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Professor's arrest riles African-Americans

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-22 08:24

BOSTON: Police responding to a call about "two black males" breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there - Henry Louis Gates Jr, the pre-eminent African-American studies scholar.

Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

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Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry".

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest on Monday.

Gates - the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research - initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police. He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior". He was released later that day on his own recognizance.

Gates referred calls to his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree.

Ogletree declined to say whether he believed the incident was racially motivated, saying: "I think the incident speaks for itself."

AP