Gates Incident Points to Real Issue in America

For many years African Americans have complained about unfair treatment at the hands of policemen in various communities across America. And for many years their cries of injustice fell on deaf ears.

The recent incident involving Harvard Professor Henry Gates and Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department sheds a fresh light on a problem whose existence has been denied but is very real to those who have been victims of it.

There is no denying that race played a part in the confrontation between Sergeant Crowley and Mr. Gates.

The 911 tape of the initial call to police which was played on CNN, had the voice of Sergeant Crowley asking if the suspects were Hispanic or Black, to which the caller responded "I cannot tell."

Race was introduced into the radio conversation and apparently continued to be a factor at the scene.

After being questioned and identified, Mr. Gates felt that he was continuing to be unduly probed and responded angrily. The situation quickly escalated out of control after this point, ending with the arrest of Professor Gates on his front porch.

Mr. Gates was later released but the damage had already been done.

Race profiling played a factor on both sides of this incident. Professor Gates perceived that he was being treated discriminatorily by the police officer and the police officer appeared to be judging the situation based on factors other than the facts.

Both men displayed attitudes that were prejudicial toward the other.

Racial profiling has been happening in this country for decades and it has permeated every state in the union.

It is a common occurrence for minorities, especially African Americans, to be unfairly singled out as fitting some kind of criminal or anti-social profile.

Many prominent African Americans have been victims of racial profiling.

CNN weekend anchor Don Lemon, on his show this past weekend, stated that he had been the victim of racial profiling as a young man growing up in the New Orleans area of Louisiana.

On the Tuesday edition of CNN's Larry King Live (July 28), Colin Powell revealed that he also had been the victim of racial profiling throughout his youth and into adulthood. Stephen A. Smith, former ESPN color analyst and present syndicated journalist, as a guest on Don Lemon's show, said he also was a victim of racial profiling.

Smith recalled an incident in Flint, Michigan just a few years ago, where he was pulled over and surrounded by at least eight policeman. At the time he was a well known television personality but that had no bearing on the officers.

And the list goes on.

Racial profiling is an unspoken, underlying societal issue that many Americans do not want to acknowledge exists but does and happens everyday. It has created an atmosphere of paranoia on the part of the victims who for good reason fear confrontations with the police.

I, myself, have been a victim of racial profiling, so I know how it feels and I know what goes through the mind of someone who is or has experienced it. Every time you see a police car in your rear view mirror a sick feeling begins to well up inside wondering if you are going to be pulled over.

Like many of the other people mentioned here, I have led a law-abiding life. I have never had anything more than a traffic ticket. I have always respected the police and those in authority but none of that matters when some one has pegged you as fitting a perceived threat or potential threat.

It is unfair but it happens every day.

I do not doubt that at some time in his life, Professor Gates also, has been a victim of racial profiling and it is easy to see how he might have seen this incident as another occurrence of it. The most infuriating part about it was that it appeared to be happening in his own home.

Professor Gates had just returned home from a long trip and found himself locked out of his home, a situation that would have frustrated most of us. On top of that, once he gets in his home he is confronted by the police, which he should have understood was probably going to occur if a neighbor had seen him climb through a window. What he did not understand was, why after identifying himself, he was continuing to be treated like a trespasser.

Many people would have reacted angrily as Professor Gates did if the police continued interrogating them after identifying themselves.

I would have

After finding out that Mr. Gates was the owner and resident of the home, Sergeant Crowley should have left unless he thought that someone else may have been in the house that the professor didn't know about.

This is what probably angered Mr. Gates and ended up getting him in trouble.

No matter what the reasons and no matter what the cause, racial profiling has been allowed to stay in our society because it has been treated as though it doesn't exist.

It is time that we acknowledged that it does exist and begin to start doing some thing about it.

We cannot allow racial prejudice and class oriented pre-judgments to subvert fair treatment and sound judgment.

It is time to take action to rid ourselves of this stain from the previous centuries and not drag it any further into the 21^st century.

Having an African American president gives us an opportunity to openly and honestly deal with this and other issues of injustice in American society which have been denied and left unresolved.

The fact that Professor Gates is a personal friend of President Obama provides more of an occasion to try to eliminate prejudicial attitudes toward minorities in America, not just from police but from everyone.

America can no longer hide from this issue.

It is time for us to address a condition that has existed for far too long and forever eliminate it from our society.