 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, was arrested for disorderly conduct after being accused of breaking and entering into his own residence in Massachusetts on Thu., July 16. Charges were dropped on Tue., July 21. Courtesy Photo
Gates, 58, director of Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, used force while attempting to open a “stuck” front door that caused Lucia Whalen, 40, of Malden, to contact police and report that two Black men with backpacks had forced entry into the home.
The police report stated that Gates refused to show identification to officers, believing his civil rights to be infringed upon. The incident, which the city and Cambridge police called “regrettable and unfortunate,” came on the heels of a rash of burglaries – three home invasions in the week before Gates’ arrest alone.
“This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances,” the statement read.
The arresting officer’s report stated that Gates started to shout as he was being arrested, “This is what happens to Black men in America!” and “You don’t know who you’re messing with!”
However, Gates said, in a release issued by his attorney Charles Ogletree, that “as Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, ‘Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,’ and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.” The charge was then, not for breaking and entering, but for “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior.”
A Piedmont, West Va., native, Gates has been a long-time critic of racism in America, particularly within intellectual spaces and acadaemia. Gates’ arrest spawned international controversy and opened old wounds in a community noticeably suspicious of Black males.
Fellow Harvard professor and neuroscientist S. Allen Counter, was stopped by Harvard’s campus police in 2004, in a similar incident of racial profiling. Counter, a 25-year faculty veteran, said he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a robbery while on his way to his office.
“We know Skip Gates to be a thoughtful and polite man,” Counter said in a university release. “This case has prompted a number of prominent African Americans in the Boston area to ask whether African American males are being targeted by the Cambridge police.”
Gates, author of such works as “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man,” “The Signifyin’ Monkey,” and “Colored People: A Memoir,” was originally scheduled for arraignment Aug. 26.
A panel commissioned by university President Drew Faust was considered earlier this year to review how its officers interact with students, faculty and staff.
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