printWhile out on a run one day, our alarm system was triggered. Not the full foghorn, mind you, but a sensor, which went off at the security company’s headquarters. As we were entering the home, two police officers were walking down the driveway and up the stairs. They were extremely polite, but stern. They told us they had received a report of an alarm going off at this address. Were we the owners of the abode, they wanted to know. “Yes,” we replied. They asked to see ID. We complied. Then they left. We were impressed with their professionalism and glad for the vigilance.
A similar thing happened to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. But he was not as pleased with the boys in blue as Sean and I were.
The case of Gates was catapulted to the headlines, first by the “Black In America” cable channel, CNN. Then by the mother ship docked at the White House. “Obama,” reports Fox News, “who is friends with the professor and documentary filmmaker, told reporters at a Wednesday night press conference that … ‘the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.'”
The fact that Gates was in the home is no proof he owned or resided in that home. More material: Obama was anything but impartial. His was the full-throated reaction of the president of Black America. Obama was ready with a bag of tricks that would have done the Sharpton-Jackson race baiters proud.
But back to Gates. He and his cabby had forced the front door, and it appears that Gates refused to produce an ID or any other information, calling Sgt. James Crowley a racist for requesting identification.
“According to the report, Gates then yelled, ‘This is what happens to black men in America.’ When Crowley tried to calm him down, Gates shouted, ‘You don’t know who you’re messing with.'” And, “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside.”
Classy.
At this stage, I think the officer ought to have walked away. Just done the gentlemanly thing and bowed out. But when Gates followed Crowley out cussing, pulling rank and threatening him, the officer cuffed the professor for disorderly conduct. At this point, the officer, who so far had done his duty, lost it and gave in to oneupmanship.
Before commenting, do read the Disorderly Conduct Report, written by both Sergeant James Crowley and Officer James Figueroa (courtesy of “The Smoking Gun”).
Update I (July 24): THE AFRICAN ARISTOTLE. Soft sobriquets such as “PC” and “elitist” don’t come close to capturing the essence of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr.
Let me do the honors. Gates is a man who has risen to the pinnacle of a society he hates. His stature he owes to the creation of bogus fields of specialty by a stupid, self-immolating WASP society. Described as “scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual,” among other effusions, Gates’ scholarship is in … drum roll … the “study of black culture,” a BS pursuit created to appease; to allow the intellectually undeserving to delude themselves and others that they’ve scaled considerable intellectual heights.
I’m appalled that no one has been remotely critical of the treatment this man is receiving as the crème de la crème of American intelligentsia; a man whose Wikipedia entry perfectly seriously lauds his skills at combining of “literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions.” Jacques Derrida at least was an educated deconstructionist. Ditto Michel Foucault.
CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, of the “Black In America” lamentations, had a frothing fit when trying to express her outrage at the treatment of this African Aristotle. O’Brien boasted about taking classes at Harvard with Gates the intellectual giant, and struggled to find the words with which to do justice to his towering achievements, not least of which is his gritty, terribly original role as an “outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon.” What you can’t best, you can at least trash.
Update II (July 25): Steve Sailer on Obama’s ingrained racism. Sailer also brings up a point I’ve hammered again and again on this blog and in my columns: The importance of Ricci, the white firefighter, refusing to go gently into the good night.
Obama’s comments at his news conference on the “stupidity” of the Cambridge Police Department were, despite all his lawyerly stipulations, a textbook example of racial prejudice in action. He had prejudged these specific events based on his deeply held views on the general racial situation in America.
As in Ricci, we see the value of civil servant unions in standing up to racialized politicians. Crowley’s cop union stood shoulder to shoulder with him and helped him face down the Governor and the President. Government employee unions are expensive, but they do have an interest in standing up for civil service rules in fighting the new racial spoils system perpetrated under the guise of “civil rights.”
Another lesson is that as the Establishment has ratcheted up Racism into the worst sin imaginable in the history of the world, it has not correspondingly ratcheted up the seriousness of the consequences of falsely accusing somebody of “racism.” It was clear from even Dr. Gates’s self-serving account that his accusations of racism against Officer Crowley were the product not of evidence but of his understandably tired, overexcited brain intersecting with his business interests as a prestige media race man. Crowley refused to buckle under to extraordinary pressure, going all the way up to the President, thus setting a new standard for how to respond to false charges.
It’s time to pressure Obama to publicly call on his friend Skip Gates to withdraw his charges of racism against Officer Crowley on the grounds that the epidemic of false charges of racism must be halted.
Now, that would be a Teachable Moment!
Update III (July 27): FIGHTING THE RACE BAITERS. On MSNBC, Eugene Robinson, the mediocre, mundane mind that has landed a lucrative post at the Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize, smirked over the allegation that Gates had cussed. “He’s a superstar, one of the best-known and most highly acclaimed faculty members at the nation’s most prestigious university.” Such people don’t cuss. “C’mon,” Robinson jocularly intimated; Sgt. James Crowley is likely the liar.
Look, I hope you get that this fracas is never about the non-aggression principle: The libertarian law is the easy part; the no-brainer. As the libertarian law goes, Crowley was in the wrong. But there’s more to society than the skeletal non-aggression axiom. The real achievement here is Crowley’s; the Sgt. got the race hucksters to back down, and that includes The President of Black America. Is the WASP fed up to the back teeth? Will he fight for his rights? That’s to be seen.
Gates is simply a bitter elitist who was offended that a cop would have the nerve to question a grand Harvard man about anything.
Obama *appears* to stick his foot in it about the Cambridge incident and now health care coverage is off the front page. That’s exactly what he hoped would happen. Congress is just waiting for the storm to pass. Then, when middle America grows weary of this topic, and the August recess ends… watch out.
Pardon me, ma’am, but as you yourself said, “The fact that Gates was in the home is no proof he owned or resided in that home.” I infer from the report that Gates refused to present identification. If Sgt. Crowley, not knowing Gates personally, had walked away without identifying Gates as a lawful owner or resident, then Sgt. Crowley would have been derelict in his duty.
It seems that Gates was arrested for contempt of cop, but what should he have expected? Like it or not, the police have tremendous power in America. If one is insolent to people who have power, one can expect to have their power applied against him. A first sergeant taught me that lesson the hard way when I was still a teenager. I can only speculate as to why Gates never learned it.
Gates was not arrested because of his race. Mouth off to the cops and you’ll get busted, whether you’re black, white, yellow, purple, or green. Some black men understand that, for example, Chris Rock. If Gates were a professor of, say, electrical engineering rather than “African-American studies,” then he might have had sense enough to show his ID and be civil, and our leftist press wouldn’t be insulting our intelligence with its ludicrous coverage of this incident.
Gates’ house had been broken into before this incident. I’m sure the officer in question knew of this, and so was particularly vigilant.
But the cop will still be crucified in the court of public opinion.
After all he’s a white male.
Obama the smoothie erred by reverting to Southside Chicago politics and commented without knowing all the facts. It turns out that Sgt. Crowley taught a course in “racial profiling” for policemen:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/…/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly
– but I guess it didn’t have a section on handling pompous Harvard Professors. Naturally, a white cop (with Wise Latino backup) who loses his temper in a confrontation with a black guy is RACIST — but what about a white cop who tases a white 72 year old granny???
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/…/052909_Grandmother_Tasered_at_Traffic_Stop
(God, she looks threatening!). I guess that cop is anti-white, sexist, and ageist (or maybe just agitated and has control problems). In theory, Gates or Mercer have every right to be obnoxious in their own homes – even if it is DUMB to piss off a cop – and Crowley should have walked away while Gates howled his diatribe.
The fair thing is for Gates to post a sign on his house (pre-registered with the police) – “DO NOT INVESTIGATE ANY BREAK-INS in this home – all burglars have prior permission of the owner”. That complies with Gates’ right as a homeowner. “Burglary at 207 Harvard Street – no problemo, we’re heading over to Dunkin’ Donuts.”
The professor is lucky. This is what happens to white males who resist arrest. http://www.click2houston.com/news/20167096/detail.html#
It’s interesting to see the State caught up in its own power struggles. The police are the State and we need to beware of how police men and women exercise their power. Gates is nothing more than a politically-correct, leftist academe who preaches the benevolence of Power – if it’s in the right person’s hands. There were probably other ways to check if Gates owned the home without arresting him, no doubt. But I would be willing to wager that if his alarm had sounded and the police didn’t show up, he would be crying, “This is the way black people are treated in America.” Obama’s weighing in on the matter is just anoter example of his collectivist hubris, and the notion that the great Statist must comment on everything to demonstrate his omniscient and omnipotent presence.
I apologize to readers for not being a better editor of my posts. I “did” a type-o on what should have been the word “another” in my post above.
We have three observations about the Harvard professor incident:
1. We find it interesting that the fact that this was the professor’s home was evidently not established early on way before the dispute escalated;
2. We find it fascinating that the versions of two members of society, who most would ordinarily view as responsible and honest citizens (this obviously does not include politicians), would vary so dramatically from a factual point of view.
3. Finally, considering that the reading and viewing public were not present at the scene (and thus have no first hand knowledge), and that there is no video tape to our knowledge of the sequence of events and what was said, how so many have formed conclusions, and made assumptions, about who did what and who was wrong.
There are some things which Professor Gates might have considered upon the arrival of the police, no matter how incensed he may have been.
I don’t know if any of you remember my bout with a professor at my college, but it turns out that his undergrad was in black studies. Yes, he is white.
How foolish and lame.
The most disturbing aspect of this incident is Obama’s impetuous shooting from the hip based on incomplete information. He demonstrated the same tendency after the Honduran “coup.”
I chalk it up to lack of executive experience and arrogance. A President who allows his ego to get in the way of considered judgment is an accident waiting to happen, especially in foreign relations.
Per Mr. Greene’s comment. #1, the house in question belongs to Harvard, Gates home is in Martha’s Vineyard. #2. The police officers have a microphone at the shoulder. The police station was transcribing the whole thing on audio tape as it went down. So they know who did what. #3. Yes, Mr. Gates should have toned it down. Steve Sailer, (Blog to the left side of this page) in his article “Winner: Officer Crowley — Loser: President Obama” implies that the ‘racial profiling’ was not done by the officer but his accusers. He also makes some inferences to the presidency that bear considering.
Eh, something smells and race isn’t the source of the stink. Sure, Gates seems to have been verbally over the top, but after reading Sgt. Crowley’s report and seeing a photo of where Gates was actually was standing while cuffed….I’d like to hear from some non-police eyewitnesses. It is odd that the Sgt. invited Gates to ‘step outside’…fails to log that he actually entered the residence…states that he descended the stairs onto the sidewalk and ‘due to the tumultuous manner’ Gates had exhibited in his residence as well as his tumultuous behavior outside the residence, in view of the public…’ Crowley returns back to Gates’ front porch and cuffs him. The code section referenced on Crowley’s incident report:
Chapter 272: Section 53. Penalty for certain offenses
Section 53. Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, common railers and brawlers, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of the opposite sex, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, idle and disorderly persons, disturbers of the peace, keepers of noisy and disorderly houses, and persons guilty of indecent exposure may be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
Well stated, as always.
Being a professor of “black studies” is akin to being a professor of, say, Unicorn Physiology. You can pretty much make up whatever you like, pass it off as scholarship, and rake in six-figures and a mountain of prestige. If I can just get the Unicorn Caucus on the phone I should be able to quite my job as a file clerk.
And the you weren’t there! argument doesn’t draw much water. I wasn’t present at the Battle of Verdun, or at the Mumbai Massacre, but I’m confident that these events did in fact take place according to the documentation.
Is it possible that upon the arrival of the cop, the professor recognized an opportunity for some street theatre which would bring publicity to his full-time “I’m a victim” shtick? When Obama first commented on the matter, his intent was to not so subtly throw a bone to that part of his base constituency who think the cops are out to get them because of their color. You see, police should question blacks and Latinos on a per capita basis at the exact same rate as they question whites – who is committing any crimes is secondary. But the supposedly smooth president didn’t properly gauge the reaction to the bone he threw — now he will have to spin it in such away as to disavow his use of the term “stupidly” (if he hasn’t already) and chalk it up to the fact that he was influenced by his friendship with Prof. Gates. All is good, back to the hero worship. Ilana was spot on in her description of the professor’s credentials.
Ilana,
don’t you know that Aristotle was an African? Shame on you and your phallocentric Eurocentrism.
Gentle readers should take a trip to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Seems blacks and Latinos had been stopped by police in disproportionate numbers on the D.C. Beltway. Or so said the ACLU. So, Maryland state police, together with various county police forces, took a hands-off attitude towards motorists who were speeding, driving recklessly and a host of other offenses.
Result?
Total anarchy on the freeways. You can speed with impunity on the Beltway or weave in and out of traffic, and you will be hard pressed to be stopped by police, especially if you are a racial minority.
THE great Hahvahd Professor Henry Gates was under arrest for maybe 2 hours – outrage of the millennia. Alternative perspective – in Maryland, a cop rushing to a domestic dispute smashed into someone known only as “a woman” and killed her:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/…/AR2009072402036.html
This unknown woman who was probably not a black studies University Professor lost her life in a tragic accident but she doesn’t count for squat. Her life is not equivalent to 2 hours of “you know who you’re messin’ with” Gates.
Obama, once caught in the mess, got his writers & teleprompter together with the usual mix of philosophizing schmooze, nuance, and humor in his latest “having a beer on the White House Lawn” response. However, I don’t think the slick shtick is suckering the populous as well as it used to.
I would like to know whether Officer Crowley’s audiotape reveals that our erudite Hahvahd Professor might have used a stronger word than ” messin’ ” (Hint – one that might rhyme with “trucking”). As you correctly point out, the issue is not whether a Crowley or a Ricci are perfect but that they are willing to assert their case in spite of the pressure of the media-government elite.
This reaction from professor Gates is totally predictable. Another day at the office.Gates is the perfect poster child for this scenario. A legend in his own mind. How much of a worm this professor is. He is normal for who he is. Whether it is someone like Rodney King or Spike lee, whatever social class they fall into, this is a typical pattern of trying to insulate themselves because of the color of their skin. I’m tired of it. But even more disgusting is that the President of the USA stood up for this worm professor Gates, making that assassin statement, “The Cambridge Police acted stupidly”. This said after he said, ” I don’t have the facts”. Man, this is pitiful. Contrast this thought with Benjamin Netanyahu. Could you imagine if Benjamin Netanyahu were president of the USA (I wish) and this same scenario happened? Here is a real man, and a real man will act like a real man. Obama is the ultimate worm. Martin Berrow
[My choice of president: Geert Wilder. Netanyahu is a good, brilliant man, but too much of a neocon.]
I am Certain that Geert Wilder would never have made that statement about the Cambridge Police either.
Martin Berrow
Two men acted unreasonably, but only one of them used violence to deprive (temporarily) the other of his liberty.
If only one of them is a racist, then I’s say it’s the professor, but that doesn’t make him a criminal. This was a case of false arrest and a petty abuse of power by the cop. That’s why the charges were dropped.
Ask yourself who is more personally threatening to you: a cop who will arrest you in your own home just for saying something he doesn’t like in a tone that he doesn’t like or an Ivy League pseudo intellectual who locks himself out of his house?
Ok, Gates was arrested on his front porch AFTER Gates told him to come outside, but that’s entrapment. Crowley knew that he couldn’t charge someone for disorderly conduct in their own house, so he told Gates to go outside the house where others could here him yelling.
It’s not just libertarians who should side with Gates based on the NonAgression Principle. Christians should also. Freedom of speech does not only extend to people we agree with.
Ilana, have you seen the Chris rock video on how not to get arrested by the police? You and your readers should check it out.
Professor Gates is as stupid as he is tactless; his entire career is built upon perpetuating racism by whining, “it’s not fair to be black” from his academic bastion. His disgraceful behavior with the police is evidence of tactless, and as proof of his stupidity and/or myopia, he is yet to observe that he is both black and better off than 99% of whites.
[Posters must provide a valid e-address. See Posting Policy.]
To the poster Alex: How exactly is it foolish and lame to study the History, Culture, and Civilization of black people when black students all across this land study white history. Is it the case that you really want to say that black culture couldn’t have anything worthwhile to study or that we should only study the history of people of the same national or phenotypical status as ourselves. I feel sure that you mean that the thing most worth studying in a university are the highest achievements of mankind and that those happen to be located in European culture and perhaps some Asian cultures but certainly not in black
culture.
[Familiarize yourself with the writings on ilanamercer.com. The proper object of academic study is HISTORY. not color-coded identity politics. “History from below“ is a political endeavor, not a scholarly pursuit.–IM]