Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions

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Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions

BOSTON – Supporters of a prominent Harvard University black scholar who was arrested at his own home by police responding to a report of a break-in say he is the victim of racial profiling.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. had forced his way through the front door of his home because it was jammed, his lawyer said Monday.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home near campus after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.

Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.

"Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him," the officer wrote.

Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com

He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Gates, 58, also refused to speak publicly Monday, referring calls to Ogletree.

"He was shocked to find himself being questioned and shocked that the conversation continued after he showed his identification," Ogletree said.

Ogletree declined to say whether he believed the incident was racially motivated, saying "I think the incident speaks for itself."

Some of Gates' African-American colleagues say the arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge.

Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years, said he was stopped on campus by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.

"We do not believe that this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white," Counter said. "It really has been very unsettling for African-Americans throughout Harvard and throughout Cambridge that this happened."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he will attend Gates' arraignment.

"This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen," Sharpton said. "I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs."

Ogletree said Gates had returned from a trip to China on Thursday with a driver, when he found his front door jammed. He went through the back door into the home — which he leases from Harvard — shut off an alarm and worked with the driver to get the door open. The driver left, and Gates was on the phone with the property's management company when police first arrived.

Ogletree also disputed the claim that Gates, who was wearing slacks and a polo shirt and carrying a cane, was yelling at the officer.

"He has an infection that has impacted his breathing since he came back from China, so he's been in a very delicate physical state," Ogletree said.

Lawrence D. Bobo, the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard, said he met with Gates at the police station and described his colleague as feeling humiliated and "emotionally devastated."

"It's just deeply disappointing but also a pointed reminder that there are serious problems that we have to wrestle with," he said.

Bobo said he hoped Cambridge police would drop the charges and called on the department to use the incident to review training and screening procedures it has in place.

The Middlesex district attorney's office said it could not do so until after Gates' arraignment. The woman who reported the apparent break-in did not return a message Monday.

Gates joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious "university professors" positions at the school. He also was host of "African American Lives," a PBS show about the family histories of prominent U.S. blacks, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.

"I was obviously very concerned when I learned on Thursday about the incident," Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said in a statement. "He and I spoke directly and I have asked him to keep me apprised."

Why do I have the feeling that the good Professor brought alot of the problems on himself with a less than stellar attitude? I'm thinking his drivers license didn't match the address where he currently lived, law violation. I"m sure that there has never been a domestic violence issue where an EX-male partner committed or attempted to commit a crime against the former lover???
I'm completely sure that Joe officer knew this black professor and has been lying in wait to harass and arrest him for years! Completely laughable. I'm also sure that the professor did nothing but taunt the officer. I also hope that there is video and audio, especially since this is supposedly a common accurance to happen in Cambridge. Yup, I'm betting money that the officers involved had video rolling the whole time and what the professor is saying happened and what really happened are two different things. Notice I didn't read anything about a law suit being filed or complaint lodged against the officer(s) or department. I wonder why???
why interview a different black man who was stopped and threatened with arrest for failing to provide ID? Last time I checked, driving without a license on person is in itself an offense and in some states, an on the spot arrestable offense. So the officers in 2004 merely told Mr. Allen the truth...laughable...LOL always three sides to a story.

[Robert Kayland]

Full professor at Harvard, eh?

Well, if the Man tried to keep this bruther down, it came a cropper.

[NineseveN]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...arrest/?page=1

His front door refused to budge, which is why Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., just home from a trip to China filming a PBS documentary, set his luggage down and beckoned his driver for help.

The scene - two black men on the porch of a stately home on a tree-lined Cambridge street in the middle of the day - triggered events that were at turns dramatic and bizarre, a confrontation between one of the nation’s foremost African-American scholars and a police sergeant responding to a call that someone was breaking into the house.

It ended when Gates, 58, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct in allegedly shouting at the officer; he was eventually taken away in handcuffs.

But the encounter is anything but over. Some of Gates’s outraged colleagues said the run-in proves that even in a liberal enclave like Harvard Square, even with someone of Gates’s accomplishments, a black man is a suspect before he is a resident.

“It’s unbelievable,’’ said Lawrence Bobo, a Harvard sociologist who visited Gates at the police station last Thursday and drove him home after Gates posted the $40 bail. “I felt as if I were in some kind of surreal moment, like ‘The Twilight Zone.’ I was mortified. . . . This is a humiliating thing and a pretty profound violation of the kind of trust we all take for granted.’’

Neither Gates - who was named one of Time magazine’s most influential Americans in 1997 and now directs the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard - nor police would comment on the incident yesterday.

Gates’s lawyer and Harvard colleague, Charles Ogletree, said what angered his client was that the police officer stepped inside Gates’s Ware Street house, uninvited, to demand identification and question him.

Gates showed his Harvard identification and Massachusetts drivers license with his home address, Ogletree said, adding, “Even after presentation of ID, the officer was still questioning his presence.’’

Said Bobo: “The whole interaction should have ended right there, but I guess that wasn’t enough. The officer felt he hadn’t been deferred to sufficiently.’’

The Cambridge police report describes a chaotic scene in which the police sergeant stood at Gates’s door, demanded identification, and radioed for assistance from Harvard University police when Gates presented him with a Harvard ID. A visibly upset Gates responded to the officer’s assertion that he was responding to a report of a break-in with, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?’’

“Gates then turned to me and told me that I had no idea who I was ‘messing’ with and that I had not heard the last of it,’’ the report said. “While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.’’

When the officer repeatedly told Gates he would speak with him outside, the normally mild-mannered professor shouted, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside,’’ according to the report.

Gates was arrested after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior’’ toward the officer who questioned him, the report said.

Gates, who came to Harvard in 1991, was “shocked and dismayed by what happened to him,’’ Ogletree said.

“What we hope is the charges against Professor Gates will be dropped, because he certainly didn’t break the law while entering his own home,’’ Ogletree said yesterday by phone.

He would not say whether he thinks racial bias played a role in Gates’s arrest.

Harvard president Drew G. Faust said yesterday that she was “obviously very concerned’’ when she learned about the incident. “Professor Gates is not only a colleague but also a friend,’’ she said in a statement. “He and I spoke directly, and I have asked him to keep me apprised.’’

Harvard has grappled with the issue of racial bias in recent years, even appointing an independent commission last fall to look into how the university could create a more welcoming environment after some black students and faculty complained of unfair treatment by the university’s predominantly white police force. Faust said in the spring that she hopes to implement some of the report’s recommendations by September, but it is unclear what they would be.

The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook the campus.

“He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,’’ said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated.’’

Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The neuroscience professor, who is black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard.

“This is very disturbing that this could happen to anyone, and not just to a person of such distinction,’’ Counter said. “It brings up the question of whether black males are being targeted by Cambridge police for harassment.’’

Police say they were simply responding to a call from a woman who suspected a crime was taking place.

When the front door would not open, even with the driver’s help, Ogletree said Gates walked around to the back door, unlocked it, shut off the alarm system, and tried to open the door from the inside. It still did not work, so he went back outside and, with the driver, pushed it in.

Gates immediately called Harvard’s real estate office to report the broken door. While he was on the phone, police Sergeant James Crowley arrived and asked Gates to step outside, said Ogletree. Gates, indignant, refused, telling the officer that he lived there and that he works at Harvard.

When Crowley asked for proof, Gates initially refused, according to the police report. But Ogletree said Gates cooperated fully, walking into his kitchen for his wallet. The officer followed.

Gates “did ask him some pointed questions, like: ‘Is this happening because you’re a white cop and I’m a black man? Is this why this interaction is still taking place?’ ’’ Bobo said. “Who’s not going to feel upset and insulted when a police officer won’t accept the fact that you’re standing in your own living room?’’

Gates asked the officer several times for his name and badge number to file a complaint as the officer left the house. The police report said that when Crowley walked out of the home, Gates followed and continued to accuse the officer of racism. Crowley then handcuffed him.

Gates initially resisted, according to police, asserting that he was disabled and would fall without a cane. The officer reentered the home to fetch a cane. Gates was then taken in a police cruiser to department headquarters, where he remained for four hours, Ogletree said.

Gates is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 26.

Maria Cramer of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Gates is an interesting character, and at 58, after having given them his ID and being in his own home in broad daylight, I doubt the police are going to push this. The charges will be dropped, probably today. I don't know that I'd have pulled the race card so quickly (of course I'm white and I don't live in an area where there are apparently current claims of racial bias against people of the same pigment as I) but I'd no doubt be aggravated if a cop came into my home uninvited or refused to leave and instead pressed the issue after having ascertained who I was and where I lived based on the ID I gave him. I'd tell him to fuck off...or, as gates put it, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.’’ LMAO, fucking brilliant!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jack...cambridge.html

[Ihatemyglock]

You'll find this news story in a few months:

A local area resident has been found innocent after being accused of breaking into his own home. When questioned, the chief of police stated "We vow to find the black man who did this"

[camper]

This is an area where black men are not uncommon in ANY way, and it is also an area where if someone looks to be breaking into a home the residents demand the police act VERY quickly.

If it's where I'm pretty sure it is, these are no measly little 850k shacks, these are quite expensive homes that would attract your higher end criminals and not the guy breaking into a liquor store.

That said, the cop does sound like he was pushing the issue more than necessary. And cambridge cops can be a little...persistant when it comes to "canadians". Or, so I've heard.

Sounds like douche-baggery on both ends, IMHO, but I side with the prof...it's his friggin house.

camper

[Bmaninmifco]

that area is high end.
Alot of million plus homes.
Sounds like the man got back from a long trip. Was understandably upset.
Still no need to play the race card. The police were following up on a report they had received.
He gets upset and starts to run his mouth.
Will he be charged maybe.
My guess would be community service or something like that.
Though we are talking massachusetts so you never know.

[NineseveN]

This is an area where black men are not uncommon in ANY way, and it is also an area where if someone looks to be breaking into a home the residents demand the police act VERY quickly.

If it's where I'm pretty sure it is, these are no measly little 850k shacks, these are quite expensive homes that would attract your higher end criminals and not the guy breaking into a liquor store.

Your higher end, 58-year-old, Ivy league educated criminals with Harvard ID's and addresses on a driver's licenses that match the address to the homes they are burglarizing? Anything after the ID was presented is bullshit. Disorderly conduct is supposed to be used to charge for an offense against public order, the guy was in his own home (private property), on his own front porch (private property), the public had dick-all to do with this. In this case, I think “disorderly” = insolent serf (gates might say “uppity ******”). I’m not sure you can say that it's base on race, there's no way to know that right now without more details about the officers involved, and being that the cop was white and Gates is black doesn't automatically post a win in the discrimination" column, but prior questions had been raised as to race and police conduct and that makes it relevant. Would this have happened if Gates were white? That’s almost impossible to say, it may very well have been that the cop didn’t like being talked down to by an “elite” because he has a chip on his shoulder….surely we’re not thinking that Gates was dropping slang like he was part of 2-Live Crew (the brilliant “mama” comment aside)? Had a white professor talked down to the cops and been defiant, making their jobs difficult (boo-fucking-hoo, BTW), this may have played out exactly the same to ‘teach that prick snob a lesson’. However, IMHO, after the ID was given, what the police did was bullshit, racially motivated or not.

Gates was born in Piedmont, West Virginia, to Pauline Augusta Coleman and Henry Louis Gates, Sr. He went to Yale and gained his B.A. summa cum laude in History. The first African-American to be awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, the day after his undergraduate commencement, Gates set sail on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 for the University of Cambridge, where he studied English literature at Clare College. With the assistance of a Ford Foundation Fellowship, he worked toward his Ph.D. in English. While his work in history at Yale had trained him in archival work, Gates' studies at Clare introduced him to English literature and literary theory.

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Charges Dropped!!!


Also, where is the evidence that his currently Drivers license had the same address listed? Only states he, Mr. Gates, gave them, the police, his Harvard ID and DL. Just wondering...

[LittleRedToyota]

The charges will be dropped, probably today.

they were dropped.

i dunno if race had anything to do with this or not...and i was willing to give the police officer the benefit of the doubt until i read this statement by him:

“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.’’

once the officer knew gates was lawfully there, the behavior gates exhibited is completely irrelevant. people are allowed to act in a way that is "surprising and confusing" (which frankly, i read as "he was not respecting my authoritay") in their own homes. as soon as the officer realized gates was legally there, it should have been "sorry to have bothered you sir" followed by immediately leaving regardless of how gates was acting.

[LittleRedToyota]

He gets upset and starts to run his mouth.

he was in his own home and the officer had already realized that. he can get upset and run his mouth all he wants...or at least he should be able to.