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Black scholar accuses police of racism after being arrested trying to break into home
Telegraph UK ^ | 7/21/09

Posted on 07/21/2009 8:02:38 AM PDT by FromLori

Henry Louis Gates Jr, America's most famous black scholar, has accused local police of racism after he was arrested while trying to break into his own home near Harvard University.

According to a police report, officers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were called to the house on Thursday afternoon after a woman said she had seen a man "wedging his shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open".

According to police, an officer ordered the man to identify himself and Prof Gates refused.

He allegedly began calling the officer a racist, repeatedly saying: "This is what happens to black men in America." Officers said they tried to calm down the 58-year-old academic only for him to tell them: "You don't know who you're messing with." Prof Gates, who was named as one of the 25 most influential Americans by Time magazine in 1997, was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behaviour". He was released later that day and is due to appear in court next month. He is the director of Harvard University's WEB du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blacks; crime; gates; harvard; henrygates; mrskippy; professor; racism; racist
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To: ml/nj

seems he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge.....not a burglary. hmm.


121 posted on 07/21/2009 3:46:39 PM PDT by tioga
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To: Captain Kirk
We diagree. I want a society where the police act can't like Cossacks who can't be questioned or challenged.

I don't know that we disagree as much as you might think.

I didn't say the police should be able to summarily arrest anyone who disagrees with them. But the fact is, if you misbehave sufficiently in the presence of a police officer, or if you challenge the officer's authority, you're likely to get arrested. Some places quicker than others, but I can't think of any jurisdiction in America where that's not the case.

If you know anything about the rest of the world, that's still a lot better than it is in most other countries. I don't know how much longer we'll be ahead of other places, but for now, for the most part, we still are.

122 posted on 07/21/2009 4:34:40 PM PDT by john in springfield (One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe such things.No ordinary man could be such a fool.)
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To: Felis_irritable
As a literary theorist and critic, meanwhile, Gates has combined literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions;...

As Gene Shepherd would say: "It's a senseless farrago".

123 posted on 07/21/2009 4:41:22 PM PDT by Stentor (Looking forward to my government mandated future death planning interview.)
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To: BradyLS
As I understand, the arrest came after Gates followed the officer to his car—on a public street—still raising a fuss. That got him the arrest for disorderly conduct.

Since when can't a free American citizen, "raise a fuss" to government officials without being arrested? Nobody here has claimed he was violent. This isn't the Soviet Union (or at least that was once the case)

124 posted on 07/21/2009 4:45:57 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: john in springfield
I didn't say the police should be able to summarily arrest anyone who disagrees with them. But the fact is, if you misbehave sufficiently in the presence of a police officer, or if you challenge the officer's authority, you're likely to get arrested. Some places quicker than others, but I can't think of any jurisdiction in America where that's not the case.

Misbehave? Define please. He was upset. He had returned from a long trip to find his house broken into and finds the police were accusing him rather than looking for the perp. I might be pretty pissed too. Unless you can show me that he was violent, once Gates proved his identity (as he did) the cop should have simply walked away not put him in handcuffs!

125 posted on 07/21/2009 4:49:29 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: ml/nj

C’mon...what misuse of (police) authority? They answered a B&E call and asked him for ID. Whatever his color, they would have done the same. He at first refused, because he has a PERMANENT chip on his shoulder. He was looking for trouble...it was Gates who looks like the a-hole here, not the cop, IMO.


126 posted on 07/21/2009 5:03:03 PM PDT by Pharmboy (Who ever thought we would long for the days of the Clinton administration...)
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To: Niuhuru
There are times like this when I wish the Chinese would run our justice (or at least police) system and show this pig a thing or two about respecting your officer of the law.

Or at least Singapore. He'd have that chip knocked off his shoulder rather quickly.

127 posted on 07/21/2009 5:27:44 PM PDT by denydenydeny ("I'm sure this goes against everything you've been taught, but right and wrong do exist"-Dr House)
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To: FromLori; LucyT

http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/dubois/?page_id=860

Du Bois: A Chronology

1868 Born, February 23rd, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

1880-1884 Attends Great Barrington High School; Western Massachusetts Correspondent for the New York Age, the New York Globe and the Springfield Republican; graduates as class valedictorian.

1885-1888 Attends Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; teaches in rural school districts during the summers; editor of the Fisk Herald; receives B.A. in 1888.

1888-1890 Enters Harvard as a junior and receives B.A., graduating cum laude.

1890-1892 Begins graduate study at Harvard.

1892-1894 Studies at the University of Berlin with a fellowship from the Slater Fund.

1894-1896 Teaches Latin and Greek at Wilberforce University in Ohio; marries Nina Gomer.

1896 Receives Ph.D. from Harvard; his dissertation “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade” is published by Harvard University Press.

1896-1897 Instructor of Sociology, the University of Pennsylvania; publishes The Philadelphia Negro.

1897-1910 Teaches history and economics, Atlanta University; initiates the Atlanta University Studies.

1903 Publishes The Souls of Black Folk.

1905-1909 Founder and General Secretary of The Niagara Movement.

1910-1934 Director of Publicity and Research, Member Board of Directors, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1910-1934 Founder and Editor of The Crisis, monthly magazine of the NAACP.

1919 Calls Pan-African Congress in Paris.

1920 Receives the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.

1923 Special Ambassador Representing the United States at the inauguration of President King of Liberia.

1934 Resigns from the NAACP.

1934-1944 Returns to Atlanta University as Head, Department of Sociology; publishes Black Reconstruction.

1944-48 Returns to NAACP as Director of Publicity and Research.

1945 Attends founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco as representative of the NAACP.

1948 Co-chairman, Council on African Affairs.

1950 Chairman, Peace Information Center in New York City; candidate for U.S. Senate for New York Progressive Party. Wife, Nina Gomer Du Bois, dies and is buried in Great Barrington.

1951 Indictment, trial, and acquittal of subversive activities charges brought against him by the Justice Department; marries Shirley Graham.

1951-1959 Extensive speaking, writing, and international travel; wins Lenin Peace Prize in 1958.

1961 Becomes member of the Communist Party, U.S.A. Invited to Ghana by President Kwame Nkrumah to edit the Encyclopedia Africana.

1963 Becomes citizen of Ghana. Dies on August 27th and is buried with a state funeral in Accra. Du Bois’s death is announced by Roy Wilkins of the NAACP as the March on Washington begins on August 28th.

OBAMA THE AFRICAN COLONIAL

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278969/posts


128 posted on 07/21/2009 5:35:06 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks; null and void; stockpirate; george76; PhilDragoo; Candor7; BP2; MeekOneGOP; ...
Du Bois: A Chronology

This is important.

Who was W.E.B. DuBois?

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced /duːˈbɔɪs/ doo-BOYSS)

(February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor.

At the age of 95, in 1963, he became a naturalized citizen of Ghana.

See Fred Nerk's # 128.

And here is part of a FRmail that arrived today on the same subject:

I am an historian. I use the past to understand the present and predict the future.

To me, the behaviour of (0bama) is rooted in white hatred fostered by Du Bois - going back all the way to his founding of the NAACP.

Du Bois is shown on the website linked with all his heroes...Mao Tze Tung...and he didn’t get a Lenin Peace Prize for nothing.

Nkrumah studied in the US. He was there at the same time as Kenyetta. Nkrumah also studied at the Lamumba University in Russia.

Die-hard marxists. All of them. Hiding behind racial equallity. BS.

129 posted on 07/21/2009 6:25:20 PM PDT by LucyT
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Jomo Kenyatta:

http://www.answers.com/topic/jomo-kenyatta


130 posted on 07/21/2009 6:25:50 PM PDT by LucyT
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To: ml/nj
This photo from the scene provides some context. Somehow the whole story about racist behavior by the police seems a little less credible when you look at who was really there, and who appears to be yelling.


131 posted on 07/21/2009 7:27:31 PM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: LucyT

“Die-hard marxists”
~~~
Roger Dat!...


132 posted on 07/21/2009 7:58:56 PM PDT by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: FromLori

Rubbish. The chap was in his own home, showed ID, and the asked for the Cops name and badge number and ID. THAT was when he was arrested. I dont agree with his race card agenda, but hey, if youre going to come stomping into my home, and demanding my ID, I sure as hell wouldnt mind seeing yours too!

Unfortunately too many cops are in the “Im the law, and you do as I say” mode, and forget that they are public servants.


133 posted on 07/22/2009 12:28:22 AM PDT by ketelone
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To: freeandfreezing

That being said, that black cop looks like hes pretty sick of Mr. Gates as well.


134 posted on 07/22/2009 12:36:10 AM PDT by ketelone
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To: freeandfreezing
I guess you would like being handcuffed and led away from your own home for no apparent reason. You realize that this is AFTER he showed the Cambridge Polizei identification that proved that he lived in the house he is being led out of. Nearly 70 years ago relatives of mine were similarly led away from their homes. I understand that they went quietly. You would have been pleased.

ML/NJ

135 posted on 07/22/2009 4:38:27 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: BradyLS
As I understand, the arrest came after Gates followed the officer to his car—on a public street—still raising a fuss. That got him the arrest for disorderly conduct.

The picture at #131 should cause you to change this "understanding."

ML/NJ

136 posted on 07/22/2009 5:05:42 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj
I guess you would like being handcuffed and led away from your own home for no apparent reason. You realize that this is AFTER he showed the Cambridge Polizei identification that proved that he lived in the house he is being led out of. Nearly 70 years ago relatives of mine were similarly led away from their homes. I understand that they went quietly. You would have been pleased.

The above has to be one of the stupidest and most offensive replies I have ever seen posted.

You obviously have some bias against police officers which is clouding your judgement. You are also crazy if you think there is any connection between the actions of people in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- what may be the most liberal city in the USA -- and the actions of evil fascists(which is what I presume you are referring to "70 years ago").

I have had first hand experience with the Cambridge police department, and in fact have been present on two occasions where I called them to report what appeared to be a break-in in progress. In one instance they entered the premises with their firearms drawn. In the other I was walking with them into the building when I heard holster snaps being released behind me, and decided to move to the back of the group since I was unarmed.

In the first instance they emerged with a very nervous looking plumber, with cuffs on - who I knew, but didn't know had been given the key to work in the neighboring apartment. I vouched for him, and they released him, with profuse apologies.

By contrast, Prof. Gates got treated with kid gloves. I'm sure if he hadn't been yelling up a storm at the police officers that nothing at all would have happened. He wasn't handcuffed for "no apparent reason". You can see the reason in the photograph -- no need to even believe or not believe the statements of the various parties.

I have also seen police officers in Cambridge MA do things that they shouldn't. But your view on the situation with Prof. Gates' arrest is simply wrong. Based on my own first hand experience, if anything, Gates received preferential treatment in the initial encounter - perhaps because of his age, or his race, or the fact that he looks more like a Harvard professor than a burglar.

He got arrested because he hollered so much and created a disturbance. His statements that he was just trying to get the officer to identify himself and give his badge number is ridiculous -- you can get that information by just looking at the police in Cambridge. Also, as news reports noted, the Cambridge police called the Harvard University police to the scene. Perhaps you don't understand the significance of that.

Harvard is a very powerful institution in Cambridge. They have their own police department - not just a bunch of private security guys like many smaller colleges. In general, the Harvard police act as advocates for Harvard students and staff who have problems off campus. If the Cambridge police were trying to pick on some guy why would they call his employer's own police force to the scene? I can assure you that the Harvard University police on the scene would have no trouble getting the names, badge numbers, and whatever else they wanted from the Cambridge police whenever they wanted it.

137 posted on 07/22/2009 6:30:56 AM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: denydenydeny

Yep. In fact, I rememebr how that punk was flogged for vandalism. I am really getting disgusted with our system that lets jerks like him get away with this stuff.


138 posted on 07/22/2009 8:02:40 AM PDT by Niuhuru (The internet is the digital AIDS; adapting and successfully destroying the MSM host.)
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To: FromLori

There are different versions of this incident covered in different sources. This news piece on Fox says that Gates complied with police requests and produced ID.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534203,00.html

Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct for the yelling at the officer.


139 posted on 07/22/2009 10:16:17 AM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: jtal

Where did you getthe idea he “followed them into the front yard”? Even the police have a different set of fats. Gates was in his house and the officer ordered him onto the porch. Gates did not want to comply and asked for the officer’s badge number. He was then brought onto the front porch and handcuffed. Being brought out is not the same as following. He certainly was yelling as they cuffed him, though. No dispute about that.


140 posted on 07/22/2009 10:18:52 AM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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