Harvard Professor ordeal

[Little Wing]

oh shit

Officer says he'll 'never apologize' for Harvard professor arrest

(CNN) -- A Cambridge, Massachusetts, police officer said Thursday he will "never apologize" about how he handled the arrest of prominent black Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Sgt. Jim Crowley said he has nothing to apologize for in regards to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Sgt. Jim Crowley said he has nothing to apologize for in regards to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"That apology will never come from me as Jim Crowley, it won't come from me as sergeant in the Cambridge Police Department," Sgt. James Crowley told Boston radio station WEEI. "Whatever anybody else chooses to do in the name of the city of Cambridge or the Cambridge Police Department which are beyond my control, I don't worry about that. I know what I did was right. I have nothing to apologize for."

Crowley also said he was exercising caution and is clearly not a racist based on his previous actions.

Those actions, Crowley told the Boston Herald, include giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to former Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis, who suffered a fatal heart attack in 1993 at Brandeis University when Crowley was a campus cop.

"I wasn't working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn't working on a black man," Crowley told the Boston Herald. "I was working on another human being."

Gates was arrested last week at his home after a confrontation with Crowley. Cambridge authorities on Tuesday dropped disorderly conduct charges against Gates.

Crowley also told WEEI that when he asked Gates to come out of his home, he thought a break-in had occurred or was still happening.

"I didn't know who [Gates] was. I was by myself. I was the only police officer standing there, and I got a report of people breaking into a house," Crowley told WEEI. "That was for my safety first and foremost. I have to go home at night, I have three beautiful children and a wife who depend on me. So I had no other motive than to ensure my safety."

Responding to a reporter's question on Gates' arrest, President Obama said Wednesday night that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly."

Obama defended Gates while admitting that he may be "a little biased" because the professor is his friend.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 ... that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."

The incident shows "how race remains a factor in this society," Obama said.
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Crowley told WEEI that he was "disappointed" that Obama interjected himself into the situation.

"He's the president of the United States, and I support the president to a point," Crowley told WEEI. "I think it's disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue and something that is -- really that plays out here. As he himself had said at the beginning of that press conference, he didn't know all the facts. He certainly doesn't based on those comments. I just think it was very disappointing."

source

uh... did anyone else catch this

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.
Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes, which had also restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964[1] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jim Crow laws - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
WQED Multimedia: TV: Jim Crow Pennsylvania

Historians say that the term 'Jim Crow' originated in a song performed by Daddy Rice, a white minstrel show entertainer in the 1830s. His charcoal darkened face performed an unflattering caricature of a black man. During the nineteenth century the term became identified with the racist laws that deprived African-Americans of their civil rights by defining blacks as inferior to whites.

some fookin' coincidence.

 

[Little Wing]

Who Was Jim Crow?

yea ouch, that's gonna leave a mark.

 

[lnvanry]

the professor seems to be making a mountain out of a mole hill....the mole isn't racism IMHO...it was just a cop being a prick, which isn't anything unusual

 

[maniclion]

Obama noted.....
"Words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates," he said, "and everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed."

Exactly what I say and now the charges are dropped the whole issue should disappear we have bigger things to worry about....like where did I set my beer down at?

 

[min0 lee]

Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert
By DENISE LAVOIE (AP) ??? 9 hours ago
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ??? The white police sergeant accused of racial profiling after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling.
Friends and fellow officers ??? black and white ??? say Sgt. James Crowley is a principled police officer and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.
"If people are looking for a guy who's abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy," said Andy Meyer, of Natick, who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men's softball team. "This is not a racist, rogue cop. This is a fine, upstanding man. And if every cop in the world were like him, it would be a better place."
Gates accused the 11-year department veteran of being an unyielding, race-baiting authoritarian after Crowley arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct last week.

 

[Dale Mabry]

No doubt. The cop had to show him who is boss. The professor, in turn, pulled all the cards he had to show the cop who was boss by calling his buddy the president. It is a pissing match between two men and nothing more.

I would have felt violated if I were arrested for breaking into my own house. In all honesty, if I had a big name politician as a friend I probably would have done the exact same thing in retaliation.

Lol, in my younger days I would have firebombed his car while he was sleeping.

One question...When the officer asked for your ID, would you have just showed it to him, knowing that all he was doing was ensuring your house wasn't being burglarized? One more, if you were to have done the exact same thing and refused, do you think you would have been ticketed for disturbing the peace? Keep in mind that this is not for breaking in to the house, but for not complying with the officer.

IMO, Gates is using the plight of the poor black man to be an asshole. Honestly, if the cops didn't ticket people for not complying no one would comply.

 

[bandaidwoman]

I agree Obama shouldn't have commented on the this case.

On the other hand, I have the right to say GTFO of my house. I'd probably feel that way after a long trip from china and the police were in my house without a search warrant and I had shown them proof I was a resident. I don't think the cop was acting in a racial way, he probably didn't want to put up with being mouthed at by Professor. There are no laws against being rude. Sensitive Cambridge Police.....

 

[Keylan]

thank you police for being so prompt in checking on a citizen 911 call.

what's the protocol if you want to file a complaint against an arresting officer or if you want to file police harassment/brutality charges?

there are so many details on this case that we don't know of but in this type of situation if an uninvited cop entered my house and forced me to prove i lived there based on s/he said alone i'd be livid. it would be a choice to move on or not. then if the cop hindered my investigation of unlawful proceedings by refusing to give their name and badge info, that would make me angry enough to start cussin him out. (watch while i f*** with you and get away with it). now that police can stop you if they don't see you wearing a seatbelt, access your cellphone and internet history remotely, randomly run your plates while your car is parked and pull up your entire file at will, or monitor your actions from space i don't think being able to get their supervisor's name is too much to ask.

if 'crowley' went by the book there's no need to worry about apologizing or anyone reporting it...right? besides when was the last time we saw a cop go to jail for anything?

 

[mcguin]

from my observations I think it's safe to say that many of you, more than not, have some sort of beef or bias towards police officers...interesting to hear everyone's opinions.

 

[min0 lee]

from my observations I think it's safe to say that many of you, more than not, have some sort of beef or bias towards police officers...interesting to hear everyone's opinions.

Not me, but I look at it from both sides.

Yes, there are cops who are bias.
Yes, there are blacks who play the race card.

You have cops who are rude, arrogant.
You have civilians getting all twisted when an officer confronts them.

 

[Arnold]

from my observations I think it's safe to say that many of you, more than not, have some sort of beef or bias towards police officers...interesting to hear everyone's opinions.

only when they act the way this one did.

 

[bandaidwoman]

Not me, but I look at it from both sides.

Yes, there are cops who are bias.
Yes, there are blacks who play the race card.

You have cops who are rude, arrogant.
You have civilians getting all twisted when an officer confronts them.

I agree, I think in this case, both may have overreacted but the police officer is supposed to be the one that is obligated to act in a professional and logical manner. I don't go about knocking out all patients with sedatives because they curse and yell and behave rudely towards me.

 

[min0 lee]

I agree, I think in this case, both may have overreacted but the police officer is supposed to be the one that is obligated to act in a professional and logical manner. I don't go about knocking out all patients with sedatives because they curse and yell and behave rudely towards me.

I agree, but a man of his age and color and not to mention a college professor should know how to respond to white cops.....very slowly and polite.

Not that I am blaming him but there are cops who are bias and don't know how to approach a minority. No matter how much schooling they have on race relations it's not the same as if you grow up among minorities.

 

[Arnold]

Friends defend officer who arrested black scholar
By DENISE LAVOIE (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Supporters say the white policeman who arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home is a principled police officer and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.

Friends and fellow officers — black and white — say Sgt. James Crowley, who was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling, is calm and reliable.

"If people are looking for a guy who's abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy," said Andy Meyer of Natick, Mass., who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men's softball team. "This is not a racist, rogue cop."

Gates accused the 11-year department veteran of being an unyielding, race-baiting authoritarian after Crowley arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct last week.

Crowley confronted Gates in his home after a woman passing by summoned police for a possible burglary. The sergeant said he arrested Gates after the scholar repeatedly accused him of racism and made derogatory remarks about his mother, allegations the professor challenges. Gates has labeled Crowley a "rogue cop," demanded an apology and said he may sue the police department.

President Barack Obama elevated the dispute when he said Wednesday that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" during the encounter. Obama stepped back on Thursday, telling ABC News, "From what I can tell, the sergeant who was involved is an outstanding police officer, but my suspicion is probably that it would have been better if cooler heads had prevailed."

Crowley told a radio station Thursday that Obama went too far.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent," he told WBZ-AM. "I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment."

Obama noted that he and Gates are friends, and the sergeant said: "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

Crowley didn't immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, in his first public comments on the arrest, said Thursday that Crowley was a decorated officer who followed procedure. The department is putting together an independent panel to review the arrest, but Haas said he did not think the whole story had been told.

"Sgt. Crowley is a stellar member of this department. I rely on his judgment every day," Haas said. "... I think he basically did the best in the situation that was presented to him."

But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, once the top civil rights official in the Clinton administration and now, like Obama, the first black to hold his job, labeled the arrest "every black man's nightmare."

The governor told reporters: "You ought to be able to raise your voice in your own house without risk of arrest."

Those who know the 42-year-old Crowley say he is committed to everyday interests like playing softball and coaching his children's youth teams.

"I would give him my daughter to coach in a blink of an eye, and I can't say any stronger opinion than that," said Dan Keefe, a town parks official who knows Crowley from his work coaching youth swim, softball, basketball and baseball teams.

Crowley grew up in Cambridge's Fresh Pond neighborhood and attended the city's racially diverse public schools. Two of his brothers also work for the police department and a third is a Middlesex County deputy sheriff.

For five of the past six years, Crowley has volunteered alongside a black colleague in teaching 60 cadets per year about how to avoid targeting suspects merely because of their race, and how to respond to an array of scenarios they might encounter on the beat. Thomas Fleming, director of the Lowell Police Academy, said Crowley was asked by former Cambridge police Commissioner Ronnie Watson, who is black, to be an instructor.

"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming said.

source

 

[min0 lee]

Another view...

Arrest of Prof. Gates puts focus on biased police stops







Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr. has discovered what almost anybody on my Brooklyn block could have told him: It's a bad idea to trash-talk a man with a gun.
That's true even if you're right as rain, doing no harm and standing in your home.
As the son and brother of retired NYPD officers, I would add that all of this goes double when the man with the gun also has a badge, handcuffs and a credible report of a crime in progress.
We're lucky the Gates incident didn't take a tragic turn, like the time in 1999 when a quartet of New York cops mistook Amadou Diallo for a criminal and ended up killing an innocent man trying to enter his Bronx home.
I can easily believe Gates' contention that the cops who questioned him in his home refused to give their names and badge numbers. Police departments, like all workplaces, have their share of jerks.
My experiences as a Harvard undergraduate more than 25 years ago included being tailed by cops a few times while walking home late at night after helping to edit the school newspaper.
Those experiences left me more annoyed at bad policing than distressed over some civil rights violation. I would have preferred that they had driven me home and spent the rest of their shift looking for real crooks.
I don't begrudge Gates an ounce of the fury he has expressed. If he truly believes his arrest was the result of racially charged mistreatment by Cambridge's Finest, he will have every right and opportunity to prove it in the courts of law and public opinion.
This won't be his first time tackling the profiling issue.
Last year, Gates was quoted in The Boston Globe demanding zero tolerance for profiling around the Harvard campus, saying any example of racism is one example too many.
The quote came after a 2007 flap in which black students, decked out in Harvard T-shirts and frolicking on a quad, were interrogated by campus police who'd been called by a student who mistook them for trespassers.
A few years before that, cops stopped another black professor, my friend Allen Counter, while crossing Harvard Yard in 2004.
Police said the impeccably dressed biologist matched the profile of a well-dressed robber they were seeking.
There is no civil, polite way to explore real and perceived issues of race, class, ego and etiquette in Cambridge, New York or anywhere else.
If we are lucky, Gates will use his experience as an opportunity to enlighten us all about how to view one another as neighbors and citizens, not stereotypes.
elouis@nydailynews.com

Read more: Arrest of Prof. Gates puts focus on biased police stops
​

 

[min0 lee]

Being a cop is not easy....with the amount of jerks they deal with daily..

 

[Keylan]

I might have been mistaken but I haven't seen anything posted in here in regards to the news going on involving the nut job harvard professor who disrespected police and now has our President reverend Albama backing his racial crap up! I'm outraged at the president and the city of cambridge. This is the reason why racism still exists in the country, because without it what other crap could be made up to have people feeling bad for who was once a minority in this country. MR PRESIDENT, YOU HAVE OFFENDED ME TOO MANY TIMES!!! I WANT RETRIBUTION NOW!

it'd be good to check the u.s. census but people of color are still a minority. that is why obama was elected

thats not what happened, they found him sitting outside and he WAS being beligerent. The fact that he didnt initially want to show the police identification is enough proof. But what I'm trying to emphasizing is that regardless of the story at this point in the game, the president has no business making any sort of comments to the nature of which he did when we don't know the exact story yet. People are just waiting for crap like this so they can jump on the old racism card.

i was under the impression the cops actually went inside gates' house trying to find out who it is. who lives there. question for you: if a guy socks someone for calling his girlfriend a skank who goes to jail, the one with the sore knuckles or the fat lip??

Not me, but I look at it from both sides.

Yes, there are cops who are bias.
Yes, there are blacks who play the race card.

You have cops who are rude, arrogant.
You have civilians getting all twisted when an officer confronts them.

true, but law enforcement should be above that at ALL times. a good cop will be able to make a decision based on an accurate assessement of the situation, and will not be persuaded into lawfully inconsistent behavior. I'd much rather deal with a whiny f*** than a bias pig. as a black person who has had cops enter my home uninvited i feel pretty good about saying that. what do you think about me now?

 

[bio-chem]

apparently stoicism is dead. Whatever happened to people having a little bit thicker skin? My gosh, this guy is squealing like a stuck pig over a perceived slight. Shut the hell up already. Race problems? He isn't picking cotton. He is a fucking professor at an Ivy league university and their is a black man in the white house. When an officer asks to see your ID you pull it out with pride and say "Yes officer this is my place, isn't it nice?"

 

[tucker01]

apparently stoicism is dead. Whatever happened to people having a little bit thicker skin? My gosh, this guy is squealing like a stuck pig over a perceived slight. Shut the hell up already. Race problems? He isn't picking cotton. He is a fucking professor at an Ivy league university and their is a black man in the white house. When an officer asks to see your ID you pull it out with pride and say "Yes officer this is my place, isn't it nice?"

I dunno those were my thoughts.

Lets see, as a cop being called to a potential B and E, with no back up arrival yet. I would prefer to err on the side of caution.

 

[bio-chem]

true, but law enforcement should be above that at ALL times. a good cop will be able to make a decision based on an accurate assessement of the situation, and will not be persuaded into lawfully inconsistent behavior. I'd much rather deal with a whiny f*** than a bias pig. as a black person who has had cops enter my home uninvited i feel pretty good about saying that. what do you think about me now?

This cop has a pretty solid track record. Cops need to make an accurate assessment of the situation with the details available. Nobody is perfect, we pay these guys to do a job and often times they have to make the best judgement they can with less than complete details of the situation. We pay them to go into often times dangerous environments to keep us safe. This stupid idiot should have taken out his ID immediately and showed it to the officer. Stop playing the damn race card. This is absolutely a case of crying wolf. When a real race problem comes up at this university people are going to be less likely to listen now.

 

[min0 lee]

true, but law enforcement should be above that at ALL times. a good cop will be able to make a decision based on an accurate assessement of the situation, and will not be persuaded into lawfully inconsistent behavior. I'd much rather deal with a whiny f*** than a bias pig. as a black person who has had cops enter my home uninvited i feel pretty good about saying that. what do you think about me now?

They are not robots, they are human.

I don't think any different of you and I already knew you were black a while ago. I am not saying racism does not occur within the police department, in fact it's all over.

Blacks are just as bias as white now.

 

[bio-chem]

They are not robots, they are human.

I don't think any different of you and I already knew you were black a while ago. I am not saying racism does not occur within the police department, in fact it's all over.

Blacks are just as bias as white now.

 

[IronAddict]

I do but we're assuming this professor has lived the life of the typical black man who's been pushed around by the po po. I doubt thats the case. I see this professor using this common social issue as a lightning rod to poke the cop.

I definately can see where you're coming from, but a "typical" blackman" neither attends or teaches at Harvard.

This whole thing could have been resolved with the cop apologizing once he realised that this was indeed Gates home.

I don't fault the police for investigating, I fault the cop for allowing the situation to escalate to nationwide issue.

 

[min0 lee]

Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates' daughter: Arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley 'uncooperative'



You apologize. No, you apologize.
Cambridge police on Friday will demand a mea culpa from President Obama for saying a cop "acted stupidly" in the controversial arrest of noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates.


They also want an apology from Gates, who earlier in the week sought the same from Sgt. James Crowley who arrested him on July 16. Cambridge police say Gates berated Crowley during the arrest.


The racially charged incident sparked a national debate - one side arguing that the professor was the victim of profiling and the other saying the cop was simply doing his job. Cambridge police say Obama fanned the flames by saying Crowley "acted stupidly."


Police in the leafy Massachusetts town may decide as early as Friday whether to release police radio transmissions in which the noted scholar is heard in the background verbally bashing Crowley.
Crowley, who is white, responded to a report of a burglary in progress at Gates' home after a neighbor told cops she saw two black men break into the house.


The neighbor was unaware the man forcing his way inside was Gates, who had locked himself out.
When Crowley arrived, he told an incensed Gates he was investigating a report of a break-in and asked for his identification
"Why? Because I'm a black man in America," Gates responded, according to a police report.



Gates was arrested, but the bust was later tossed out.
President Obama chimed in on the arrest, saying cops "acted stupidly," drawing the ire of many in law enforcement. In an interview with ABC on Thursday, Obama did not back down.
Obama said he has "extraordinary respect" for the challenges law enforcement officers face, but that "cooler heads should have prevailed" in this case.


The professor's daughter, Elizabeth Gates, and Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons said they are seeking a face-to-face meeting between Gates and Crowley so they can sort out their differences.
On CBS-TV's "The Early Show," Gates said she received a "positive response" from her father, but has yet to hear from Crowley.
"I think he needs to maybe extend his sensitivity training," Elizabeth Gates said of Crowley, whom she called uncooperative. "If it's left as is, we're going to rely on our preconceived notions of race."


Meanwhile, Alan McDonald, a lawyer for Crowley, told ABC News the sergeant has not ruled out filing a defamation of character or libel lawsuit.
"He is exploring all of his options," McDonald said.

Read more: Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates' daughter: Arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley 'uncooperative'
​

 

[min0 lee]

The neighbor was unaware the man forcing his way inside was Gates, who had locked himself out.

How the hell does this person not know his nieghbor?

He must have seen him if he knew his color.

 

[Keylan]

This cop has a pretty solid track record. Cops need to make an accurate assessment of the situation with the details available. Nobody is perfect, we pay these guys to do a job and often times they have to make the best judgement they can with less than complete details of the situation. We pay them to go into often times dangerous environments to keep us safe. This stupid idiot should have taken out his ID immediately and showed it to the officer. Stop playing the damn race card. This is absolutely a case of crying wolf. When a real race problem comes up at this university people are going to be less likely to listen now.

so then how do you accept responsibility for your actions? the real question is how did the cop get into the house? i don't know what they teach at cop school but i don't want to show my id to a stranger without getting a beer out of it. especially if i haven't done anything illegal.

I dunno those were my thoughts.

Lets see, as a cop being called to a potential B and E, with no back up arrival yet. I would prefer to err on the side of caution.

waiting for backup and/or staking out. trailing.

apparently stoicism is dead. Whatever happened to people having a little bit thicker skin? My gosh, this guy is squealing like a stuck pig over a perceived slight. Shut the hell up already. Race problems? He isn't picking cotton. He is a fucking professor at an Ivy league university and their is a black man in the white house. When an officer asks to see your ID you pull it out with pride and say "Yes officer this is my place, isn't it nice?"

ya do kinda get tired of being nice when you have to walk home cuz you can't hail a taxi, or when airport security is pulling out your underwear in public cuz some bomb went off in india. (last time i checked some middle easterners have blue eyes)

They are not robots, they are human.

I don't think any different of you and I already knew you were black a while ago. I am not saying racism does not occur within the police department, in fact it's all over.

Blacks are just as bias as white now.

i get that people make mistakes. when a cop, judge, doctor makes a mistake it can affect the rest of your life.

 

[Arnold]

How the hell does this person not know his neighbor?

no shit?

 

[IronAddict]

How the hell does this person not know his nieghbor?

He must have seen him if he knew his color.

Well, you know what they say, all black men look alike, especially at night.

 

[Keylan]

Well, you know what they say, all black men look alike, especially at night.

thank goodness for colgate

 

[Keylan]

what does the 2nd black guy have to say about all this??