http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12130/unjamming-your-front-door-while-black-scholar-henry-louis-gates-arrested-in-home

Quote :

"Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling. Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed. Here is the police report. The Harvard professor was inside his home when the cops arrived, and he showed them his driver's license and university ID. Apparently the officers were offended by Gates's anger at being treated like a criminal for trying to unjam his front door, so they arrested him."

Still not as bad as that Swim Club that recently rejected an already paid for swim pass for a group of campers once they saw that this particular group of campers would "change the complexion" of the club.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Pool-Boots-Kids-Who-Might-Change-the-Complexion.html

Quote :

"More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason. "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise. "When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately." The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded. "I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said. Campers remain unsure why they're no longer welcome. "They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything," said camper Simer Burwell. The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded. "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement."

I think the follow up to that was some other swimming facility saw this on the news & offered to let the kids come swim for free.

I mean, I post about gay rights issues from time to time (like a man who was left hospitalized with his brain bleeding after the police busted into a gay bar on the anniversary of Stonewall last month, arresting people for being intoxicated in a bar that had been open for less than a week, saying it was random timing & that they do this to all bars - although usually without hospitalizing the customers), but this stuff pisses me off too.

It just leaves me wondering where is America in terms of race, and what can we be doing to move things forward?

7/20/2009 8:46:03 PM

welp, race is a protected class, so that pool club is fucked

7/20/2009 8:51:38 PM

i should be clear that i am not, in any way, supporting the actions of the cambridge police, but if i had to fiddle with my door to get inside and the police came i would probably be understanding and not upset.

7/20/2009 9:38:21 PM

His neighbors should have recognized him and known he wasn't breaking into his own house, but once the cops are there, the fact that they were given bad info does not give this guy the right to be angry and belligerent to those just doing their job. Everyone who knows anything about dealing with cops knows that won't get you anything but in more trouble.

7/20/2009 10:02:33 PM

NEWSFLASH: Some people are racist hicks!!!!111

7/20/2009 10:18:56 PM

He shouldn't have been arrested. He provided identification that it was his house. The police were out of line.

7/20/2009 10:28:52 PM

people always say they will act "decent" around the cops when the time comes. But really people always loose their shit.

Quote :

"Apparently the officers were offended by Gates's anger at being treated like a criminal for trying to unjam his front door, so they arrested him.""

this is a huge gray area. So........

7/20/2009 10:31:05 PM

That is in no way, shape, form, or fashion a "gray area." That is pretty much a retarded thing to say. You are pretty much retarded for saying it.

7/20/2009 10:37:12 PM

pooljobs, I'd be pissed, and I haven't even experienced a trillionth of the shit this Gates guy has likely endured in his lifetime.

adam8778, a man should be allowed to get angry in his own home. And those cops were not just doing their job. Just doing their job would have been realizing they made a mistake, apologizing to a possibly "belligerent" Gates, and bouncing. Just doing their job includes not getting "offended" every time a black man gets angry. Thousands of cops manage that task everyday.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 10:42 PM. Reason : Anger ain't illegal.]

7/20/2009 10:40:28 PM

I'd be much more upset if this happened to a real professor who happened to be black. You know, somebody who teaches science, math, literature, history, business, etc.

You don't get to his position without already having a major axe to grind, and I'm quite certain when this occurred he was pretty pleased to have some (non-existent) validation of his victim status.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 10:47 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2009 10:46:09 PM

You, too, are a fucking spongeskull. You should just cut your tongue right out of your head. It's as if many years ago, you received a vision of this thread being made, and you devoted your entire life up to this point working out the absolute stupidest fucking thing a human being could possibly fucking say.

7/20/2009 10:48:28 PM

I'm one of the biggest haters on the police you'll ever find.

But the cops were totally in the right to check this thing out, and the neighbors (or whoever called) were in the right for calling them, assuming they didn't recognize the guy.

Cops do love to trump up things like obstruction charges, and so it is quite possible, even probable, that they over-reacted to his anger and didn't help the situation.

But this "professor" is not someone I will feel sorry for. If the cops acted wrongly or escalated the situation, they should be disciplined or punished appropriately. I am not minimizing this guy's rights. But I am saying that I'm not going to indulge his racist fantasyland.

I have met and interacted with far more "professors" in pretended academic departments like this than probably anyone else here. And literally not once, out of hundreds, have I seen anyone who deserved more credibility than Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson - they just happen to have a fancy title attached to them.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:03 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2009 10:59:47 PM

Do you know anything about Dr. Gates?

Wait, why am I even asking. Your ignorance shows you know nothing about the esteemed professor.

7/20/2009 11:01:29 PM

It is as though a shotgun destroyed much of your gray matter, yet you survived, though diminished to such a degree that basic tasks such as washing yourself and not bleating out every dumbfuck thought that passes through your aerated dome are now impossible. Science hopes to someday make sense of your crude and pitiable attempts at expression.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:08 PM. Reason : ...]

7/20/2009 11:02:49 PM

One wonders how this individual meshes his devout Christianity with his rampant racism.

7/20/2009 11:04:31 PM

Quote :

"After this, Gates was in his foyer watching what was occurring on the sidewalk. The cop asked him to step outside. Gates said no, and asked the officer to identify himself. The officer did, then said he was investigating a break-in in progress. At this point, the officer's report says "Gates exclaimed "why, because I'm a black man in America?" It escalated from there, with Gates apparently calling the police department to get the chief on the line to report a "racist police officer." At this point the whole thing turns into chaos, with the officer contending whether gates was lawfully in the residence by his behavior, asked Gates to come outside (he didn't), so the officer went inside and the yelling continued and the officer eventually decided to arrest the academic."

Why would he be angry at the cops who showed up to protect his home from intruders? And why is "RACIST RACIAL PROFILING!!" his immediate reaction to their presence? That's a very serious accusation to make, and completely unfounded from the looks of it. Judging by what has been reported, I don't see any problem with what the officers were doing.

I also have no problem with people getting arrested for acting like dicks to police officers who are just doing their job. You don't get a license to talk down to people because they're in your home.

7/20/2009 11:07:17 PM

This is not racism. Racism is a belief in the inherent inferiority of another race. My black roommate of 3 years and best man at my wedding, whom I had over for dinner just last night, would be quite surprised to hear of my racism.

I am making a judgment based on his position and discipline, not his race. My expectations would be identical for a white person who is a professor in African-American Studies. It's the discipline, not his color, that allows me to dismiss him.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:13 PM. Reason : s]

7/20/2009 11:13:02 PM

but, but, but I have a black friend.

Quote :

"Why would he be angry at the cops who showed up to protect his home from intruders? And why is "RACIST RACIAL PROFILING!!" his immediate reaction to their presence? That's a very serious accusation to make, and completely unfounded from the looks of it. Judging by what has been reported, I don't see any problem with what the officers were doing. I also have no problem with people getting arrested for acting like dicks to police officers who are just doing their job. You don't get a license to talk down to people because they're in your home."

The officers needed to leave as soon as they established that it was his home.

Also, you do have the right to be a dick to anyone in your home.


[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:19 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2009 11:17:48 PM

^^

Quote :

" rac·ism 1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination "

7/20/2009 11:18:38 PM

Again, I do not discriminate or have prejudice based on his race.

I discriminated and pre-judged him based on his academic discipline, in which I have never seen or heard of anyone who is any different than a pseudo-scholarly version of Sharpton or Jackson. And my experience and exposure is not small.

Quote :

"but, but, but I have a black friend."

Racists can have black acquaintances with whom they are on decent terms. Racists can even rarely have actual black friends. But you're gonna be hard-pressed to hold an accusation of racism against a white guy whose best man was black.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:26 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2009 11:25:35 PM

Haha everyone just flies off the handle about "race in America" without reading the damn police report.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/CANON8AA683_LNOTESMAIL_07202009-153909.PDF

Now, I have no clue what really went down because I was not there, but if things happen the way the officer described then Gates should have been arrested for disorderly conduct as he was.

The officer never accused Gates of anything, he simply said he was investigating a robbery in progress (not exactly light shit folks) and asked Gates to identify himself. Gates was confrontational from the get go, making threats ("I am not someone to mess with") and resisting the officer's requests for ID. Eventually, the officer learned Gates was Harvard faculty and he called in the Harvard University Policy. Some more words were exchanged and the officer left the house. Then Gates actually followed him outside and continued yelling at the cop. The cop warned him twice to calm down before he finally arrested Gates.

All of that sounds like Gates is the one at fault. And if the cop is lying there will be plenty of people to say so. Lucia Whalen, the woman who reported the supposed robbery, was apparently there for the whole thing. And Harvard University Police were there to see the arrest.

7/20/2009 11:28:47 PM

guess who writes the police reports?

oh wait i can find someone who said it better than me from a thread i read about this earlier. . . .

Quote :

"This Sergeant wrote one hell of a report. Note, police reports are adversarial and rhetorical documents. They are designed to convince readers, such as prosecutors and supervisors, that the police officer did his job correctly and that the suspect was justifiably arrested. Everything in that report could be literally true, but the officer left out a lot of stuff that you and I might find to be pertinent. For instance, what actual words did the officer use to "ask[] if [Gates] would step out onto the porch and speak with me?" How much time passed during this conversation? We get a few select quotations from Gates, but I'm sure there was a lot more said between them, likely things leading up to Gates making his pronouncements about black men in America. The Sergeant wrote it to make it sound like Gates just broke that shit out of nowhere, but in fact he left out everything that he himself said. In reality, human beings have conversations and don't speak is periphrases like "I assured Gates that I was responding to a citizen's call to the Cambridge Police Department." Periphrasis like that is what makes a good police report: it makes it sound like the officer used rational, official, and measured words, while the suspect by contrast used heated, out-of-the-blue, and irrational language. I'll reiterate: this Sergeant may not be lying. In fact, he'd be foolish to do so, given Gates's stature. Rather, while he's probably truthfully reports this incident, he's also framing the story. Police reports are not objective documents. They are the first step in our adversarial court system. Reporting one side of the story--the officer's--is precisely what police reports do. In that, at least, this Sergeant did a good job. "

link: http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/skip_gates_arrested_for_breaking_and_entering.php#comment-229014

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:32 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2009 11:30:16 PM

i hate those uppity people that teach european history and classical literature. they must have a real stick up their asses to focus only on teaching and researching their own culture. i hope the cops try to arrest them, b/c they probably deserve it.

7/20/2009 11:30:50 PM

nutsmacker,

Read the police report, son. The officer actually was leaving. He called in the Harvard University Police was heading out. Gates actually *followed the officer outside*, insisting that he was not someone to "mess with". The officer then gave him two warnings to calm down before arresting him.

Shit, y'all just take damn blog post and run with it, huh?

7/20/2009 11:32:26 PM

sarijoul,

Quote :

"And if the cop is lying there will be plenty of people to say so. Lucia Whalen, the woman who reported the supposed robbery, was apparently there for the whole thing. And Harvard University Police were there to see the arrest."

If the cop is being untruthful or incorrectly "framing" the story, then it should come out in court. You got witnesses and other police officers witnessing the arrest. This shit will be hard to cover up or wash over. Or maybe not. You know who runs the courts don't you...THE JEWS!!

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:37 PM. Reason : ``]

7/20/2009 11:35:56 PM

Because Police reports are always 100% accurate.

They are nothing more than another individuals take on a situation.

7/20/2009 11:36:29 PM

Quote :

"i hate those uppity people that teach european history and classical literature. they must have a real stick up their asses to focus only on teaching and researching their own culture. i hope the cops try to arrest them, b/c they probably deserve it."

People who teach European History and Classical Literature typically do not do so with a direct, overt intention to advance a particular political agenda.

You cannot honestly say the same about African American Studies departments.

If you question the professor in European History and about its effects today, at the very worst your professor may be annoyed with you.

If you question a professor in African-American studies about effects of "their" history today, and what needs to be done about it, you face a radically different situation.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:40 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2009 11:37:31 PM

he was arrested for making the cops look bad. they should have just left.

i like how they mention numerous times that people on the street were looking. because means that he's "disturbing the peace". something tells me he would have stopped if they left..

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:40 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2009 11:39:47 PM

I know right. The history, culture, and experience of African-Americans is totally not worthy of academic exploration.

7/20/2009 11:40:23 PM

nutsmackr SHUT THE FUCK UP! You were just saying what the cop "should have done" based on a paragraph from a blog post. Please don't fucking act like you're at all interested in accuracy. For fucks sake.

Now like I said, I was not there, but I do know that this does not sound as simplistic as "Pams House Blend" makes it sound (great reporting institution there btw). It just cracks me up that it takes so fucking little for people on this board to get their panties in a wad.

7/20/2009 11:40:38 PM

oh stfu. i had read about this before this thread. you're not exactly some bastion of objectivity. anti-obama syndrome during the '08 campaign much?

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:42 PM. Reason : haha. esl]

7/20/2009 11:41:53 PM

Quote :

"The officers needed to leave as soon as they established that it was his home. Also, you do have the right to be a dick to anyone in your home. "

I bet he made more than an ass out of himself before he ever established it was his home.

7/20/2009 11:42:10 PM

how do you bet that?

7/20/2009 11:42:38 PM

AHA, TULIP's pissed cause he got a C in some Af-Am class.

(It borders on racist to cite two white subjects--Eur. Hist. and Classic Lit.--as benign, but then lay into African-American studies like it's the devil.)

7/20/2009 11:43:06 PM

Quote :

"he was arrested for making the cops look bad. they should have just left."

lol who needs a criminal justice system when you have sarjoul???

Quote :

"I FUCKING READ A BLOG POST ABOUT THIS!! I KNOW WHAT THE COP SHOULD HAVE DONE RAWR RAWR"

7/20/2009 11:43:14 PM

Quote :

" I bet he made more than an ass out of himself before he ever established it was his home."

And that matters how?

7/20/2009 11:44:10 PM

what law did he break again?

7/20/2009 11:45:09 PM

Quote :

"I know right. The history, culture, and experience of African-Americans is totally not worthy of academic exploration."

Your inability to read is starting to try my patience. I never said any such thing.

Absolutely, there ought to be people within every history department who focus on such areas. There may even be justification (though it's a stretch) to have a separate department for its study.

But the fact remains that African-American Studies departments, in reality, are not staffed by historians who have focused on that area. They are staffed by activists whose sole intent is to change society, according to their political agenda, through their students. They found these departments with these specific goals in mind. And any person who has been in a single class in them cannot honestly disagree.

Quote :

"(It borders on racist to cite two white subjects--Eur. Hist. and Classic Lit.--as benign, but then lay into African-American studies like it's the devil.)"

rwoody brought up those disciplines first, so it was not my choice to go there. He asserted that I ought to have an equal problem with them, because of their focus on a particular culture/race. I don't, and I have good reasons why.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:48 PM. Reason : a]

7/20/2009 11:46:02 PM

Quote :

"I also have no problem with people getting arrested for acting like dicks to police officers who are just doing their job. You don't get a license to talk down to people because they're in your home."

Great country you live in. Hurt a cop's feelings when HE fucks up and you can be arrested. This sounds like some communist government-teet-sucking bullshit. The lazy government employee is secure in their job no matter how fucking bad they are, they aren't subject to any standard of performance, they leech off of everyone else, and everyone is supposed to be beholden to them for their service.

You have it backwards -- it's the cops who don't have the right to arrest anyone for any arbitrary reason. If the cops weren't Republican18-style knuckle-draggers with an axe to grind, they would have admitted their mistake once they got the ID, understand a black man's anger at being carded in his own damn house, and gone on their way.

Instead, they got angry because the guy got angry (how dare he), and they decided to show him who's boss. Instead of acting like professionals, they acted like the power-tripping assholes we all know and love. I hope the black guy gets the most he can through whatever avenues are available to him.

Cops, who only got those powers because they were the low-bidders for the job and not because they were society's creme of the crop, need to be continually held to a high standard to justify the powers they have over others.

7/20/2009 11:47:00 PM

"Calm down" is some pretty typical bullshit.

The officers can claim that the guy was out of control, and they couldn't leave him in good conscience because they weren't sure what he might do...when really they know exactly what he's gonna do: calm down and go inside and call somebody to rant about his experience.

7/20/2009 11:47:17 PM

Quote :

"You have it backwards -- it's the cops who don't have the right to arrest anyone for any arbitrary reason. If the cops weren't Republican18-style knuckle-draggers with an axe to grind, they would have admitted their mistake once they got the ID, understand a black man's anger at being carded in his own damn house, and gone on their way. Instead, they got angry because the guy got angry (how dare he), and they decided to show him who's boss. Instead of acting like professionals, they acted like the power-tripping assholes we all know and love. "

Yep.

7/20/2009 11:49:43 PM

Quote :

"what law did he break again?"

hehehe i knew it. NOW we're going to see a lot of people become bathed in the blood Natural Rights Libertarians (like the wackos at the John Locke Foundation). People you would never expect! You know, people who voted for Obama!

In the future of this thread I see the following happening....

Suddenly, property rights will become absolute (Bridget already implied that you can say whatever you want to a cop, so long as you're on your property).

As will the freedom of speech ("You can say whatever you want where ever you want to whomever you want, man!!!)

Also, crimes will be defined solely in terms of coercion ("words can't hurt you man! therefore you cannot commit a crime with words!!!")

Of course, all this is solely confined to this single discussion. The same people that make these arguments in this situation will change when they find more familiar political ground. For example, your right to property and freedom of speech become much more abstract when you're talking about taxation or making threats to anyone else besides a cop.

Hhehehehee I guess that's the price you pay for not thinking things through.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:55 PM. Reason : ``]

7/20/2009 11:53:00 PM

For fuck's sake Tulip, quit talking out of your ass.

7/20/2009 11:53:14 PM

^^the young?

anyway. i was responding to people questioning my saying that he was being arrested for making the cops look bad. when really all he was doing was yelling that the cops were racists.

[Edited on July 20, 2009 at 11:59 PM. Reason : and who knows what the cops said/did to provoke that.]

7/20/2009 11:54:55 PM

For someone who hasn't made an intelligent point yet, you sure talk real big.

7/20/2009 11:55:12 PM

sarijoul,

Right on! That's all he was doing!!! Using words!! And words can't hurt anyone, therefore words cannot be a crime!!

The non-aggression principal is the foundation for all kinds of libertarian arguments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle

You going to start subscribing to the CATO journal now???? Right on, brother!! Fight the power!!!

[Edited on July 21, 2009 at 12:00 AM. Reason : ``]

7/20/2009 11:59:48 PM

I'm sure your wide breadth of experience when it comes to African-American studies is not at all based upon your prejudices.

7/21/2009 12:00:46 AM

^^that's not what i said at all. jesus. get a clue. he was being a dick to the cops and they claimed it was disturbing the peace. when in all likelihood it was just disturbing them. i like how you've attached some whole ideology on me when i'm just describing the most likely scenario.

[Edited on July 21, 2009 at 12:01 AM. Reason : .]

7/21/2009 12:01:08 AM

Even according to the NAP, this guy's not off the hook.

"I'm not someone you want to mess with," or whatever the exact words were, can easily be construed as a threat of potential violence.

Quote :

"I'm sure your wide breadth of experience when it comes to African-American studies is not at all based upon your prejudices."

Nope. My experiences caused my prejudices. After listening to speeches, going to conferences, and attending classes with well over 100 of these professors...I noticed something strange. Every last one of them holds to the exact same political view, and every last one of them uses every available opportunity to hijack emotional aspects of black history to support their cause. Their study of history is incidental to, and solely exists to be in support of, their political activism.

[Edited on July 21, 2009 at 12:06 AM. Reason : d]

7/21/2009 12:01:11 AM

sarijoul,

So now you admit there is such a think as disorderly conduct?? Its just that YOU don't think Gates was being disorderly...based on your intimate experience with the incident??

Its not that you have an ideological bent against the state. You just think you know how to do the cop's job better without being at the scene or knowing fuck about fuck all????? I GET IT NOW!

I'm sorry I accused you of being a libertarian. Your real position is a much smarter one to take!!!! WAY TO THINK IT THOUGH, SON!!!!

[Edited on July 21, 2009 at 12:07 AM. Reason : ``]

7/21/2009 12:04:41 AM