The charges have been dropped against Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the Harvard professor and distinguished African American intellectual for disorderly conduct who was arrested for attempting to open his front door which was jammed when he returned home from a trip to China. Its the right decision but before we get to it I would like to discuss an article by Jesse Washington of the Associated Press on the arrest. He wrote a good article bringing up many of the issues involved in the incident.

As Washington pointed out

The police report said that Gates yelled at the officer, refused to calm down and behaved in a “tumultuous” manner.

But if a police officer cannot deal with a man who yells at the officer and behaves in a tumultuous manner then he should not be a police officer. Even if the man calls him a racist. If you think this would have happened to Lawrence Tribe or any other distinguished white member of the Harvard faculty, I have a bridge to sell you. In fact it would not have happened to any white professor at Harvard if he or she showed a Harvard faculty ID along with a driver’s license when asked for ID by a police officer.

Washington rightly points out that it is hard to prove police profiling. That’s true. It not only that African Americans are arrested for crimes they did not commit, but police have discretion in who they arrest and all too often what they will ignore in a white person they will arrest in an African American. For example the police will ignore it when a white person jay walks but they may stop the African American. Not only will they stop the African American but they will find an excuse to search the African American. While the white person who left rear light is out will often not be stopped, the African American will be stopped and everyone in the car will be forced out of the car, told to lean up against the wall and be searched. The officer won’t say he/she is doing it because there are African Americans in the car. Rather the officer will point out that it was a bad neighborhood or that the officers were outnumbered by the passengers in the car and they were doing it for officer safety. Even if the white is stopped they certainly won’t be searched at gunpoint. Thus if the white person has drugs or weapons on him no one will know but the passenger and driver in the African American’s vehicle will be arrested on felony charges.

Yes the charges against Gates should be dismissed. But the problem is the millions of other African American men who are not distinguished Harvard professors who get arrested, thrown in jail, denied bail and get convicted following bad searches or on trivial charges, and as a result lose their families or cannot get jobs.

Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates, Jr. attempted to enter his house after the door lock jammed. As he tried to get into his house someone called the police and reported an attempted break-in. By the time the police came Gates was in his house. He showed them his driver’s license and his Harvard ID. Despite this they arrested him for “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior” after he called the police office who was trying to arrest him for breaking into his own house a racist.

Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, is one of the most distinguished professors at Harvard. He is the Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor. He is the recipient of almost 50 honorary degrees and numerous academic and social action awards. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1981 and was listed in Time among its “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997. In January 2008, he co-founded The Root. In 2002 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Gates for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities.Gates has been the recipient of nearly 50 honorary degrees and numerous academic and social action awards. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1981 and was listed in Time among its “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997. On October 23, 2006. In 2002 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Gates for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities.

Gates’ arrested has started a debate about racial profiling. Here is the pre-eminent African-American scholar trying to open the jammed door to his upper class house arrested after he shows identification in response to a burglary report. I cannot imagine this happening to a White professor, This is not a post racial society. Rather it is a society where African Americans and Latinos continue to get the short end of the stick. You can go into any criminal courtroom in this country and you will note that the percentage of minorities being charged with crime exceeds by a significant percentage the percentage of minorities in the community.