Don't think I didn't notice your dishonest editing of what Gates said. You actually went out of your way to take out the words (see the elipsis in the quote) that prove you wrong, which shows your intent to deceive us about what Gates said about his arrest.

"But really it’s not about me—it’s that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior.
He didn’t follow proper police procedure! You can’t just presume I’m guilty and arrest me. He’s supposed to ask me if I need help. He just presumed that I was guilty, and he presumed that I was guilty because I was black. There was no doubt about that."

Some keep insisting Crowley lied in his report. Where??? That is only their opinion. There is NO PROOF of that whatsoever.

The person (that would be the 911 caller) denies ever telling Crowley the things he said she told him.

If Crowley is stating things were said which weren't said then he would be lieing. That's pretty straight forward.

Wonder away.
It didn't happen like that, so what is the point of 'what if'?

We'll also never know what would have happened had Dr. Gates been white, another given. Dr. Gates sees none of this happening had he been a white person. I see none of this happening had Officer Crowley been a black person. And herein lies the rub.

No, we KNOW that Gates didn't break any laws, which is why he isn't being charged with any crimes

Gates' said he was being falsely arrested, and so did his lawyer

Neither of them have said that. You seem to see things that aren't there, while not seeing what is

August 1, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Anger Has Its Place
By BOB HERBERT
Cambridge, Mass.

No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and the awful clamping of handcuffs on the wrists of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be led off to jail by 12:51.

The charge: angry while black.

The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.

I have nothing but contempt for that message.

Mr. Gates is a friend, and I was selected some months ago to receive an award from an institute that he runs at Harvard. I made no attempt to speak to him while researching this column.

The very first lesson that should be drawn from the encounter between Mr. Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, is that Professor Gates did absolutely nothing wrong. He did not swear at the officer or threaten him. He was never a danger to anyone. At worst, if you believe the police report, he yelled at Sergeant Crowley. He demanded to know if he was being treated the way he was being treated because he was black.

You can yell at a cop in America. This is not Iran. And if some people don’t like what you’re saying, too bad. You can even be wrong in what you are saying. There is no law against that. It is not an offense for which you are supposed to be arrested.

That’s a lesson that should have emerged clearly from this contretemps.

It was the police officer, Sergeant Crowley, who did something wrong in this instance. He arrested a man who had already demonstrated to the officer’s satisfaction that he was in his own home and had been minding his own business, bothering no one. Sergeant Crowley arrested Professor Gates and had him paraded off to jail for no good reason, and that brings us to the most important lesson to be drawn from this case. Black people are constantly being stopped, searched, harassed, publicly humiliated, assaulted, arrested and sometimes killed by police officers in this country for no good reason.

New York City cops make upwards of a half-million stops of private citizens each year, questioning and frequently frisking these men, women and children. The overwhelming majority of those stopped are black or Latino, and the overwhelming majority are innocent of any wrongdoing. A true “teachable moment” would focus a spotlight on such outrages and the urgent need to stop them.

But this country is not interested in that.

I wrote a number of columns about the arrests of more than 30 black and Hispanic youngsters — male and female — who were doing nothing more than walking peacefully down a quiet street in Brooklyn in broad daylight in the spring of 2007. The kids had to hire lawyers and fight the case for nearly two frustrating years before the charges were dropped and a settlement for their outlandish arrests worked out.

Black people need to roar out their anger at such treatment, lift up their voices and demand change. Anyone counseling a less militant approach is counseling self-defeat. As of mid-2008, there were 4,777 black men imprisoned in America for every 100,000 black men in the population. By comparison, there were only 727 white male inmates per 100,000 white men.

While whites use illegal drugs at substantially higher percentages than blacks, black men are sent to prison on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men.

Most whites do not want to hear about racial problems, and President Obama would rather walk through fire than spend his time dealing with them. We’re never going to have a serious national conversation about race. So that leaves it up to ordinary black Americans to rant and to rave, to demonstrate and to lobby, to march and confront and to sue and generally do whatever is necessary to stop a continuing and deeply racist criminal justice outrage.

The author of this article seems to know what he is talking about.

Much of what this author has to say is true for any number of black persons in America and other races, but this author is also biased...

Here is an interesting perspective on this whole mess;

Except for the missing facts I feel Bob Herbert wrote a nice editorial testimony on his colleague and friend Professor Gates' incident.

The fact that the author is a friend/acquaintance of Dr. Gates does not negate
the truth of what he wrote. The two are mutually exclusive.

nevertheless it lacks quite a few known facts from the police reports,
various neighborhood witnesses and Professor Gates himself.

Black people need to roar out their anger at such treatment, lift up their voices and demand change.

He demanded to know if he was being treated the way he was being treated because he was black.

The bigots don't want to talk about how the racist cops arrested a black man who committed no crime.

The bigots don't want to talk about how the racist cops arrested a black man who committed no crime.
I bet they were just as happy when the govt killed Randy Weaver, and think he got what he deserved

And the apologists want to believe that every Police Officer is a racist and that every arrested Black person is innocent, and arrested solely on the basis of race.

Try a dose or reality.

nevertheless it lacks quite a few known facts from the police reports,
various neighborhood witnesses and Professor Gates himself. (from post 867)
This article is not a report--if the reader misses that salient fact, then the entire point Bob Herbert is making, is lost. said by geeleebee

Nicely written editorial, nevertheless it lacks quite a few known facts from the police reports, various neighborhood witnesses and Professor Gates himself. (from 867)

He just presumed that I was guilty, and he presumed that I was guilty because I was black. There was no doubt about that."

The fact that Gates and Herbert and friends and much of their life is a cause (not a bad cause) points to the fact that they can both be over-zealous, as a number of people can be when they have a cause. Not every black man is treated poorly just because many are. Not every cop is a racist because some are. Often those who cry racism are racists themselves.

Often those who cry racism are racists themselves.

I feel Sgt Crowley did not treat Gates in a racial attitude or manner

Who is asserting that every Black man is treated poorly?

So, feel as much as you want, but I would be asking questions about what happened inside that house: Why did Gates become so upset? Did Crowley say or do anything to cause Gates' reaction? Did Gates feel disrespected in his own home?, etc...