Henry Louis Gates Jr

Dirtie_FrankDirtie_Frank Posts: 1,348
edited July 2009 in A Moving Train
I have read the story and wonder why would the President of the United States of America even comment on something that he did not have the facts about. I understand Mr. Gates was upset that police came into his house, but it was not like the police did not recieve a call first. The neighbor called and reported two men were breaking into the house. The police responded and went in and asked the Mr. Gates(unknown at the time) who he was and to present ID. He became baligerant. I for one would hope the police would not take the mans word that it was his house but rather show ID. Police work is a hard job and mistake can be made, but that does not give Mr. Gates the right to verbally abuse this police officer who was trying to do his job.
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Comments

  • WaveCameCrashinWaveCameCrashin Posts: 2,929
    edited July 2009
    I agree... The Press Conf. was suppose to be about Health Care reform. But besides that I think I would have lost my shit to If I was being accused of breaking into my house and then after showing the officers proof that it was my house and they still arrested me.
    But know matter if you're in the right and they are in the wrong you should always respect the cops. Not only that they said on the news that while he was away someone did actually try to break into his house and the arresting officer teaches a class on racial profiling. So yes I think they were just trying to do their jobs
    Post edited by WaveCameCrashin on
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    Another problem of our "Homeland Security" era...policeman thinking that they are above the law and reproach. Arresting a man in his home for domestic disturbance in a public place....pure-d bullshit made up by a power-mad policeman. Gates nailed him on racial profiling, but he had to have the last word.
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • evenflowevenflow Posts: 401
    It all fits in with Obama's plan though. The only way to end racism and have a truly color-blind society is to point out each and every time some one screams that they've been harassed because of their color. It's straight out of the NAACP, Reverend Wright, Al Sharpton playbook.

    And how come nobody wants to mention that the other cop that was there happened to be the same color as Mr. Gates? Oh, that would probably hurt the racism card being dealt.

    I am however glad that with all the little problems we as a country are facing that Obama still took the time to weigh in on the situation. I was in a panic all day wondering exactly what his thoughts concerning this was. Now that I know, I'll be able to sleep so much better tonight. :D
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  • mookeywrenchmookeywrench Posts: 5,937
    agreed

    If someone is fumbling with a door trying to get into a locked house, and they refuse to show the cop their ID, what would you want the cop to do?

    The cop is supposed to apprehend suspected criminals, and the suspects are innocent till proven guilty. This is exactly what happened.
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  • jlew24asujlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    agreed

    If someone is fumbling with a door trying to get into a locked house, and they refuse to show the cop their ID, what would you want the cop to do?

    The cop is supposed to apprehend suspected criminals, and the suspects are innocent till proven guilty. This is exactly what happened.

    agree also. I cant believe this story is getting so much coverage. there was no racial profiling at all. not only was he fumbling with a locked door, a fucking call came in saying someone was trying to break into a home. for fuckssake. it was a simple misunderstanding. yet this is national news because he is some (GASP!!!! black) dipshit professor at Harvard? fuck him and fuck this story.


    ok thanks, I feel better now.
  • Dirtie_FrankDirtie_Frank Posts: 1,348
    tybird wrote:
    Another problem of our "Homeland Security" era...policeman thinking that they are above the law and reproach. Arresting a man in his home for domestic disturbance in a public place....pure-d bullshit made up by a power-mad policeman. Gates nailed him on racial profiling, but he had to have the last word.


    WTF are you talking about where was the racial profiling? The police responded to a call that someone was breaking in to the house and he was there. It wasn't like they followed him home and said he did it.
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  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    tybird wrote:
    Another problem of our "Homeland Security" era...policeman thinking that they are above the law and reproach. Arresting a man in his home for domestic disturbance in a public place....pure-d bullshit made up by a power-mad policeman. Gates nailed him on racial profiling, but he had to have the last word.


    WTF are you talking about where was the racial profiling? The police responded to a call that someone was breaking in to the house and he was there. It wasn't like they followed him home and said he did it.
    "Crowley wrote in the Cambridge police report that Gates refused to step outside to speak with him, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?"

    The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police.

    "While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me," Crowley said, according to the report.

    Gates was arrested for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space" and was released from police custody after spending four hours at the police station." http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/23/office ... index.html

    He was in his house when the policeman arrived...a policeman shows up at my front door, he had better have proper manners and respect.
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    evenflow wrote:
    It all fits in with Obama's plan though. The only way to end racism and have a truly color-blind society is to point out each and every time some one screams that they've been harassed because of their color. It's straight out of the NAACP, Reverend Wright, Al Sharpton playbook.

    And how come nobody wants to mention that the other cop that was there happened to be the same color as Mr. Gates? Oh, that would probably hurt the racism card being dealt.

    I am however glad that with all the little problems we as a country are facing that Obama still took the time to weigh in on the situation. I was in a panic all day wondering exactly what his thoughts concerning this was. Now that I know, I'll be able to sleep so much better tonight. :D
    According to the arrest report, there was one policeman present...the arresting officer.
    http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images ... 98.001.pdf
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • WaveCameCrashinWaveCameCrashin Posts: 2,929
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I cant believe this story is getting so much coverage.

    It wasn't. Until Obama commented on it last night yet he admitted to not knowing all the facts,but the police dept.. acted stupidly according to him.
  • evenflowevenflow Posts: 401
    tybird wrote:
    According to the arrest report, there was one policeman present...the arresting officer.
    http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images ... 98.001.pdf

    The black officer was the one who adjusted his cuffs at the request of the original officer. That detail is in the report, along with the fact that a few University officers were present once Gates became belligerent.
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  • __ Posts: 6,651
    Once Gates provided proof that it was his home, it should have all been over. Being pissed for being accused of breaking into your own home is not a crime and, by my estimation, is understandable.

    The interview with Gates that I read said several other police did arrive at some point. The photo I saw of him being led off in handcuffs did have a black officer in it. But just because a black officer arrived later for back-up or whatever doesn't mean there wasn't racial profiling.

    I didn't see Obama's speech, but it's my understanding that he was simply answering a question, no?

    I've seen much about this in the news since before yesterday.
  • WaveCameCrashinWaveCameCrashin Posts: 2,929
    I think If I had been the officer after I found out he was the actual person who he claimed to be. (the home owner) I would have just left.

    There are always 2 sides to every story,but it just seems a lot of this could have been prevented.
  • mookeywrenchmookeywrench Posts: 5,937
    prfctlefts wrote:
    There are always 2 sides to every story,but it just seems a lot of this could have been prevented.

    by both parties involved
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  • What if he did provide proper ID that listed him as living at that address. Isn't it the officers responsibility to make sure that Mr. Gates wasn't part of a domestic issue?

    When are we going to hold a black man accountable for his OWN actions? That is when racism will end.
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  • __ Posts: 6,651
    DH61585 wrote:
    What if he did provide proper ID that listed him as living at that address. Isn't it the officers responsibility to make sure that Mr. Gates wasn't part of a domestic issue?

    Only if a domestic issue had been reported, which it wasn't, or if there was some reason to suspect there was a domestic issue.
  • scb wrote:
    DH61585 wrote:
    What if he did provide proper ID that listed him as living at that address. Isn't it the officers responsibility to make sure that Mr. Gates wasn't part of a domestic issue?

    Only if a domestic issue had been reported, which it wasn't, or if there was some reason to suspect there was a domestic issue.

    Wouldn't an irate man seemingly trying to break into a building and refusing to show ID qualify as suspicion?
    Everyone has a photographic memory.......Some just don't have film!
  • __ Posts: 6,651
    scb wrote:
    DH61585 wrote:
    What if he did provide proper ID that listed him as living at that address. Isn't it the officers responsibility to make sure that Mr. Gates wasn't part of a domestic issue?

    Only if a domestic issue had been reported, which it wasn't, or if there was some reason to suspect there was a domestic issue.

    Wouldn't an irate man seemingly trying to break into a building and refusing to show ID qualify as suspicion?

    Your question was about someone who did show proper ID to prove that it was his home, which would allay any reasonable suspicion.
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    Wouldn't an irate man seemingly trying to break into a building and refusing to show ID qualify as suspicion?
    He was in his house when the policeman arrived....I suspect that this neighbor could be a troublemaker.
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • tybird wrote:
    Wouldn't an irate man seemingly trying to break into a building and refusing to show ID qualify as suspicion?
    He was in his house when the policeman arrived....I suspect that this neighbor could be a troublemaker.

    As I read it, he at first refused to show ID whether inside, outside, or upside down, all he had to do was show ID white, black or purple, it was Mr. Gates and Mr. Gates alone that provoked the incident. Stop blaming everyone else and blame the person who escalated the situation to begin with.

    And let's not forget our President who criticized the police describing them as stupid. The arresting offer is the instructor who teaches police not to racial profile!

    I think it is Mr. Gates and President Obama who owes law enforcement a very large apology.
    Everyone has a photographic memory.......Some just don't have film!
  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
    jlew24asu wrote:
    agreed

    If someone is fumbling with a door trying to get into a locked house, and they refuse to show the cop their ID, what would you want the cop to do?

    The cop is supposed to apprehend suspected criminals, and the suspects are innocent till proven guilty. This is exactly what happened.

    agree also. I cant believe this story is getting so much coverage. there was no racial profiling at all. not only was he fumbling with a locked door, a fucking call came in saying someone was trying to break into a home. for fuckssake. it was a simple misunderstanding. yet this is national news because he is some (GASP!!!! black) dipshit professor at Harvard? fuck him and fuck this story.


    ok thanks, I feel better now.


    http://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/hen ... index.html

    per his bio on the harvard website....

    BiographyHenry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

    Professor Gates is Editor-in-Chief of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine focusing on issues of interest to the African American community and written from an African American perspective, and the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American and Africana Studies. He is co-editor, with K. Anthony Appiah, of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. With Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, he is the co-editor of the eight-volume biographical encyclopedia African American National Biography (Oxford, 2008).

    His most recent book is In Search of Our Roots (Crown, 2009), which expands on interviews he conducted for his critically acclaimed multi-part PBS documentary series, “African American Lives 1 and 2.” His most recent documentary is "Looking for Lincoln" (PBS, February 2009), and he is the editor of Lincoln on Race and Slavery (Princeton University Press, 2009).

    Professor Gates is the author of several books, including The Signifying Monkey:
    A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (Oxford, 1988), winner of the 1989 American Book Award, Colored People: A Memoir (Knopf, 1994), and Finding Oprah’s Roots, Finding Your Own (Crown, 2007). Professor Gates authenticated and published two landmark African American texts: Our Nig, or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), by Harriet Wilson, the first novel published by an African American woman; and The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, one of the first novels written by an African American woman. In 2006, he and Hollis Robbins co-edited The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin (W. W. Norton, 2006).

    An influential cultural critic, Professor Gates has written for Time magazine, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is the editor of several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (W.W. Norton, 1996). Professor Gates also produced and hosted two previous series for PBS, 1999’s “Wonders of the African World” and 2004’s “America Beyond the Color Line.”

    Professor Gates earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge, and his B.A. summa cum laude in History from Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House, in 1973. He became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year at Yale. Before joining the faculty of Harvard in 1991, he taught at Yale, Cornell, and Duke. His honors and grants include a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” (1981), the George Polk Award for Social Commentary (1993), Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Americans” list (1997), a National Humanities Medal (1998), election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1999), the Jefferson Lecture (2002), a Visiting Fellowship at the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2003-2004), and the 2008 Ralph Lowell Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the highest honor awarded for accomplishments in public television (2009). He has received 50 honorary degrees, from institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Williams College, Emory University, University of Toronto, Morehouse, and the University of Benin.

    Professor Gates served as Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard from 1991 to 2006. He serves on the boards of the New York Public Library, the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Aspen Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.


    sounds like a little more than a "dipshit professor at Harvard" you make it sounds like he is an associate professor at some community college. that said, he is an esteemed professor and intellectual at one of the best universities in this country. not just another black dude causing a problems and blaming the cracker cop. none of us were there, and many times police reports are fudged so who is to say everything in the report is factual? the cops have the benefit of the state being on their side so they are more credible in the eyes of most courtrooms.what should he have done gotten a gun and taken care of it that way? i would have been irate if it were me in that situation.

    i know about 40 cops. very, very well actually. i used to fight on a fight team with about 20 of them. the majority of them are good people but 6 or 8 of those 20 were die hard racists. at MMA practice they used to joke about going to the hood and shaking down "t-dog", "boo boo" and "pookie". so i can see something like what happened in this situation happening around here, and many other areas in this country.
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  • IndifferenceIndifference Posts: 2,728
    edited July 2009
    I hope they release the 911 tape and radio tranmissions to get to the bottom of this. Other things to consider:

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... cused.html

    http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/enterta ... e_off.html

    And I have heard there had been a rash of break ins near by including that very house a week before.

    Then Mr. President - nice job!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eL42H_-0y8
    Post edited by Indifference on

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  • jlew24asujlew24asu Posts: 10,118


    sounds like a little more than a "dipshit professor at Harvard" you make it sounds like he is an associate professor at some community college. that said, he is an esteemed professor and intellectual at one of the best universities in this country. not just another black dude causing a problems and blaming the cracker cop. none of us were there, and many times police reports are fudged so who is to say everything in the report is factual? the cops have the benefit of the state being on their side so they are more credible in the eyes of most courtrooms.what should he have done gotten a gun and taken care of it that way? i would have been irate if it were me in that situation.

    I know his bio. fuck him. he is nothing more then a dipshit professor at Harvard. there was a call put in about someone breaking into a home. the cop was just doing his job, not racial profiling.
  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
    jlew24asu wrote:


    sounds like a little more than a "dipshit professor at Harvard" you make it sounds like he is an associate professor at some community college. that said, he is an esteemed professor and intellectual at one of the best universities in this country. not just another black dude causing a problems and blaming the cracker cop. none of us were there, and many times police reports are fudged so who is to say everything in the report is factual? the cops have the benefit of the state being on their side so they are more credible in the eyes of most courtrooms.what should he have done gotten a gun and taken care of it that way? i would have been irate if it were me in that situation.

    I know his bio. fuck him. he is nothing more then a dipshit professor at Harvard. there was a call put in about someone breaking into a home. the cop was just doing his job, not racial profiling.
    of course you know. you were there.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

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  • TriumphantAngelTriumphantAngel Posts: 1,760
    tybird wrote:
    He was in his house when the policeman arrived....I suspect that this neighbor could be a troublemaker.

    I agree. Sounds like a Joe Horn wannabe minus the gun...
  • Staceb10Staceb10 Posts: 675
    Just because a black man is well-educated doesn't mean they think a white cop isn't racially profiling and just because a white cop arrests a black man doesn't mean he's racially profiling. I am inclined to think that this Gates guy got pissed off and started his racial rant, wouldn't show ID and created his own problems. You can't tell me that if the officer had shown up and he asked him for his ID and Gates said, sure officer no problem and gave it to him that this would have ever happened.
  • g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
    The other day I somehow locked myself out of my house due to my storm door. My backup house keys in the yard did not have the storm door keys to unlock my storm door. I faced having to call a locksmith with my dinner cooking on the stove.

    Anyway if a cop came up at the time I was trying to break in my house I would've showed him my ID if he asked. However it was locked up inside the house, the only thing I would've been able to show him was my car registration which showed the house address I was trying to get into.

    This just appears to me this guy Gates had a bit of arrogance in him and just didn't want to be fucked with by the police. This doesn't make it right by allowing the situation to get inflamed and escalate. If this situation was truly a breakin of sort I'm sure he would want the intruder to show some ID like I would've if someone was breaking into my house.

    This coming from a person that has on several occasions been pulled over for DWB.

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  • IndifferenceIndifference Posts: 2,728

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  • __ Posts: 6,651
    g under p wrote:
    DWB.

    :lol::lol::lol::lol:

    My personal opinion, if I take both stories with equal grains of salt, is that this whole incident is more about the male ego - on both sides - than anything. Both of them should have been adult enought to just let it go once it was proven that no crime was being committed. But instead they just each had to get the last word. I don't think the cop had the right to use his badge to support his ego though.
  • inmytreeinmytree Posts: 4,741
    I love this story...folks are mad about Obama...folks think that black guy overreacted in his own home, thus leading to his arrest...yet not too many folks wonder if the cop overreacted...hmmmmm....

    there are two sides to every story, but for me, there is no reason the police should have arrested this man...he showed his ID and he was in his own home...yeah, yeah, he raised his voice...I guess the should have tasered the f'r for raising his voice...
  • JR8805JR8805 Posts: 169
    I have read the story and wonder why would the President of the United States of America even comment on something that he did not have the facts about. I understand Mr. Gates was upset that police came into his house, but it was not like the police did not recieve a call first. The neighbor called and reported two men were breaking into the house. The police responded and went in and asked the Mr. Gates(unknown at the time) who he was and to present ID. He became baligerant. I for one would hope the police would not take the mans word that it was his house but rather show ID. Police work is a hard job and mistake can be made, but that does not give Mr. Gates the right to verbally abuse this police officer who was trying to do his job.

    It didn't sound to me like Gates was verbally abusing anyone. He asked a question, something like, "Is this how Black men are treated in America?" And he wasn't wrong to ask it. Here he was, a well-dressed elderly Black man using a cane who showed he was in his own home. It's hard to imagine the police arresting a well-dressed, elderly white man walking with a cane under similar circumstances. I am a wimp; I'd be afraid of what police might do to me if I said anything. Gates is not the submissive wimp I am. Personally, I admire him for standing up for himself.
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