By now, everyone has heard about Henry Louis Gates – scholar, historian, Harvard professor, author and television personality.
By now, everyone has heard about Henry Louis Gates – scholar, historian, Harvard professor, author and television personality.
Everyone knows that Gates was arrested at the home he was renting in Cambridge, Mass. Police were called because neighbors noticed someone breaking in. Even when Gates told the police officers who he was, he was arrested for disorderly conduct because, it seems, Gates pointedly and with much vigor and indignation, told the police officers who he was.
Charges were dropped, apologies were tendered, a mistake was made and aside from his bruised ego (and that YouTube video that shows just how indignant a Black man can be when he is being arrested in his own house for allegedly breaking into his own house), there is no harm-no foul.
Except, it seems, that President Barack Obama, who probably had his own views of the Cambridge police after being a student at Harvard Law, chimed in and used the “s” word when describing the actions of the police. He didn’t call the police stupid. But he said they acted “stupidly.”
My mother always told me not to make a “federal case” out of simple things, and here we have the ultimate “federal case.” The president making pronouncements on an arrest makes it a federal case, even though it was only a misdemeanor and it has already been dismissed.
It really isn’t such a big deal. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have their own ‘I got stopped by the police’ story.
Mine happened when I was 15 years old. I was running through downtown Pittsburgh trying to catch a bus. I made it to the stop in time to catch the bus, but a police van got to the bus stop before the bus, and three officers got out and told me to assume the position.
Now, I knew I had not committed a crime that day (previous days maybe), so police had no reason to detain me. But I assumed the position, legs spread, hands on the wall. They asked me why I was running, and I think I gestured to the bus. One officer then cuffed me and escorted me to the back of the wagon and pushed me inside. I sat on the metal bench, wondering what the hell was happening as the van took off and careened around a couple of corners.
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