I wasn’t in Cambridge when Harvard Professor Gates was arrested in his own home. However, while many are outraged, I tend to characterize the officer’s actions as unwise. I reserve the right to become outraged as more is learned. But, here is why I am more moderate in my views.
Even before I got a badge of my own, I would tell anyone who would listen that a police officer is just another human being who happens to have a gun and a club (or chemical spray or a Taser), and is trained in how to use them. The only thing standing between you and the receiving end of one of these enforcement aids is the officer’s self-control. Like everybody else, officers have good days and bad, and you don’t know which he is having today. Therefore, the correct behavior is to be as cooperative as possible with the aim of keeping this interaction as brief as possible and getting away with a whole skin.
It is true that if the officer abuses his authority, he/she could be fired or prosecuted. You, however, could be injured or worse. It is far better to remember everything that is said and done, then save your arguments for court.
As far as profiling goes, it has certainly existed in the past and probably persists in some pockets and individuals. That said, there is no race, age, sex, religion, physical condition, profession, economic status, or educational attainment that is either inherently criminal or inherently innocent.
I was once called to an apartment where two post-middle-aged white men had been playing cards. They got into an argument and the one in a wheel chair picked up a table knife and stabbed it deep into the thigh of the other man. The assailant was not prosecuted, because the prosecutor did not believe that a jury would convict an old man in a wheel chair. As a store detective, I saw a man on crutches steal an expensive overcoat. He was also released. While I worked for Customs, inspectors uncovered a ring of California “valley girls” that had been hired by Nigerian drug smugglers in an effort to defeat perceived profiling. I could go on. I could mention the millionaire beautician’s wife who walked into the store with her baby and proceeded to steal a stroller. Or, the UN diplomat who, when shopping with his wife and teenage daughter, stepped into the men’s department and stole a sport coat. The point is that a middle-aged black Harvard professor could be as innocent as he appears, or he could be—say--an abusive spouse, a child predator, or who knows what.
He was breaking into a house where there had been a break-in reported in the past. The officer was answering a 9-1-1 call. That is reason for questioning. Did the officer perform his duties professionally? That is one question.
Often times what an officer regards as a serious and professional tone of voice, the subject will regard as threatening and intimidating. In any situation, officers know that losing control of the encounter could be fatal. When the other person is also trying to take control, then things can escalate.
I once knew an officer who enjoyed goading suspects into fights. It was stupid behavior and I was glad when he was fired. I also know of instances where officers engaged in racial profiling—more, in my experience, from laziness than from bigotry, but the effect was the same. And, officers have lost their jobs over it.
I have also known a few African-American individuals whose stress level goes through the roof when confronted by a white police officer. These individuals do not follow my etiquette rules, but provoke and argue with the officer apparently to see how far they can push him. It’s a way of exorcising their own fears and resentment. While I can sympathize with the feelings that lead to this behavior, I have to say that it carries a high degree of risk.
And, incidentally, as almost every officer knows from experience, accusations of racism and other abuse come from guilty individuals more often than from the innocent.
So, was the professor inappropriately confrontational? That is a second question.
Even if he was, the officer should have known better than to arrest someone in his own home who had not committed an obvious crime. The academies should include the lesson that an angry person cannot be taught anything. Anger is corrosive and its own punishment. If you can’t defuse it, just walk away.
And, the professor should be aware that the next time someone breaks into his house, there won’t be a patrol car anywhere nearby.