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Henry Louis Gates Arrest: Charges Dropped Against Harvard Prof.
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by NowPublic Staff | July 20, 2009 at 01:36 pm
593 views | 22 Recommendations | 1 comment
Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates Jr., noted author, commentator and Harvard professor, was charged with disorderly conduct outside his Cambridge, MA home.
Police arrived on the scene after receiving a report of a man trying to pry open the front door of a building. Skip Gates claims that he had locked himself out of his own house and was trying to get back inside. The African-American Harvard professor then accused the officer of racism, telling police that "they had no idea who they were dealing with."
Henry Louis Gates was reportedly in his home when police arrived. Despite producing a driver's license with his home address on it as well as a Harvard identification card, Skip Gates was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours.
Skip Gates is not the first African-American Harvard professor arrested by Cambridge police. S. Allen Counter was once wrongly pulled over by local police. Counter suggests that the Henry Louis Gates arrest may be part of a pattern.
“This is very disturbing that this could happen to anyone, and not just to a person of such distinction,” Counter said. “He was just shocked that this had happened, at 12:44 in the afternoon, in broad daylight. It brings up the question of whether black males are being targeted by Cambridge police for harassment.”
Update: Local prosecutors say that are dropping a charge against Henry Louis Gates after Cambridge recommended that the matter not be pursued.
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Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
A. Tran
New York, New York, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 10:23 on July 23rd, 2009
He an I.D. which checked out, he's in or close to his home and he's old and uses a cane. Whatever he did, whether he yelled or cursed, common sense and a sense of compassion should have kicked in and he shouldn't have been arrested. If the police claim what they did is not based on racial profiling, it is at least sheer stupidity and for that they should apologize.