i'm going to preface it by saying a couple of things
#1) obviously i wasn't there. i don't know what was said, who said it and how they said it.
#2) there is NO doubt in my mind people of color (especially black men) are racially profiled and/or discriminated against. NONE. it happens ALL of the time. i've witnessed it myself countless times (and not remained silent i might add). take the example of the 8 people of color who were SHOT on or near a texas college campus (some stories say 6, some say 8). if it were 6 or 8 WHITE people it would be all over the news. there would be OUTRAGE and vigils and facebook pages and the like. it would be all over the papers, tv, the net EVERYWHERE. it was barely mentioned in passing. my proof right there. (they were NOT killed i should mention. but 6 or 8 white people shot on a college campus is BIG BIG BIG news. i guess 6 or 8 people of color DO NOT COUNT AS MUCH).
so here are my thoughts. the person who called the police on professor gates had every right to do so. she saw SOMEONE attempting to force their way into a home. i'd call the police as well. i don't care if it was mother theresa herself. it's our civic duty to watch out for each other in our neighborhoods. the police had every right to respond to that call. the police had every right to ask professor gates for identification. i don't care if he was 96, had a cane and was black, white or blue.
after all of that things get fuzzy. if according to sgt crowley, he indeed warned professor gates TWICE about being arrested then i have less of an issue with him being arrested.
i was going to put myself in professor gates' position and say i'd be mad if the same happened to me and why i'd be mad. then i was going to do the same, but change my position to me being offput for a moment by having to prove to the police i indeed DID live there - then me quickly getting over it because i knew they were DOING THEIR JOBS. i can't say that though because i'm a white woman. i KNOW it is different for me and for professor gates. i really do know that.
what happens if sgt crowley DID do his job. what happens if professor gates DID overreact? that's just a what if mind you. some cases are CLEARLY wrong. some cases are CLEARLY based on color alone. all i'm saying is this case really does seem to have TWO sides. let's listen to BOTH of them.
oh and by the way, i've seen plenty of people OF ALL COLORS being arrested for not just SHUTTING THE EFF UP when they were warned to do so.
well here are the two sides:
Officer Tells His Side of The Story in Gates Arrest
Washington Post Staff Writers
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 23 -- What began as a prominent African American professor's dispute with a white police sergeant grew more complex Thursday as the officer spoke publicly for the first time and a fuller portrait of his life emerged.
Sgt. James Crowley said Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was combative from the moment the officer arrived at his house last week to respond to a call about a possible burglary. As the confrontation escalated, Crowley said he warned Gates that he risked arrest.
"The second warning was with me holding a set of handcuffs in my hands -- something I really didn't want to do," Crowley said in a radio interview. "The professor at any time could have resolved the issue by quieting down and/or going back inside his house."......
Renowned Af-Am Professor Gates Arrested for Disorderly ConductGates, who was trying to enter his own home, reportedly accused police of being racist
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6 comments:
I have a question. It says a "Woman" called the police after seeing a man wedging his shoulder into the front door of Gates' house. This would imply (to me) that this woman would be familiar with Gates and his house. I saw his house on TV and the front of his house looked pretty clear. Wouldn't she have recognized this person as Gates if she knew this was the Gates house? It just sounds kinda odd to me. I recognize my neighbors, even the ones I do not socialize with, even ones several houses away from me in three different directions. Surely, if one of them was "famous" I would know them by site.
That was the one part of the story that struck out as odd. After that, what went on between Gates and Crowley may never be clearly known except between the two of them. I think they both may have over reacted. Gates because of a history of racial profiling and hey...it was a mans property that was being invaded...men don't dig that...they get pissy about that stuff.
Crowley...well..cops get pissy when you don't follow "instructions." Period. Misunderstandings or not. I do think there is a lot of sloppy police work going out there and there should be a lot more training on how to defuse a situation done....there are just to many stories out there these days.
one news outlet actually mentioned her name. i did not want to. i don't think she was a neighbor. if i remember correctly (and i most likely don't) i think the article said she was a real estate agent or something like that. i don't think professor gates IS famous to a lot of people. i knew who he was, but i'm guessing most do not. if someone was attempting to break into MY home (or give the appearance of doing so) i sure do hope someone in my hood would call the police. i also heard yesterday on cnn professor gates home WAS broken into when he was in china. true or not, i don't know.
i don't know either of these men. i'll both BOTH overreacted. i heard sgt crowley speaking. he struck me as sincere. he may have been pissy with professor gates, but the only racial motivation in this case was that brought on by gates himself. (like i said, NO doubt in my mind black men are not treated fairly any time any where any how)
I suppose my question is Why shouldn't one be able to mouth off at the police without risking arrest? My experience with cops is they're not very bright and they make assumptions based on what little they know, and so they're rude at best and dangerous at worst. And I can totally see why Gates got hostile to a bunch of guys with guns standing around his home threatening him because they think no way do black people own homes in white, affluent Cambridge.
"Here, Professor Gates, let me ignore the legacy of slavery you talk about so much by threatening to put you in chains." Yeah, that's brilliant policing, that is. In the end, though, I'd say this is also about the unwillingness of cops to know their precincts, and their willingness to assume that everyone who isn't a cop is therefore the enemy.
as i said, there is NO doubt in my mind people of color (especially BLACK MEN) are treated very differently - and not in a good way.
one should be able to mouth off a bit. but as civil servants the police have a job to do. sgt crowley was at professor gates' home legitimately. he was attempting to LEAVE the property. professor gates followed him outside. BOTH were most likely at fault. this was NOT a normal police call at all. as i said, i don't know either man.
now i hear both are going to the white house to have a brew with the prez. perhaps this can all be worked out. that's all i hope for
Yeah they have a job to do, I just wish they were trained to do it better. Take my fair city: one day there were two articles in the local paper. One was about how the cops routinely seize and search black men getting off the bus at the greyhound station. But the PD's spokesman in the article stated flatly "We don't profile." The 2nd article was about their stopping and searching a white woman driving around a neighborhood in a rented car, because they thought she was delivering crack. Cop's comment? "She fit the profile."
Huh.
i worked for many many many years in a suburb (not even a suburb, it's way more rural in a RICH sort of way, not farm sort of way. it WAS farmland at one point though) famous for racial profiling. they deny it to this day. i know for a FACT it happened when i worked in that town and i know for a FACT, it still happens. here's more proof they have nothing against people of color:
Avon Police Officers Scolded for Anti-Obama email
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