The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates

Andrew Sullivan nails the crux of the whole matter nearly perfectly: the ruckus raised by this whole issue - especially on the part of those rushing to accuse Henry Louis Gates of "playing the race card" - is in itself indicative of how much racism remains a problem in America, the reality of a black President notwithstanding.

Even more telling, in my opinion, is the furore caused by said black President's raising a point which would trouble all the irate right-wingers a great deal more if they weren't all too busy exploiting this opportunity to whine about "blacks playing the race card": the fact is that Officer James Crowley arrested Robert Louis Gates on his own porch, and on the basis of a "disorderly conduct" charge completely lacking in substance; worse yet was that Crowley clearly and deliberately set up an agitated Gates for the "disorderly conduct" arrest by inviting him outside, thereby abusing the letter of the law in order to exact revenge on a man whose sole offense had been a failure to show the policeman the amount of deference he seemed to regard as his due. What James Crowley did was entrapment, plain and simple.

As sly as Officer Crowley's actions were, however, the problem for him is that being rude to a policeman within the confines of one's own property does not amount to a crime under Massachusetts law, even when the rude party follows a policeman outside to his porch,  so while Henry Louis Gates' conduct might indeed have been "unwise" from a strictly pragmatic point of view (as many of those attempting to exculpate the policeman have stated repeatedly), President Obama was indeed correct in claiming that Crowley acted stupidly by arresting the Professor.

Which brings me to another point, namely Obama's hastiness in withdrawing his legally and factually correct initial remarks. As politicians go, Barack Obama has many admirable qualities, but his conduct throughout both his presidential campaign and his time in the White House would indicate that a willingness to be disliked is not one of them. Obama seems to have a compulsive need to be everyone's friend and to extend a hand to others even when they clearly are the ones being unreasonable, a tendency he's displayed with his outreach towards Iran just as he has done with Officer James Crowley. Even granting that Henry Louis Gates' accusations of racism against the officer are just hot-headed nonsense, the fact remains that this policeman arrested a man simply because he didn't like the way the man was talking to him, a high-handed abuse of power which ought to have had him on the receiving end of some sort of reprimand, but instead of Obama sticking to his original remarks, he decides to invite this unrepentant, wayward officer to the White House for a beer! If this isn't rewarding bad behavior, I don't know what is ...

Having been a victim myself once of a bogus arrest borne of nothing but the spite of an arrogant policeman,  I think there is something deeply wrong with a situation in which supposed friends of liberty and restraints on government suddenly caste aside all such principles to leap to the defense of a man who misuses the powers vested on him as a public servant to retaliate against citizens who fail to treat him as if he were their master instead. Officer James Crowley may indeed not have a racist bone in his body, but what is beyond doubt is that the great majority of "conservatives" who have rushed to defend his actions certainly are racists (see, e.g; this cockroach), for whom no instance of abuse of power is troubling just as long as the person being abused happens to be black, especially one of the "uppity" kind who refuses to simply shut up and and tug his forelocks while challenged by a white police officer in his own home ...

Comments

[Guillermo Jimenez]

I agree that this incident has revealed a certain amount about racism in America, I do not believe that the incident itself was racially-motivated.

Prof. Gates was probably guilty of racial hypersensitivity. It seems likely that Sgt. Crowley is not any more racist than the average American, white or black.

But that does not mean that the police acted correctly in this case nor that Prof. Gates' ire, however unreasonably expressed, was not in part provoked by unacceptable police procedures (which are unfortunately standard in our country).

In a legal analysis I've posted on my website at http://redgenesbluegenes.com I point out that the arresting officer violated Prof. Gates 4th amendment rights -- as officers do every day -- with impunity.

This is definitely a "teachable" topic that Americans should pay attention to. The Boston Tea Party, which set off our own Revolution, was a direct response to British statutes that allowed unreasonable searches of a person's home.

The 4th amendment guarantees us that police officers must pause at the thresholds of our homes; lacking a warrant, they may not enter, period.

The police have got to learn to stop at our front doors and ask permission to come in, just like all well-educated children do.

Instead, they barge right in whenever they can, and then arrest you if you protest. Prof. Gates may well be a jerk, but in this case he did have some justification to act like a jerk, though he expressed himself in regrettably racial terms (which were probably irrelevant).

[Ms. Peters]

I am a 62 year old retired public school teacher. I am also white. Even I can see that Mr. Gates should not have been arrested. I am quite annoyed by the innumerable, defensive comments by people on the internet, especially white people. To deny the racial elements in this situation is just plain silly. We are separated by fear and distrust. Many white people do not take the time to shed their defensive posture long enough to see the daily humiliations that people of color endure.

Being that I live on a pension, I go often to discount stores. The other day I saw a man with his three young children who was stopped by a security guard. As usual procedure, the guard check the man's receipt with the contents of his bag. Both men were polite and the whole incident was over in less than a minute. He looked to be young and hispanic. Then, I passed by without as much as a whimper from the security guard, as usual. Honestly, if I were the criminal type I would support my pension by shoplifting! I cannot recount here all the times and myriad ways I have seen racial profiling. Yet, loads of people still maintain that either these things don't exist or exist minimally.

I might be a cranky old teacher, but I watch and observe, something I think all white people should do. For instance, I have never visited a city in the US, or anywhere really, that was not segregated by race and class. This includes numerous progressive university towns. Honestly, if I could put the whole bunch of these silly, blind, defensive white folks on detention, I would, and I would make them write, "I will open my eyes." two hundred times.