Professor Gates and Officer Crowley and President Obama

No need to rehearse what "actually" happened, as I was not there. And, to be sure, very few academics who deal with African American studies will want to comment on this in a signed post. I don't know Prof. Gates personally, but I sure know people he knows, and he may very well know (at least) my name. (It's Paul S. Landau.) But I can't resist. So here goes. After all, if President Obama is calling for a conversation, let's not shirk our duties. So I will make a few points -- five in all -- that I think may well escape the mainstream media.

Some preliminaries. All police officers "profile." They profile for race, class, gender, and age. And less tangible traits. Anyone who thinks otherwise is dreaming. I'm not supporting it. That is just the way it is.

Moreover -- and this is a separate point -- all witnesses tell police the race of the people they are reporting if they think they can judge it and they think they are seeing a crime. Just as they would any other "distinguishing features." In my own experience, cops ask this question themselves if it is left unsaid. What victim of a real crime, of any background, could seriously suggest leaving out the race of a suspect in talking to the police, if there is any doubt about it (i.e. we are not in Wasilla)?

Now to my five points.

1. Any male who was young once knows that the police can turn on you even if you call 911 for them. Being white and middle class means being able to "grow out" of this position. If the police are called, and you are an eighteen year old in jeans, and you are not ultra courteous, watch out. I was raised on the upper west side of Manhattan, on 96th street. When the cops came, one kept your head down. On the way to growing up, I was mugged or held up at knifepoint fifteen times by my count. The few times I called the cops, they were likely to tell me to "shut up" while they "did their jobs." If you interrupted them you risked becoming the object of their wrath. Telling a cop off? Saying "Your mama"? Forget about it. You're buying a ticket to the station house.

Now, today, I am 46 years old, so I am a white middle class man, not a white kid. And if I am wearing a suit and tie, and upset about something, and talking to a cop -- this has happened two or three times in my life -- nowadays, the cop is likely to be indulgent and calm. But I still recall the other tone of voice, which meant, if you do not calm down, I can haul your assoff in a heartbeat. Once an officer said as much, to me, as I was relating why the police needed to intervene in an ongoing child abuse situation next door to me in Brooklyn. "YOU calm down." I am sure others have similar memories.

So here is my first point. Being black in America, as far as policemen are concerned, means never being able to graduate to that status that white people all assume. Professor Gates is a black man in America and was treated like a black man in America, not like a 58 year old white man, and not (for sure) like a Harvard professor.

2. Now let's do a thought experiment. Let's pretend Officer Crowley had asked Professor Gates to come out of his house, and Gates had refused, and Officer Crowley, observing Professor Gates' bags, his demeanor, his apparent familiarity with the house, his attitude, his explanation that he had been pushing at his door, -- had divined that this was indeed the professor's home, and simply left. He might have reasoned: "Well, this is his home. It's that simple."

Now suppose that the two black men reported to have been pushing into the home had in fact been robbers who had just happened to arrive before Professor Gates got back from the airport. Suppose they had jammed the door. Suppose they were inside the house, upstairs, caught unawares by the arrival of Gates and Crowley at the front door.

Suppose after Crowley left, they had jumped Professor Gates and killed him.

What would Officer Crowley been able to say in his defense?

Proper protocol in similar cases is for the officer to inspect the house to make sure no one had broken in.

Would Officer Crowley have been able to say, "Professor Gates is black, and the reported intruders were black, so it was natural to assume they were the same people"? No. Would he have been able to say, "Professor Gates is an important man, and made a lot of noise, so I thought it best to leave"? No.

4. Suppose Professor Gates were white, and had (against probability) been reported by a witness as a possible b&e at a residence. Suppose he had lost his temper and refused to obey the cop. Suppose he had mentioned the cop's mother.

Should the officer smile and put away his cuffs, stroll back to his squad car, and say, "Well, he's white, so he's probably okay?"

5. Finally the human dimension must be considered here. Professor Gates is a man of whom much is expected, on a daily and even hourly basis. He lives in that peculiar high-pressure world reserved for very prominent academics of color. His every move is scrutinized. He was just returning from a work-related journey in a foreign country. He was tired. Professor Gates was not surrounded by aids or family, but was traveling alone. He had no helper save his cab driver. Now for the first time in a long while he was inside his home, his castle, protected by the sanctity of privacy.

Let's go a bit further. Note that Professor Gates has had hip replacement surgery, and walks with a cane. He had just spend twelve or fourteen hours on an airplane -- coming back from China -- and had then waited for his baggage. He may well have been insomniac and uncomfortable on the plane. He may even have been in physical pain. Hell, I have been in pain after a similar a flight from Africa.

Please imagine being him for a moment. Imagine coming up to your door and finding you could not get the key to work, the frame had swollen, the thing would not open. You can't get in. You ache. Finally, you get inside your house.

Now imagine that a police officer comes to your door and demands you step outside, acting like you are an intruder in your own home.

Imagine that he does not accept your Harvard ID, that he demands you speak to him respectfully, that he demands further identification, that he takes out a pair of handcuffs. He's not treating you like a middle aged white man, he's treating you like a youth; he's not treating you like a black Harvard professor, he's treating you like . . .

like a black man is in fact so often treated in America.