The Work Is Far From Over

Lawyer's Statement on the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates arrested outside his home

Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home

On July 16th, at 12:44p, a black man was arrested for trying to enter his own house. No one would know about this incident if that man had not been a Harvard professor, learned, eloquent, and with clout.

No man should endure the humiliation and degradation of being arrested on trumped up charges, let alone when the officers had little cause or explanation.

From what I have read, a neighbor called, believing two men were breaking into the professor's house. That a neighbor would not recognize the professor trying to unjam the door of his own home is aggravating. That police, after the man had already gotten the door open and called maintenance to have the door fixed, would question and harass him is annoying. To then refuse to give your name and badge number, after many requests from this man, while still demanding he give identification showing both his residence and employment at the university is hypocrisy most high. To then lure the man outside and arrest him because he called your actions what they were only proves his accusations to be right.

What those officers did was racial profiling. What they did was harassment. If they are not reprimanded, fired, and sued, what hope do all those following this case have, in a country where the president is of color, when those whose duty it is to enforce the law use it to satisfy ego and hatred?

I am sick with the knowledge of this incident. If good, hard working folks, who try their best to make this society, and the world at large, better are cast down in the mud for personal amusement and vilification, what hope does the ex-con have of reform, the poor child of success, the average person of color to just live their life in peace?

I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to hit something.

My grandfather was a cop. My uncle was a cop. My grandfather passed some years ago, but I can only imagine the feelings my uncle is going through.

This situation is what breeds anger, resentment, and frustration in our community. How can we get beyond race when it is thrown back in our face each day? How can we grow as a nation when the best of us is treated like less? How can anyone say we are "post-racial" when a black man can't even open his door without being arrested?

Update: Charges dropped against Harvard professor