Skip Gates Got Arrested?
Posted on July 21st, 2009 in Uncategorized | 82 Comments »
Sheesh. I go away for a few days and all heck breaks loose. Apparently the world does not stop while while I am underwater after all.
Here is Skip Gates’ statement about his arrest, delivered by his lawyer, Charles Ogletree.
The police report has more details.
Gates then turned to me and told me that I had no idea who I was “messing” with and that I had not heard the last of it.…
The name of the person who called the cops, a female passerby with a cellphone who apparently didn’t like the sight of two black men on Ware Street, is (there you are) blacked-out….
82 Responses
7/21/2009 7:55 am
According to this morning’s Boston Globe, Professor Gates had just returned from a trip to China. He was probably quite exhausted from the flight. All you want to do in such circumstances is collapse on a bed and sleep. But then came the annoyance of finding that his front door wouldn’t open. When the police appeared and thought he was breaking into the house, that doubtless aggravated the situation. What Professor Gates said to the police officer was most unfortunate, but who wouldn’t be upset at such a homecoming?
7/21/2009 7:59 am
I think it’s wildly inappropriate for the Crimson to print Skip’s mug shot. Totally disrespectful and senseless. Mug shots are released as a matter of routine so the police can identify criminals, but in this case printing it is pure sensationalism and race-baiting.
Who’s in charge of the Crimson in July? They should be ashamed.
Despicable.
7/21/2009 8:16 am
Professor Gates’ comments were “unfortunate,” and his frustration may be understandable in the context of his having returned from a long overseas trip only to find he can’t get in the front door, but the manner in which he (reportedly) engaged the Cambridge Police officers is beyond regrettable.
7/21/2009 9:06 am
Actually, a number of outlets (http://gawker.com/5318918/black-professor-and-white-lady-reenact-crash-in-cambridge) are reporting that the person who originally called the police is Lucia Whalen, a fundraiser for Harvard Magazine. The narrative in the police report backs that up, assuming that Gawker has the actual police report.
I don’t understand why Gawker says the Globe has the police report and links to the Globe’s article. I didn’t see the police report there. Did I miss it?
7/21/2009 9:26 am
Well, the Globe’s article yesterday did have a link to a pdf of the report, but it doesn’t seem to be there anymore. Odd. In any case, the Gawker link that you yourself provided has the full report, so you’re not missing anything.
7/21/2009 11:11 am
Charges have been dropped:
here Reuters article, http://tinyurl.com/mh5yyb, also noted on Globe homepage.
7/21/2009 12:23 pm
I think most of us, if the police showed up while we were trying to break into our own house, would thank them for being vigilant and offer them something cold to drink. Even when exhausted, we know enough to treat people nicely, especially people whose jobs we are glad we don’t have to do. I also would like to think that most of us, if we saw someone breaking into a house, would call the police. This story reads rather like a standard tale of class division, where a wealthy, well-educated guy living at a a fancy address cusses out some of those blue collar workers liberals profess to care so deeply about. By the way, Dr. Counter claims the same racial profiling thing happened to him, but if you read the account in the recently released report ( pdf here, it starts on page 13), it looks like Dr. Counter simply fit the rough description of a specific suspect HUPD was looking for.
7/21/2009 12:38 pm
I’ll repeat what I said in the other thread to SE- let’s stipulate that Gates “cussed out” the cop and generally acted like a jerk. Are you really going to defend his being arrested for this?
Also, to echo SE on the other thread, I am not aware of Gates ever expressing much concern for “those blue collar workers,” so kindly refrain from tarring liberals with your standard-issue talking points.
7/21/2009 1:00 pm
Also, Cambridge is dropping the charges and has apologized: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/charges_to_be_d.html
This suggests to me that they know that the officer used very poor judgment in arresting Gates, even if Gates was doing his best to enact your personal limousine liberal fantasia.
7/21/2009 1:11 pm
Why did DGF find it necessary to issue a quote about Gates.
This had nothing to do with Harvard.
7/21/2009 1:12 pm
I don’t intend to defend arresting him. But I think his behavior was indefensible, for precisely the reasons Harry suggests.
And I think there’s more to this story, and it’s worth analyzing. When Gates says to a white man, “I’ll speak to your mama outside!” he’s invoking a whole world of discursive power than in the early eighties he was the one to theorize. Whether ‘playing the dozens’ and talking about people’s mamas or developing verbal power to be turned to social advantage, the black trickster-figure whose “signifyin’ ” shakes up the white power structure is the subject of Gates’s great scholarly accomplishment — a brilliant book, and a critical touchstone for all kinds of good reasons.
But at what point did Gates forget that the “Signifyin’ Monkey” (title of his book) is an UNDERDOG, not an eminence? Once you become prominent, an achiever of the first order as Gates is, and win actual authority with your verbal and intellectual skill, it becomes your job (if you’re ethical) to look out for underdogs — those whom West calls “brothers” of every skin color. Abusing a cop verbally is not “sticking it to the man” when the very premise of your tirade is that you are actually VERY POWERFUL YOURSELF. In fact, invoking your *status* in order to talk trash undermines the whole premise of tricksterism.
No one is yet processing or even commenting on the the “your mama” comment — it just doesn’t compute. But it gets to something very interesting in Gates’s personality. I would have liked to see him say it to Larry Summers, who had ACTUAL power, rather than this policeman, who only has the power to ruin Gates’s afternoon and bring down the wrath of the entire country on his foolish blue-collar head. Where was Gates when West was being disrespected by someone with ACTUAL authority? And what kind of person picks up the phone to get the police chief rather than communicating more clearly with the guy standing right in front of him?
I think I’ll call my book on the subject “The Signifying Jackass.”
SE
7/21/2009 1:15 pm
Oh, but this does have quite a lot to do with Harvard. In some way, Gates was using Harvard as his cudgel to browbeat the policeman (this before the policeman began using literal implements to discipline Gates back).
A ton of town/gown issues are implicated here, and nobody wins when something like this gets escalated. The event becomes a Rorschach test, like the OJ verdict.
I should add something that’s been overlooked: the original error in this case is easy to pinpoint. The 911 dispatcher, when called from Ware Street, to a Harvard-owned residence, should NEVER have sent CPD. HUPD would have handled this a thousand times better, and they do stuff like this a thousand times a day without incident (Counter’s anecdote, plus others I’ve heard, notwithstanding).
We take HUPD far too much for granted. They’re great at working with the community, and Bud Riley understands his role extremely well.
SE
7/21/2009 1:17 pm
SE-Isn’t this like Perez Hilton calling will.i.am a “faggot”?
http://thedailyfix.com/2009/06/22/black-eyed-peas-manager-beats-up-faggot-perez-hilton/
7/21/2009 1:19 pm
Harry says better than I did the thing that’s interesting about this story: it reveals that when the chips are down, Skip Gates is not a good liberal. Everyone assumes he’s a liberal because he’s a black intellectual, but deep down he’s status-obsessed. He left subversion of the power structure behind in the process of taming it and installing himself within it.
No fan of power structures himself — and of course with baggage of his own, but no personal animus toward (truly) charming Skip.
SE
7/21/2009 1:21 pm
Sorry, I don’t see the analogy. But I also don’t really know who either of those guys is.
Care to spell it out?
7/21/2009 1:24 pm
Perez Hilton is a flamboyantly gay blogger who writes celebrity gossip at perezhilton.com; will.i.am is a black man who is a member of the Black Eyed Peas, which is a very popular band. In a dispute at a club, Hilton called will.i.am a “faggot.” Subsequently prompting the band’s manager to slug Hilton in the face.
7/21/2009 1:24 pm
Why did the Globe remove the police report from its website?
7/21/2009 1:25 pm
So much I read, Richard, at your link. But how is it analogous?
7/21/2009 1:29 pm
Using your status to talk trash, particularly in a way that pulls rank…It’s all right for a gay man to call someone a faggot, just as it’s all right for a black to tell a white man, “I’ll talk to your mama outside.” A straight man couldn’t call someone a fag; A white man couldn’t say the your/yo mama line. But that doesn’t actually make it acceptable for the ostensibly disempowered (but in these cases, not really) to use that kind of loaded language.
7/21/2009 1:33 pm
By the way, Harry, does this mean you are tweeting?
7/21/2009 1:41 pm
No, Richard, pay more attention: those posts above headed by the ‘@’ sign are not written by Harry, they’re directed AT Harry. The ‘@’ sign means ‘in reply to.’
7/21/2009 1:46 pm
The Crimson wording suggests no one who strongly takes one side or the other gets it quite right:
“The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2024 was regrettable and unfortunate,” the statement said. “This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.”
7/21/2009 1:49 pm
That wording was written by lawyers, precisely in order to save face for everyone.
It’s becoming clear that both sides made bad decisions, but I think the statement means only that there’s an agreement to de-escalate. And baruch Hashem.
7/21/2009 2:00 pm
I’m in no way convinced Skip in fact did say the “Yo Mama” line. A police report is not the gospel…
7/21/2009 2:01 pm
It’s imPOSSible to imagine a policeman making that up.
7/21/2009 2:28 pm
I guess this reveals my fierce libertarian side, but am I the only one upset that one of the University’s most prominent scholars was arrested as a result of being in his *own* home? Once the officer realized Gates was in the right place, he should have apologized for the inconvenience, handed him a business card with his badge number and left. (The officer acknowledged seeing Gates’ ID in the police report. And no, not everything in police reports is *true*. If police reports were so dependable, we could just dispense with court proceedings; wouldn’t justice be so much easier that way!).
Frankly I am disappointed that Harry Lewis, SE, et al. can’t understand why Gates might be upset in this situation. Does anyone seriously think that if Henry Gates ‘looked like he belonged’ in the neighborhood that any of this would have happened? He’s a distinguished looking guy who dresses much better than any of the faculty in my PhD program (biological and biomedical sciences). Why is anyone calling the cops on a guy like that? I mean, short of skin-lightening treatments a la Michael Jackson, what else is the poor guy supposed to do?
7/21/2009 2:32 pm
What does prominence — or, for that matter, being a homeowner — have to do with it?
Your real issue is with the lady who called the cops, not with the cops.
7/21/2009 2:33 pm
PhD_Alum, I have sympathy with that argument. It must be incredibly disheartening for Gates to have an episode like this happen. And as upset and vociferous as Gates apparently was, shouldn’t a white police officer have considered the reasons behind this frustration before slapping the cuffs on him?
7/21/2009 2:35 pm
And as you say, a 60-year-old white guy with a cane almost certainly wouldn’t have prompted a call to the police.
7/21/2009 2:38 pm
Does a police officer consider the “reasons behind” the behavior of most of the people he arrests? The poverty of a shoplifter, the addiction of a purse-snatcher, the recent passing of the sister of the drunk driver?
Again, I’m not saying the arrest was justified, only that nothing about Gates should have made him EXEMPT from accountability for the confrontation.
7/21/2009 2:39 pm
Keep in mind that the other guy on the porch wrestling with the door was a young and probably significantly beefier driver, who was helping Gates get in — and was there when Gates wasn’t for some of the time (Gates went around back to try to open the door from inside).
7/21/2009 2:40 pm
“SE, et al. can’t understand why Gates might be upset”
I plead not guilty to that. I understand; I just don’t think it’s an excuse.
7/21/2009 2:41 pm
Harry is right that most of us would have been pleased that the police were being vigilant, and would have offered them a cold drink. But after a flight of over 14 hours (longer than the flight I have often taken to Australia), a very deep weariness sets in. That’s when exasperation mounts and old turns of phrase come out of one’s mouth unthinkingly. We see that in this case when Skip first used the words “a black man in America,” which for a long time has been a watchword in protest of unequal treatment of African-Americans in our society. Then, as he became more upset, he dipped into a different linguistic and cultural reserve, one that no longer has to do with theoretical reflections on race relations. Uttering those words about “yo mama” was a bad decision, as SE notes; but resorting to such expressions in a moment of great frustration and anger is not entirely unnatural. One would hope to keep better control, of course, but when one “loses it,” words often emerge from very deep places.
I’m relieved to see that charges have been dropped. And next time I return from Australia and a policeman catches me trying to crawl in a window of my house or something, I will try hard to remember not to let any horrible Australian curse words pass my lips!
Such is life.
7/21/2009 2:43 pm
P.S. “Such is Life” is the title of a famous Australian novel that includes enormous numbers of “bad words.” Some editions are expurgated, others not.
7/21/2009 2:47 pm
SE, my issue is with both the woman and the Cops. He’s a very visible member of the faculty (one of 20 University Profs, on TV all the time, etc.), so why is a fundraiser for Harvard Magazine calling the cops on him? And, when the police officer showed up and realized the guy was in his own house, you’d think he might try to understand how upsetting it might be to have the cops called on you. Why not be more apologetic?
And, why can’t you be a jerk in your own house without being arrested (not the same as saying that Gates actually was being a jerk)? The Cambridge Police tacitly acknowledge this, otherwise why drop the charges?
7/21/2009 2:53 pm
Here’s the thing, SE. I more or less agree with your comments at 1:12pm — “invoking your status in order to talk trash” to someone of lower status, as Gates apparently did, is shameful behavior and reveals unflattering elements of his character. As Richard Thomas pointed out, the language of Cambridge’s statement suggests that Gates recognizes that he too has something to regret.
So, what Gates did is, let’s say, unvirtuous. However, it is not illegal. And the officer’s actions in arresting Gates were, I think, significantly more inappropriate and a much greater abuse of his own status as a police officer. HE TOOK THE DUDE TO JAIL, SE. That’s just wrong and you seem to be minimizing that. And I think your glee at Gates’s fate — which has trickled even into a defense of the officer’s action at 2:39pm (or perhaps you meant to defend Lucia Whalen?) — similarly is beginning to reveal unflattering schadenfreude in you.
Also, how many cops does it take to arrest a 60-year-old man with a cane? http://gawker.com/5319457/report-charges-dropped-against-henry-louis-gates
Come on, CPD.
7/21/2009 3:26 pm
I appreciate the directness of your reply, and acknowledge your point about the unseemliness of my ‘glee.’
And I do think the officer was excessive in choosing to arrest Gates.
But I think the guy making “a much greater abuse of his own status” was Gates. This began at like the 20-second mark* when Gates went to the phone and said “Get me the chief (whoever he is).”
*(that timing is according to the police report; perhaps it was more like four minutes, in which case I’m more sympathetic to Gates’s frustration at the conversation still not being over).
The message was clear: “I’m not talking to you, I’m going over your head, and you’re in big trouble as of right now just for showing up at my door.” And that was not an empty threat. If there’s such a thing as big trouble for a sergeant who committed no brutality, this guy was INDEED IN IT, and was being menaced with it incredibly quickly. When a black professor calls you racist and is getting (some) chief on the line, you are being threatened with the end of your career. I don’t know if that’s “just wrong,” but I think it’s probably wrong.
And notice that now, today, in the Washington Post, Gates is vowing to use his power ongoingly as a public intellectual to go after the justice system. He says he might make a ‘documentary,’ but with a foreordained agenda. (Please note of course that if any system in our society deserve a bright light shined upon it, and needs major reform, it’s the lock-em-up-and-cash-the-checks corrections system. But that’s not the system Gates experienced; he just got booked for a misdemeanor.)
If we’da been there we could judge better who was more responsible for the escalation. But the evidence put forward in public by both sides so far leads me to finger Gates as the much bigger jerk AND the one with the real power, power he continues to flex with his vanity-infused presence in the media.
SE
PS. At 2:39 I was not defending anyone, just pointing out a possible mitigating reason for the confusion that arose — i.e., there was a guy there on the porch whom no neighbor could have been expected to recognize.
7/21/2009 3:37 pm
As many have said, Skip is a charming guy.
However, in a prior incident a few years ago within The FAS, Skip was quick to label one of his colleagues as racist, when it was totally inappropriate.
7/21/2009 3:44 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072101771.html
7/21/2009 3:52 pm
Here’s a question of marginal importance to this conversation but some interest for many posters here: Why was Skip Gates taking a car service (instead of a taxi) home from the airport? Could it be that Harvard is picking up the tab for the car service?
Note this line from the Washington Post story SS linked to above (emphasis added):
“Gates described his driver, *whose car service Gates uses regularly,* as a large, Moroccan man. ”
Of course, someone else could have been paying for that car—a corporate sponsor, perhaps even Gates himself.
Still, wouldn’t it be interesting to know how much Gates runs up in car service fees every year and who pays them?
7/21/2009 3:59 pm
Not very.
7/21/2009 4:07 pm
Well, clearly I disagree, SE. But that’s the journalist in me.
It’s a different story than this one, of course. But follow the money, and it will take you to interesting places. After all, Skip may be a celebrity academic, but…”whose car service Gates uses regularly”?
The story of the Rudenstine era is embedded in those six words…..
7/21/2009 4:12 pm
What was that prior incident you’re referring to? I don’t think I’ve heard this particular charge thrown at Gates before.
also, RB, I’m with SE on this one — that car service thing is a really boring detail to pick out. If you’re going to have a field day with frivolous details, I thought you’d pick on “He spoke to The Post in an hour-long phone interview while resting on Martha’s Vineyard.”
More seriously, though, the Post article reminded me how discreditable Gates’s affiliation with The Root has been. He gets to call himself editor-in-chief in exchange for lending his prestige to an online publication that spent most of its start-up promoting Gates’s bogus DNA research service for African-Americans. Looks like they’ve tried to remove most of that embarrassing scheme from the site now, at least.
7/21/2009 4:14 pm
4:12 It’s not a charge. It’s a fact.
7/21/2009 4:17 pm
By the way, while we’re on the subject of how you are not a journalist (a condition I’m sure you are A-okay with), you’re wrong about the Crimson and Skip Gates’ mugshot. It’s not a question of respecting or disrespecting Gates. His arrest is a newsworthy item, and the mugshot is a visual representation of that incident. If you find the photo disrespectful, then that helps you interpret the episode and feel the power of it. Other people may have a different take.
The Crimson’s job is not to be “respectful,” but to make decisions based on their news value. The paper did the right thing, and it’s not even a close call.
7/21/2009 4:20 pm
Well, if it’s a fact, I’m sure you’ll be able to document it, then.
7/21/2009 4:22 pm
While, SE and SS, maybe you guys live posher lives than I do. It may be a small detail, but it’s a telling one, I think.
And yes, the bit about talking to the reporter for an hour from Martha’s Vineyard is pretty great, too.
You should trust my instincts on these things by now—follow the money, and there’s a story there. I guarantee it.
(Remember, I’m the guy who first pointed out that Skip claimed to have started a foundation to which he would contribute profits from his DNA test company, but that the foundation was run out of his home and had never received a dime—something which, when revealed in Alex Beam’s column, prompted a state investigation.)
7/21/2009 4:23 pm
Whoops, I addressed part of that comment to SS, but I now see the commenter was “@SamSpektor.” Sorry.
7/21/2009 4:27 pm
Sorry, I’m the commenter who’s been responding to people with the “@” symbol, which seems to be persistently confusing to you. I’ll adopt my own commenting name from here on out, if anyone wants to suggest a name.
7/21/2009 4:28 pm
That’s okay Richard. Those @ take some getting used to.
7/21/2009 4:32 pm
I seriously think we should have another thread devoted to the Crimson’s choice to publish Gates’s mug shot.
Since it’s your blog, Richard, I’ll compromise and say you can also start a thread about how Gates gets home from Logan if you want.
Aren’t I magnanimous?
Seriously, though, it’s good to see you defend yourself and your journalistic instincts. There’s a reason these conversations go on here, and a reason your opinion matters: you’ve done some good work! And that Root story seems a good example, from what I recall.
Oh WOW do I disagree with you about the mug shot. The picture of Gates in handcuffs is different, but a mug shot has a particular meaning that is INCREDIBLY significant. But I’ll save that for the new thread.
Off to tennis, after the laziest of afternoons —
Standing Eagle
PS. (Knowing Skip [sort of], I’d give you three to one he pays for the car service himself.)
7/21/2009 4:36 pm
How about “At-Man”?
Which of course equals Brah-man, so that’s confusing, and invokes Rastafarianism.
I think we’ll let you name yourself. Tennyson, anyone?
Boolea Boolea!
SE
7/21/2009 4:37 pm
No worries, @, I was just multitasking. Pretty sure I’ve got it now.
7/21/2009 5:04 pm
It’s imPOSSible to imagine a policeman making that up.
Of course it isn’t. Especially if you’ve done many such arrests (knowing you’ve screwed up) and have a inkling you might get in trouble for what you’ve done.
I might be too cynic, but I really don’t regard police reports for being worth much…
7/21/2009 5:07 pm
Oh, for God’s sake, of COURSE the cop could have made a lot of things up, and maybe he did. (I see at The Root that Gates is doubling down on the claim that he gave his driver’s license to the officer — which if true would suggest that the officer left out a highly material detail on his report.)
But he would not make up “the individual then said something about my mama.” It’s just impossible to imagine.
SE
7/21/2009 6:08 pm
I’m a bit disappointed in the comments regarding Gates’ arrest. Too many seem willing to accept the police officer’s account at face value and then proceed to discuss Gates’ alleged behavior. Why should we stipulate that Gates “acted like a jerk”?
There is a great Japanese film titled “Rashomon” in which a murder is portrayed through the eyes of each witness, including the victim. The accounts differ of course, but which one is the truth?
Be that as it may, I think white people should be careful about commenting on a black man’s reaction to a police officer. The underlying assumption is that a police officer represents the same thing to everyone and behaves in the same way toward everyone and surely this is not the case. No one enters a social interaction with a clean slate devoid of preconceptions. You bring with you expectations based on cultural conceptions refined by past encounters. Likewise, the other does the same.
Police intend to intimidate: the uniform, sidearm, baton, the demeanor of dominance, and the understanding that they are authorized to use force, these are all intended to cow the public. Well-trained police officers, and there are too few of these, will adjust the level of intimidation according to context to avoid escalating conflict. However, police officers, even when well-trained, are still human beings who respond emotionally. But because they carry lethal weapons and represent authority, they must also bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for encounters that end badly.
7/21/2009 6:52 pm
Well said, Feste — couldn’t agree more.
And I’m a white male
7/21/2009 7:17 pm
It is easy to see why Gates was upset — he was no doubt tired, it IS his own house, and the racial angle is always there. But, frankly, everyone seems to have misunderstood and overreacted in this incident, and it would be too bad in my view if Gates proceeded to make a big cause celebre of this incident. He is threatening to do so — indeed to divert his scholarship into reflections on racial profiling. But I doubt that is the essence of what happened here.
If anyone saw people trying to break into my house, I would HOPE they would call the police. If the police come, they are always cautious and skeptical, no matter who is involved. The officer had the obligation to ask questions, and Gates should have tried to be polite. That he apparently was not, could easily be due to his fatigue. Or it could be due to his class arrogance, to his sense that he is entitled to deference, no matter what. He is an elite, very wealthy professor (the Herald calls his neighborhood “middle class,” but that is a joke — it is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Cambridge). The cop probably had never heard of Professor Gates and did not respond to the man berating him with recognition or deference.
Ergo: Class and race — and misunderstandings all around. Not primarily a black and white matter — no pun intended. A lot of grays in this incident. Best left to the quick compromise worked out — and best for all concerned to stand down.
But it won’t happen that way: Gates sees a chance for lots of media interviews and race “outrage.” He will play this for all it is worth, portraying himself as just as much a victim as working-class black men who really are harassed by ill-intentioned cops. Gates will overplay his outrage, perhaps especially because he realizes at some level that he did overreact. He can work off his chagrin with loud accusations, and the Cambridge police cannot answer.
As for the rest of us, we do need to continue to hope that citizens will call the police if they saw what the passerby woman thought she saw (men pushing in a door). She did nothing wrong. And we need to hope the police will come . Beyond that, we need calmer interactions on both sides once the police are on the scene.
7/21/2009 8:34 pm
1) I think Gates was completely correct that the police officers had no idea who he was, and that they would not have arrested him if they knew. The arrest was certainly a mistake in retrospect, and so has been unwound; the City wanted nothing to do with prosecuting this case, and the Irish policeman who arrested him is probably looking for work in Alaska right now. But there is another version of the “should he have been arrested” question, which is, is there any limit to the verbal abuse that a citizen might heap on a police officer, even in his own home, beyond which it would be an unlawful act which could get that person arrested? Some on this blog have said no, but I’ll bet there is such a limit, and that if two police showed up at my house in Brookline and my mouth tried hard enough and made a few references to their mothers, I could get myself arrested. I don’t know if Gates crossed that line or not. So I think the jury has to remain out — permanently probably — on whether this is really a case of racism, without which no arrest would have occurred. (Same for the woman who made the call — no reason she should try to figure out who is trying to enter the house before making the call, or even whether they are black or white. We don’t count on citizens to do the investigating or judging. Alas, after the publicity she’s gotten, she probably would ignore the cries of a Ktty Genovese now rather risking this kind of exposure again.)
2) I don’t accept the “he was exhausted” explanation for Gates’s rudeness. Let’s change the scenario a little bit, and imagine Gates confronting the Chinese border police after a 14 hour flight in the other direction, which would have left him equally exhausted. If one of these goons (they are definitely humorless, to say the least, and I think racially insensitive sometimes) had asked him something in a way at which he took umbrage, do you think he would have let loose with the same cussing? (Granted, we only have the police report to go by. But I doubt that there was no raised voice at all.) I think not. Exhausted though he was, he would not have upbraided the Chinese police. So then why the difference? Gates’s failure to control his emotions depends on some additional factor, beyond exhaustion. Feste seems to be saying that the mere fact that he is black and the police are white explains it all, and that we who are white can’t really be expected to understand that, and we shouldn’t even be commenting on it. But then, if the races were reversed, or the whole incident was monochromatic, maybe that would be different? As it was, even though Gates is a well-to-do Harvard professor and even though the officers are probably high-school educated at best and live their lives wondering who they approach has got a gun that is going to be pulled on them, we should regard Gates’s profane reaction as perfectly understandable, if regrettable, because he was tired, they were white, and he is black. I don’t think so. We should expect more of ourselves than that.
3) I doubt the “driver” question will take you very far, Richard. Gates was doing non-Harvard business, I imagine, and whatever private party paid for his plane flight to China probably paid for his driver too. But I am curious about the house and the lock. I vaguely remember Gates buying that house. Did he sell it back to Harvard? Not that this has anything to do with the situation at hand, either.
7/21/2009 9:16 pm
I meant to preface all that with this principle: The more successful you are in life, the more humble you should be, especially when dealing with public servants whose dangerous jobs, but for a few breaks you or your parents may have gotten, you might well be doing yourself.
7/21/2009 9:41 pm
You’re probably right with your comparison under (2) of your 8:34 p.m. post, Harry. So I concede that point.
7/21/2009 10:15 pm
I understand the desire to say (e.g. Harry Lewis (2) 8:34pm) that this has nothing to do with race and is actually about basic decorum and/or class. But, I’m sorry, I just can’t imagine any of this happening if Henry Gates was white. I mean, can anyone honestly say that if this incident involved, e.g., Larry Summers (another University Professor with a strong sense-of-self) that anything close to this would have taken place? If this had been Larry Summers, I’d bet a pot of money as big as the endowment loss that 1) the police would have never been called and 2) that the officer would have apologetically explained the ‘misunderstanding’ to the esteemed professor upon arriving at his house. (And, of course, had the officer treated Summers the same way he apparently treated Gates, he would have been subjected to a much greater verbal tirade!).
Since I can’t imagine this happening if Gates was Larry Summers (i.e. white), it seems wrong to me to say that it isn’t about race(ism). Why is it not okay to say that the actions of the police officer might have been, to paraphrase the Charles W. Eliot University Professor, racist in their effect if not in their intent?
One last point: Gates’ own spin on the events are consistent with the police report and sound plausible:
http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,0
7/22/2009 12:07 am
All, parties, if honest actors, should in my view want to put this episode behind them. There are serious generic issues that might arise, particularly on the difficulties of balancing following up reports of possible criminal activity with the appearance or reality of profiling and the like. But I see no evidence for that here. Some details:
1) Judith, The Root piece rather removes the jet-lag argument, which as a New Zealander I would otherwise have found relevant. HLG:
“We flew back on a direct flight from Beijing to Newark. We arrived on Wednesday, and on Thursday I flew back to Cambridge.”
2) I judged the good, agreed-upon statement, cited from the Crimson by me at 1:46 p.m. suggesting a blurring of culpability, to be a good indication of how to proceed, i.e. move on:
“The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2024 was regrettable and unfortunate,” the statement said. “This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.”
3) I further judge that the adjustment of that statement as reported in The Washington Post suggests that moving on will not happen, and we can expect multiple 15 minute spots:
‘Gates has come to see the incident as a modern lesson in racism and the criminal justice system. The police department views it as an “regrettable and unfortunate” incident that “should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Prof. Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department.”‘
Again, compare wording of 2) and 3).
4) The Washington Post now reports:
‘He [HLG] added: “I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.”‘
[WashPo have since removed the remarkable sentence that followed this in the earlier edition: “This only occurred to me with this experience” vel sim.]
5) Krissah Thompson (WashPo “reporter”) looks to be playing to HLG the role John Tierney played to LHS.
6) I co-chair the FAS Faculty/Student Standing Committee on Public Service, which happened to have its agenda-setting meeting today, and, believe it or not, we discussed Harvard’s getting more involved in reaching out to area prisons (as BU does, very effectively). We could use a couple of FAS members on the Committee, since it has been hard to identify faculty ready to give up time to work in public service. Faculty volunteers welcome: just contact me.
7/22/2009 12:31 am
Harry, I thought my meaning was fairly clear, but I will try again. When a black man is approached by a white police officer, that black man and that white police officer each enter the interaction with preconceptions about what may happen based on their cultural backgrounds, and past personal experiences with the other. Having been on the receiving end of racial prejudice in the past, the black man is likely to be defensive. An astute well-trained white police officer will know this and will try to appear less threatening.
I did not say that racial concepts explain all of the aspects of the Gates’ arrest, but speaking as a white anthropologist, I’m fairly confident that race is the primary factor in this incident.
Nor did I say that white people cannot be expected to understand what it is like for a black man to be approached by a white police officer. However, I’m afraid polls continue to indicate that many white people do not understand. I certainly did not say that white people should not comment about these matters, but I did advise white people to be careful about their comments if their remarks assume that police officers interact with blacks and whites in the same way.
7/22/2009 12:36 am
PHD: You may be right. It would depend on who said what to whom when (and maybe how). I suspect we’re not going to get a jointly agreed on transcript of that conversation. And I also should acknowledge what SE said, that CPD doesn’t have the skilled hand that HUPD usually does on these things.
7/22/2009 4:51 am
RT: That’s a pretty interesting deletion you’ve picked up in the Washington Post article. The excision of that sentence almost certainly came because of a pushback from Gates, who must have called the paper and insisted that he never said the line in question. (It does sound a bit naive.) And of course an African-American in whom the paper has invested (the Post backs The Root, which is surely why Skip gave them such a long interview-as in politics, you dance with the one that brung ya).
All of which suggests that, as upset as he apparently is, Skip is still pretty savvy about working the media and shaping this incident for public consumption.
7/22/2009 7:43 am
RT, I doubt the Skipper reads this blog. I hope you’ll invite him directly and tell us his reply.
Pretty interesting how the FAS senior faculty here are some of the most skeptical posters about their colleague HLG.
7/22/2009 8:22 am
My position remains that formed from the legalese at 1:46 p.m. yesterday, Anon — the only possible indication of the facts at this point. Post hoc revisionism deserves the same skepticism accorded any revisionism.
7/22/2009 8:23 am
RB, here’s why the car service question doesn’t matter. Back in 2000, when Africana.com was sold to AOL, it was estimated that Professor Gates was going to earn over $1 million from that transaction. Now, that’s just one small episode in the long career of someone who has proved to be not just a brilliant scholar, but also a very accomplished businessman and public intellectual. I don’t know how much Professor Gates earns from Harvard, nor do I know how much he earns from all of the books, DVDs, speeches, TV shows, publications, and other business ventures he’s involved in, but I think a conservative guess is that the latter is worth at least four times as much as the former. When someone is as wealthy as Professor Gates, we should assume that he (or one of his business ventures/partners) is paying for his own car service.
7/22/2009 8:27 am
I wouldn’t assume that at all—the “he” part—and I would add Harvard to the list of potential payers.
All I’m saying is that in a time of budget cuts…..
7/22/2009 8:32 am
RT, thanks for the additional information. I hadn’t read the Root piece, and so I didn’t know that Skip Gates was not coming directly from his flight from China. Like you, I’m disturbed that he is not moving on. His continued public fretting about the incident makes it seem as if he’s going back on the agreement he made in the settlement of the case. His offer to tutor the police officer in the history of race in America is really quite patronizing, in my view.
7/22/2009 8:46 am
I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll respond to Professor Lewis’s point 1, about how much one can say to a police officer before being arrested. I think you’re wrong about that. This is based mostly on what I’ve read in the papers, so it may be wildly incorrect.
The test for whether or not someone can be arrested for saying something is generally the likelihood that the statements will lead to violence or other illegal activity. So, if you threaten someone with physical harm, you can be arrested if anyone thinks your threat is credible. Did Skip Gates threaten the police officer with anything illegal? If not, he can say whatever he wants without being arrested.
Speech is deemed disorderly conduct when the police consider that speech likely to incite the public to some kind of disturbance-violence, rioting, whatever. Legally, police officers do not count as “the public,” because they are trained to handle difficult situations and are supposed to be able to resist the temptation to react to confrontational speech.
In other words, if it’s just you and the cops, you can’t be arrested for disorderly conduct. That’s why some people feel like the police officer lured Gates out of his house. Once he was on the front porch, in view of other witnesses, he could be arrested for disorderly conduct.
If Gates refused to show his ID, he should (and would) have been arrested for breaking and entering, not disorderly conduct. If he showed his ID and then started to berate the cop, the cop should have just turned around and walked away. The police are paid to keep the peace. In this situation, the peace would have been kept if the cop had apologized (whether or not he thought his behavior was inappropriate) and left. After all, you can’t hear someone yell at you if you’re in your car, driving away.
7/22/2009 8:53 am
Do you have any evidence, any evidence at all, that Professor Gates has misused Harvard’s money? Are you going to investigate the spending practices of all of the other members of the faculty (like, say, Mike Smith) who happen to be wealthy? Asking about the car service is just taking advantage of someone’s public embarrassment to accuse him of something that you have no reason to think he’s done. Until you either have some evidence that he’s done something wrong or start to look into the luxuries that other professors avail themselves of, it is completely inappropriate to make insinuations about Professor Gates’ spending practices. (FYI, I’ve met him a couple of times, but I’ve never taken a class with or worked for Professor Gates and have no personal connections with him at all. I just think you’re way off base.)
7/22/2009 9:28 am
Does Gates own the house? Or does he rent from Harvard?
7/22/2009 10:58 am
My guess is that Professor Gates “bought” the house from Harvard under a special deal that Harvard has for senior faculty that gives the university an option on buying it back if and when he later decides to sell it-that option is called a “right of first refusal.” Harvard may also retain certain other rights in the contract, including requiring the purchaser to share some of the appreciation on the house if he sells it to a third party under certain kinds of circumstances.
This allows the professor to get all the tax benefits associated with home ownership. Harvard can also justify selling the property to the professor at a below-market price to begin with, because of the restrictions that attach to the deed.
Because those deed restrictions confer some interest in the property to Harvard, they may have an interest in insisting the Harvard Real Estate do the maintenance on the property.
7/22/2009 1:21 pm
Dear “Talking back to the cops”: You ask whether Gates threatened the police officer with physical harm. Isn’t the phrase “yo mama” sometimes tantamount to starting a fight? (See meaning 3 in Urban Dictionary, http://tinyurl.com/le8ko2)
7/22/2009 2:08 pm
Dear Judith,
No, absolutely not.
SE
(PS. Okay, maybe in the ‘hood in Lansing, Michigan, April through October, 1973. But in general, really, no.)
7/23/2009 12:05 am
Let me ask that everyone leave off the speculation about the ownership of 17 Ware St. I’m surprised it was started by the co-author of an excellent book about how much information is on the web (and the extent to which that makes older notions of privacy obsolete). Check the City of Cambridge Property Database. The house in question has been owned by the President and Fellows since 1981. You can also find out its assessed value. (And to the commenter who opined that it was in one of Cambridge’s wealthiest neighborhoods, I can only say you are quite wrong. A house of this type in Avon Hill, Coolidge Hill, Brattle Street, or Fresh Pond Lane would be worth about 30-50% more.)
7/23/2009 6:57 am
Actually, Warren, it’s a little more complicated than that. I can’t remember all the details, but I did report on this while writing Harvard Rules: In the aftermath of the Cornel West affair, when Skip Gates had enormous leverage over Larry Summers, he got some kind of a sweetheart deal—a mortgage, a loan, something—on the house that was enormously financially advantageous. Nothing improper, just a lucrative arrangement. As I say, I can’t remember all the details, but perhaps an enterprising Crimson reporter…?
7/23/2009 10:16 am
I don’t have an opinion about the Henry Gates arrest because I haven’t seen anything from witnesses on the scene, or been able to find the police report. To me the incident is not the real issue, it is the question of how can a police report which is supposed to be public record, be wiped of the entire internet. Also nobody in the media has interviewed the witnesses. Something is very wrong here!
7/23/2009 2:12 pm
Any non-black person no good and well that this arrest was so un-call-for, don’t be so silly and blind when your logic, lets you know the truth. This was no more than plain racism from to cops who arrested a man inside his own home after he showed his id, any rational officer would have walk away and if
he was white they would have walk away. Play dumb if you want to and try to make excuses for these officers. Even there on department call the incident regrettable, the professor is in his late 60’s or early 70s come on now how much of a threat could he have been, because the officers had their feelings hurt, “please give me a break ………….
7/23/2009 2:19 pm
Correction—- Professor Gates is 59 yrs old