Why A Ph.D. Don't Mean A Damn Thing When You Are Black - Harvard Professor Skip Gates Arrested For Breaking And Entering.....Into His Own Damn House!
Ain't this a bitch? Post-Racial America my ass!
I bet Dr. Gates wants to know which one of his "good neighbors" failed to recognize him and called the po-po on his ass instead.
18 comments:
The true version of Black In America II. Absolutely ridiculous!
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME??? This is just way too much!
I'm sorry professor rofl, unable to offer a decent posting on this foolishness! Malcolm X said it best...sorry that it had to happen Skip!
I've seen a few reports on this, all detailing different versions of what really happened. I'm really hoping whatever the truth may be will be made clear in the upcoming days.
But, knowing America, that truth will indeed highlight the racial components to this story.
*sigh* One can dream of a post-racial America. One can dream...
From what I read, he was already inside of his house and had produced proof that he lived there before he was arrested. WTF? Here is the police report:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/CANON8AA683_LNOTESMAIL_07202009-153909.PDF
Wasn't there a movie with this plot some years back. . . famous writer breaking into his fancy home in a white enclave....
Why the heck didn't the prof identify himself right away? He jumped to an assumption that it was a racial profiling incident, but couldn't it have as easily been that the neighbor couldn't see well enough at night to recognize him and was trying to help the guy out by calling the cops to protect the prof's house?
Should the cops have recognized him? I have no idea how small an environment Harvard area is, but unless it's so small that every cop knows every resident, the cops were right to ask who he was, and his refusal to answer was stupid.
@Diana
Thats right and it took place in New England state, it was called Amos and Andy, with Sam Jackson as Henry Lewis Gates, but the added cavet was Nicolas Cage character was the actually burglar!
The problem is most of these police officers are playing a statisical and numerical game, I remember conservative pundit Neal Bootz argued years back.
If you stop 10 black males in a given day, you will be able to charge 3-5 with a legitimate criminal offense. So with most white cops its instinct and numbers game!
I think it's a good thing that more and more of these blatant racial incidents are occurring. It's a wake up call. There are many young people out there that the wrong idea about what's really going on in a lot of folk's minds...
It's interesting to me how so many whites conveniently skip over the fact the man was arrested in his house, where he easily had ample proof that it was his, and jump straight to saying he needed to be arrested for talking back to the police, which assumes that police don't lie on their reports, which of course they never do.
Then, because he had the balls to declare this racial profiling, some are immediately dismissing his argument as playing the "race card" as though racism in the police department couldn't possibly exist in 2009....
wtf?!
You may want to take another look at this story, since it seems that you have a lot of the facts wrong. Gates was not arrested for breaking and entering. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Rather than behave himself when the cops arrived (responding to the very legitimate complaint that a man was breaking into a house), he decided to verbally attack them and refused to cooperate. I'm sorry, but that's idiotic behavior no matter what your skin color is. Or are you going to argue that having a Ph. D entitles one to be above the law?
@James - "a lot of facts", please break that down for me...
The point that I'm making is that we don't know exactly what took place in the house or what the police did or said to him. Moreover, the police don't have a good track record with relations with Africans in this country.
I never said he was arrested for b&e.
@James
Have you ever watch a episode of COPs, White people talk to the cops any way they please...some cases the literally curse the cops out, and don't go to JAIL!
Gates got indignent because they were HARASSING HIM IN HIS HOUSE, after he showed them id for gods sake providing proof of residence!
Ok look at it this way. Put yourselves in the shoes of the neighbor...
It was 3am in the morning, and its very dark out. The community is a small one, with little crime but it is a very wealthy area. So the thought of a burglary to steal items is a possibility.
Now at 3am, as the neighbor, you hear a car pull up to your neighbors house, and the car is idling. You look out your window and notice two men trying to force open the front door by jamming thier shoulders into it. Obviously they made alot of noise in doing this.
Perhaps it was to dark for the neighbor to recongnize it was the owner of the home 'breaking' in ? This whole case to me, just seems very cut and dry to me.
It would be way to easy for anyone to mistake that as a breakin in any neighborhood. And nowadays in working class neighborhoods, MANY people dont know thier neighbors at all. Honestly I think it is the scholar who has the problem here.
Maybe his ego is so large that he couldnt tolerate being questioned on his property. Besides that though, he didnt show Id until later on in the encounter. The scholar obviously was not easy going, and likely VERY rude and offended the cop. People make mistakes and perhaps the officer cuffed him do to being pissed off at the scholar for screaming at him. Who knows...but anyone who works with the public alot...surely has to understand that there are alot of unreasonable and asshole people out there.
"Maybe his ego is so large that he couldnt tolerate being questioned on his property."-jonaos
Bingo!
I'm not tossing out his-story nor am I advocating "post-racial" dialect. Folks have been wronged before by the law. The thing is, more than half the time, folks bring the pain on themselves by the way they act. I'm not saying kiss up to law enforcement, but don't bust a vein and go beyond the matter at hand in order to prove a point.
...and I have seen plenty of episodes of COPS where you got beligerant folks, regardless of color or ethnicity, getting 'cuffed or tazed up and tossed in a cell.
@inspector Clouseau
1. Who is we?
2. There were numerous ways for the POLICE to establish who was the home owner. Since Dr. Gates was only RENTING the home, his ID was NOT going to prove he owned or rented the home.
Further, I still find it interesting that seasoned police officers after reporting to the scene of a robbery or break-in, saw no evidence of such crime and still acted like they were hunting a wanted criminal.
3. In racially tinged events, it is no surprise that there are difference versions of what happened. What I find fascinating is that the truth is somewhere in the middle, but nobody wants to talk long enough or honestly enough to find out.
4. And I find it interesting that you want to tell people that they don't know enough to make an observation about this incident, but you provide a link to your site that wants to lecture to Dr. Gates about what he should have considered. If you think others can't comment, why do you think you can? Interesting.
@ch555x -
So you're arguing that we live in a police state then? Losing your temper with the police in your own home is not a crime. We should be troubled by that fact, not telling folks to accept being bullied in their own homes by the police.
He wasn't arrested for breaking and entering. He was arrested for acting like a paranoid infant. Sure that isn't illegal but when you treat your waitress like crap don't expect her to fill your cup in a timely manner? Harass the police and of course they are going to find something to charge you with. Give them an undeserved hard time and they will do the same to you.
@Brian Macker
Thank you so much for clearing that up. So based on your own words the racist white cop arrested the black man for getting loud and uppity with him, not for breaking any known law.
So, you clearly support the police arresting citizens because they don't bow down and kiss their feet. Sounds like Russia to me, not America.
And by the way, if the waitress doesn't fill your cup in a timely manner, you don't leave her a tip. She knows that as well, that's why a lot of waitresses take crap from customers because they need the tip.
If cop arrests people as revenge for getting loud, he is no longer a cop, but a dangerous incompetent with a badge and a gun. It's too bad folks like you support such anti-police work.
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