Obama’s Professor from Harvard Got Arrested

The long-awaited report has finally been released. During a press conference at Cambridge Police Department, Chuck Wexler commented on the incident and said, “Racism played an important role in this arrest.” Officer James Crowley, however, denied all accusations regarding racism and said, “Racism was absolutely not a factor.” *

Wexler is the lead of a twelve-person committee that has been investigating the false arrest of a professor in Cambridge. The report they produced after working for one year on a six-minute incident was named “Missed Opportunities, Shared Responsibilities.” It looks like a typical racist arrest to me. The story, in which President Obama is also involved, is as follows:

A well known professor from Harvard, Henry Louis Gates, returns from a conference in Asia. Before heading home, he has a few drinks with a friend who picks him up from the airport. When they leave the bar, the professor asks his friend to drop him off a few blocks away from his house to get some fresh air. When he finally gets to his house, it takes him a long time to open the door.

Meanwhile, the new neighbor across the street calls the police, stating that someone is trying to break into the house. Police officer James Crowley rushes to the given address and finds the door closed, but sees the lights on inside the house. Ready to pull his gun, he rings the bell. After waiting for a short while, he breaks in and sees Henry Louis Gates. Henry is a middle aged, wise looking man, with a slightly gray beard and mustache. His only fault is being black. Crowley asks for help using his radio. After ordering him to “freeze,” he points at the bag lying on the floor and asks:

“What is in the bag?”
“My personal belongings. Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”
They continue arguing for a while, even after the additional police forces arrive.
“Whose house is this?”
“It is mine.”
“Prove it. You came to rob this house, we got a call.”
“I don’t have to prove it.” **

The officer handcuffs the professor, takes him to the police car and drives to the police department, along with the rest of the police crew. Following a few calls from Harvard, the professor is released. But it is not over yet. Officer Crowley wants the professor to be judged for offensive behavior. Professor Gates, the head of the African-American Studies department at Harvard, is a well-respected academic. He was also Barack Obama’s professor. When the president heard about the incident, he said, “...The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.” Crowley, however, did not apologize for his acts.

Gates and Crowley were invited to the Beer Summit that President Barack Obama held at the White House. They clinked their glasses in the rose garden and displayed a very friendly scene while they shook hands at the end of the day.

The report released by the independent committee claims that racism was an important factor in the false arrest of Gates. Racism has a long history in the U.S. Jeremiah Wright, a priest from Chicago who married Barack and Michelle Obama and baptized their children, has been talking about racism for years. After the priest started protesting that the black people were being used as guinea pigs for drug tests and finished his prayers cursing the USA, Obama stopped seeing him, worrying about the elections.

According to some surveys, one in every seven Americans (approximately 45 million people) hates the minorities. There are different combinations: whites don’t like blacks, blacks don’t like Latinos and so on. White people who say, “I do not have any negative feelings for black people” find it hard to answer the question “Would you want your daughter to marry a black man?”

* EDITOR'S NOTE: Other sources indicate that Wexler in fact stated, "I think race is a part of it, but I don't think it was the primary issue."

** Original quotes could not be verified.