Henry Louis Gates
Channel 4 reports; doesn't say if Gates and Crowley had a beer as they talked at River Gods for an hour.
The Chicago Tribune today provides the ultimate stupid tourist's guide to Cambridge. Full of helpful advice (never lick the statue of John Harvard; look both ways before you cross the street and don't worry if the locals think you're a dweeb), the story also advises you not to bother staking out Gates's house because you'll have much better luck stalking him at his favorite burger joint.
Thanks to Monique for forwarding this.
Charles Hayes is an Alaska denizen, former Dallas police officer, and author of some very thoughtful books about adult learning and lifespan development. His commentary on the Gates-Crowley incident is perhaps the most insightful I've read. Hayes ultimately concludes that Crowley erred and Gates likely committed no crime, but he does so with a calm voice. You don't have to agree with his conclusion to draw understanding from his observations. Here are some snippets, but the short essay is worth reading in its entirety: Read more
Transcript of Police Commissioner Ed Davis's statement at a news conference today on Justin Barrett's e-mail to Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham:
The Boston Police Department is committed to a standard of excellence. Our community rightly has high expectations for us. It is a standard that the community deserves and we are required to meet. Officer Barrett's actions do not comply with those expectations.
Barrett's email was racist and inflammatory. These racist opinions and feelings have no place in this department or in our society and will not be tolerated.
Barrett's comments were directed at Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates. I regret the direct insult toward Professor Gates and have personally reached out to him to apologize for this offense and inform him of the Department's immediate efforts to make this officer accountable. ...
UPDATE: Channel 25 has posted a copy of the message, which is not just racist but misogynist.
A cop who works in Area B-3 - which covers Mattapan and Dorchester - faces termination for sending out a mass e-mail in which he referred to Henry Louis Gates as "a jungle monkey," Channel 5 reports.
Justin Barrett, 36, was suspended pending a hearing on whether he should be kicked off the force. The Herald reports Commissioner Ed Davis immediately stripped Barrett - also a member of the state National Guard - of his badge and gun.
Neither outlet is reporting exactly what was in the e-mail besides the slur. The Herald says a copy was re-mailed to the Globe, which, as I type, has yet to post anything. UPDATE: The Globe finally posted something, but also doesn't explain the context.
Cambridge Police only acknowledge that after the woman's been dragged through the mud for a week - and after the woman's lawyer has a chat with the Globe.
Sure, we should treat the cops with respect and society shouldn't encourage people to be reflexively hostile to police. They have a tough job, and we should all be properly respectful of people who are doing a dangerous and necessary job for the community. But when a citizen doesn't behave well, if not illegally, as will happen in a free society, it is incumbent upon the police, the ones with the tasers and the handcuffs and the guns, to exercise discretion wisely and professionally. And when they don't, we shouldn't make excuses for them.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Via Kisrael.com
Also, further proof of just how wonderful the Interwebs are comes when you look at how quickly somebody registered a domain name based on the incident.
So why is bostonherald.com like a good pillow?
It's down.
Defenders of Crowley seem to want to fall in line with an assumption that police authority is legitimate (or at least insurmountable) irrespective of law;
Defenders of Gates seem to want to see the practical application of police authority be bound by the relevant law.
-Hmmm.
What's your take?
Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said this afternoon the city is setting up a panel of "independent notable professionals" to study what happened between Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley last Thursday at Gates's Ware Street home.
Haas emphasized, however, that he stands behind Crowley and that nothing he has seen has convinced him that Crowley acted in anything less than a professional manner when he responded to a report of a possible housebreak.
"I do not believe in any way that his interactions were racially motivated," he said. He said every incident can be a learning experience and that the panel would be given full access to department records to come up with recommendations on how to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Also, the department takes great pride in its professionalism in a multiculti city and so was "deeply hurt" by Obama's comments about how stupidly it acted.
"I know what I did was right," he tells Dennis and Callahan this morning, in his most detailed comments on the case since the police report.
The Globe has a favorable portrait of CPD Sgt. James Crowley, reported by three staffers.
Note: Thursday's issue of the Globe seemed to be already up on their Web site before 1am.
Seems Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates Jr. locked himself out of his Cambridge house the other day, so he tried to break open the front door, which prompted somebody to call the police who, when Gates refused to tell them who he was or why he was breaking into the house, arrested him. Gates charges racism, possibly on the theory that simply everybody in Cambridge must know who he is.
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