Racism or Not, Cambridge Police Owes Professor Gates an Apology

There are two conflicting accounts regarding the details of the arrest of celebrated Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in his own home by the Cambridge police department -- that of the professor and that of the police.

The public reaction has also been equally split, some crying racial profiling others insisting that the officers only did their job and blaming Gates for having a chip on his shoulder and for "losing it."

One thing seems clear to me, regardless of who is right and who is wrong, Professor Gates should never have been arrested -- the police department owes him a public apology.

Professor Gates had just come home from a trip to China. He and his chauffeur had a hard time opening his home's jammed front door. A passerby called 911 to report "two African-American men with backpacks" attempting a "forced entry."

The Cambridge police department sent two police officers to the scene. So far, so good. If anything, the police is to be lauded for their quick response to the call which to their knowledge could have been an attempted break in and burglary.

By the time they arrived, Gates had managed to release the front door and was already inside his home.

This is where the conflicting accounts begin.

According to the police, Professor Gates greeted the cops with a "belligerent" attitude, refusing to show them identification when asked, and refusing to step outside when asked. He was angry, rude and offensive. He eventually showed them his Harvard ID and eventually stepped outside where he was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to the Cambridge police station.

Professor Gates contends that while he was testy, he did show them two pieces of ID when asked: his Harvard ID and his driver's license. He claims that the cops had it in for him, that he was a victim of racial profiling.

Now, Professor Gates happens to be no ordinary professor. He is not only one of the nation's most respected and most decorated black professors, he is one of the nation's most respected and most decorated professors period.

Gates who has been teaching at Harvard for 18 years is the recipient of nearly 50 honorary degrees and numerous awards including the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. In 1997, Gates was listed as one of Time magazine's "25 most Influential Americans." (He even has a burger named after him at a local burger joint frequented by Harvard students and faculty.)

One thing is for sure, "belligerent" and "disorderly" do not seem like apt descriptors for someone who must have mastered the art of discipline and wisdom to have gone this far.

Testy? Perhaps. But is testy a crime in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

After all, who would not get a little testy after having just come off a 20 hour flight, greeted by a jammed front door, and then met by police officers in their own home who probably were not the epitome of polite discourse themselves. It seems to me highly unlikely that a man of Gates' stature would get testy without being provoked. It is also unlikely he was ever a threat to the visiting officers.

And whether he identified himself immediately or after a verbal exchange, the undisputed fact is that he did identify himself and the officers were able to discern without question that Gates was indeed the resident of the house -- not the potential burglar they had come for.

So why was he arrested still?

Whether racial profiling was at play or not is a matter up for debate.

It can reasonably be argued that had Gates been white, the officers would have likely responded with something like this: "professor, we are sorry for the inconvenience, we understand your frustration, but you should also understand that we are simply doing our job. Have a good day."

And they would have left it at that.

But the fact that he was arrested despite having identified himself, hauled off in hand cuffs like a criminal where he was further questioned and his mug shots taken, smacks of retaliation by an ego-bruised officer -- if not racial profiling.

While the charges have since been dropped, the arrest never should have happened.

Professor Gates is owed a public apology by the arresting officer and the Cambridge police department. Instead, a spokesperson for the police department has shown no remorse for the arrest, still insisting in a news conference yesterday that there was "probable cause" for the arrest.

Meanwhile, larger questions linger about what it means to be black in post-racial America, especially as it relates to law enforcement where the relationship between blacks and white police officers has historically been one of mutual suspicion.

For me, the Gates affair raises the following important question: while it is easy to come to the defense of a black man who happens to be a world class academician, how many less fortunate blacks get arrested on even more flimsy grounds but whose cases never make it through to public opinion and in whose defense no one ever shows up?

There is no denying that we all harbor some form of prejudice here or there.

To have some traces of prejudice in our back minds is one thing, to embrace those prejudices and to act upon them is a much less tolerable affair -- especially if you are a police officer where it then becomes an issue of abuse of power.

Ronald Davis chief of police for the city of East Palo Alto laid it best, telling CNN that for police officers, "race is a descriptor, not a predictor," or at least it ought to be.

Which raises another question: given the undeniable history of racial profiling against blacks and other minorities in this country, what are police departments doing to ensure that we truly move beyond race and culture as a predictor of bad behavior by men and women in uniform who strive to serve and protect?

While there are many officers of impeccable integrity doing their jobs in laudable fashion out there, law enforcement cannot rely on individual integrity to get past this social hurdle.

There needs to be a systemic solution to this pervasive problem, and it needs to take into account the perspectives and expertise of trusted community partners from minority communities.

Racial and cultural sensitivity training needs to be instituted in every aspect of law enforcement, and it needs to undergo occasional quality control to ensure its effectiveness because, often times, it devolves into a token affair.

Until then, professor Gates is owed a public apology. He waits and many of us await with him.

UPDATE: Barack Obama: "The Cambridge police acted stupidly"

Comments

[Xac]

As usual, thanks for the unique perspective and the level-headed analysis. It seemed like no one in news media was willing to take a position outside of "either racial profiling officers or over sensitive professor." Art never seems to imitate life and its complexities in the world of news media. If it did, the industry would be a lot less sensational and therefore less profitable.

Reading your profile, and learning of your civil rights work background I strongly believe that this hyper-sens­ationalize­d world of ours needs those like you who are willing to invest time and mental energy to get to the bottom of things as opposed to those who perceive the world thru a split lens that hides anything grey and highlights only polar opposite perspectives.

[John Healy]

No one looks good in this. Someone (anyone) should have taken the high road.
Gates should realize that the police were there to protect his home. (Suppose he had come back from his trip to China and all his stuff was gone because no one cared?) Gates should have shown his ID and taken the high road and disregarded the inconvenience.
The police officer could have also taken the high road. Police officers are paid to deal with the worst in society. So this guy is yelling at you, so what? Blow it off.
These two guys are guilty of trying to one-up each other. It's a shame.

[Venkat Raja]

This a tip of the ice-berg.The Gun policy is also race oriented and the arrogance of the conservative white man who thinks he is the sole owner of the earth.After all america is an immigrant nation and the white definitely behave as if they own America.Many countries pay lip service to america and america is not respected in the world as a country has a policy which is followed in letter and spirit.Even in Airports whites show their superiority and ill treat asians and africans blacks etc.this is the arrogance of the british who are responsible for all historical conflicts in the world. When the bitish tried their hand with opinum in china nobody objected in the old world. Now america wants support in drug war against drug runners who operate because of the support given by whites in Texas aND CALIFORNIA.iT IS THE WHITE MAN WHO IS STILL HAVING A SHOP IN DRUGS EVERYWHRE.The nation of shop keepers are having no scruples but to harm the self respect of the blacks and asians.the police officer should be arrested for racial behaviour in public and jaILED FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AS EXEMPLARY PUNISHMNET WITH DUE PUBLICITY

[ConstanceReader]

I don't think the arresting officers in this case were racist, I think they were something far worse: insecure, stupid, and possibly drunk with the power of the badge.

Seriously, how stupid do you have to be (not ignorant, not uneducated, just plain DUMB) do you have to be to arrest someone who has proven to you that he bloody well lives in that house? And how does someone that dumb pass the police academy entrance exams to begin with, much less graduate?

[TJMil]

I have been a police officer for 13 years and I have been in this officers situation more times than I could count but I didn't arrest people for it. I would suspect the officer got really offended and emotionally invested because he probably isn't racist: real racists don't care if a black man calls them racists. Gates is probably right that there is a degree of racism to the origin of the call. The caller probably was greatly influenced by Gates being male and black. However the caller is not there for Gates to yell at so he takes it out on the officer. I think if Gates had been screaming about UFO''s and mind control waves the officer would have patiently endured it because he can dismiss it and not take it personally. The officer made a mistake when he took it personally. Some officers think that if you stand there while someone yells at you and calls you names it means you are weak and unimportant and they cannot bear the thought of looking weak and unimportant. This is compounded when the person delivering the harangue is higher on the social ladder than you are. However part of being a policeman is getting paid to endure people and their crap. I think the policeman erred when he forgot that and made an illegal arrest. He should have just written down his name and badge number, bid the professor a good day and left.

[Ahmed Rehab - Huffpost Blogger]

Very interesting and believable analysis TJMil. Thanks for sharing.

[lemontreeforme]

I think that Barack Obama must have read this article before yesterday's press conference. He pretty much said the exact same thing in the exact same order with the exact same caveats and the exact same conclusion as Rehab.

Here's what I want to add. Imagine if Neil Armstrong, or Albert Einstein, or Alan Greenspan, or Stephen King had been arrested in this manner, Would there not be a public outcry? Would it even conceivably happen in the first place?

It happened to professor Gates, because as great a man as he is, he is black, and to the officer, the sight of a black man in cuffs is all too familiar and all too easy.

[Hawaii5-0]

Someone should stage a call to the Cambridge police about a white man trying to break into a home and see the reaction when they arrive. Especially if that white man became testy. Would he be arrested? Let's film it and see what happens. That would be an eye-opener for those who don't believe in racial profiling.

[Youhavegottobekiddingme]

This ain't nothing new, people.

[Beefcake]

Probably the most racist thing in American law enforcement is the Department of Justice blatantly lying about the number of blacks in prison for drug offenses:

http://www.tremblethedevil.com/my_weblog/2009/04/even-without-lies-the-damage-is-already-done.html

[sweetladygenevieve]

Right on, Rehab. Exactly my conclusion. Charges can be dropped and apologies given (or not, we'll see), but the damage has been done. Gates was publically humiliated: handcuffs, mug shot, four hours in a cell. Total abuse of power. And why didn't the cop just answer when Gates asked for his name and badge number? The officer could have later explained he was just doing his job. But no, he didn't like being challenged, so he decided to "teach" the Harvard professor a lesson.

@MrsFoneBone -- where's your ire for the officer's "male ego" ? Maybe Gates did act like an "immature brat." That would be regrettable but not criminal.

[CubsFan77]

I don't get how they arrested him and he presented them with his ID. Even if someone is mouthing off to you, you can't take someone to jail for bruising your ego. He didn't threaten the police, nothing.

It still reveals the subtle prejudice and not so subtle problems that need correction in our country.

[noyoudidnt]

have at it white people, tell us again that blacks overreact, the police are always right and there is nothing wrong with arresting people in their homes after you've established that it is their residence.

[MrsFonebone]

Who are you and who cares what you are decreeing about this? He should apologize for behaving like an immature brat.

There was a black officer present. Gates mouthed off at the cops and defied them and accused them of racism. There are photos.
They had every right to take him in. They were generous enough to drop charges.

I'm tired of these male egos that feel they should never be questioned, never be challenged--and then when they are, in the course of things, they start screaming "Racism!"
So why don't you stop trying to fan the flames and turn this into something general, when it was just one cranky old man?

[PorkBelly]

So you support the right of police to come to your house and arrest you for no charge despite the fact that you have ID showing that you live there?

No crime was committed but you support Gates being taken away in handcuffs.

If it had been Larry Summers, it wouldn't have happened.

[nephos9]

If it had been Larry Summers, it would have been a mission of mercy. But do the Crunchy-bridge Police have a cell for the cognitively impaired?

[jp6232]

I expect the police to show up if someone reports a suspected burglary at my home. When the police show up, I expect them to demand to see my identification (even if I'm already inside). After I show my ID to them, I would ask them to call dispatch and verify that I'm the owner. Here's the point...if they do less than ANY of this I would be disappointed because I expect them to protect my property, and be diligent about it.
At no time would I get cocky and arrogant.
Yes I am white. You see, if white people get hauled off to jail for acting a fool in a situation like this they can't blame it on being white. They can only blame it on their bad temper, their big mouth and the gigantic chip on their shoulder.