The “Professor Gates Incident” happened approximately two weeks ago. Since that time, it seems everyone has expressed an opinion,including President Obama who said “The Police Officer acted stupidly.” He then offered to have a beer with the Professor and Officer Crowley. I don’t know, nor do I care what happened during this meeting of the President, Professor and Policeman – no, this isn’t a bad bar joke; or is it?
In case you haven’t heard, Professor Gates had just returned home after a trip and had trouble opening his front door. A neighbor called 911 reporting a suspected burglary. Professor Gates was able to open his door and was in his house when the Police arrived. After it was determined that Professor Gates was lawfully in the house, the call should have been over. However, Professor Gates was arrested for speaking his mind about the intentions of the Officer, and was promptly arrested for “disorderly conduct”; the catch-all law police use when they can’t arrest you for anything else.
It has become more obvious over the last several years that police are no longer interested in carrying out a duty to “protect and serve”; instead, they are more interested in making arrests. Anyone who doesn’t believe this to be true should ask the crew of the Motorhome Diaries about their trip through Jones County, Mississippi.
But, I digress. This incident involving Professor Gates has brought up the topic of “racism”, simply because the Professor happens to be an “African American” and the Police Officer happens to be “white”. I do not pretend to know if Officer Crowley arrested Professor Gates because he’s “racist”; but I do know that if the roles were reversed and a “white” professor was arrested – for the non-crime of disorderly conduct following an alleged burglary of his own house – by an “African-American” Police Officer the story wouldn’t have made the national news, much less brought up the issue of alleged racism.
This incident is nothing more than an overzealous police officer looking for an excuse to make an arrest. It is not a crime, to my knowledge, to question the “authorities” when they claim you’ve committed a crime against yourself in your own home; which is exactly what Professor Gate did. Although I don’t condone his allegations of “racism”, I empathize with him concerning the original complaint of burglarizing his own house; as 3 years ago I was alleged to have committed the same “crime”. However, in my case, I saw people walking across my front porch, curious, I opened my front door to find a police officer holding a cocked pistol inches from my face with a command to “drop the radio”. I immediately explained I lived in the apartment, showed ID and the incident was over. This is how the “Professor Gates Incident” should have ended; however, some Police Officers will find an excuse to make an arrest regardless of whether a crime has been committed, or not.