Harvard professor arrested

[IheartTesla]

Well, he did say he would talk to the police officer's mama outside.

I think its ridiculous that shouting verbal abuse at a police officer should be grounds for arrest which such abuse directed at another fellow citizen would not be.

I don't know whether it would qualify as a crime in the US, but I think that being arrested and spending a couple of hours in a cell might adjust your attitude about verbally abusing the police.

I think there are certain instances where verbally abusing the police is warranted.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

ljkeane,

If I shout at you should you be able to summon a police officer and have me arrested?

[ljkeane]

I think its ridiculous that shouting verbal abuse at a police officer should be grounds for arrest which such abuse directed at another fellow citizen would not be.

I think that if you stood on your lawn shouting abuse at someone who is not a police officer and refused to stop when the police asked you to calm down there would be a definite possibility you might be arrested for that as well.

[Annelise]

I agree that surely the police have more pressing things to do than cuff someone and drag them to the station for a few hours in order to try to readjust their attitude, when they've done nothing illegal. Furthermore, they were talking to a professor, not some kid they wanted to scare straight. I'd bet they lowered his opinion of police, if anything. And made their department look bad. What a waste of everyone's time.

[Annelise]

I think that if you stood on your lawn shouting abuse at someone who is not a police officer and refused to stop when the police asked you to calm down there would be a definite possibility you might be arrested for that as well.

It is a matter of police discretion. In this case he was not a danger to anyone, he was alone and therefore they had no reason to be concerned over the situation escalating. Indeed, the fastest way to calm the situation would have been to remove themselves from his home, once they established it was his home. Indeed, I don't see anything useful in their decision to put him in cuffs and bring him to the station to sit for a few hours.

[Elrostar]

Okay, I managed to find the police report (it's no longer on the Globe website for some reason?) and read it, and I definitely have the impression that both the officer in question and the professor have some major issues. But honestly.

First of all, the police report doesn't seem to really make sense. Sure he identified himself as a police sgt, but why didn't he just show his badge to Gates? Wouldn't that have cleared things up quite a bit?

Also, given that he was pretty sure from the outset that the man was a resident "but very uncooperative", why did he stick around? I mean, okay, it was a good idea to actually verify that the man was Gates and that he did live there, but having done that, what was the point? Why not just apologize for taking the man's time, go outside and talk to the woman (after leaving the man's property) who had called in, and go home?

Wouldn't that have defused the whole fucking situation right then and there? It seems like he let it escalate by deciding to stick around and wait for more police to arrive, in particular deciding to wait for Harvard Campus Police to show up (for some reason?). What was the point in that? Just so they wouldn't feel like their jurisdiction had been stepped on unfairly?

Seriously. While Gates may have behaved like an asshole, the person who really caused this to become an incident was the cop. He's the one who took this from being a minor disagreement to being a huge incident and then an arrest. He could have walked away. Should have walked away. Because he had all the power. But apparently he couldn't do that, having been yelled at by a dangerous black man in his fifties. With a cane.

The arrest will clearly be thrown out, and I would imagine that the officer will face some kind of extremely minor disciplinary action (since the police officer's union would balk at anything more than that happening).

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Elrostar,

Precisely.

If the officer had done his job and left that would have been the end of this. Instead the officer played the aggrieved party and arrested Prof. Gates for having the temerity to be irritated about being accosted by a police officer for being on his own land.

[Jaqen the FatManderly]

The arrest will clearly be thrown out, and I would imagine that the officer will face some kind of extremely minor disciplinary action (since the police officer's union would balk at anything more than that happening).

And the scumbag professor screaming at a police officer, calling him a racist for investigating a break-in?

Somehow I don't think he'll be fired for his extremely disgusting, hateful, and unprofessional behavior. Hell, he might get an award!

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Jaqen,

Assuming what you say is true, what Prof. Gates did is not illegal. Hell, Prof. Gates was inside his own home when he did it. The officer arrested Prof. Gates to salve the officer's own ego. That, at best, is an abuse of process.

[Zoë Sumra]

Well I'd count his porch or front lawn as the street but the location isn't really the point it's the abusive rant that would be the issue.

There are a number of precedents in UK civil law for one's front lawn being a part of one's property. The porch is a physical part of the house so even more so. As I understand it, even the pavement outside a property can under certain circumstances be part of one's property instead of public property; if not, then why, under US civil law, are companies able to be sued for people tripping on broken pavement outside the store/whatever?

Civil examples, but the precedents can feed into criminal law.

[ljkeane]

There are a number of precedents in UK civil law for one's front lawn being a part of one's property. The porch is a physical part of the house so even more so. As I understand it, even the pavement outside a property can under certain circumstances be part of one's property instead of public property; if not, then why, under US civil law, are companies able to be sued for people tripping on broken pavement outside the store/whatever?

Civil examples, but the precedents can feed into criminal law.

I don't disagree that he's on his property and I'm not trying to make any sort of legal argument about him being on public property, I'm just saying that if I saw two people arguing on their lawns I'd describe as them having an argument in the street.

[Altherion]

The arrest will clearly be thrown out, and I would imagine that the officer will face some kind of extremely minor disciplinary action (since the police officer's union would balk at anything more than that happening).

I'm not so sure about that. The arrest doesn't make much sense even if what the police report says was true, but in that case he might be able to get away with it. On the other hand, if what the professor says is true, then the officer overstepped the bounds of his authority by a mile.

Also, Gates is not some random African-American professor. I'm not sure if he is the foremost scholar in his field, but he definitely ranks rather high. The Cambridge police has an unpleasant history with African-American professors and they couldn't have done any worse than pick a fight with this particular one.

[LCOTNW]

The Cambridge police has an unpleasant history with African-American professors and they couldn't have done any worse than pick a fight with this particular one.

Ugh...I was afraid that might be the case after I read the article about the other professor's incident, and the student reaction.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

Also, Gates is not some random African-American professor. I'm not sure if he is the foremost scholar in his field, but he definitely ranks rather high. The Cambridge police has an unpleasant history with African-American professors and they couldn't have done any worse than pick a fight with this particular one.

I wonder how long he has lived there? My co-worker vacations in Martha's Vineyard every summer and she knows him by sight (from seeing him around). It is just odd the neighbor didn't recognize him.

[Altherion]

I wonder how long he has lived there? My co-worker vacations in Martha's Vineyard every summer and she knows him by sight (from seeing him around). It is just odd the neighbor didn't recognize him.

Wikipedia says he has been at Harvard since 1991, though it doesn't say how long he stayed at that particular house. Maybe the neighbor saw the driver who was helping him get the door open rather than the professor himself?

[TheKassi]

ljkeane,

If I shout at you should you be able to summon a police officer and have me arrested?

I am pretty sure that if the Next Door neighbor of Gates was standing on their front porch or in their front yard screaming insults, threats, and slurs, perhaps throwing around the N-word in Gate's direction, then Gates would have summoned the police along with 90% of the neighborhood.

I am also quite sure if the police officers warned him to stop several times, the racist jerk would not get away with a verbal warning. I am also pretty sure the issue wouldn't have gotten national attention. Disturbing the peace is a crime. People call the cops for loud jerkish behavior all the time.

[Gold Storm]

It looks like they dropped the charges against Gates.

[SwordoftheMorning]

I purposefully waited to respond about this issue, because I didn't want to get involved in a flaming screaming match with some of the responders that have posted here. Now I think I've chilled enough to offer a perspective on this I feel is close to what Prof. Gates experienced.

The very last time I was arrested, I was sitting in my parked car talking quietly with my gf at the time and her brother. A police officer suddenly raps his knuckles on the driver side window, orders us brusquely out of the car, then demands to see my drivers license in almost the same breath. As I exit the car, a swarm of at least 5 other squad cars surround us. I POLITELY ask the initial officer what was the problem, at which time he grabs me, spins me around slams me into the car, drags me down to the hood and pushes me up so I am laying on my belly on the hood of my own car. As he is cuffing me, another OFFICER OF THE LAW step up and snatches my earring out of my ear, in an obvious attempt to rip my earlobe. My gf is in hysterics, her brother by the way has been made to "assume the position" at the rear of the car and it being searched.

I am far from quiet at this point, literally snarling and cursing at every cop in sight, and threating them with all sorts of wrath of god shit from the lawyers, judges and politicians I personally know.

I was arrested, and processed into the jail. After I bonded out, an hour or so later, I got a copy of the arrest report. I still have it actually. What's significant about it was that I apparrently "pushed the arresting officer, cursed him and poked my finger in his chest" prior t actually being placed under arrest. My point. Fuck what the arresting cop wrote about the incident with Prof. Gates. Arrest reports are nothing more than fiction designed to make the police look at good as possible. If the report about this arrest is so bad that most here still agree Prof Gate did nothing wrong, then my opinion is the actual situation was 10 times worse. The police in America KNOW they can generally get away with abuse of power in regards to Black males because of a societal assumption that Black males arrested by the police must have been doing something wrong. Everyone here kinda looks at this as an isolated incident, but the list of well-known and just ordinary Black males that have the same type of experiences is endless.

The fact is most here simply have no idea how police almost uniformly treat Black males they encounter in the curse of their duties. Some here have disparaged Prof. Gates as an asshole or other terms, but they have no idea how infuriating it is to be treated like the police do us. To be a pre-emminent scholar in your field, but be treated like a thug or a gangbanger, without any politeness or respect when approached by the cops.

U just dont fucking know. Until u do, name calling, and insulting a man who was at his own house, minding his own bizness and ends up being ARReSTED.... shows just how much .....

ok ... I'm gonna stop. Leave it at that. You just dont know .....

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

GS,

What a shock. This officer is in for a very bad time and the officer brought it on himself.

[Jaqen the FatManderly]

Jaqen,

Assuming what you say is true, what Prof. Gates did is not illegal. Hell, Prof. Gates was inside his own home when he did it. The officer arrested Prof. Gates to salve the officer's own ego. That, at best, is an abuse of process.

Oh, I certainly agree with other comments made that the officer didn't need to arrest Gates on a technicality. It's not exactly surprising; cops do like to throw their weight around. But it's something that happens all the time, and I care less about this time that we're hearing about than about all the ones we don't hear about because this time is couldn't have happened to a more deserving asshole.

But on the scale of sympathies, mine is more with the working stiff cop than the race-baiting professor who:

* Called the cop a racist with no provocation

* Is famous - and black - and therefore can abuse anyone he wants to for no reason

It's a rich, powerful guy being an absolute asshole to a beat cop with absolutely no provocation --

and then getting his lawyer to spin some bullshit tale that isn't corroborated by the officer or any of the many witnesses at the scene. Maybe some believe the lawyer's spin, but it smells like bullshit to me and to lie about the incident afterward just compounds the degree of scum. And Gates is probably going to go on a crusade alleging racism and trying to get the cop fired, slandering his name in national news.