It's weird. Last night, you could read the police report for yourself online, but I can't find it today. I was aware I was reading only one side of the event, but I'm pretty sure that's where I read that the officer encouraged Gates to come outside. Maybe I'm misremembering.

And now, I'm about to stray into stereotypes of people I don't know:

When I think of African-American intellectuals, Henry Louis Gates would have been last on my list (not that it's a long list) of who I'd expect to flip out in a potentially ambiguous situation. Cornel West, sure. Houston Baker, sure. But I think of Henry Louis Gates as the patient, ever cautious, as likely to examine his own biases as accuse someone else, kind of guy.

But if I had just returned by cab from the airport after a flight from China, I'd probably not be at my emotional best either.

I will say that I DO look young. :) As for doing quality assurance, on other occasions after that when I was waiting for my car to be retrieved, I did not notice the valet attendants requiring anyone else to show registration and some of the cars were "luxury cars." Their written policy stated that the only time they would ask for the customer to produce vehicle registration was when the customer could not produce a ticket that matched the valet stub placed in the car. Since I had my ticket, and I showed it to an attendant, I didn't see any need for them to ask for my registration.

I don't know. I suppose you could always explain why you are not surprised.

The Time article focused on Cambridge and black Harvard faculty members. It had to reach back 25 years to find a similar incident. Going back 25 years is awfully stretchy if you're trying to make a case for conformity in conduct or having some sort of bad culture.

Oh please. If I get pulled over for speeding, or even have the cops come to my house suspecting I just broke in, I, being a pretty well connected white guy, am not going to take a "Don't you know who I am?" approach. When dealing with law enforcement, that's just dumb. Those guys have wide discretion to make your life difficult, and at minimum, they can set you back a couple hundred bucks by writing you a ticket for disorderly conduct.

My friends and family who are police officers and judges and politicians and attorneys wouldn't think poorly of the cop for arresting me on the spot or further causing me grief. They'd more likely be surprised at my bad behavior than the cop's.

Showing your Harvard ID thinking that'll make the cops go away is Gates being an ass. The cop was being an ass as well. Both parties were acting badly here.

Same here. Also, his emotional best when he's at home is probably different than his emotional best as "Dr. Henry Louis Gates."

Okay, can someone please clarify for what he was arrested. What were the charges? :confused:

Cambridge is not a small town (in fact, it's much larger than the town in which I grew up), and they still had to go back 25 years to find a similar incident. Think about that.

I'm inclined to believe--and this is after I experienced a not too dissimilar incident just a few days ago--that everyone could have acted a little better. But that's just me.

The only thing I would say to this is that it was Harvard-owned property, and I would hope/imagine the Cambridge police would be aware of that. By showing his Harvard ID, he may have just been hoping that it would turn on a light bulb with the police, like a "oh, ok, he may actually live here."

Again, maybe I'm being cynical, but I kind of expect most prominent people, in whatever field (acadmics, entertainment, business) to pull the old "let me take down your badge number" routine.

I'm not excusing behavior on either side, but I think there were a lot of factors at play.

Agreed - Cambridge is a fairly large city, over 100,000 residents, and that doesn't include the temporary residents (students, visiting professors, tourists, etc.) who are there on a daily basis. I used to do my daily run through Harvard and Cambridge when I lived close by, and there's always a bunch of people out and about, no matter the time of day (which make it seem even bigger).

He was charged with disorderly conduct.

ETA: And the charges have since been dropped.

I have to agree...I was gonna post this myself but I read it and the first thing I said was...WHY DIDN'T HE SHOW HIS LICENSE? Anything with his information that showed that you live there would have been MORE than suffice to get the police of of his back.

Sorry, no racism here... just one loud dumb guy who should have complied.

(that's what I see from the article)

He probably thought that 1) being in a Harvard-owned neighborhood + 2) showing a Harvard ID would equal the police just giving it up and leaving him alone.

EXACTLY!!!!!

It's doesn't mean anything until you show adequate proof of residence!

I agree.

The charges have been dropped.

And meanwhile back in real life...

Did anyone hear about the giant scar on Jupiter and that anarchy will reign tomorrow after the solar eclipse??

Oooooh, we should probably prepare. Is Ron Paul our go-to guy for preparation for anarchy?