Racial Profiling or not?

[hkellick]

There's been a very interesting event happening in Boston this last week regarding a White Police Office arresting an elderly African American scholar in his own home.

Details seem to still be emerging from the case but what we knew more or less immediately was the following: Henry Louis Gates Jr. came home one day from overseas and found out he could not find his keys. So he and his driver, an African, decided to break into his own house.
Somehow the police got involved and handcuffs came out. Gates acknowledges he got upset at the officer and ended up in Jail.

Gates is screaming Racial Profiling. The nation, as a whole, seems to be backing him up.

Putting aside the color of Gates's skin.. my question is simply: what should the Police Officer have done if he arrived at a house to see ANY man trying to break into it?

I think the only real trick here.. the potentially damning part is simply the question of how Gates was approached. If the Police Officer saw a black man breaking into a house and brought out the cuffs immediately, then I agree it's racial profiling.

If the police officer approached him, as he says he did trying to find out what was going on and Gates' doesn't respond helpfully and THEN the cuffs came out.. I'd say it's maybe not so cut and dry. I can understand how a number of misunderstandings could have occurred and we got to where we are.

I'd really love to see the two stories.. Gates' story and the officers story put side by side and examined. I'm sure it'd be very "Rashomon" but I think it would at least give us a clearer picture of what really happened.

Comments

[phoenixsong]

My understanding is that a neighbor called the police, and that Gates was already in his home and provided ID and other proof that it was indeed his home when the police arrived. I don't know if anyone outside the situation knows if things started escalating before or after he provided ID, but even with the ID, he was still cuffed and taken away. THAT is the part that has everyone yelling "racial profiling."

I hadn't heard about another person being with him when Gates broke into his house.

On the one side, you have police officers who arrested a black man in his own home in a well-to-do Cambridge, MA neighborhood. On the other hand, you have someone who is known for having a somewhat...abbrasive personality, who at some point during the incident started yelling "you don't know who you're dealing with!" at police officers trying to do their job. I don't know if we'll ever know for certain who crossed the line first; I'm inclined to say both parties screwed up and should apologize.

ETA: Well, that was my opinion before I read the WP article you linked to. I'm now even more inclined to think that it was Gates, not the officers, who overreacted -- especially since the charge was "disorderly conduct," not "breaking and entering."

[hkellick]

The article was interesting. I was waiting to withhold judgment until we heard from the Police Officer because some of the statements Gates' made did seem abrasive and not a little bit divisive.

Now that I read that article.. I'm inclined to agree that this isn't really Racial Profiling so much as an ugly misunderstanding.

[peachtess]

Gods I hate the whole racial profiling issue. It seems like anytime a person of color is arrested they yell "Racial Profiling" to the rooftops. Yes it still legitimately happens but the issue is being clouded by all these people "crying wolf". The worse part is that the colored community is supporting all these people "crying wolf" since they immediately jump to the person defense without knowing all the facts. I am really sadden that the President joined this practice.

In this particular case I'm inclined to believe the officer. Really its a good cop (no record of any misconduct) who TEACHES the racial profiling course and is by all accounts a good instructor or the professor who is known to have a bad personality and is completely in character to have been combative to the officer. If this was a white home owner or a colored officer there and it happened exactly the same way there would be no story here. Just some home owner being an ass to the cops who were just doing their jobs.

I'll end this by saying that people engaged in racial profiling should be fired and it should not be condoned. Eventually people are going to get tired of people "crying wolf" and the real cases will be ignored and the people involved will get away with it. That's a sad thought.

[alierak]

I don't so much care to pick a side on the arrest, but I do think you're missing some widely reported details that show Gates to be a moron. He didn't forget his keys, he found that the front door lock was jammed due to having been tampered with while he was away. So he went in the back door, still couldn't open the front door from the inside, and asked the Moroccan taxi driver who'd brought him home to help by pushing on the door from the outside.

Duhr. If you return home and find your lock's been tampered with, do not enter the house, do not pass go or collect $200. CALL THE EFFING POLICE. Kthxbye.

[phoenixsong]

That's actually the first I've heard that level of detail. Boston.com? (News sites that don't crash my browser at work are rather limited.)

In which case, yes -- at very least, if you've had someone housesitting for you, call them first. If not, call the cops. Unless you're the type to assume all cops are out to get you...ohwait. s:P~

[alierak]

I'm pretty sure I'd have gotten that thru CNN's RSS feed.

[hkellick]

You're right, I'd missed that. Or.. gotten confused on that point. :p
The whole thing seems... not quite as cut and dry as people want to say it is, though.

[john]

You know, I'd be a total dick to the police in this situation. I'm pretty sure that, as a nice middle class white boy, I would not be cuffed and dragged down to the station.

That's what's different. That's why I'm pissed about this.

[zorkian]

I have a lot of thoughts but very little that I feel I can usefully put into words.