U.S.: Note to Cambridge cops: Don’t arrest black Harvard professors
- My colleagues and I have asked the question of whether this kind of egregious act would have happened had Professor Gates been a white professor. We think that it has to be investigated, and we are deeply saddened by what happened.
- Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. S. Allen Counter • Regarding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard’s top African-American scholar. Gates was arrested after attempting to get inside his home, only to find the door jammed. A neighbor spotted him and his cab driver, thinking it was a break-in, and called the police. Gates, who had gotten inside by the time police came, was harassed by an officer and ultimately put in custody for a number of hours. So let this be a lesson to you: If you’re a cop in Cambridge, ten to one, a black guy trying to get into a house in a nice neighborhood is probably doing nothing wrong and someone notable enough that the New York Times will report on it. • source