Charge against Harvard professor dropped

[tinpra]

(CNN) -- A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city's police department recommended that the matter not be pursued. (What this blurb doesn't say is that they arrested him for breaking into his own house, which he then proceeded to prove he lived at. Anywho, read the rest at CNN.com)

For another perspective, try this on for size from Gawker.com: Black Professor and White Lady Reenact Crash in Cambridge. Even if you think the reporting/blogging is totally biased (and it definitely has a slant, as have all the articles I've read regarding htis incident) it's worth checking out for the source documents embedded in the article as well as the comments from readers, which range from the profound to the oddly hilarious.

And lastly a perhaps more middle ground report from The Boston globe: Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home. The comments, however, are standard fare. It takes a little while to find anyone not look at this from a reasonable point of view.

Comments

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

This is obviously big news around here. But let me ask you something: the police report indicates that the woman called the police when she saw one of the men try to force his way into the home. Is your racial profiling tag being used to suggest that she wouldn't have called the cops if the two men had been of a different race? That the professor wouldn't have been arrested if he'd been of a different race?

I'm curious.

[tinpra.livejournal.com]

It's for the whole situation. Who knows whether the woman is just a good citizen and would have called no matter who she saw breaking into the house (man or woman, prsn of color or not) or if she did a mental "Black prsn...forcing door...call police." There's no way to know. Ditto on the full psychology behind why the police arrested Dr. Gates. Was it just b/c he was rowdy? Although if while in your house you prove you live in your house, why do you call me outside so that you can now arrest me? He may have been a jerk and pissing the cops off, but at that moment didn't they to deal with it--at least the way I understand home entry and being a pissant while in your home (and not committing a crime) and the police don't have a warrant. But the question at large regarding Dr. Gates' arrest is that he is a Black man and his neighbor is a white woman, and he did get arrested, and even if he got arrested for the right reasons it has all the ingredients for racial profiling. And that is the question.

There's another article that I should pro'ly link to where the blogger suggested that Dr. Gates, and anyone who's facing possible arrest, quietly go along w/the police if for no other reason than they have more power over you at that moment than you do over yourself, and then stick it to them after you're safely back out on the street. The blogger is a white man speaking from personal experience.

And 2nd article by a black man who was "racially profiled" by his neighbor while trying to ask for a wrench. Neighbor 1 wouldn't open the door because there was a black man outside (they later considered that it might be their neighbor and went over to check). Neighbor 2 presumably gave his wife the wrench b/c they either recognized her, or b/c she was a woman.

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

why do you call me outside so that you can now arrest me? Because I'm pretty sure it's against the law to arrest you IN your home? :P

I guess for me the problem with all of this coverage is that a lot of people are automatically assuming wrongdoing on the part of the police/eyewitness. Which is odd, because I think at least superficially, everyone did something that was fairly reasonable - and especially the woman who made the call; it definitely seems understandable that someone would call the cops over seeing something like that. I mean... he was breaking and entering, so I can't exactly find fault in her for believing that this professor was breaking and entering.

I just think that as much as this probably should be investigated, the way that it's become a national spectacle is going to prevent any honest outcome from it. And that makes me sad, because I can see good, innocent cops being fired because of how the situation looks and douchey, racist cops being kept so the dept. doesn't have to admit wrongdoing. D:

[tinpra.livejournal.com]

Because I'm pretty sure it's against the law to arrest you IN your home? :P Which is of course the point :P

I just think that as much as this probably should be investigated, the way that it's become a national spectacle is going to prevent any honest outcome from it. And that makes me sad, because I can see good, innocent cops being fired because of how the situation looks and douchey, racist cops being kept so the dept. doesn't have to admit wrongdoing. D:

I agree that it's possible. But what it's also doing, by becoming a "national spectacle" is unearthing the American public's own biases. The people who are saying "But we have a Black president, there's no way this could be racist" are wrong, just as the people who are saying "Fire those racist white crackers!" are wrong, just as the people who are saying "Well of course that man was in the wrong and the cops were of course in the right" are wrong and possibly naive. Yet to some extent having those unbalanced viewpoints out in the open is to our benefit. Racism and race politics is deeply embedded in the American framework and society, and yet often not overt, that it can be easy to either forget it's there (and thus think it doesn't exist), or to complete immerse yourself in the idea of it and see everything as a personal attack.

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

by becoming a "national spectacle" is unearthing the American public's own biases. See, I can in theory get behind that. But I'm kind of thinking that this is becoming a national spectacle without any eventual positive outcome (whatever that may be - some gets fired, someone gets an apology, people talk more about race, whatever). I don't see the parties involved on the local level doing the right thing, and I don't see people on the national level remembering this for very long, much less any change being enacted.

Like you said, racism and race politics are deeply embedded into the American framework and society. I don't think that this incident is enough to change much of anything. I mean I suppose you could argue that we're talking about this, so there must be some merit to the idea that this could have an eventual effect on everything. But I feel like this probably isn't the first time we talked about race and it certainly won't be the last, lol.

Yes, I'm being negative today. :P Nothing's going to end right ever!

[tinpra.livejournal.com]

Nothing's going to end right ever!

It'll take more than us, that's for sure.