Henry Louis Gates Jr. returned to his Cambridge MA home on July 16 after what I can only assume was an exhausting flight back home from China. Unfortunately for him, it's been raining here in the greater Boston area for a couple of months, with only a few brief periods of relief. Professor Gates found his front door stuck, and asked his driver to help him get it open. Maybe it was swollen by the massive amounts of water we've had dumped on us. Maybe not. Just saying.
You've doubtless heard the rest of the story. Neighbor sees a couple of guys trying to force the door to a house. Neighbor calls police. Police arrive. Voices are raised. Professor Gates is arrested. Charges are dropped. Gates demands an apology from the arresting officer, which is refused.
Race may indeed be an issue in this sad series of events. Maybe not. But both Gates and Crowley, the arresting officer, have taken such hard positions that it's hard to see how, absent that beer with the President, they could find common ground. How did this happen?
These are two reasonable and responsible men, by all accounts. Personally, I find it easier to empathize with Gates. He was the one, after all, who was treated badly in his own home. I think he might have over-reacted, but after a long flight and a pretty prodigious case of jetlag, who wouldn't be cranky. And, as far as I know, being cranky in the presence of a police officer is not a crime. And can it possibly be against the law to make insulting remarks about someone's mother? Wouldn't that be an example of the Constitutionally protected right of freedom of expression? From reports of the incident and the police report, it sounds like Officer Crowley was offended when Gates accused him of racism, and used the disorderly conduct charge as payback. Police officers need to have cool heads, and to defuse charged situations, not jump into them with both feet. And if he was "just" following department procedures, those procedures needs to be changed NOW.
In the end, this may not be so much a case of actual racism (although it's not a stretch to understand how Gates could have perceived the behavior of the officer as racist) as it is of two stubborn men, each of whom was offended by the other's conduct, and who now both refuse to back down. Maybe it's a matter of testosterone (sorry guys, but I'm not dumping on you -- maybe I listen to too much Science Friday). Maybe these two men are a lot alike. But it's sad that two men who are in positions to lead by example in the arena of race relations (Crowley reportedly teaches a class on the subject to other cops) let this get away from them.
I know this has been diaried here before, but I was hoping I had something to add. My first diary, please be kind.