Henry Louis Gates Jr. mulls moving over death threats; calls Crowley ‘a nice guy’

Henry Louis Gates Jr. mulls moving over death threats
Calls Crowley ‘a nice guy’
By Susan Milton and Jessica Van Sack

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...

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. Gates said he dreamed he was arrested at the White House the night before his meeting with Obama and Crowley. He said his family and Crowley’s were “like a deer caught in headlights” upon meeting. But the two were able to use humor to break the ice, Gates said.

“I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn’t arrest me again,” Gates said.

“I said to him, ‘I would have sworn you were 6-feet-8 inches tall,’ ” Gates said. “He said, ‘I used to be, but I’ve lost 2 to 3 feet over the last two weeks.’ How can you be mad at a guy like that? When he’s not arresting you, Sgt. Crowley is a nice guy.”

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