Arrest of prominent professor blows up in officer's face

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a well-renowned professor at Harvard University.  After returning home from a trip he found that his front door was jammed (possibly from someone else as there had been recent break-ins in the area) and so he employed his driver from the airport to help him pry open the door.  A woman happened to see these two men trying to gain access to the apartment, and called the police to report a possible break-in.  After the police showed up, Gates ended his night by being hauled off in handcuffs for disorderly conduct and the resulting media circus and accusations of racism by the Cambridge Police Dept have come out of the woodwork. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/us/27gates.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

The NY Times had a 3 page article detailing the arrest, including the 911 phone call where apparently the woman did not factor in race, and did not state that there were two black men trying to break in to an apartment.  It was a very well-written article showing both views of the professor and of the arresting police officer.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-26-obama_N.htm

The Media Circus raged on for days, and it seemed that everyone had an opinion on the matter. Even President Obama chimed in, stating that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arrested Professor Gates, a friend of his. USA Today had an article about how this incident and all of the subsequent media reports surrounding it would be a good way to get a conversation going about race, and racial profiling in America.   

http://newsday.com/news/nation/cambridge-police-race-not-mentioned-in-911-call-1.1328978

There was an article in Newsday that mentions how race was not a factor at all in the arrest of Gates.  "Lucia Whalen placed the 911 call July 16, saying she saw two men on Gates' front porch who appeared to be trying to force open the front door." Apparently she was trying to be a good citizen by reporting the break-in as she was aware of recent ones in the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8166278.stm

By far the most interesting article I read regarding this issue was by the BBC.  Oh the good ol' BBC, always giving us articles that seem to really delve into the story.  They were perhaps the only article I read that gave us a history of racial profiling in the US.  In their story, they highlight why the arrest was such a big deal.   They also talked about the Rodney King incident in the early 1990s which ended up leading to race riots in Los Angeles. 

I wasn't there when the police showed up, but I do believe that the police were initially responding to a call about a break-in to an apartment and that their intentions were good.   That being said, after producing his ID and proving that this was his apartment, the police had no right to arrest him. I'm sorry but the last time I checked you can say FUCK YOU to a police officer and not be arrested for disorderly conduct.  I understand and I would be angered too if I was being arrested for breaking into my own house.   Should Professor Gates have not been rowdy? Maybe.   But it was his own house and he was obviously getting more and more annoyed when the officers would not tell them their names or badge numbers.  You have every right to know a police officer's name and their badge number.  I know too many people who have been threatened with arrest for merely not having an ID or talking back to an officer.  This is not a police state the last time I checked.   The police are employed to protect and to serve the people.  In my neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn I can't even count how many times I've seen people, stopped on the street simply walking about their day and thrown into the back of a police van.  Racial profiling is still a big problem in the United States today, and hopefully there can only be positive things that come from this incident.  Like President Obama said, there will hopefully be an opportunity for a national dialogue on race.