[lbo-talk] Black scholar arrest angers Obama

C. G. Estabrook galliher at illinois.edu
Sat Aug 1 18:51:01 PDT 2009


[I spent the past week in Cambridge (MA), and -- sitting in The People's Republik bar on Mass Ave -- I read a good bit on this matter, from the local tabloid to this list... The two best accounts seemed to me Ishmael Reed's "Welcome home, Skip!" and the following. --CGE]

Cambridge Cop Accidentally Arrests Henry Louis Gates

Again During White House Meeting

July 31, 2009 | Issue 45•31

WASHINGTON—Upon arriving late to his meeting with President Barack Obama and famed African-American intellectual Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge police officer James Crowley once again detained the distinguished Harvard scholar after failing to recognize the man he had arrested just two weeks earlier, White House sources reported Thursday. "When I entered the Oval Office, I observed an unidentified black male sitting near Mr. Obama, and in the interest of the president's safety, I attempted to ascertain the individual's business at the White House," Crowley said in a sworn statement following the arrest. “The suspect then became uncooperative and verbally abusive. I had no choice but to apprehend him at the scene for disorderly conduct.” Witnesses said that Sgt. Crowley, failing to recognize Gates on their flight to Logan Airport, arrested the tenured professor in midair, once again at the baggage claim, and twice during their shared cab ride back to Cambridge.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/cambridge_cop_accidentally?utm_source=a-section



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