Beware of Rabid Professors!

Okay, so far this entire story seems to be limited to local news in the Boston area and the social network accounts of indignant Black people, but I think this story might be somewhat relevant to a trend in "post-racial America". Black Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. was arrested at his own home because he was somewhat rude to a police officer. Some (very reasonable) people say that we should wait until all of the facts came to light. Then the police report was released to the public. Obviously, the officer writing the police report would not write anything unbecoming of himself, but some of the things he did write are hard to explain:

I asked Gates for photo identification so that I could verify that he resided at -- Ware Street and so that I could radio my findings to ECC. Gates initially refused, demanding that I show some identification but then did supply me with a Harvard identification card. Upon learning that Gates was affiliated with Harvard, I radioed and requested the presence of Harvard University Police.

This part of the police report made me question the police officer's objectives. If he knew that Gates did in fact live at that address, why was it necessary to involve the University's police. I wonder if the police officer wanted Gates to get in trouble with the University, perhaps endanger his employment. Gates was arrested on the charge of disorderly conduct because he "continued to yell, which drew the attention of both the police officers and citizens, who appeared surprised and alarmed by Gates's outburst" even after the officer had left the house. I wonder which drew more attention: a middle-age man yelling from his porch or multiple police cars parked in front of said man's house? Gates was allowed to go home but another Black Harvard professor claims that he too had been accosted by police.

Professor Allen Counter claims that in 2004 two Harvard police officers mistook him for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him because he could not provide identification. This incident happened in broad daylight.

This is what people are calling "post-racial" America. We have a Black president but children in Philadelphia are being denied access to swimming pools and college professors are being arrested in their own homes for "disorderly conduct". In economically and socially stressful times, we hope that we can press on for a less backwards future.

Quotes and information is courtesy of http://www.boston.com/.