Henry Louis Gates Jr. mulls moving over death threats

Source: Boston Herald

Monday, August 3, 2009 - Added 2h ago

CHILMARK - Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has received numerous death threats since he accused a white officer of racially profiling him in a controversial arrest last month, prompting Harvard University officials to suggest he consider moving, the professor told a crowd yesterday.

“You should die; you’re a racist,” read one e-mail that Gates recalled in his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House with President Obama and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested him July 16. The threats forced Gates to change his e-mail address and cell phone number.

<snip>

On July 25, someone posted signs outside Gates’ Ware Street home calling him “shameful” and a “racist.” Gates said he has also received bomb threats.

<snip>

Gates is planning a documentary from both the perspective of police and people who have been victims of racial profiling so “Americans can understand that you can have two equally valid perceptions of the same event.”

Read more: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090803henry_louis_gates_jr_mulls_moving_over_death_threats_calls_crowley_a_nice_guy/srvc=home&position=0

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Also:
Gates: I've received death threats

what's been said about Crowley here at DU.

Think it would make him feel better?

Or just talking trash?

big difference.

is a far cry from calling someone's cell phone.

Or emailing a cop.

It's far easier to badmouth someone from a safe distance. Everyone is courageous when blessed with anonymity.

I'd love to hear what Gates would have to say about some of the threads here regarding his situation.

I don't think there's that much of a difference - ugly is ugly, hate is hate, bias is bias, and none of it is very pretty........................

in a thread about Gates, mocking him.

This serves him right after giving the poor Jim Crow-ley such a hard time.
That's what you wanted to say, I have to guess.

There is enough crap going BOTH ways. Are you one-eyed?

how do you feel about your compatriots making such threats?

I expect we will see some arrests any day now.

law and department policy should not be "swept under the rug" for the sake of diplomacy.

This country (as evidenced by some of the posts up-thread) has reached the point where it is almost always presumed that in every dispute there are two sides who are each partially at fault. And Obama bought into that thinking with his "let's have a beer" bullshit. In fact he has based his entire administration on that basic premise (looking forward, getting along, bi-partisanship...)

Well... that might sound all warm and fuzzy, but it seldom lines up with reality. Most disputes (including political disputes) involve both predator and prey. And this is one of those times. The cop was a predator who abused his power, and Professor Gates was his prey. It's as simple as that. And it happens all over America every day.

We need to stand up and push back instead of enabling the predators all the time. That's why this country is in the toilet.

Crowley wanted to punish Gates for mouthing off to him and not complying. He abused his office and violated the law in doing just that.

We are a nation of laws, or so we claim, yet those who violated them are not held accountable and their victims continue to be victimized.

Crowley was awarded for breaking the law. How pathetic is that.

It is indeed a very difficult situation because Crawley who broke the law and wrote lies in his report has come out smelling like a rose. This stimulates crazies, racists to take henious actions... and who knows how far they'll go...on the other hand it also stimulates bad cops to act badly... see mother tasered by cops... It is a shame and a reality, there are racist /bad cops.

:toast:

it has the potential to be great.

My best wishes to both of them, and their families.

It is a great unfinished story. The potential is there for a for and amazing win win ending!

:sarcasm:

The calls could have come from any where in the state, or in the country for that matter.

are calling from Canada to threaten his life.

No American would ever do such a thing.

and catch some of those "Canadians".

They're socialists and super scary.

Need Big Fence.

And all these years I thought a passport was required to cross 128.

Seems "MassResistance" is headquartered ain Waltham although I was thinking the guy behind it's kid went to Lexington schools. And I think the Repubs have carried Charlton in most of the recent elections (Was most Red place in MA 2004?) So it could be someone from Eastrern Mass, or with GPS someone from New Hampshire, Berkshires, or even a Klansman from Maryland come to stir up trouble.

his address. They played it on the air. That's just evil.

I wonder why? :shrug:

:think: ;)

on Saturday morning. But in general, you're right, the media didn't go there.

:puke:

But people have to hear about it first.

Or, maybe NOT so funny.

The treatment of Henry Louis Gates by the Cambridge police department resonates precisely because it is such a shared experience. His arrest stings so much because it proves once again how these quiet indignities can be magnified into a life-threatening situation. Furthermore, while one knows that class privilege is no defense against the indignities of race (it often modifies these interactions but never truly deflects them), it is shocking, but not surprising, that Gates could be treated in such a fashion. He is a leading intellectual who has excelled in American life. The arrest of Gates is laden with powerful symbolism: if they can do it to "him," in his own home, what protections do the rest of "us" even have? And playing devil's advocate, if one assumes even the most generous readings of the incident at Gates' home in favor of the police officer in question, can one not reasonably assume that a White professor of Gates' demeanor and age in the same position would have been treated quite differently? Is it so absurd to assume that the police officer would have at best apologized, or at the least demurred, once the identity of the professor had been sufficiently confirmed?

The teachable moment here requires sincere and reasoned empathy: in looking at the facts of race in this case, one has to put themselves in the position of a man confronted in his own home by a police officer who has already confirmed your identity.

The discourse that has arisen surrounding the arrest of Gates is compelling because it teaches a lesson about the shadow of history and race in America. On one hand, many conservative white Americans viscerally defend the police with an appeal to "law and order" and "respect." For them, the State has almost always been an ally. To imagine the police violating their rights or treating them in a different manner because of their race is outside of their cognitive and experiential map. Also, in the ways that the police have often been enforcers of the color line, this defense of police authority is tinged with an understanding that they work protect "good," "white," "middle class" people. As some have echoed: if you are innocent you have nothing to fear from the police.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/141622/why_can%27t_we_have_a_smart_conversation_about_race/?page=entire