm offered insurance I'm more likely to think the torando insurance is more valuable even if the home is in California or Florida. Now, spending 30 seconds with the statistics would educate you as to the folly of that decison, but the availibility heuristic creates this internal bias that we must be conscious of in order to avoid making poor decision.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 10:41am

236. I was familar with Gates....he should have been appropriately embarrassed and left it at that...

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/24/2009 @ 07:00am

     ...it is clear to me that Gates was arrested for...ACTING like an asshole...he was the one engaged in racial profiling...

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 09:41am

     You get an A+ for being the most Fair & Balanced of posters on this RageGate...since you knew of Gates'. It is unfortunate and it embarrases me that my POTUS behaved even worse after first telling the world that he didn't have all of the facts but then took his friend's side. On top of it all, he "stupidly" slammed Sgt. C. and police everywhere.

     The arrest incident itself is now the minor story; a dime-a-dozen event that will NEVER go away in a multi-racial society. 50 years from now it will be whites - by then a minority among a U.S. of colored people - who will be in Gates' shoes.

     Just as it was w/Rev. Wright, my main interest today is to enjoy how Magic handles this. He's already made a couple of mini-steps....a tactic we have come to know well (at least for cons)...while I reaffirm my opinion that his instinct for making fast amends for mistakes just isn't there.

     Most won't recall that right after Rev. Wright hit the airwaves, I had high hopes then (when I wanted Obama to beat HRC) that the anticipated Philly speech would be his meaculpa for his 20 years in Wright's ultra-racist church...my hopes were dashed, and with it, I knew exactly who he is: too dumb to deserve my respect but smart enough to hang tight to his blackness.

     This RageGate will be his racial Waterloo.....if he doesn't deal with it as a man, as a POTUS, and NOT as a black!

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 10:51am

237. Continued to Comfy

     So how does the availibility heuristic relate to African American studies? I'm not saying these classes are intentionally or even unintentionally racist. But they do make people much more race conscious. This fact, coupled with the availibility heuristic will lead people to attribute racial overtones to a situation more readily than if they were less race conscious.

     I think African American studies courses are legitimate and even necessary. Irrational biases have obscurred many of the vital contributions African Americans have made to American history and culture. And a desire to "avert our gaze" from the "unpleasantness" (read injustice and barbarity) of the past cause a willingness to "overlook" atrocities that should not be overlooked to ensure they never happen again.

     And Prof. Gates is the perfect example of this. An unquestionably brilliant and learned man, he of all people should be able to recognize racial profiling. But because of the availibility heuristic, he assumed, incorrectly, that Officer Crowley was racially profiling him when it was Gates who was racially profiling Officer Crowley. In the grand scheme, this arrest is a triviality. If it leads to a wider discussion of racial profiling in police departments, some good may come of it even if this wasn't an example of it.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 10:57am

238. Gates has done a disservice to the black community by suggesting that it should be appropriate behavior to mouth off to police officers, and disrespect them. This can be a dangerous thing indeed, as only a Harvard professor could get away with this type of behavior. Anyone else (black or white) would have been arrested without having the charges dropped.

     The bottom line is a police officer responded to a 911 call about a possible burglary in progress. Gates should have been happy to see how responsive the police were to suspicious behavior in his own home, especially since Gates home was just burglarized two weeks ago! So instead, he berates the officer with insults of "racist this, your mama that?"

     Gates should apologize to the officer, to Obama (whom Gates no doubt gave a very one sided view of the story to), and to all black people for setting a very poor example. This is unbecoming behavior of a Harvard professor.

     Posted by mr.j at 07/25/2009 @ 11:13am

239. Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 10:51am

     I am doing my best to be more measured in my assessments of President Obama. My irrational hatred of President Clinton during his time in office has chastened me. Witnessing the hatred heaped on President Bush was like looking into a mirror for me and I was incredibly embarassed by what I saw.

     I have resolved to be more fair-minded, humble, and charitble toward my President from now on.

     To be honest, I have a hard time faulting President Obama for what he said. Prof. Gates is a personal friend of the President's. It can be hard to imagine a brilliant friend of yours "losing it" over such a triviality. In a dispute between a brilliant friend of mine and a complete stranger, I'm going to give my friend the benefit of the doubt and assmue there must be more to the story than just, "my friend lost it."

     And regarding the quote, "acted stupidly", well within the framework of someone who's goal is to make America a more racially harmonious place, arresting the head of Harvard's African American studies program would be considered "stupid". I'm not saying that this is what Officer Crowley should have been focused on, I'm saying this is probably what President Obama was thinking when he made the comment.

     Besides, the President has extended his comments to eliminate any criticism of Officer Crowley and refocused on the "cooler heads" (plural) as being what was needed at the time. It wasn't his finest momoent, but it was at most a minor mistake that he has done everything he can to correct.

     I've got not complaints.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 11:16am

240. I've got not complaints.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 11:16am

     You're in a pretty slim minority! It maybe years before BHO apologizes for his own "Mission Accomplished" moment....by then, far more racially charged events will have taken place.

     The election of Magic has, and it should, given black folks much needed pride but unfortunately, some of that pride will become irrational....as easily could've been the case. Imagine if BHO is NOT the POTUS, it maybe that Gates would not have reacted like the asshole he did.

     Somewhere in Gates' psych, while telling Sgt. Crowley "you don't know who you're messing with!" multiple times, knowing that he has a friend in the highest of high places, must have played a role. For most other blacks, there inevitably will be similar (but certainly lesser) psych at work which will lead to many more RageGates.

     If nothing else, a major speech by Magic is warranted...to atone for his own worse crime of jumping to conclusion despite saying he didn't have all of the facts and to minimize the damages to race relations due to asshole Henry Gates.

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 11:29am

241. Happy,

     I forget where I read this, but someone was comparing the claim of prevasive racism in America against the reality that Prof. Gates' mayor, governor, and President are all African American.

     And just to make sure I don't get Mask all worked up by thinking I am really fair and balanced, I'll pass along this quote from Mark Steyn, which is definitely not fair and balanced, but is pretty funny:

     ********

     This is the pitiful state the Bull Connors of the 21st century are reduced to, forced to take along a squad recruited from the nearest Benetton ad when they go out to whup some uppity Negro boy.

     http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ gates-professor-black-2506786-racism-sgt

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 11:45am

242. More Steyn:

     ***********

     In a fairly typical "he said/VIP said" incident, the VIP was the author of his own misfortune but, with characteristic arrogance, chose to ascribe it to systemic racism, Jim Crow, lynchings, the Klan, slavery, Jefferson impregnating Sally Hemmings, etc. And so it goes, now and forever. My advice to professor Gates for future incidents would be to establish his authority early. Quote Shakespeare, from his early days with Hallmark:

     "Roses are red

     Violets are blue

     Victims are black

     Like 2 Live Crew."

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 11:48am

243. I'd read Steyn, :) stuf:

     Friday, July 24, 2009

     Mark Steyn: Obama knows 'stupidly' when he doesn't see it

     Mark Steyn

     ...the most memorable moment of...Obama's otherwise listless press conference on "health care" were his robust remarks on the "racist" incident involving...Gates and the Cambridge police. The latter "acted stupidly," pronounced the chief of state. The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Chávez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police Sgt. James Crowley.

     ...Gates is now saying that, if Sgt. Crowley publicly apologizes for his racism, the prof will graciously agree to "educate him about the history of racism in America." Which is a helluva deal. I mean, Ivy League parents remortgage their homes to pay Gates for the privilege of lecturing their kids, and here he is offering to hector it away to some no-name lunkhead for free...

     Professor Gates chose option a), which is just plain stupid. For one thing, these days they have dash-cams and two-way radios and a GPS gizmo in the sharp end of the billy club, so an awful lot of this stuff winds up being preserved on tape, and, if you're the one a-hootin' an' a-hollerin', it's not going to help...

     Gates then told him, "I'll speak with your mama outside." Outside, Sgt. Crowley's mama failed to show. But among his colleagues were a black officer and a Hispanic officer. Which is an odd kind of posse for what the Rev. Al Sharpton calls, inevitably, "the highest example of racial profiling I have seen."...

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 12:26pm

244. Mark Steyn...w/out repeating what Darin posted:

     ....I wasn't there. Neither was the president of the United States, or the governor of Massachusetts or the mayor of Cambridge. All of whom have declared themselves firmly on the side of the Ivy League bigshot. And all of whom, as it happens, are African American. A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the "post-racial America" will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like professor Gates unto the end of time.

     ================================

     What does this say about elected black leaders? They, including The Messiah, are essentially Gubber version of Rev. Sharpton & J Jackson!

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 12:30pm

245. Happy, then read this:

     http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/ 2009/07/24/has-liberalism-jumped-the-shark/

     Has Liberalism Jumped the Shark?

     In an episode of "South Park" the boys encounter the Underwear Gnomes. They are a society of magical little creatures who steal your underwear in the middle of the night. When the boys ask the Gnomes about their motivation, they explain that they are doing it for "profit." The first step is to steal underpants. The third step is profit. When pressed about the second step there is only silence. The Gnomes don't know how to transform the stolen underwear into profit, but they continue to steal it anyway. They work tirelessly, stealing underpants in their quest for profit. But without that second step, they will get nothing. Hmmm, what does that sound like? Great goals, but no solid plan of getting there? That's modern liberalism. It's an ideology that lacks principles No step two. To make matters worse, most of the very mechanisms of liberalism (unions, racially segregated interest groups, attacks on capitalism) act counter intuitively to its goals...

     Make no mistake, they aren't going to evaporate right away. Even "Happy Days" went on for 100 episodes after the infamous moment (and we got two seasons of "Joanie Loves Chachi"), but the end is nigh. At some point in the near future (probably in the lead up to the 2010 mid-terms) the pundit class is going to have to ask "can the Democratic Party relate to voters?" Can the party of Howard Dean, the Daily Kos and Keith Olbermann remain relevant?

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 12:30pm

246. Darin: I'd also already read "Has Liberalism Jumped the Shark?"

     Been in the home office a lot in the past 2 weeks with lots of `work' but managed to do twice the usual amount of reading....good timing, given RageGate and the direction of the polling on Mr. Magic....been fun!

     Here at TN, we see the same trend....Libs running out of gas and wearing themselves out contorting themselves....as you so aptly posted. Noticed how much whistling MASK's been doing, when he posts at all! Same w/Sotomayor....contorting herself in her Senate hearings.

     As in breitbart's "Shark" column, "That's modern liberalism. It's an ideology that lacks principles..."

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 1:31pm

247. "The President of the United States should not comment on anything until he has all the facts. Oh because it was his friend he could comment before knowing the facts?" (Happy)

     Answer: How about Iraq's nuclear potential? Or Saddam being involved in the NYC attacks?

     Now, these are really important things that Bush should not ever had comment even in his friend Cheney told him he was sure about them.

     "Asked what he thought of the president's comments, Crowley immediately replied, "I didn't vote for him," and then smiled..... I don't know what to say about that. I guess a friend of mine would support my position too." (Rio)

     Those are pretty heavy clues onto Crowley's decision of getting the Professor arrested I would say. Is this a friend thing? If he would have been a friend, would he had been treating the Professor as he did? Would he had arrested him? I bet he would have said 'Cool down, let's get a beer'.

     Posted by Frank42 at 07/25/2009 @ 4:12pm

248. Swamp Yankee from red state said it best Happy;

     "A good cop vindicated. Gates discredited. Obama undermined -- undermined during a week of great legislative importance. Obama exposed -- exposed for being the radical sympathizer and anti-cop liberal that he is. It was the grass roots that stopped the "lynching" of a good cop by the MSM; the Harvard elite; the Obama machine and their enablers. The police union is still asking for an actual apology from Obama and Deval. So fight on."

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/25/2009 @ 4:58pm

249. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 12:30pm |

     The Underpants Gnomes represent people with BUSINESS PLANS, Darin. There was nothing partisan to it. The boys were merely poking fun at CAPITALISTS; people like HAPPY.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/25/2009 @ 5:15pm

250. Posted by snowball777 at 07/25/2009 @ 5:15pm

     I didn't see the show. I just thought it was funny that six months ago, the Republicans were dead and burried and now some Conservatives are "feeling their oats" and are now saying it is Liberals that are dead and burried.

     Perhaps both calls were a little premature.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 5:25pm

251. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 10:57am

     I find no fault in your comments and agree with them. Like I said I have no clue what was going through Officer Crowley's mind or Gates' mind at the time. Frankly there isn't enough information to make a claim on either. We have two situations of innocent until proven guilty. I so far see a crappy situation that ended in a crappy manner for both people involved.

     I do have to thank you for reminding of Predictably Irrational, I have been meaning to buy it and will immediately read it when I finish my current fun read Omnivore's Dilemma.

     I think this issue is indicative of race in this country. I think people can rarely if ever discuss racial matters with a level head. Their preconceived notions always get in the way. Certain people choose to always side with the minority because of profiling against the police. Some people choose to always side with the authority figure because of profiling against the minority and whether they have the information to actually make the judgement or not, they make it.

     My step-father gave me some useful advice that I follow to this day. My step-father used to be a cop and he said he'd heard plenty of stories of officers beating up black suspects because they could. What he told me was that anything an officer can justify on paper they can get away with so never give them reason to do anything. Just be polite and move on.

     Whether Crowley did this or not is irrelevant because I think he wouldn't have arrested him if he hadn't have made him angry in the first place. This sounds like an issue of Gates' lost his head started yelling at the cop, the copped arrested him out of anger at being yelled at.

     Continued.

     Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/25/2009 @ 5:46pm

252. Does this justify what Crowley did? It definitely takes a lot of weight off the charges. Crowley however did I think act out of anger. I think a cop SHOULD as said earlier just walk away as long as someone is not threatening them. However at most Crowley should be talking to by a commanding officer about arresting out of anger rather than punished. I think it is likely this was not about race. But peoples precepts about race are too strong to tell anyone else that.

     There are the people like you and me who can put it aside. There are the people like the author of this piece who automatically side with the minority and there are the people like Happy who always said with the authority. No one will be able to tell the two latter groups that they are wrong because they aren't in it for reasoning they are in it to say their piece.

     Everything you posted I agree with though. I would say that racial profiling happens more often than that though. Between everyone. You see someone Asian or old and assume they are poor drivers. That kind of thing.

     Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/25/2009 @ 5:52pm

253. I didn't see the show. I just thought it was funny that six months ago, the Republicans were dead and burried and now some Conservatives are "feeling their oats" and are now saying it is Liberals that are dead and burried.

     Perhaps both calls were a little premature.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 5:25pm

     The Economist actually just printed an article in the current edition that was about which candidates could help lead the Republican party back into the light. Right now Republicans are on a bar to one side is soft fluffy pillows to the other is 10,000 foot drop. If the party falls into the horribly partisan and fringe members like Happy or Larry then yes the party will be erroneous. Does his mean the party must become liberal? No, however it does mean that it needs to rethink it's stances. People in this country want more out of their government and the demand keeps increasing as a whole. Which means as long as Republicans are unwilling to yield they will spiral into irrelevancy.

     Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/25/2009 @ 6:01pm

254. ....a little premature.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 5:25pm

     Hope and Change......Yes, We Can.....We're the ones we've been waiting for........You never want a crisis to go to waste STUPIDLY.

     Posted by Happy at 07/25/2009 @ 6:18pm

255. "opinionated" pretty much nailed this one to the wall.i humbly add that the folks who hired officer crowley also put him in charge of the lecture on racial profiling,and presumably racial sensitivity,at the academy-so claims that he tried to calm the professor down by dangling handcuffs in front of him-a move which is likely to multiply the resistance level in anyone who is already feeling frightened and invaded.like "opinionated" i don't think we'll see an african american cop ever try such a stupid stunt with sen sessions or graham-and i think that's what the president meant when he called crowley's tactics "stupid".to say the least.thanks,again.

     Posted by David Lucke at 07/25/2009 @ 6:35pm

256. Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/25/2009 @ 5:25pm |

     There's a difference between presenting a vocal minority opinion and being able to accomplish political goals.

     Though Hap's polls suggest it's growing fast, I know these things wax and wane like stock prices, up and down in near-brownian motion as the talking heads pull their attention to and fro like tennis spectators.

     The Pugs can't filibuster, can't stop the populist leanings in the house, and even lobbyists are getting into the "we need to do something; harumph!" act; so we're going to see some legislation...what remains to be seen is what kind.

     So place a bet on the libs demise with as much care, or hedge and prepare for their Senate situation to be the ace in the hole if the whole party needs help come 2010.

     I don't like the trajectory, but there's ample time to pull back on the stick and thus up.

     Posted by snowball777 at 07/25/2009 @ 10:10pm

257. Four years ago I saw the movie Crash which showed the virtual tinderbox of race relations that existed in our country. Today, sadly, race relations are not any better, despite a Black President. The overwhelming outpouring of letters posted to this site and many others after the President's comment about the Gates incident clearly indicated that we also have not come any further than we were after the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial was announced sixteen years ago with Blacks celebrating and Whites in stunned disbelief. Each side has their own views about race and sometimes, oftentimes, even while perceptions may not be true, perception for that race becomes reality.

     One thing I know for certain is that someday life on our planet will end but it will not be because we did not do enough about climate change. It will be because we did not do enough to change the climate of hatred, bigotry, anger, mistrust, hopelessness, and despair. Whether in our own country, the Mideast, or in many countries around the world, we are more concerned about what divides us instead of the things we have in common that can bring us together.

     This past week I spent several hours reading postings about the Obama/Gates comments and on Israeli sites about the Arab Israeli conflict. I came away from reading hundreds of letters feeling very sad about my fellow human beings. If we would could only bottle half of the energy we expend hating and mistrusting others and use it to fight disease, poverty, and hunger, this world would be a lot better off. Before we worry about climate change let's concentrate on changing the climate about working together to make this planet we inhabit a wonderful life for everyone.

     Posted by mjkoch at 07/25/2009 @ 10:31pm

258. Crowley was simply unprofessional and vindictive. Gates, being in his own home with uninvited "guests", had no obligations to behave cordially. The charges were dropped because they were bogus.

     Rant:

     If you can't be disorderly in your own home, then we are truly living in a Police State. Family arguments happen every minute of every hour of every day. People are verbally abusive to family, friends, pets and TV sets (no rhyme intended :-).

     If your private actions aren't loud enough to disturb your neighbors, then the Stazi has no business getting involved. If Gates were shuffling around on his floor, wearing a polka dot diaper, shouting honky insults and yo mamma cracks like George freakin' Jefferson, to the music of Good Times -- as long as it's not loud enough to disturb his neighbors and he's not butt naked with his blinds and curtains open, it is no business of law enforcement.

     No competent, professional cop on the beat, if they saw or heard you in your home swearing racial epitaphs at a guest or a TV show, as they walked by, should be able to demand you step outside to arrest you. If one does, then he/she should be charged with police misconduct. If jack booted thugs are given powers to regulate your private behavior, IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HOME OR APARTMENT, then that's a fate worse than any foreign terrorist could inflict on us.

     I see what the problem is here. Anglo heritage dictates that he/she has a genetic impulse to subjugate those they feel superior to. Gates did not and would not genuflect, therefore he was tumultuous, wild, erratic. He should have recognized his "master" and bowed down and licked boots. Apparently Gates ain't that dude.

     If you've done nothing wrong, why do you genuflect to anyone harassing you in your own home?

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 06:03am

259. If jack booted thugs are given powers to regulate your private behavior, IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HOME OR APARTMENT,

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 06:03am

     You're missing something. The only reason Sgt. Crowley was there was because a witness saw two men forcing open the front door.

     Since Crowley was obligated to investigate, Gates should have been cooperative.

     Being beligerant was just plain stupid.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/26/2009 @ 09:27am

260. Oh, and for the 100th time Gates was not arrested in his home. The Officer questioned Gates in his home and left. Gates followed the officer outside so that he could continue to verbally abuse him outside his home. It was outside his home where Gates was arrested.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/26/2009 @ 09:29am

261. Gates, being in his own home with uninvited "guests", had no obligations to behave cordially....

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 06:03am

     As Darin points out, not that it makes any difference with such Far-Sided opinion, Gates followed Crowley out on his porch to create a nice scene.....

     The only thught-provoking point you did make, is the stance that we have " no obligations to behave cordially"...presumably in, on, or around one's abode...something along the line `A man's home is his castle'.

     Just thought I let you have time to think this over...."no obligation", then, think of this in terms of an esteemed Harvard professor.

     Posted by Happy at 07/26/2009 @ 10:42am

262. 1st let me say that I have great respect for you Prof. Harris-Lacewell. Your commentary on MSNBS is always intelligent and enlightening.

     My issue is with the Cambridge Police Dept.'s adamant statements that everything that Sgt. Crowley did was right, that Dr. Gates was wrong and their over emotional over-the-top requests for an apology from President Obama.

     Ask yourself this: IF SGT. CROWLEY'S ACTIONS WERE 100% JUSTIFIABLE AND IF DR. GATES DESERVED TO BE ARRESTED, THEN WHY DID THE CAMBRIDGE POLICE DROP THE CHARGES IMMEDIATELY AFTER GATES' ARREST????

     The 3 most vocal CPD officers in support of Crowley WERE NOT AT THE SCENE--- and dropping the charges validates that THEY KNEW they had made a mistake in arresting Dr. Gates. It is VERY rare that a Police officer or Dept. will drop a case against a regular citizen when they KNOW they are in the right REGARDLESS of the charge. They only do that when they KNOW "they" made a mistake.

     This is a clear case of a police officer exercising his authority over a "regular" citizen just to serve his ego. The racial and status aspects withstanding since Sgt. Crowley had Racial Sensitivity training and should've KNOWN that arresting a prominent Black man in his own house would precipitate a media fire storm. Regardless of Dr. Gates' "status", Sgt. Crowley was in the position of authority and had the power to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand.

     It's seems to me that the Cambridge Police Dept. has a hidden political agenda since many of the comments from them involved "how they voted" and "how they wouldn't support President Obama again" if they did before after the President's comments to support HIS friend. The same way members of the CPD supported THEIR co-worker without being there and knowing ALL the "

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 10:50am

263. That's "Your commentary on MSNBC... ". Ya see, people DO make mistakes (smile).

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 10:52am

264. It's seems to me that the Cambridge Police Dept. has a hidden political agenda since many of the comments from them involved "how they voted" and "how they wouldn't support President Obama again" if they did before after the President's comments to support HIS friend. The same way members of the CPD supported THEIR co-worker without being there and knowing ALL the "details". And why aren't the OTHER OFFICERS of the CPD who were at the scene been allowed to speak on what THEY heard and saw?!

     The bottom line is that if the 2 men--- 3 including President Obama--- comes out of this shaking hands and rectifying the discourse between them, then the situation is diffused. But the aspect of racial profiling will still be a relevant topic because it IS a relevant issue in America as EVERY FBI and Police statistic clearly indicates IS A PROBLEM.

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 10:53am

265. And one last note... since the Cambridge Police Dept. clearly indicates that THEY made a mistake in arresting Dr. Gates by DROPPING THE CHARGES immediately thereafter... wouldn't the comment of "... they ACTED stupidly" made by the President have "some" merit and justification?

     I think it does by the definitive result of the case which has officially and LEGALLY dropped BEFORE the President was even asked to comment on it.

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 11:01am

266. Stupid is as stupid does.

     Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you the Three Stooges; Professor Henry Louis Gates, Sergeant James Crowley, and President Barack Hussein Obama. I'm compelled to comment on the "The Cambridge MA Arrest Incident". Have you ever seen three very important men in our society act in such an immature manner? Whether it was a celebrated and accomplished policeman and professor caught up in a snit with neither one willing to back down or the president who decides to speak out for a friend.

     Complete post here: http://wildweezle.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/stupid-is-as-stupid-does/

     Posted by wildweezle at 07/26/2009 @ 12:17pm

267. Who made YOU the ultimate judger on ALL things said out of coxtext? Oh I get it... YOU"RE the "ONE" that has ALWAYS said the right thing at the right time in every situation you've ever been in. I heard that "you" existed but I always thought it was a myth... until now. (BIG TIME SARCASM).

     What I've also seen is this has also been an opportunity for faceless, uninfluential bloggers to feel "powerful" in their own little virtual self-exhalted worlds of what's right or wrong... stupid or smart... in terms of racism that is without doubt an INHERENT part of American culture and a very SENSITIVE issue given the well-documented racist LEGACY of this country.

     But those who limit their perspectives to their own viewpoints regarding complex issues such as "race", also prove JUST HOW limited that perspective is by the words they speak OR type.

     Everyone directly involved in this said things that probaly shouldn't have been IN THE CONTEXT of which they said it... and that includes the Cambridge Police Dept's responses to what President Obama said. But that's what happens when emotion overrules common sense and rationale... and "sometimes" the END RESULT makes us ALL better off in the long run.

     I think that this is what will happen after all is said and done since both parties, along with the Cambridge Police Dept.,has accepted each other's proposal to rectify this situation and to forgive the words and actions that precipitated this event. S

     So I'm ready to focus on and support the "probable positive" evolution of this incident. How about you?

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 3:32pm

268. "context"

     Posted by str8fwd at 07/26/2009 @ 3:33pm

269. Happy and Darren. Wow! Your propensity for defending flawed thinking is quite telling and confirms my assertions that Anglos suffer delusions of grandeur. I, personally, will not genuflect, bow or scrape to your ilk. Period. It seems, however, that you won't rest until you achieve dominance by any means necessary. Now, who is sicker -- the malevolent or the benevolent in the eyes of God? You do know God don't you?

     Regardless of the reason the cops were there, there WAS NO crime in progress. Nothing justifies escalating nothing into something. The "stupid" cops should be trained how to react and defuse exactly that type of situation. I wrote this on another blog and it was muzzled, so I'll try it here.

     Was Gates obnoxious. Yes. But he was home where you're entitled to be obnoxious. You're obnoxious. It's not against the law or Rush Limbaugh would be serving time. Actually, the drug abuser should be. Nevertheless, Crowley couldn't resist abusing his power to put an "Uppity, black "N" in his so called place, where ever that is. Gates is probably smarter than Crowley's entire family, but that's not a black or white thing. Does Gates have an ego? Hell yeah. I would too if I had accomplished that much. But , to me, Crowley is schooled in the new Patriot Act, constitutional subterfuge, known as "escalation", whereupon the cops have been taught tactics to provoke citizens into anger so the cops can escalate force and justify it. To serve and Protect is no longer their aim. They now get their buzz from hunting humans. It's like the guy that discovers a giant squid in the ocean. Somehow he feels possessed to catch and kill this creature just to brag about it. That, to me is a sickness of mind and spirit. The thrill of the kill!

     Diseased minds.

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 7:37pm

270. Happy and Darin, and a few others posting here, are like the Men in Black type. They come behind coherent, truthful dialog and spray mind control gas all over the place to try to erase cogent discussion that's not flattering to their heritage of delusional supremacy. It's so obvious how they post, ad nauseum, mumbo jumbo diatribes that start nowhere and end up dissolving. No logic.

     You guys need to get a room together and stop having this embarrassing reach around session on the blogosphere. It's incredibly disgusting. You cannot nor will not erase this consciousness. You're trying to defend thousands of years of flawed thinking at a time of expanding enlightenment. It's like pre-school children trying to scold and discipline wise adults. It's only mildly amusing, but more annoying than anything else.

     The only thing that has jumped the shark here is your intellectual integrity. You two psuedo pundits are the epitome of the term white wash. I've long held the opinion SOME Anglo mindsets are sadly predisposed to need to "police" ethnics. You have a misplaced desire to patrol those unlike yourselves. Is it your self appointed duty to issue citations on this blog for what you feel are violations of your perceived superiority? Is it that you don't understand what we try to express in this topic and therefore reject it, or is it that you attempt to reject it just because you can't accept any assertions from those you want to be superior to? Is it your job to spackle the comments section after people of color post their opinions? Just curious. You're not doing a very good job because I can still see the reality despite your smog machines.

     Can we move on? Unlikely because the majority race, to me, can't click their brains forward due to abject h@tred.

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 8:06pm

271. It seems, however, that you won't rest until you achieve dominance by any means necessary.

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 7:37pm

     News for YO: "dominance" has been achieved a long time ago! The Anglo-European culture has been dominant for centuries.......go beyond just Afro-American Studies.

     Like a boxing champion, until he is defeated in the ring, he remains the champ by sheer fact of having earned it. Until such day when blacks can out-invent, out-smart, & out-perform whites across the spectrum of civilazational activities (other than basketball, football and moon walking), you'll remain second-rate or even third-rate.

     All I care is performance....and Henry Gates performed like a you-know-what! Your Messiah, did even worse!

     Posted by Happy at 07/26/2009 @ 8:34pm

272. Can we move on?

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 8:06pm

     Such a "teachable moment", according to both Gates & Magic, why move on?

     My own experience, when people say it's time to move on, they usually side with the more guilty party!

     Posted by Happy at 07/26/2009 @ 8:38pm

273. News for YO: "dominance" has been achieved a long time ago! The Anglo-European culture has been dominant for centuries.......go beyond just Afro-American Studies. Like a boxing champion, until he is defeated in the ring, he remains the champ by sheer fact of having earned it. Until such day when blacks can out-invent, out-smart, & out-perform whites across the spectrum of civilazational activities (other than basketball, football and moon walking), you'll remain second-rate or even third-rate. All I care is performance....and Henry Gates performed like a you-know-what! Your Messiah, did even worse! Posted by Happy at 07/26/2009 @ 8:34pm | ignore this person | warn this person

     ********* Note to Happy: Proofread. Ok?

     Whenever you post, dude, there is a distinct smell of brimstone in the air. I knew I could SMOKE you out. Do you perform human and animal sacrifices too? You aren't really Happy -- I mean REALLY, REALLY HAPPY, are you?

     Anyway, your argument is void of originality and facts. If you do some real research, (you can start by googling 'Early Europeans studied at the University of TIMBUKTU'), you'll find this is where many ancient European scholars studied to gain much of their early knowledge you so boldly claim credit for. Timbuktu was in Africa.

     What did you learn today, Mr. Happy? It sure as hell wasn't spelling!

     OK, Sergeant Superiority, It's CIVIL (I) ZATIONAL

     I couldn't resist that one, buddy.

     LOL!!!

     But, thank you SO much for supporting my earlier claim that many of your type suffer from a delusional grandiosity. This contributes to a racist, discriminatory mindset that threatens innocent people in the country.

     Are you related to officer Crowley? Just asking.....

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 11:15pm

274. Like I said; Don't you just love how the "Racist in Chief", the Obamanation that makes desolation ,took the time to take the racebaiter's twist on a lawful police officer doing his sworn duty to safeguard the public and their property?

     How is that helpful, and why is it any business of the Pres. of the U.S.A. ? It is unreal that the chief law official should take Jesse Jackson and Al Sharptons perverted racial baiting and extortion laced issues and publically demean and denegrate local law enforcement officers?

     This is B. Hussien Obamanations ideal of America and one of the reasons he is the worst figurehead we have ever had! How petty!!!!

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/26/2009 @ 11:20pm

275. This contributes to a racist, discriminatory mindset that threatens innocent people in the country.

     Are you related to officer Crowley? Just asking.....

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 11:15pm

     To someone so opinionated, one has to be opinionated back....dig?

     You & Gates are more closely related to gorillas than Crowley and I to each other....hey, seen Michael Jackson's missing `nose'? LMAO!

     Posted by Happy at 07/26/2009 @ 11:27pm

276. Leaving a fireworks display and party on June 27 of this year near Akron, Ohio, Martin Marshall and his family were attacked by dozens of black teenage boys chanting, "[I]t's a black world," and,"This is our world."

     Akron police quickly said it was no hate crime.

     Last week in Austin, Texas, someone threw a brick through the window of a 4 year old's bedroom with a note reading, "Keep Eastside Black. Keep Eastside Strong."

     The victimized family is white. Thereto, police quickly ruled out a hate crime.

     Obamanation looks more like Al Sharpton than FDR or Lincoln now and he wants to expand hate crimes excluding whites as usual!!!

     Posted by BigPasture at 07/26/2009 @ 11:53pm

277. Posted by Opinionated at 07/26/2009 @ 7:37pm

     ***** Nothing justifies escalating nothing into something.

     Tell that to Gates. "Can I talk to you outside?" "Is anyone in the house with you?" These are "nothing". Gates did all the escalation. The escallating stopped instantly when Officer Crowley said, "Mr. Gates, you are under arrest."

     ***** The "stupid" cops should be trained how to react and defuse exactly that type of situation.

     Oh, it is simply a manner of training? Then Sec. Clinton merely has to be trained on how to "difuse" the Norks. And the military only has to be trained on how to "defuse" Al Qeda.

     Sometimes even an expert defuser can't defuse someone who is acting irrationally. Even after Officer Crowley left the home, Gates pursued him outside to continue the escalation. There is no training in the world to defuse that.

     Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 07/27/2009 @ 07:16am

278. 'If he's willing to apologize, to sincerely apologize, I'm willing to educate him...' -- Professor Henry Louis Gates, Harvard University

     Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/27/2009 @ 07:55am

279. Despite all the "outrage" on the right about Gates and Obama...

     it's going to have a half-life nearly as short as seaborgium!

     heheh

     Posted by Mask at 07/27/2009 @ 08:42am

280. As a former student of yours Prof. Harris-Lacewell, I just want to share a quote from an article in The Times that I had imagined myself while hearing about this whole situation:

     "Why he did not try to put Sergeant Crowley at ease as the sergeant eyed him warily that afternoon, resisting his request to step onto the porch and angrily accusing him of profiling, is not clear. Friends have said that perhaps his fatigue, his illness and his bewilderment at having an officer question his presence in his own home combined to make him lose his characteristic cool."

     While this event just by happenstance turned ugly and as much as I am sorry that Prof. Gates was arrested, I would have to say that no matter what race/ethnicity you are, no matter what class you are, and no matter what history has said of relationship between blacks and the police, ultimately, officers of the law must be respected.

     You can't just say you're a Harvard professor, or even provide identification of being a Harvard professor (in lieu of, say, a state id with your address on it), and expect to be telling the truth. Anyone can commit a crime. And while it may be less likely statistically that Ivy League professors commit crimes, that's just pompous.

     Posted by thisguyukno at 07/27/2009 @ 10:10am

281. Posted by thisguyukno at 07/27/2009 @ 10:10am | ignore this person | warn this person

     I guess you'd just have to be black with a chip on your shoulder to 'understand' where Prof. Gates was coming from. Fact is, he's had remarkable opportunity in his life because of his color.

     This morning the 911 call was released as well as the police transmissions. They both support Sgt. Crowley's report. The woman who called 911 never mentioned 'black men' as blacks are claiming and the police transmissions reveal a clearly irate Prof. Gates in the background as Sgt. Crowley reported that the subject was being unco-operative as the Sgt. asked for back up to procede to the scene and also requested a university officer's presence.

     The teaching opportunity here is to instruct people of every color to respect the authority of police. For all this officer knew, there could have been someone inside of the house holding a gun on the Professor. That's why he asked him to step outside. If Gates had stepped outside, the Officer could have asked further questions and resolved the issue. Gates chose to abuse the Officer and got what he deserved. End of story.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/27/2009 @ 11:52am

282. As for having a beer with the President and Prof. Gates, a simply apology by both the President and the Professor would suffice.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 07/27/2009 @ 11:53am

283. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Cambridge police are preparing to release a copy of the 911 call and radio dispatches made during the controversial arrest of last week black Harvard scholar Henry Louise Gates Jr.

     Police Commissioner Robert Haas said at a news conference Monday that the "tapes will speak for themselves," when asked if police should have done anything differently.

     *************************

     Nothing like getting down to all the facts. Apparently the 911 caller didn't identify the 2 men trying to break in Professor Gates home as BLACK. If that is this case there are a lot of pundits that should be eating crow concerning racial profiling.

     I remember Al Sharptin and the Twana incident. His stance then was "Just because it didn't happen..." Is this going to happen again and again because someone has an agenda to hide the truth and shift the blame?

     Now the debate should be about the Premier Intellectual Professor Gates for providing proof for Racial Sterotyping by his actions. We don't need that in this country. Gates should be fired and we need to get another Premier Intellectual to take his place. One of the requirements should that he/she be endowed with COMMON SENSE.

     Posted by blindhog at 07/27/2009 @ 12:04pm

284. Ha Ha! The truth comes otu, proving who the REAL racists are. Would the TRUE racists please stand up: Prof. Gates, Barack Obama, The MSM, TheNATION and all their leftist supporters/bloggers etc. These are the REAL racists, as proven by their PRE-JUDGING of the ploice, the responding officer, and the 911 caller, whom Gates stated was a racist and had supposedly referred to them as 2 black men, which was a lie, based solely on his own personal racism. Gates is an oxygen-thief, cradle-to-grave, nipple-to-gov't, racist-loser, just like Barack and Michalle Obama. I sincerely hope that the 911 caller, who I believe is of puerto-rican descent, contrary to the pre-judgement that she was white, by the racist himself, Prof. Gates., decised to sue his sorry ass for libel. This piece of dirt, Gates, should lose his job, and never be allowed to indoctrinate hatred into our young ever again. I hope this story has legs and continues on for a very long time because that will be very bad for the racists like Obama, Gates, Sharpton, Jackson, the MSM, Academia and the rest of the "RACE-INDUSTRY", which depends on fanning the flames of racial tensions in order to attain/keep power and income. Pathetic. All you libs on this site who pre-judged the officer, ploice, and 911 caller should be ashamed of yourselves!!!!!!!

     Posted by barry25 at 07/27/2009 @ 2:23pm

285. ASHAMED i said!!! Oh wait, you're liberals, you have no shame, conscience, morals, values etc. Anything goes in liberal-land....as long as you're a lib. Nevermind......

     Posted by barry25 at 07/27/2009 @ 2:26pm

286. Skip Gates for Prez! Well, after Obama the voters won't give the black a second chance.

     Posted by HelenDAO at 07/27/2009 @ 9:06pm

287. I believe Crowley is a big fat liar. If I were Obama, I wouldn't give Crowley the sweat off of my B@lls. Cambridge PD is obviously corrupt. Too bad that's a common thread that runs throughout all Anglo institutions.

     When this coward and criminal cop reaches the White House for his free beer, I certainly hope the Prez doesn't give him his traditional Budweiser. I'm afraid Crowley would get drunk and, in a fit of vengeance for correctly being called stupid, try to arrest Obama for being "Black in a White House".

     As far as the resident freaks, Darrin, Happy and Barry25 are concerned... I didn't take the time to read your posts because the logic is so reptilian and convoluted, it isn't even worth scanning. But it's amusing that after I post, you obvious, inbred, demon lovers can't help but engage in a disgusting, clusterf*ck orgy of abject, supremacist bull$hit.

     Do any of you warlocks know a guy named Jeff Gannon? I'll make that a rhetorical query so you can spare yourselves another steamy, lovefest all over the blogosphere. It's starting to resemble a truck stop bathroom when your threesome posts.

     Posted by Opinionated at 07/28/2009 @ 12:17am