I am much more disturbed by the police officer than the "neighbor." There is no excuse for his behavior.

As far as the "neighbor" goes, we don't know that this woman lived on the same street as Dr. Gates. Her address was blocked out on the police report.

If I was taking a walk in MY neighborhood and saw TWO men (of any color) with their shoulder to a door, trying to push the door open, I would probably call the police too if I didn't know them.

I live in a neighborhood that attracts a lot of runners, walkers and bicyclists. Beyond the nearest houses to mine, I have no idea who lives here. I don't think that is that atypical.

Why would you automatically call the cops? You don't know what they're doing or why. And cops are going to automatically assume the worst as you did. The whole thing is stupid and wouldn't have happened if the two men hadn't been black.

Cambridge should drop the charges, apologize for the cop, and give the cop a reprimand if not training on reading ids.

Umm... because 9 times out of 10 two guys trying to force open a door are not just locked out of their house, they are trying to break in it.

According to newspaper reports this woman lived in Malden, MA which is 5 miles away from Cambridge. Fairer to call her a passerby than a neighbor.

The issue here is the cops behavior after they saw ID. They should have apologized for the misunderstanding and left. Even IF Gates yelled at them, there was zero reason to arrest him.

And I can guarantee you that I would have called the police on two white guys acting like that.

9 times out of 10? That's some statistic. Whenever I see two people with luggage, one of them middle aged, struggling to get into a house, I immediately assume that they are trying to blow up the World Trade Centers.

9 times out of 10. Sheesh. The world that some people live in is incredibly violent and dangerous. I'm glad I don't live there.

Oh give me a break. You see two guys with back packs (not luggage) pushing in what appears to be a locked door. She isn't a racist for calling the police because she sees something suspicious.

Our next door neighbors had their deadbolted door kicked off the frame a few weeks ago and their computer stolen at 10am in the morning. Guess I should have ignored it had I been walking by.

I find it highly unlikely that this incident would have occurred at all had Gates been white

I don't. Shall we take your unproven negative as gospel?

Per Gates' report, he entered through the back door, still couldn't open the front door, then the driver was able to force the front door open. Can you really see Skip Gates throwing a shoulder into the door like that? I think we should take a step back before calling out the neighbor like that, given that a. we have no idea if she even lives nearby and b. she could easily know Gates, and be wondering who the hell this stranger was trying to rob him

The truth lis somewhere between both stories.
I am a 20+ year police officer who was friends with Skip during his Yale years.
After a long day of travel and finding your home burglarized are enough to leave any of us at our breaking point.
Then again the police responding to the call have no idea who or what they will encounter.
I'm interested to see the outcome.

...it makes me uncomfortable that someone can simply be arrested for the crime of saying nasty things to a police officer under the auspices of "disorderly conduct."

Come visit sunny Florida!

Oh give me a break. You see two guys with back packs (not luggage) pushing in what appears to be a locked door. She isn't a racist for calling the police because she sees something suspicious.

Our next door neighbors had their deadbolted door kicked off the frame a few weeks ago and their computer stolen at 10am in the morning. Guess I should have ignored it had I been walking by.

Posted by: Teresa Kopec | July 21, 2009 12:35 PM

Teresa, I couldn't let this one go without a response.

Professor Gates was in China for a week. He had more than a backpack or two.

Per The Washington Post today:

"Gates described his driver, whose car service Gates uses regularly, as a large, Moroccan man. The driver brought Gates's three bags to the front door, but when the professor tried to turn the lock, it would not budge. After going around and unlocking the rear door, Gates returned to the front, which still would not open."

Go and read the rest. Dollars to donuts, the Officer did NOT give his name when asked, and that is what set Professor Gates off.

What a ridiculous turn of events. Reminds me when I called the police when I thought someone was breaking into my neighbor's house one day when they were on vacation. Turned out to be their son who locked himself out. When the police arrived the situation escalated with the son becoming angry at being mistaken for a thief and the police losing their patience at what they thought was an intruder.

I can empathize with both sides in this story.

At MetricPenny, that was the first I saw about any other luggage which does raise questions (although not clear if lady could see it or not.)

My point is that the police were entirely in the wrong, but its a bit much to impugn this woman for racism without hearing her side of the story. From the paper she lives at least five miles away and not in the neighborhood. Do you know your "neighbors" five miles from your house? I sure don't.

I don't even know who first claimed she WAS a neighbor because it seems she WASN'T by any fair definition. I think people just took that up and repeated it without checking the facts.

This day and age there are no limits for thieves. I have friends from the nicest neighborhoods to the worst being robbed. I live an area that is being "revitalized" and I have stated to my neighbors many times that I would rather they mistaken me as a robber trying to enter my home than have my home robbed and they later share that they weren't sure if I was wearing a dark coat, hat, and sunglasses at midnight. I can show my driver's license to a police officer. Not as easy to get my belongs back.

Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board
http://bit.ly/ArMwZ

In Gate's statement to The Root, he says he does not know the woman who called the police either. Sort of proves they are not "neighbors." http://tr.im/tp34

Yeah I have to agree with Teresa here. The woman who called the police is not at fault here, there are a lot of potential reasonable explanations as to why she felt it was necessary to call police when she saw a door being broken down. However, the arrest itself is COMPLETELY inexcusable based on either account of the event; and I think the chance of this situation going this way had Gates been white would be miniscule. Hopefully they're gonna have a lawsuit on their hands and a bunch of top Harvard lawyers on the case =)

Being an African-American Police Officer in Connecticut I believe Dr. Gates should ask for a public outcry because some where in this whole issue his civil rights in some way was violated by the actions of the over zealous Cambridge police department.

Hypothetically speaking; what are the odds this story would have even made the news wire if the arresting officer had been black? I'll wager this wouldn't be a story at all. I know, I know, if the officer had been black he wouldn't have arrested the professor. There's probably some truth in that because the professor wouldn't have assumed the officer was "profiling" and may have treated him will some civility. All this rhetoric about Gates only demanding the officers name and identification is also nonsense. I've yet to see an officer without a badge that says "Deputy What's His Name". It seems a bit of inverted racism to me. I once had two different squad cars pull violently in front and back of me at a gas station. They got out with their hands on their guns and were quite "authoritative" (hint- iterpret rude if you have hang-ups about your color) about questioning me. I fit the profile exactly. I had a beat up silver Dodge truck. I was white, slender, female and in the vicinity. It took some convincing to get them to believe that I didn't have an accomplice behind the seat. Laughing hysterically helped. I guarantee if I had been rude and accused them of harassing a woman I would have ended up in the back of a patrol car. Lets have a little respect for the public servants who do the hard jobs. Not knowing if you're going to get shot especially by a belligerant person who is accusing you of racism sounds pretty normal to me. Last time I checked it was smart to keep your mouth shut around a police officer who thinks you might have done something. If this is the caliber of brains and self-esteem at the level of "professor" at Harvard I'm worried about Harvard. Gates should have thanked the officer for protecting his home, had a good laugh at what he actually appeared to be and knocked a few of those chips off his shoulder.

ell you. No story because there would be no Crowley was an arrogant man who was rude and disrespectful of a public servant what do any of you fold

"I don't really understand why Crowley stuck around to be yelled at..."

That's not exactly what happened. The officer used a time-honored police tactic -- saying something like, "I'm going to step outside, if you'd like to discuss this further you can come with me."

What this does is to remove the subject from his residence and move the matter to a public space (albeit the man's own front doorstep). At this point, if the subject raises his voice or waves his arms or behaves in any manner than might be seen as "disorderly conduct," he can be arrested. The charges may be -- and often are -- summarily dropped by the PD, but that's not really the point. The point is slapping cuffs on somebody who has pissed off a policeman and putting him in the back seat of cruiser, in full view of his neighbors.

There's a term for this "offense" among defense attorneys and public defenders and the like, sort of akin to Driving While Black. It's called Contempt of Cop.

The woman worked on the next street. She was not actually a neighbor in the sense of living in a house in the neighborhood.

Gates has said that he is appreciative that the woman called the police and hopes that she would do it again under the same circumstances.

"he (Gates) doesn't claim that the comments attributed to him in the police report are false."

One of Gates' comments to the cop was: "I'll go outside with yo mama."

You insult a man's mother and you're asking for real trouble. Gates got it.

Even if Gates didn't act appropriately the matter was over once the believed Gates was the lawful resident of the home. He should have offered an apology and left. He critized a policeman and it got him arrested. What happened to free speech.
I have seen instances where a white person was loud, beligerent, insulting and sometimes inebriated in front policemen and didn't get arrested. I believe race played a part in this encounter.
The woman who called the police did nothing wrong. I wish I had a neighbor like that.

This seems clear that Gates over-reacted... just check the arrest report out ( unless you feel this was fudged too?) Gates would not even give any information...license, ID ? What would you do if you were the cop?

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/henry_louis_gates_arrest_reports_062109

I think cops lie as a matter of course. They lie when the truth will do. I wouldn't trust anything in that report. That being said, insulting an officer, if that is in fact what Gates did, is asking from trouble from these thugs. They will be the worst behaved citizens at the scene of any "crime." Most black folks will tell you this. In my opinion, Gates lost it with the worst possible entity he could have chosen: a cop.

If Professor Gates really cared about his friend, President Obama, he would not have thrown that hissy-fit and got himself arrested.

And you know what? Anyone can be a jerk, I can, you can, even Professor Gates can.

Or is that impossible?