"I don’t know – not having been there and not seeing all the facts – what role race played in that, but I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."
That’s what President Obama told reporters during a press conference in response to a question about the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Obama admitted that Gates "is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts."
Acted stupidly? That’s the kettle calling the pot black. The president acted even more stupidly than the Cambridge police when he made that statement without knowing the actual facts. A little biased? Now that’s an understatement if there ever was one.
When Gates returned home from a trip, he attempted to force open his front door but was unable to gain entrance because it had been jammed during a previous break-in. He and his driver then went to the back and jimmied their way in. They were observed by a woman who called the police to report what she thaught was a burglary being committed. The police responded to a "Burglary in Progress" call and were met at the front door by an outraged Harvard professor.
Instead of calming down while the officers tried to determine whether he was a burlar or not, Gates accused the officers of racism and the situation escalated until he was arrested for disorderly conduct after drawing a crowd of onlookers and cops. After he spent a couple of hours in the pokey, the charges were dropped.
In the arrest report, police said Gates initially refused to step onto his porch when approached by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley. He then allegedly opened his door and shouted, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?"
"As Crowley continued to question Gates, the Harvard professor allegedly told him, 'You don't know who you're messing with.' When Crowley asked to speak with him outside, Gates allegedly said, 'Ya, I'll speak with your momma outside.'"
Crowley says he responded to a call of a possible break-in by a woman on the sidewalk, who said she'd seen a black male "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry." Crowley reported he "could see an older black male standing in the foyer." He continued: "As I stood in plain view of this man, later identified as Gates, I asked if he would step out onto the porch and speak with me. He replied 'no, I will not.' He then demanded to know who I was. I told him that I was 'Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police' and that I was 'investigating a report of a break in progress' at the residence. While I was making this statement, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed 'why, because I'm a black man in America?' I then asked Gates if there was anyone else in the residence. While yelling, he told me that it was none of my business and accused me of being a racist police officer."
Crowley's report, as well as that of another responding officer, describe Gates yelling repeated accusations of racism while asserting that the officer "had no idea who (he) was 'messing' with" and that the officer "had not heard the last of it."
After initially refusing to produce any identification confirming his residence, Gates finally supplied a Harvard ID. By that time, a crowd of officers and passers-by was outside. In front of the house and "in view of the public," Crowley states he twice warned Gates that he was becoming disorderly. But Gates' yelling and "tumultuous behavior" continued, causing "surprise and alarm" in the citizenry outside. Crowley then placed Gates under arrest.
Crowley "asked Gates if he would like an officer to take possession of his house key and secure his front door, which he left wide open." Gates said "the door was unsecurable due to a previous break attempt at the residence."
Professor Gates' version is that Sgt Crowley walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment. Gates complained that he was victimized by a "rogue cop." To hear him tell it, Sgt. Crowley was out of control while he was calm, cool and collected throughout.
After his release from jail, Gates asserted that he was the victim of racial profiling. The Congressional Black Caucus quickly chimed in with the same accusation. And Michael Eric Dyson, a prominent black Georgetown University sociology professor, was all over the airwaves spouting off about the mistreatment of blacks by the police in America.
Could the Cambridge police officers have handled this case without making an arrest? Yes, but to accuse them of being racist is a real stretch. At least one of the arresting officers was black. And Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered mouth to mouth resuscitation trying to save the life of Reggie Lewis, a black former Boston Celtics player, something a racist cop would be reluctant to do.
Police officers in most college towns tend to be well educated and, like campus cops, are instructed to tolerate verbal abuse and to avoid making any unnecessary arrests. Given the same circumstances, I believe that had Gates been white, he would still have been arrested. While I agree with Obama that any of us would be angry in a similar situation, that does not in any way excuse the professor’s abusive behavior.
Stupid is as stupid does. For the president, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard law school, to make an accusatory public statement without knowing the actual facts is an extraordinary act of stupidity and makes him look like an educated idiot.
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