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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 7:16 pm Post subject: WHAT PROF GATES ARREST SAYS ABOUT BLACKS IN U.S. |
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Here we go again. Another Black man gets arrested for acting out only this time it's a pre-eminent Harvard scholar and the place where it happened is his own home. (Ah, yes, already the sense of indignation if not outrage is almost palpable). Before I say anything else, though, read what this AP Reporter, who is Black, wrote in response to the incident and see if you can find the GLARING omissions:
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Analysis: Gates Arrest Signpost on Racial Road
by Jesse Washington (AP)
It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America's most prominent black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it's not just another episode of profiling � it's a signpost on the nation's bumpy road to equality.
The news was parsed and Tweeted, rued and debated. This was, after all Henry "Skip" Gates: Summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale. MacArthur "genius grant" recipient. Acclaimed historian, Harvard professor and PBS documentarian. One of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans" in 1997. Holder of 50 honorary degrees.
If this man can be taken away by police officers from the porch of his own home, what does it say about the treatment that average blacks can expect in 2009?
Earl Graves Jr., CEO of the company that publishes Black Enterprise magazine, was once stopped by police during his train commute to work, dressed in a suit and tie.
"My case took place back in 1995, and here we are 14 years later dealing with the same madness," he said Tuesday. "Barack Obama being the president has meant absolutely nothing to white law enforcement officers. Zero. So I have zero confidence that (Gates' case) will lead to any change whatsoever."
The 58-year-old professor had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon and found the front door of his Cambridge, Mass., home stuck shut. Gates entered the back door, forced open the front door with help from a car service driver, and was on the phone with the Harvard leasing company when a white police sergeant arrived.
Gates and the sergeant gave differing accounts of what happened next. But for many people, that doesn't matter.
They don't care that Gates was charged not with breaking and entering, but with disorderly conduct after repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number. It doesn't matter whether Gates was yelling, or accused Sgt. James Crowley of being racist, or that all charges were dropped Tuesday.
All they see is pure, naked racial profiling.
"Under any account ... all of it is totally uncalled for," said Graves.
"It never would have happened � imagine a white professor, a distinguished white professor at Harvard, walking around with a cane, going into his own house, being harassed or stopped by the police. It would never happen."
Racial profiling became a national issue in the 1990s, when highway police on major drug delivery routes were accused of stopping drivers simply for being black. Lawsuits were filed, studies were commissioned, data was analyzed. "It is wrong, and we will end it in America," President George W. Bush said in 2001.
Yet for every study that concluded police disproportionately stop, search and arrest minorities, another expert came to a different conclusion. "That's always going to be the case," Greg Ridgeway, who has a Ph.D in statistics and studies racial profiling for the RAND research group, said on Monday. "You're never going to be able to (statistically) prove racial profiling. ... There's always a plausible explanation."
Federal legislation to ban racial profiling has languished since being introduced in 2007 by a dozen Democratic senators, including then-Sen. Barack Obama.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said that was partly because "when you look at statistics, and you're trying to prove the extent, the information comes back that there's not nearly as much (profiling) as we continue to experience."
But Davis has no doubt that profiling is real: He says he was stopped while driving in Chicago in 2007 for no reason other than the fact he is black. Police gave him a ticket for swerving over the center line; a judge said the ticket didn't make sense and dismissed it.
"Trying to reach this balance of equity, equal treatment, equal protection under the law, equal understanding, equal opportunity, is something that we will always be confronted with. We may as well be prepared for it," he said.
Amid the indignation over Gates' case, a few people pointed out that he may have violated the cardinal rule of avoiding arrest: Do not antagonize the cops.
The police report said that Gates yelled at the officer, refused to calm down and behaved in a "tumultuous" manner. Gates said he simply asked for the officer's identification, followed him into his porch when the information was not forthcoming, and was arrested for no reason. But something about being asked to prove that you live in your own home clearly struck a nerve � both for Gates and his defenders.
"You feel violated, embarrassed, not sure what is taking place, especially when you haven't done anything," said Graves of his own experience, when police made him face the wall and frisked him in Grand Central Station in New York City. "You feel shocked, then you realize what's happening, and then you feel it's a violation of everything you stand for."
And that this should happen to "Skip" Gates � the unblemished embodiment of President Obama's recent admonition to black America not to search for handouts or favors, but to "seize our own future, each and every day" � shook many people to the core.
Wrote Lawrence Bobo, Gates' Harvard colleague, who picked his friend up from jail: "Ain't nothing post-racial about the United States of America." |
Washington likens this arrest to a case of racial profiling but he doesn't mention the fact that Cambridge police were called to the home because a neighbor had reported a possible break-in.
Washington did not point out what local TV stations already had that there had been 9 unsolved break-ins in the vicinity of Gates' home, most by forced entry to the front door, and that the police who were summoned would have been aware of that, considering the size of the force in this suburb of Boston.
Washington glosses over Gates' reaction to the police officer. The "mild mannered" professor ranted and raved, got up in his face, and accused him of being a racist for having the temerity to write in his police report rather than immediately give Gates' his name and badge number. The pathetic irony is that what precipitated the arrest is that Gates refused to identify himself, either to give his name or show ID until his Black driver coaxed him too. The officer remained calm and asked repeatedly but then Gates yelled, "You don't know who you're messin' with." (Oh, yes, let's all bow to the great professor--another display of entitlement, I might add). Gates then began shouting at onlookers on the sidewalk (evidently thinking he had an impromptu captive audience as with his students). He also threatened the officer, yelling "You haven't heard the last from me" (again, before be put under arrest).
Nor does Washington mention that one of the three officers on the scene is Black, as photos posted to Yahoo and video clearly shows. So while the arresting officer, a younger man, is White, the older police officer with seniority is Black. Hmm...
Now we can argue till the cows come home whether it was necessary to arrest Gates on disorderly conduct (charges which were later dropped) but his antics preceded the arrest. The timeline is relevant.
And now Prof. Gates demands a heartfelt apology from the arresting officer. For what, pray tell?
The very fact that he is making this demand speaks volumes about racial entitlement. It is Gates who presumed that the White officer was motivated by racial bias, that the summons to his home was racial profiling, and that his subsequent arrest was a double standard of treatment. And why?
Because he's already made himself a victim in his own mind before considering the realities of the situation. So very typical of the liberal Black elite in this country. Gates, by the way, is living in a home that the university lets him stay in rent-free. He's constantly feted, coddled, and you can bet now that his buddies, including colleague Ogletree, who is defending him in the matter, will rally to his defense, despite charges being dropped. There's an old saying, "If you're always looking for dirt, you'll be sure to find it." Gates has his dirt. And the "Committee on Un-Ending Agitation," as Black playwright Lorraine Hansberry once sarcastically referred to it, is already in full swing, enabled of course by liberal Whites with a massive dose of White guilt to nurse.
Watch for this one to spiral out of control in the days and weeks ahead. Look for a full-scale investigation. Before all is said and done the Committee will have another martyr and Gates will have another book and lecture to harangue about the incident. God forbid he should apologize to the police or even thank them for being vigilant in protecting his home, which isn't really his to begin with.
Memo to Prof. Gates: "Neither the arresting officer nor I am responsible for your paranoia and martyr complex." |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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This story simply blows my mind. What the hell is wrong with the world today. A concerned citizen calls the police saying he believes a break in is underdway. Cops arrive. An individual answers the door. Cop says"Sir we had reports of a possible break in at THIS EXACT LOCATION". The man inside replies "It's ok officer, I live here" The cop is simply supposed to say "Ok then, have a nice day".
Gimme a freaking break! If that had been his home and an actual break had taken place would Washington have simply accepted the officers excuse that "Well gee, he said he lived there so I left" No the officer would have been fired for not doing his job.
So now doing your job. CLEARLY, ONLY doing your job is now a racist act. Unbelievable. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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Then we have no problems the next time some ajumma calls the police on a group of foreigners for whatever it is they might be doing?
What may I ask is your reaction to those FTs who got busted for their home poker game? What happened to Prof. Gates has and will happen to FTs in Korea, and you can bet you will hear their self-righteous claims of racial-intolerance. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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BTW where is the post that says "What Gov. Sanford's adultery says about whites/Christians/Republicans in America?" or are you refusing to repudiate his actions and supporting adultery?
Oh thats, right, he is seen as an individual not as someone representing his group. Of course this is because he belongs to 'your' group.
When it is Prof. Gates, he is seen as a representative. |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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UPDATE ON STORY:
Charges have since been dropped by the Cambridge Police Department but Gates is still demanding an apology from the investigating officer. The spokeswoman for the department said that both Gates and the officer were in the wrong but the actual police report indicates otherwise (see here):
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x631635775/Cambridge-Police-not-releasing-Harvard-prof-Henry-Louis-Gates-arrest-report
Now, I ask you. If a police officer came to your house and you saw the person outside who placed the 911 call talking to him, would you refuse to show your ID? Would you yell and scream and carry on like a 10 year-old? Would you shout so loud as to drown out the conversation the officer was having with Harvard PD and prevent yourself from hearing an answer to your own question seeking the officer's identity? Would you storm after him and harangue him on the front stoop in the presence of several neighbors and other witnesses and repeatedly berate him? Would you call him a racist and insult his mother?
The ONLY one who should be doing the apologizing is the racist and elistist instigator in this case--Dr. Gates himself.
I am so fed up with these antics and he has the gall to demand an apology. He'd just returned from China where he evidently didn't learn any lessons about authority. The Chinese police would not have been so patient or bothered to adjust his handcuffs. They would have tossed him in a paddy wagon and it woud have been days before he would be able to contact anyone.
Talk about a whining, coddled bigot. Oh, wait, I forgot: only Whites are racist in this world.
This intellectual was seeing Black and White where there was none--absolutely pathetic. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
Then we have no problems the next time some ajumma calls the police on a group of foreigners for whatever it is they might be doing?
What may I ask is your reaction to those FTs who got busted for their home poker game? What happened to Prof. Gates has and will happen to FTs in Korea, and you can bet you will hear their self-righteous claims of racial-intolerance. |
The poker game was illegal. Being busted for it was not racial intolerance
BUT
Being snitched by an extremeist anti foriegner group called 'anti english spectrum' that found out about the game after searching the net and facebook looking for foriegners up to no good is racial vigilantism and is WRONG and is racial intolerance.
Having the police turn it inot a media circus was Racial intolerance.
Very different to a call being made reporting a possible attempted break in by a nieghbor and the attending officers asking someone in the house that was reportly possibly broken into asking that person for id for cying out loud.
Can't you see the very clear cut differances or are you just trying to troll..? |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| ManintheMiddle wrote: |
Now, I ask you. If a police officer came to your house and you saw the person outside who placed the 911 call talking to him, would you refuse to show your ID? Would you yell and scream and carry on like a 10 year-old? Would you shout so loud as to drown out the conversation the officer was having with Harvard PD and prevent yourself from hearing an answer to your own question seeking the officer's identity? Would you storm after him and harangue him on the front stoop in the presence of several neighbors and other witnesses and repeatedly berate him? Would you call him a racist and insult his mother? |
I was reading the report in the Guardianista just before and thinking the same. He was behaving like a self-righteous w@nker. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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| ManintheMiddle wrote: |
I am so fed up with these antics |
Really? You're an acquaintance of Mr. Gates?
Well that would at least explain why you found this incident newsworthy. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Chuckle |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:34 am Post subject: |
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Steelrails reacted:
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BTW where is the post that says "What Gov. Sanford's adultery says about whites/Christians/Republicans in America?" or are you refusing to repudiate his actions and supporting adultery?
Oh thats, right, he is seen as an individual not as someone representing his group. Of course this is because he belongs to 'your' group.
When it is Prof. Gates, he is seen as a representative. |
I see that you are also afflicted by SRD (Selective Reading Disorder). I never claimed that Gates' views or actions were representative of all Black Americans, nor did I imply such. I stated that his behavior is not only condoned by sanctioned by a large segment of Black liberal intellectuals who feel entitled to cry foul before there is even just cause.
And this matter has no bearing on the Sanford case, so go wave your red herring somewhere else, preferably in a Seoul fish market.
Gates is now saying he plans to use this as a teachable moment. One can just imagine how that will turn out.
Meanwhile, the Sharpton Express in chugging along and eager to paint this as a racist action. And so it goes.... |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:09 am Post subject: |
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| I see that you are also afflicted by SRD (Selective Reading Disorder). I never claimed that Gates' views or actions were representative of all Black Americans, |
The title of your thread was "WHAT PROFESSOR GATES ARREST SAYS ABOUT BLACKS IN THE U.S."
That is your thread title. That title EXPLICITLY states that what your post is about 'represents' blacks in America.
The Sanford part is to point out YOUR selective view of media events. Where was your post condeming his actions and saying that he represented Conservative America?
For the record I believe neither Gates nor Sanford represents black and conservative America respectively.
Since you condemn Mr. Gates' actions, I assume that as a person who does not approve of adultery paid for by the taxpayer, that you will issue a statement condeming Gov. Sanford's actions.
Or do you endorse tax-payer funded adultery?
| Quote: |
| Being snitched by an extremeist anti foriegner group called 'anti english spectrum' that found out about the game after searching the net and facebook looking for foriegners up to no good is racial vigilantism and is WRONG and is racial intolerance. |
So when it involves FTs engaged in an illegal act it is 'snitching' but when it involves a man IN HIS OWN RESIDENCE who COMMITTED NO CRIME, it is Sharpton-esque race-baiting?
By your own standards law-breakers are law-breakers, regardless of color. The Poker game was not about race, it was about THE LAW.
Or do you condone letting law-breakers not be punished while citizens entering their own home should be subject to arrest?
What crime did Professor Gates commit when he broke into his own legal residence?
What crime did those FTs commit?
As far as extremist anti-foreigner snitching, is it okay for people to report illegal immigrants in the United States to immigration authorities? Possibly while using the internet to identify people as illegals?
Are the Minutemen snitchers? Or are they people upholding the laws of the United States Government?
I await your responses/apologies. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:24 am Post subject: |
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I'll solve this one for everyone.
If Gates had simply shown the officer his Driver's License or Passport that showed that was his ADDRESS then this would've all been over.
The man just got back from China. What, he left his passport at the airport? He only brought his University ID card to China?
How is this an issue? Cops ask for ID all the time. When they ask for ID, they don't mean your work ID, library card, student ID, or NRA membership.
Gate's problem is that he showed the cop his flashy "Harvard Professor" ID,
WHY!??!?!?!??!?!
Just show the officer your driver's license that shows your address. Bam. Problem solved. The officer leaves.
A cop asks for ID and out of all the identification he has on him, he shows the cop his glorified work ID.
What an idiot. This guy teaches at Harvard?  |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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The issue is what crime did Prof. Gates commit?
There is no law that says a pedestrian has to carry identification with them at all times.
You are allowed to ask the police to leave your own property if they do not have a warrant to search your house/place you under arrest.
So if some K-Cop comes up to you and demands your ID are you going to show it and not complain or will this end up as a hissy fit on Dave's? |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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For F#$% sakes! Why is this so hard for some people to understand!? The police were called to a specific residence in order to investigate a reported attempted break in!
It isn't like they just went up to some random black guys house and demanded evidence that he was in fact the legal resident. As the previous poster said, "show your id with an address on it and it is finished".
Are you saying that as I white man I can break into any house in America and when the cops arrive I can just say "Hey dude, this is my house, I live here"? Holy Shit! What a revelation. Why bother working or studying? In America, white privelege allows me to bust into any house I wish and the police can't do dick!
The only possible racial angle I could see developing is why the police were called in the first place. White woman sees black man calmly entering a home using a set of keys, calls police. Profiling/Racist.
White woman calls police after witnessing a man forcefully trying to barge into a residence in an area the had suffered numerous previous break ins. Common sense. Even the professor himself said he had no qualms with what the woman did.
Now I am just about as liberal as you can get but people turning this into a racist incident/agreeing that it was racist....with all due respect. Take your heads out of your asses! |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| yawarakaijin wrote: |
For F#$% sakes! Why is this so hard for some people to understand!? The police were called to a specific residence in order to investigate a reported attempted break in!
It isn't like they just went up to some random black guys house and demanded evidence that he was in fact the legal resident. As the previous poster said, "show your id with an address on it and it is finished".
Are you saying that as I white man I can break into any house in America and when the cops arrive I can just say "Hey dude, this is my house, I live here"? Holy Shit! What a revelation. Why bother working or studying? In America, white privelege allows me to bust into any house I wish and the police can't do dick!
The only possible racial angle I could see developing is why the police were called in the first place. White woman sees black man calmly entering a home using a set of keys, calls police. Profiling/Racist.
White woman calls police after witnessing a man forcefully trying to barge into a residence in an area the had suffered numerous previous break ins. Common sense. Even the professor himself said he had no qualms with what the woman did.
Now I am just about as liberal as you can get but people turning this into a racist incident/agreeing that it was racist....with all due respect. Take your heads out of your asses! |
this |
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