Henry Louis Gates, Jr., arrested

I’ve watched several of Henry Louis Gates’s documentaries.  They’re very informative studies of African history and culture, although Gates himself comes off as a jerky American in talking to people from other countries.

That said, what happened to him last week is a pure outrage.  Is it racial?  Yes.  Is it also just because cops are dumb?  Yes. 

Here’s the facts: Gates was coming home from a trip away from the country.  He has a home on campus at Harvard.  When he got home, his door was stuck, so he and his companion tried to force the door open.  A university worker saw “two black men with backpacks” trying to force their way into the house, and called the cops.  When the cops arrived, Gates was on the phone with the property manager.  He showed them  his driver’s license and university ID.

Nevertheless, they *still* arrested him, claiming he was being “disorderly”–IN HIS OWN HOME!

As much as like the idea of liberal Harvard professors (regardless of race) going to jail, anyone concerned about civil liberties, the Police State, or human dignity should be outraged by this.

We once called the cops because a crazy neighbor threatened Mary when she was coming home from morning Mass.  The cop who came to our house refused to do anything about it, saying it wasn’t a crime for our neighbor to block our entrance to our own home.

Then he started going for his gun!!  “I just saw something upstairs!” 
I said, with a groan, “It’s the dog.”

Then there was the time at Christmas when I was pulled over by a couple cops in TN for turning around in a parking lot at midnight because I was lost in the fog.  They searched me, searched my van and held me there for like 40 minutes while they checked me on their computers. 

Or the stories out of Notre Shame about people being arrested for “disorderly” conduct for questioning the cops about the double standard regarding anti-Obama/pro-life demonstrators getting harrassed while pro-Obama demonstrators were allowed to go whereever they wanted.