Posted on 09/13/2009 1:07:27 AM PDT by machogirl
Panel Formed to Review Arrest of Black Professor September 11th, 2009
Saying that Cambridge wants to learn something from the arrest of Black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates by a White police officer two months ago, city officials announced Thursday that an independent panel has been formed to review the details of the case. The panel includes a dozen experts from across the United States whose insight might add meat to a comprehensive analysis of what many have called the most high-profile racial-profiling case in recent memory. Led by Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington, D.C., Police Executive Research Forum, the committee also features Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, former FBI Assistant Director Louis Quijas and Yale Law Professor Tracey Meares. “This is a historic opportunity for the city to emerge as a stronger community,” Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said in a statement. Added Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, “Cambridge wants to take away something meaningful from this process that can be helpful for the city and the nation.” Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley couldn’t have known that he would reignite a contentious – and long-burning – national debate over the way police behave with Black suspects when he arrested the preeminent African-American scholar at his own home on July 16 after answering a call to look into a suspected burglary. Within days, the image of the slightly built, disheveled-looking Gates being led from his home in handcuffs had the whole nation talking about the role that race played – or didn’t play – in the episode. Before the din died down, the duo would be sipping beers at the White House with President Obama, and all parties involved had promised to glean constructive lessons from the turmoil. Thursday’s announcement about the ad hoc panel put action behind the rhetoric. The panel will provide an “independent assessment” of the arrest and facts leading up to the arrest, Haas said, but he did not give a date for a report to be released.
why do i think that this panel is going to focus on the police officer and not mr. gates racial/police profiling?
hate to post and run, but i found this and now i’m tired :(
Lesson: Do not, Mr Gates, interfere/hinder an official investigation, and/or disturb the peace, in the presence of a police officer in MA, during the conduct and discharge of his official duty. You are, at the discretion of that officer, subject to lawful [common and statutory] arrest. You read a lot of books, Mr Gates? Try MGL’s Ignorance of the law....or wishing it to be otherwise, is no defense.
Next case.
The only panel that should be set up is to investigate Mr. Gates bogus foundation.
There’s a reason we Bay Staters call it “the People’s Republic of Cambridge”....
Only in Cambridge... and maybe Madison, Wisconsin, and Berkeley, California.
profiling, people who break into houses just might be a problem.
Chapel Hill, NC as well.
While the Gates house is only about 2 blocks from Harvard Yard, it is not in what I would consider to be a "nice" neighborhood, contrary to some reports. It is surrounded by red brick, older apartment buildings. Just one block away, there's a neighborhood that looks very seedy.
If I saw two men breaking into Gates' house in that neighborhood, I would definitely call the police.
There's nothing Cambridge can learn from the incident no matter how much money they waste trying.
I don't know about that. They'll certainly learn how to make more excuses for irresponsibility behavior. But what else is new in the bizarro world known as liberalism
They can draw up a list of people sooooo special that they're above the law - and distribute that list to police. Then when some "special citizen" is caught driving drunk, or speeding etc. and says with great haughtiness, "Don't you know who I am???" the police officer can say, "Sorry, didn't realize you were above the law - please have a nice day your most exalted superior being..."
Really that is what these puffed up phony liberals want - so why don't they just change the law and be done with it? On a "get real" note - how about a panel to look into ACORN?
How to rail-road a white...drop the race card, and call for an investigation.
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