Henry Louis Gates,Jr. Arrested Last Week
This morning I read that Black scholar and Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his Cambridge home for disorderly conduct last week. According to a report from The Times, police were called by a neighbor that reported seeing two Black men with backpacks breaking into a house. What the neighbor really saw were Gates and a colleague returning from a trip to China and applying a bit of shoulder force to the door because it was jammed.
It is reported that when police arrived, Gates was not so compliant when asked to see his identification. According to ABC News, Gates allegedly responded to the officer's request for identification by shouting, "Why, because I am a black man in America?" and then called him a racist. Maybe Gates was tired from that 18 hour trip from China and perhaps a little peeved with the door giving him so much trouble – because it really doesn’t sound like he needed to go down that road. And maybe the officer didn’t know who he was or didn’t care and perhaps he got a little indignant with Gates’ alleged hollering, but it doesn’t seem like a necessary action to arrest a man in his own house for disorderly conduct either right?
I’m sorry I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit when I read that it was written in the police report that Gates initially refused to provide identification, but then showed his Harvard University card. The sergeant again asked him to step outside and Gates allegedly responded, "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside."
According to Gates’ Harvard colleague, and attorney, Charles Ogletree, the events happened a little differently. According to TheRoot.com, Gates showed his identification right away when the responding officer asked for it, asked the officer why he was there, and when the officer explained about the call, Gates explained that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard. Ogletree states he then went to the kitchen to retrieve his id to prove it. He gave the officer both his Harvard ID and his Massachusetts driver’s license, but when asked for the officer’s badge number, he was ignored. According to Ogletree, throughout the entire exchange, Gates repeatedly asked the officer for his badge number and was ignored. Instead, the officer turned and left the kitchen without ever indicating that Gates was being charged, but it was only when Gates followed him outside that the officer say "Thank you for accommodating my earlier request," and then placed Gates under arrest, handcuffing the professor on his own front porch, the lawyer said.
I’m not sure which story is closer to the truth, but it was reported today that Massachusetts authorities dropped the disorderly conduct charges, calling Gates’ arrest last week "regrettable and unfortunate."
