Shots in the Dark

NECN has a broadcast of the 911 call that brought Sgt. James Crowley to Skip Gates’ home.

A few things emerge:

—the person who called appears to have done so at the request of someone else, another bystander

—the caller is very careful to say that she doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. She describes two people trying to push their way into a house, and adds that she saw “two suitcases,” saying that the people she saw “may live there.” But she’s clearly calling a) because of the other person, and b) to err on the side of caution. (She sounds like a thoughtful and kind woman, actually.)

—race is introduced into the conversation not by the caller, but by the 911 operator (who himself sounds African-American).

There’s one certain conclusion that you can clearly draw from this phone call: The caller was not guilty of racial profiling.

Well, of course there’s lots to catch up on, and I’m going to do my best in the next few hours. But I’m late on many counts, largely because my four o’clock flight from Chicago yesterday landed at midnight…in Pittsburgh.

Four hours of sleep at the lovely Airport Marriott later, it was Pittsburgh to LGA.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been helping to keep the blog lively and constructive with your comments during my reticence. Stay tuned.

The president has walked back his earlier comments about the Skip Gates arrest.

“To the extent that my choice of words didn’t illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think, that was unfortunate,” Mr. Obama said, making an unusual unannounced visit to the White House briefing room in an effort to ease the controversy.

Obama called Sgt. Crowley to communicate that point.

“I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear that in my choice of words, I think, I unfortunately, I think, gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “I could have calibrated those words differently, and I told this to Sergeant Crowley.”

…“I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station,” Mr. Obama added. “I also continue to believe, based on what I heard that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well.

Quite an elegant statement, I think. And Obama invited Cowley and Gates to the White House “to have a beer.”

Will all this prompt Skip Gates to tone down his own rhetoric? I don’t see how it can’t; surely Gates must realize that this has gotten out of hand.

The Globe suggests that both Gates and Crowley welcomed the president’s (most recent) intervention.

As Charles Ogletree, who is described as “one of Gates’ lawyers,” puts it,

I think the president has given his assessment, which makes a lot of sense, and, however you feel about it, it has reduced the temperature and allowed everyone to move forward in a constructive way.

Meanwhile, the Herald reports that Leon Lashley, the African-American cop we’ve all seen in that picture of Gates being arrested, appeared today with Crowley and said he “100%” supports the way Crowley handled the arrest.

We seem to be moving on to the next phase of this episode, whatever it may be. Some of the questions to consider: How will Gates frame this episode in subsequent descriptions? How does Drew Faust emerge from this—as a stronger leader or not? What have we really learned from all that’s happened in the past eight days?

I’m headed to Chicago later today for a little work and a reunion of my college roommates. We’re going to play some basketball, take in the Cubs, and catch up on our lives.

I’ll blog as I can….

I did not jinx the Yankees yesterday.

They completed their second straight series sweep, beating Baltimore 6-4, while the Red Sox…lost! Again!

The Yanks are leading by two…

I have mixed feelings about aquariums that contain whale sharks, which are migratory animals (not to mention extremely large). But this video, which I found over on AndrewSullivan.com, is pretty cool, and actually inspires some of that otherworldly calm one gets during the best dives.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don’t go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

Anyone else starting to think that getting arrested was about the best thing that could have happened to Skip Gates?

I know that sounds—what was it someone said of me—”tone-deaf and insulting”?—but bear with me.

As the Times reports, President Obama made clear last night the extent of Gates’ power and influence. The president responded vigorously to a press conference question about Gates’ arrest.

“Now, I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know, separate and apart from this incident, is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. And that’s just a fact.” He added later that the incident was “a sign of how race remains a factor in this society.”

He also used biting humor, grinning broadly as he imagined being in Mr. Gates’s seemingly preposterous circumstance of being arrested after trying to get into his own home.

“Here, I’d get shot,” Mr. Obama said, referring to his new address of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Meanwhile, Gates appeared on CNN last night, partaking in an interview with more softballs than a game of fast pitch. The interview was conducted by fellow Harvardian Soledad O’Brien—who did not disclose her affiliation—and warmly sympathized with Gates. As she asked him about DNA testing and why black Americans care so much about family, she also failed to add this should-have-been-obligatory caveat: “Professor Gates, we should mention that you have a financial interest in promoting DNA testing.”

Instead, CNN gave Gates’ DNA business a massive plug.

Terrible journalism.

(About the only media outlet Gates has not spoken with, by the way, is the Crimson, which tells you something about his calculation of media priorities and where Harvard students rank: You make time for the reporters you think are important.)

Gates added that he was thinking of suing the Cambridge police department, and reiterated that if Sgt. Crowley were to apologize, Gates would “forgive” him. [Emphasis added.]

“He should look into his heart and know that he is not telling the truth and he should beg my forgiveness,” Gates said.

But Crowley said in a different TV interview that he had no intention of apologizing.

The officer, Sgt. James Crowley, told CNN affiliate WCVB earlier Wednesday that he will not apologize.

“There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Sgt. Crowley will not be apologizing,” he said.

I’m glad—not because I believe everything Crowley says, but because if he takes a stand we’ll probably learn more about what happened than if he caved to Gates’ demand and the pressure of having the president of the United States call you stupid.

The BostonChannel.com adds some reporting that lends some credence to Crowley’s story and casts some doubt on Gates’ claim that he couldn’t have been yelling due to a bronchial condition.

Bill Carter, the man who snapped a photograph of Gates being led away in handcuffs, said police officers were calm and that Gates was “slightly out of control” and “agitated” when he was arrested.

“The officers around kind of calmed him down,” Carter said. “I heard him yelling — Mr. Gates yelling. I didn’t hear anything that he was saying so I couldn’t say that he was belligerent.”

The Herald also reports that Crowley once gave mouth-to-mouth to Celtics star Reggie Lewis (who was black) in an attempt to save Lewis’ life.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 2024.

….he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

The Globe also has a piece on Crowley.

…people who know Crowley were skeptical or outright dismissive of allegations of racism. A prominent defense lawyer, a neighbor of Crowley’s, his union, and fellow officers described him yesterday as a respected, and respectful, officer who performs his job well and has led his colleagues in diversity training.

This is interesting: Crowley’s determination to stand up for himself and his effort to save Lewis will complicate the efforts of Gates, Lawrence Bobo and others to engage in cop-profiling—which is to say, attributing specific characteristics to one policeman based on stereotypes and preconceived beliefs about the generalized behavior of a group. (Some police officers shot Amadou Diallo; therefore….)

Fascinating: Gates’ attempts to caricature Crowley—a “rogue cop,” Gates called him—by playing on widespread anti-police prejudices, are actually bumping against the humanity of an individual.

This still doesn’t mean that we know what happened that day on Ware Street, but it may suggest that Gates’ own preconceived notions about a group of people led him to think that he could say whatever he wanted about Crowley, and because it was self-evidently true (right?) that police are like this, the general public would automatically believe the charge.

Meanwhile, Drew Faust continues to stand firmly with her star professor.

“I feel privileged to consider Skip not just an esteemed colleague, but a friend. I have been in regular communication with him since Thursday and I was profoundly saddened to hear him describe what he experienced. I continue to be deeply troubled by the incident,” Faust said.

That’s funny—I’m getting more troubled by the aftermath of this incident than by the actual incident, which was bad enough.

(Posters will comment that Faust is walking a fine line there, supporting Gates without actually commenting on what she thinks happened. That’s true, but I suspect most people will miss the legalistic nuances.)

Skip Gates is surfing this unfortunate episode to greater social prominence, celebrity, power and wealth. Even if one believes every word of his stories, is what he’s doing—”beg me for forgiveness”—promoting healing and progress? Or is it promoting Skip Gates?

On CNN, Gates said that although the ordeal had upset him, “I would do the same thing exactly again.”

I expect that’s true.

Perhaps something lighthearted before bed?

Thanks to Mexican Drug Violence for posting this—it’s absolutely brilliant.

Harvard sociologist Lawrence Bobo has written a piece about the Skip Gates matter for the Root [emphasis added]:

Here’s what I understand to have happened: The officer in my friend’s case was really motivated by a simmering cauldron of anger that my friend had not immediately complied with his initial command to step out of the house. In hindsight, that was the right thing to do since I think my friend could have been physically injured by this police officer (if not worse) had he, in fact, stepped out of his home before showing his ID. Black Americans recall all too well that Amadou Diallo reached for his identification in a public space when confronted by police and, 42 gun shots later, became the textbook case of deadly race-infected police bias.

This is utter nonsense. The incident was more than unfortunate, but it hardly rose to the threat level Bobo posits, and in so doing he degrades both the Gates and the Diallo episodes.