This is one of those stories that just makes you say "What the hell is wrong with law enforcement?"
I truly believe the majority of police officers know how to do their job and they do it well...however their is a pocket of law enforcement that is either racist, unethical, inexperienced, or exhibit no common sense whatsoever.
In the past...we have seen cops shoot and kill a black man the night before his wedding, stop a black family on their way to see a dying mother in the hospital...He actually followed them into the HOSPITAL PARKING LOT..AND REFUSED TO STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE!, even stop an ambulance that was carrying a black woman to the hospital and began verbally berating the black EMS worker. I could go on and on and on....
Now one of the most well respected scholars was arrested for going into his own HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just b/c "someone" called and said they saw 2 black men trying to break into a home! (Blank Stare) Details below:
From National News):
Prosecutors have dropped a disorderly conduct charge against prominent black Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested at his home after a reported break-in.
The city of Cambridge issued a statement Tuesday saying the arrest "was regrettable and unfortunate." The statement says the police and Gates agreed dropping the charge was a just resolution.
Supporters say Gates was the victim of racial profiling.
Police responded to the home Gates, 58, rents from Harvard on Thursday after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Gates said he returned from a trip overseas and found his front-door jammed.
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 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.
"Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him," the officer wrote.
Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com
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. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.
Gates refused to speak publicly Monday, referring calls to Ogletree.
Lawrence D. Bobo, the W.E.B Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard, said he met with Gates at the police station and described his colleague as feeling humiliated and "emotionally devastated."
"It's just deeply disappointing but also a pointed reminder that there are serious problems that we have to wrestle with," he said.
Bobo said he hoped Cambridge police would drop the charges and called on the department to use the incident to review training and screening procedures it has in place.
The Middlesex district attorney's office said it could not do so until after Gates' arraignment. The woman who reported the apparent break-in did not return a message Monday.
Gates joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious "university professors" positions at the school. He also was host of "African American Lives," a PBS show about the family histories of prominent U.S. blacks, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.
"I was obviously very concerned when I learned on Thursday about the incident," Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said in a statement. "He and I spoke directly and I have asked him to keep me apprised."
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