The Elites
Jul 21, 2009 Political
Well, well, well- here’s a story that has it all, a summer tearjerker about a black liberal university professor who was obviously “mistreated” by police because he was arrested for being the wrong color in the wrong place (at least if you believe him).
This story has it all, humor, pathos, and stupidity on an Epic scale. You have to figure that, because Al Sharpton has a cameo role in this farce, and you expect to hear him talk of Tawana Brawley in the same breath as he speaks of Harvard Professor Henry L. Gates Jr.
Professor Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, but the initial incident stemmed from the fact that Police officers were attempting to investigate reports of two men with backpacks, apparently trying to force a door open in a Cambridge neighborhood home. It was Professor Gate’s home, but how do the police know this?
Supporters of a prominent Harvard University black scholar who was arrested at his own home by police responding to a report of a break-in say he is the victim of racial profiling.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. had forced his way through the front door of his home because it was jammed, his lawyer said Monday.
Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home near campus after a woman reported seeing “two black males with backpacks on the porch,” with one “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.”
By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.
latimes.com
Professor Gates could have made all of this go away if he had cooperated with police instead of being confrontational, but apparently, as comedian Ron White once said, ” I had the right to be silent, I just didn’t have the ability.” And so the Professor, who you might think was smart, (after all, he IS teaching your children), decides to get all bowed up at these poor police officers, who would have liked nothing better than to peacefully resolve this and move on.
“Why, because I’m a black man in America?” Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.
Gates — the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.
“Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him,” the officer wrote.
Gates said he turned over his driver’s license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com
latimes.com
Good- I get so tired of people who decide that their rights are violated, when, if they could step back for a moment, they would, I am sure, be extremely disappointed to find out that it is not about them– not their blackness, not their sex, not their religion, but just about what appeared to a woman like a couple of men breaking into a house. It IS the police’s job to investigate complaints, and when someone begins cussing them, and making their job harder, bad things occur.
He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.
Gates, 58, also refused to speak publicly Monday, referring calls to Ogletree.
“He was shocked to find himself being questioned and shocked that the conversation continued after he showed his identification,” Ogletree said.
Ogletree declined to say whether he believed the incident was racially motivated, saying “I think the incident speaks for itself.”
Some of Gates’ African-American colleagues say the arrest is part of a pattern of racial profiling in Cambridge.
Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years, said he was stopped on campus by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.
latimes.com
And what’s with the old “I don’t have identification?” There’s a guy who has taught neuro- science for 25 years, and can’t remember to keep his ID on him? He didn’t even have a University ID? But I digress-
The Rev. Al Sharpton said he will attend Gates’ arraignment.
“This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen,” Sharpton said. “I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs.”
Ogletree said Gates had returned from a trip to China on Thursday with a driver, when he found his front door jammed. He went through the back door into the home — which he leases from Harvard — shut off an alarm and worked with the driver to get the door open. The driver left, and Gates was on the phone with the property’s management company when police first arrived.
Ogletree also disputed the claim that Gates, who was wearing slacks and a polo shirt and carrying a cane, was yelling at the officer.
latimes.com
This is a very spoiled and “entitled” man- a liberal to be sure, but that isn’t an indictable offense, just an indication of how far from common sense he has drifted. Perhaps the tenure had gone to his head- perhaps the arrogance, the conceit, the sheer effrontery that has wormed its way into his soul has kept him from seeing the facts, but he wasn’t arrested for “going to your own home while black”, but of failure to identify oneself, and of course- the biggie- disorderly conduct for verbally abusing the officers.
This is how ridiculous liberals get- they blow up a ten minute incident into a several thousand dollar court engagement, complete with a clown, Al Sharpton. One can only hope that he learned from the Tawana Brawley incident, but you know, probably not.
Because championing the truth is not how he rolls.
With him, it’s all about the AL.
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Tags: abuse of police, liberals, profiling, racial stereotypes, wimps