Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home
By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009; 2:42 PM

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. cast his recent arrest in his home in Cambridge, Mass., as part of a "racial narrative" playing out in a biased criminal justice system. The professor who has spent much of his life studying race in America said he has come to feel like a case study.

"There are one million black men in jail in this country and last Thursday I was one of them," he said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post Tuesday morning. "This is outrageous and that this is how poor black men across the country are treated everyday in the criminal justice system. It's one thing to write about it, but altogether another to experience it."

He was still outraged but he said he has had time to take a step back and will now apply the scholarship that has been his life's work to the issue of race in the criminal justice system.

Gates was arrested Thursday at his home near Harvard University after trying to force open the locked front door. The charge of disorderly conduct was dropped this afternoon, the Cambridge police department said in a news release. The department called the arrest "regrettable and unfortunate."

According to the initial police report Gates accused police officers at the scene of being racist and said repeatedly, "This is what happens to black men in America."

Police came to Gates's home to investigate a possible break-in about 12:40 p.m. on Thursday. The department's report said Gates was arrested "after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior" at his home. Officers said they tried to calm Gates, who responded, "You don't know who you're messing with."

Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, has been away from his home much of the summer while working on a documentary called "Faces of America."

What follows is Gates's first public account of his arrest. He spoke to The Post in an hour-long phone interview while resting on Martha's Vineyard. Gates is a founder of the Root.com, (www.theroot.com), a Web site owned by The Washington Post Co.

Gates had been in China for a week filming his documentary when he returned. Before joining his family on vacation, he stopped by his home in a middle-class neighborhood in Cambridge's Harvard Square.

Gates described his driver, whose car service Gates uses regularly, as a large, Moroccan man. The driver brought Gates's three bags to the front door, but when the professor tried to turn the lock, it would not budge. After going around and unlocking the rear door, Gates returned to the front, which still would not open.

"I thought it had been latched from the inside by my secretary who comes to get the mail," Gates said, "but the lock had been tampered with. I said, 'Let's just push it.'"

He was wearing a blue blazer and leather shoes, he said. The driver, dressed in a black uniform, began to lean his shoulder into the door to try to force it open. They pushed for 15 minutes and got the door free. The driver then left. Gates said he would later find out that a neighbor called to report two black men wearing backpacks were breaking into his house.

Gates's home is owned by Harvard so he picked up the phone to call the university's real estate maintenance office. Before he could finish the conversation, a police officer was standing on his porch and asking him to come out of the house.

"Instinctively, I knew I was not to step outside," Gates said, describing the officer's tone as threatening. Gates said the policeman, who was in his 30s and several inches taller than him, followed him into his kitchen where Gates retrieved his identification

"I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house," Gates said. "This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering."

After handing the officer both his Harvard and Massachusetts state identification, which included his address, Gates said he began to ask the officer this question, repeatedly. "I said 'Who are you? I want your name and badge number.' I got angry."

According to Gates's account, the officer refused to give it. The police report says, however, that the officer identified himself.

"I weigh 150 lbs and I'm 5' 7''. I'm going to give flack to a big white guy with a gun. I might wolf later, but I won't wolf then."

But Gates did keep asking for the officer's name and said he began to feel humiliated when his question was ignored. He then said: "This is what happens to black men in America."

The officer left and Gates followed him outside. There were about a half-dozen police officers standing in his front yard.

"I stepped out on the porch to ask them his name," Gates said.

He was immediately arrested -- his arms pulled behind his back in handcuffs. Gates said he was in pain, explained he was disabled and needed a cane to walk. The cuffs were removed, Gates was given a cane and his hands were cuffed in front of his body.

At the station, Gates was booked and fingerprinted. His belt, wallet and cane were taken away. For a while he was handcuffed to a window in the station and other officers took his vitals: name, address, social security number.
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"I had to wait in a jail cell," Gates said. "I have mild claustrophobia. The jail cell was very claustrophobic."

But Gates did not remain in the cell long. He was taken to an interview room, where he was allowed to speak with his friend and lawyer Charles Ogletree, who also teaches at Harvard. Three other university colleagues also showed up and stayed in the interview room with Gates for four hours. He was then released on $40 bond.

"I am appalled that any American could be treated as capriciously by an individual police officer. He should look into his soul and he should apologize to me," Gates said. "If so, I will be prepared to forgive him. I think that poor people in general and black people in general are vulnerable to the whims of rogue cops, and we all have to fight to protect the weakest among us. No matter how bad it was going to get, I knew that sooner or later I would get to a phone and one of my friends would be there to help."

His next project on race, he said, will be rooted in his arrest. "I hope to make a documentary about racial profiling for PBS," he said. "[The idea] had never crossed my mind but it has now."

He said the documentary will ask: "How are people treated when they are arrested? How does the criminal justice system work? How many black and brown men and poor white men are the victims of police officers who are carrying racist thoughts?

"I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that criminal justice system is rotten."

Posted by knicks1248:

Is this a joke or has this guy been in a coma

Posted by kam77:

He wasn't arrested for being under suspicion of robbery. He was arrested for disturbing the peace.

Posted by kam77:

He wasn't arrested for being under suspicion of robbery. He was arrested for disturbing the peace.

Posted by bitty41:


After it was determined that he wasn't breaking into his own residence why was it necessary for him to be arrested?

Posted by kam77:

Mr Gates shouldn't have been aressted for throwing a hissy fit.

I agree. It's the "This is what happens to blacks in america" part i find weak. Maybe the cop wasn't anti-black but anti-intellectual college professor.

Posted by kam77:

Posted by bitty41:


After it was determined that he wasn't breaking into his own residence why was it necessary for him to be arrested?

Exactly what I'd like to know. What did he say to the cop. How did he say it? It's just like a Coach saying the magic word to a referree.

What was the cop doing other than his job for Gates to become so indignant and accusatory?

I think if anyone was getting treated like criminal in their own home they would be pretty pissed. So I don't give a damn what his tone of voice was; once his residence was established that should have been the end of story and the cop should have left.

"I was thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to show him my ID, and this guy is going to get out of my house," Gates said. "This guy had this whole narrative in his head. Black guy breaking and entering."

After handing the officer both his Harvard and Massachusetts state identification, which included his address, Gates said he began to ask the officer this question, repeatedly. "I said 'Who are you? I want your name and badge number.' I got angry."

The officer should have left after Gates handed over his ID and there is absolutely no way this should have ended with an arrest. That's his job determine if there is a break-in right if there isn't walk away.

What about the person who called the police were they not aware that a black man lived in their neighborhood?

[Edited by - bitty41 on 07-21-2009 8:29 PM]

Posted by BasketballJones:

Posted by kam77:

Posted by bitty41:


After it was determined that he wasn't breaking into his own residence why was it necessary for him to be arrested?

Exactly what I'd like to know. What did he say to the cop. How did he say it? It's just like a Coach saying the magic word to a referree.

What was the cop doing other than his job for Gates to become so indignant and accusatory?

Here's my question to you: Why didn't the cop just leave?

I've dealt with cops. The worst thing you can do around them is keep yapping.

Check this:
After handing the officer both his Harvard and Massachusetts state identification, which included his address, Gates said he began to ask the officer this question, repeatedly. "I said 'Who are you? I want your name and badge number.' I got angry."

So by his own admission, Gates "got angry" and questioned "repeatedly". At some point the cop will react just like a ref would react. He's human too.

Moral of the story: Start a scene in your own house with a cop present -- fine.
But walk outside to angrily continue the dialog? That is apparently crossing the line.
You can see the cops trying to keep him calm in the pic.

He kept it real and got burned.