In essence, the story is this. Police responded to a call about two black men breaking into a house in Cambridge, MA. Turns out, one of those two men was Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent African-American scholar, and more pertinently to the story, the owner of the house. The other man was Gates' driver. They weren't breaking in--the front door was jammed.
When police got there and knocked on the door, Gates answered, and they asked him to step outside. He was understandably frustrated, but both sides agree that he at that point showed his ID to the officer--who then arrested him anyway, for reasons that are a bit hard to fathom.
After Gates had been at the station for four hours, they charged him with disorderly conduct and sent him home. Charges were later dropped because of how utterly stupid they were.
Anyone still think racial profiling is dead in America?
I hardly think that through one circumstance, we can label racial profiling "dead" or not.
I'll be honest, I haven't read much about this case. But I did find Obama calling the police actions "stupid" tonight, to be a little over the line. And are we only hearing about this because it is some prominent black scholar? What if it was just some random black guy, and not someone famous?
Ok, I'll stop now before I get myself into trouble. I'll also go read up on the story more.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
LOL, so I just read that CNN article. It seems everybody including Obama is completely ignoring what the police report is saying. Of course they must be lying in the report, they just must be.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
Then.... it would be exactly the same, except not on the news? How does that change whether it's racial profiling?
Ok, well the police report paints an entirely different picture. Do you think it's possible that this man was throwing the racism card out there, just because?
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
LOL, so I just read that CNN article. It seems everybody including Obama is completely ignoring what the police report is saying. Of course they must be lying in the report, they just must be.
Explain what you mean. Did they not arrest a man who was peacefully residing in his own house?
Man, the lengths some people will go to do defend police actions. This might be one of those times where your best line is "yeah, but this is the exception, not the rule."
The "disorderly conduct" thing actually makes them look a lot worse. Because now, rather than being arrested on suspicion of breaking into his own house, Gates is arrested because the police officer didn't like the way he was talking to him.
I guess the officer felt he was getting a little "uppity."
Ok, well the police report paints an entirely different picture. Do you think it's possible that this man was throwing the racism card out there, just because?
Do I think it's possible that a black man who was asked by police to prove that he didn't break into his own home, gave the proof, was arrested anyway and held for four hours for the crime of.... wait, he actually committed no crime at all... was just "throwing the racism card out there"?
Yeah, he was just playing the race card. Seriously, time to give your head a shake.
Well according to the article, the police reports states the man refused to hand over ID initially. If that's true, the cop wouldn't have known who was in the house, and therefore it could have been the bad guy that was apparently breaking into the house, no?
So what happens if the house really was getting broken into, but the cop left without investigating and something worse happened? Of course that is hypothetical because we know in this case that is impossible. But if you take the police at their word, they didn't know who this guy was, and he refused to show ID at first. It was only later that he began to cause a disturbance, and was subsequently arrested for it.
You say peacefully residing in his own house. Well, again, if we go by the police report, he wasn't exactly simply residing peacefully.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
Well according to the article, the police reports states the man refused to hand over ID initially. If that's true, the cop wouldn't have known who was in the house, and therefore it could have been the bad guy that was apparently breaking into the house, no?
So what happens if the house really was getting broken into, but the cop left without investigating and something worse happened? Of course that is hypothetical because we know in this case that is impossible. But if you take the police at their word, they didn't know who this guy was, and he refused to show ID at first. It was only later that he began to cause a disturbance, and was subsequently arrested for it.
You say peacefully residing in his own house. Well, again, if we go by the police report, he wasn't exactly simply residing peacefully.
He can reside however he wants in HIS house. Once the ID was shown, the cop should've just split right away. There was no further reason for him to be there. You can't arrest a man for being an a-hole in HIS house. The cop should be arrested for trespassing.
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Well according to the article, the police reports states the man refused to hand over ID initially. If that's true, the cop wouldn't have known who was in the house, and therefore it could have been the bad guy that was apparently breaking into the house, no?
So what happens if the house really was getting broken into, but the cop left without investigating and something worse happened? Of course that is hypothetical because we know in this case that is impossible. But if you take the police at their word, they didn't know who this guy was, and he refused to show ID at first. It was only later that he began to cause a disturbance, and was subsequently arrested for it.
You say peacefully residing in his own house. Well, again, if we go by the police report, he wasn't exactly simply residing peacefully.
Both sides agree that Gates showed his ID. Gates claims he walked through his house to get his wallet. The police claim that he didn't show ID right away. However--here's the important part. Regardless of how stupid he felt it was to have to prove that he lived in the house in Cambridge that he owns--he nevertheless complied. Both sides agree that this happened. What happened before that is irrelevant.
After that, his worst crime per the police report is giving the cop an earful. I would have given him an earful too. Since when is it a crime to tell an idiot that he's an idiot? If you can be arrested because a police officer doesn't like the name you called his mama.... we're living in a very different country than I imagined.
The police report offers a different account of the incident.
Gates refused to step outside to speak with the officer, the police report said, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" 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," he said, according to the report.
The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police.
Gates followed the officer outside and continued to accuse him of racial bias, the report said. After Crowley warned the professor twice that he was becoming disorderly, the officer wrote he arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space."
Ogletree said the professor was "very frustrated" but never touched or pointed at the officer.
He was released from police custody Thursday evening after spending four hours at the police station, Ogletree said.
Well, maybe I'm reading into that too much, but it seems to me that he didn't initially show him the ID, so the cop kept investigating the claim of a B&E. Once he showed him the ID, it seems the man followed the cop outside and started berating him.
I am sure racism exists. I am sure it exists in all countries, not just the US. But if I only have this CNN article to go by, I don't really see an example of racism or racial profiling. All I see is a guy claiming that it happened.
So many problems that come as a result of dealing with police could be eliminated if people just used their heads once in awhile. I am willing to bet that if this guy had acted like a normal human being, we wouldn't be discussing this here tonight.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
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oilers_fan... here's a question. If the "disorderly conduct" charge was on such solid footing, why did they drop the charges?
The Cambridge police department will be lucky if they don't get sued. I suspect they will--and they'll lose.
Well perhaps pressure from a little politician named Obama played a role. I don't know the answer truthfully. Charges get dropped all the time, doesn't mean the guy is innocent.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
I think they both over-reacted. Even the professors lawyer stated that Gates was "very frustrated", which in my mind says he was probably very loud and vocal with the officer. I think the cops report sounds likely, he asked for id and Gates played the race card before and after, following the cop out to his car continuing to yelling at him. I'd say this has less to do with racial profiling and more to do with both parties being complete dicks.
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The Delhi police have announced the formation of a crack team dedicated to nabbing the elusive 'Monkey Man' and offered a reward for his -- or its -- capture.
Well it didn't? He called the police actions stupid on a national news conference tonight.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
So many problems that come as a result of dealing with police could be eliminated if people just used their heads once in awhile. I am willing to bet that if this guy had acted like a normal human being, we wouldn't be discussing this here tonight.
The flaw in your logic is that you assume all police officers are calm, reasonable, fair people. This of course is incorrect. I'm sure there are thousands of good cops for every racist corrupt cop. But the fact remains that not every police officer is the personification of an angel.
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Henry Louis Gates Arrested in his own home
