An Innocent Harvard Professor is Arrested

By Tom Kando

To the three of you who haven’t heard yet: A week or so ago, black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested by Cambridge policeman James Crowley inside his own apartment. First, Crowley came to Gates’ apartment because he believed that there was a burglary in progress. Then, even when it turned out that the man who seemed to have broken in was in fact in his own apartment, he was arrested, allegedly because of his “tumultuous” behavior (in the police’s words).

This was just one of the myriad annoying experiences which citizens have with the police every day, experiences suffered far more often by blacks than by whites.
...until President Obama called officer Crowley’s behavior stupid, at a recent press conference, and then invited him and Gates to the White House for beer. The relatively common event had already been widely publicized, but now it became front-page news.

The facts of the confrontation are in dispute, and both sides vouch that they behaved in exemplary fashion, and that the entire blame lies with the other side. Par for the course.

But let me analyze the analyzers for a moment, if only to entertain you:

1. The media and the commentators:
As I follow the “conversation” about this event in the media, it seems that a better word for it would be “chatter,” or “cackle.” Recent sources include articles by Don Van Natta and Abby Goodnough in the NY Times, Kathleen Parker’s July 29 column in the Sacramento Bee and an NPR interview with Prof. Eubanks on July 27. One comes across an awful lot of cliches and meaningless banalities:

For one thing, everyone once again prays at the altar of “communication” and “conversation.” We must begin a “conversation about race relations,” pontificates prof. Eubanks on NPR. No duh? What have we been doing for the past fifty years?

Others (including the President) suggest that this is a “teachable moment” or a “learning moment.” I’m not sure what we learned.

Most amusing of all: Everyone seems to want to depict both protagonists as saints: We hear that Officer Crowley is a brilliantly qualified peace officer, who has led workshops in sensitivity training and race relations. Prof. Gates is a brilliant intellectual who could not conceivably ever misbehave in any way.

2. The neighbors who got the ball rolling by calling 911 to report a burglary. Pseudo-vigilantism has its place, I suppose, especially in high-crime neighborhoods. Better safe than sorry, you could say. True. The opposite - bystander apathy - is epitomized in the classic Kitty Genovese case. There were many witnesses to the poor innocent girl’s screams for help, but no one called the police, and so she was gruesomely murdered.
Yet, trying to find out what’s going on before pushing the alarm button is also a good idea. Maybe there is a middle ground. I don’t advocate taking grave risks, but couldn’t the neighbors have yelled out “who goes there?” “What’s going on?” from the safety of their apartments? A high percentage of 911 calls are laughably frivolous. That’s also a problem.

3. President Obama: One of the few people who didn’t do or say anything wrong. Yet he has been criticized. Why? Because he called officer Crowley’s behavior stupid. Right on, in my opinion. Obama is the only straight-talker in this matter. The arrest and the charges were stupid. In which crime category does “tumultuous behavior” belong? The charges against professor Gates were dropped promptly because they were stupid.

4. The police: On the one hand, I thank God every day for the modern invention called “police.” Do you realize that there was no police in ancient Rome - no wonder life was so nightmarishly unsafe and arbitrary for so many.
On the other hand, I wish police didn’t behave so pompously and so ridiculously, so often: In the Gates case, SEVEN patrol cars showed up! Yes, I know, there was a “worrisome radio silence” for a moment, and the backup was at officer Crowley’s request. But 7 patrol teams to face an elderly and physically impaired professor? Not well-spent tax money, in my view.

And here is another thing:
Could cops once and for all try to talk normally?
Please say “I arrested the guy,” instead of “suspect was apprehended.” Say “the guy was acting weird,” instead of “suspicious behavior was observed.” Say “the guy left the apartment,” instead of “subject departed from the premises.”
Modern-day policemen often remind me of the keystone cops. Like the other day, when TV news helicopters showed us a spectacular car chase on LA freeways. But there is a difference: Today, cops often kill people. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t read in the paper about a citizen killed by the police. I don’t know how many of these homicides are justified. There is of course, the “suicide by cop” phenomenon. In some cases, the suspect indeed brandishes a weapon. But cops kill an awful lot of people. And of course, every one of these homicides is found to be justified after Internal Affairs has concluded its investigation - a laughable way to review these events.leave comment here