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Henry Louis Gates arrested when trying to force open door of his own home
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jsteele
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While doing this may make him a jerk, it does not make him a criminal. And, as the police report says, Gates did provide identification. As Obama said, arresting Gates at that point was stupid. The officer should have turned and left while complaining about dick head professors. |
Anonymous
Either you are kidding/trying to start trouble, or you are a complete MORON. Gates does not need an incident like this to "make a documentary on race or something" (he's already produced an award-winning PBS documentary, and he's the author of many many books. Here's his bio from Harvard. He's not "just another racist black guy." Henry 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 the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American Studies and Africana Studies, and of The Root, an online news magazine dedicated to coverage of African American news, culture, and genealogy. In 2008, Oxford University Press published the African American National Biography. Co-edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, it is an 8-volume set containing more than 4,000 biographical entries on both well known and obscure African Americans. The companion website will add more than 1,000 entries to those in print within the next two years. With K. Anthony Appiah, he co-edited the encyclopedia Encarta Africana published on CD-ROM by Microsoft (1999), and in book form by Basic Civitas Books under the title Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (1999). Oxford University Press published an expanded five-volume edition of the encyclopedia in 2005. He is most recently the author of Finding Oprah’s Roots, Finding Your Own (Crown, 2007), a meditation on genetics, genealogy, and race. His other recent books are America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans (Warner Books, 2004), African American Lives, co-edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Oxford, 2004), and The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin, edited with Hollis Robbins (W. W. Norton, 2006). In January 2009, his book In Search of Our Roots will be published (Crown), expanding on interviews he conducted for his multi-part PBS documentary series, “African American Lives.” In 2006, Professor Gates wrote and produced the PBS documentary also called “African American Lives,” the first documentary series to employ genealogy and genetic science to provide an understanding of African American history. In 2007, a follow-up one-hour documentary, “Oprah’s Roots: An African American Lives Special,” aired on PBS, further examining the genealogical and genetic heritage of Oprah Winfrey, who had been featured in the original documentary. The second series, “African American Lives 2,” aired on PBS in February 2008. Professor Gates also wrote and produced the documentaries “Wonders of the African World” (2000) and “America Beyond the Color Line” (2004) for the BBC and PBS, and authored the companion volumes to both series. PBS will broadcast his newest documentary, “Looking for Lincoln,” in February 2009. Professor Gates is the author of several works of literary criticism, including Figures in Black: Words, Signs and the “Racial” Self (Oxford University Press, 1987); and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (Oxford, 1988), winner of the American Book Award in 1989. He authenticated and facilitated the publication, in 1983, of Our Nig, or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), by Harriet Wilson, the first novel published by an African American woman. Two decades later, in 2002, Professor Gates authenticated and published The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, dating from the early 1850s and now considered one of the first novels written by an African American woman. He is the co-author, with Cornel West, of The Future of the Race (Knopf, 1996), and the author of a memoir, Colored People (Knopf, 1994), that traces his childhood experiences in a small West Virginia town in the 1950s and 1960s. Among his other books are The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers (Basic Civitas Books, 2003); Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Black Man (Random House, 1997); and Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (Oxford, 1992). He is completing a book on race and writing in the eighteenth century, entitled “Black Letters and the Enlightenment.” Professor Gates has edited several influential anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (W. W. Norton, 1996); and the Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers (Oxford, 1991). He is the editor of numerous essay collections, including Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology (Meridian, 1990); "Race," Writing, and Difference (University of Chicago, 1986); and, with K. Anthony Appiah, volumes on the authors Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes. In addition, Professor Gates is publisher of Transition magazine, an international review of African, Caribbean, and African American politics. An influential cultural critic, Professor Gates has written a 1994 cover story for Time magazine, numerous articles for the New Yorker, and in September 2004, a biweekly guest column in The New York Times. 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), the Jay B. Hubbell Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association (2006), ), the Rave Award from Wired Magazine (2007), the Let’s Do It Better Award from of the Columbia University School of Journalism for “African American Lives” (2007), and the Cultures of Peace Award from the City of the Cultures of Peace (2007). He has received 49 honorary degrees, from institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Williams College, Emory University, Howard University, University of Toronto, and the University of Benin. In 2006, he was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, after he traced his lineage back to John Redman, a Free Negro who fought in the Revolutionary War. 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. |
Anonymous
| I don't care about his background--I mentioned that he was going to make a documentary on this incident because he said he was and was obviously trying to make this into something it was not. so apparently you are the moron. Beyond the fact that you are completely missing the point. The officers had no idea who he was. they were told a description and the description was that of two black men breaking into a home. This is not racist, it's true. Policy is that you are to identify yourself if there is a call of a break in whether you are black, white, asian, hispanic and it also doesn't matter if you are a famous teacher, a garbage man, a lawyer etc. Back to what I said. I didn't freak when I was asked to identify myself-my only nervousness was that I hoped my id was in my purse..which is was. I also didn't start calling the officer names which Gates did and apparently his own neighbor said he was freaking out immediately. Also his yelling was on the officer's police radio so it was heard by others. He was given many chances to calm down and he didn't. Instead he started race baiting and calling the officer's mother names. What you have to ask yourself is why do you support someone when the facts so obviously do not support what he is saying? This is the problem with race in this country. We have gone so far in some ways but in other ways were are so afraid of making someone black mad that we act in a different manner than we would with someone white. This breeds racism and it is not good for anyone. |
Anonymous
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So it's okay to arrest someone for being rude?
I have worked in service occupations and sometimes the customer is a jerk. Even so, you still try to deal politely with the customer because responding in kind like a jerk is not good for business even if it is justified. I don't see why a police officer should get a pass on acting like a professional just because someone mouthed off to him. I certainly wouldn't use that as an excuse. |
Anonymous
Even so, unless his behavior was a physical threat to the officers, they had no business arresting him for being rude (or angry, as one might argue). If he had identified himself, the officer's business with him was finished. Policemen should not be allowed to create legal problems for citizens out of spite. |
Anonymous
No, this breeds racism. You know that this man - this Harvard professor - writes books and makes documentaries on race for a living, right? For some reason, you've deemed that irrelevant but the fact that he may incorporate his lived experience into his work is proof of some nefarious motive. And again - he did identify himself. He produced two forms of identification that demonstrated his legal right to be in the house. The officer asked to enter and Prof. Gates said no, which is his right. The officer then proceeded to enter his home anyway, without a warrant and without cause, as Prof. Gates was complying with the officer's request to produce identification. |
Anonymous
| I'd be very curious to see the news report which states that Gates was "freaking out" and "calling the officer's mother names." Can you provide a link? |
jsteele
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The police report actually says this, more or less. The officer arrested Gates for disturbing the peace. That disturbance was Gates yelling at the officer. What makes this so ridiculous is that it was the officer who was the provocation for the disturbance. Perhaps the officer didn't deserve to be the target of Gates' anger. But, all he needed to do is get in his car and leave and the incident would have been over. |
Anonymous
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I commend this piece to the forum for consideration. As a white woman, it certainly resonates with me.
I challenge you to be honest with yourselves as to whether or not it resonates with you, and, if so, perhaps to share one such anecdote within this thread. I'll start: I was pulled over for drunk driving (and I was very drunk) and driven home by the police with no charges filed. Fwiw, I've been sober for 20 years now, so hold the flames about the stupidity of driving while drunk, please 
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/07/23/henry-louis-gates-contempt-of-cop/ White Privilege (the Remix): A Play in Three Acts by Tim Wise July 22, 2009, 5:27 am Surely by now you've heard the news. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (who TIME Magazine has named one of the most influential persons in the United States, and who is arguably the most cited black scholar on the planet) was recently arrested. This, after breaking into his own home, in Cambridge, Massachusetts when, upon returning from a trip to China, he discovered his front door damaged and jammed. A white woman, not recognizing this rather famous black man, naturally assumed he was a criminal rather than the full-time occupant of the residence, and so she called police to report an attempted break-in underway. When they arrived, they arrested the resident of the home, Dr. Gates. The charge? Disorderly conduct. Which is what white people call it when a black man does the following: a) announces that he indeed lives in the residence where police have come to question him, after which point he offers the documentation to prove as such, and b) repeatedly and without success demands to know the name and badge number of the officer, when the officer seems to disbelieve that the black man actually lives there. [ Edit by administrator due to copyright violation. Please respect intellectual property rights. The rest of this article may be found here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/white-privilege-remix-a-play-three-acts ] |
Anonymous
There are a number of practical checks, at least in DC. I'm not sure why you found the complaint process to the "discouragingly" bureaucratic. You can file a complaint, including an anonymous complaint, by phone, email, letter, in person, carrier pigeon (ok, not really, just a lame attempt at humor.) There's a link off the front page on the DC police website. ALL complaints are investigated. If the process seems bureaucratic it may be in part that an officer can be disciplined up to and including losing his/her job if the complaint is sustained. (And yes, that's happened.) I think it is only fair that the police have to accept and investigate ALL complaints of misconduct. But on the flip side I think ALL accused officers are entitled to a complete and fair investigation. There are bad cops AND there are people who file frivolous, false complaints. I also understand that some people feel that cops can't investigate cops. It's not my belief because I know many honorable, moral cops who do the right thing, even when it is a colleague. However, the Office of Police Complaints was created as a completely independent city entity to investigate citizen complaints. By law, the are completely separate from the police department. You can find them on the DC website. |
Anonymous
| I really enjoyed the Tim Wise piece. Thanks for posting. |
Anonymous
| The neighbor calling the police reminded me about a story Robert Johnson, African American founder of BET, told about an encounter at his home. He owned an expensive estate with horse stables and one day when he was out by the horses, a white contractor working on the stables said something to him about working there as if he were a hired hand, not knowing that Bob Johnson was the owner of the estate and a wealthy, well respected businessman. I don't recall if he said anything to the guy but the worker later found out who Johnson was and was obviously embarrassed to have addressed him in the way that he did. |
Anonymous
| Can someone tell me if it is illegal to shout at a police officer in your own home? |
Anonymous
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I'm not the PP but here's a link to the police report.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html The way the report reads, Gates started screaming at the police officer and calling him a racist in front of witnesses. Make of it what you will. |
Anonymous
I'm not aware of any law specifically against "shouting at a police officer in your own home." Typically, in those situations, I believe the charge would be "disorderly conduct." I believe it is generally written pretty broadly, using terms like "rude," "profane," or "disorderly." In your own home, I would guess in most cases it would not be illegal, depending on the noise level. On your front porch, it might depend on the jurisdiction (earshot, etc.). I think it really depends on the particular jurisdiction. Of course, broad language can lead to a pretty wide use of discretion by the officer. Discretion, when used appropriately, is a good thing I think. I also think it can be used inappropriately. I'll be interested to see what the panel that has been assigned to investigate the incident involving Mr. Gates finds. I hope they release the report to the public to encourage transparency. |