Racial profiling near Harvard...

[curmugeon]

I guess that even in Massachusetts if you are black you don't belong. Racial profiling is alive and well  in the neighborhoods around Harvard.  Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested in front of his house for disorderly conduct by the local police when he questioned why he was being harassed in his own home after providing ample evidence that he did, indeed, live there. And you thought racism was a 'southern thing'. No, it is alive and well in the neighborhoods of the affluent, in the neighborhoods surrounding academia, in one of the spots where we started this revolution and gave birth to this great land. Shame on Officer Crowley. Just because he wears a badge doesn't mean that a black man has to bow down to his 'authority', it means he is just another racist cop (there are a lot of them out there). Cambridge Police need to be a bit less afraid of black people and drop some of the stereotypes from their minds. The whole world is now watching Cambridge Massachusetts

Comments

[djdig.livejournal.com]

As an MA resident, I have to say, everyone I've talked to lately is pretty embarased by this.

Boston Globe's Miss Conduct tweeted, "If anyone creates a Facebook fan page for "I WANT #SkipGates to Break Into My House and Would Fix Him a Nice Cup Tea," I'm joining."

Yeah, well....

[flyvapnet.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm swimming against the current on this one, but I live in a poor part of the city. As I understand it, a neighbor contacted police to report a break-in; the police responded; the guy who was "breaking in" lived there and showed identification. Beyond that, things get a bit hazy in the journalistic reports - perhaps deliberately so.

If I witness what appears to be a break-in, should I not contact police? If I do contact them, should they then not ask for a description of the suspicious person or persons? If I describe the suspicious person as a black man, should the police then refuse to respond?

Let's all try it that way and see if we end up being satisfied with the results. To me, this is just another example of political correctness trumping public safety. If somebody mouths off to the police, more police will arrive. That's how it works, folks! If the derision continues, the person with the loud mouth is apt to be arrested.

But we know the correct reaction to all this: a black man was being discriminated against because of his race. Right. It seems to me he was arrested because he was a loudmouthed jerk who hurled insults at the police and privately wanted to create a media event. He certainly succeeded!

=^..^=