Mr. Gates' error

Henry Louis Gates was wrong in the first and the last. His arrest was a result of his actions and no one else's. The neighbor wrongfully or rightfully thought someone was breaking into his home. She did her public duty to call the police, and they responded promptly. What happened once the officers showed up was really a matter of choice.

I am not going to take the cops' side in this, but I am going to take a look at Henry Louis Gates' actions. I really do not care if it was his house or that he was black or he was a middle aged man or he had cane or he dressed unlike a criminal. The most important point, Mr. Gates should have known and remembered, was that he was in a very fluid situation that can go south very quick, where tact and commen sense should have prevailed.

It is a shame that such a well educated man as himself did not show any of that. What really makes it worse is that he is a renowned professor of African-American studies, a leading thinker as it were. Where was all his thought then? He knows racial profiling to the "T". He has lectured and studied and knows the consequences of it there in. Black men have been shot dead in the streets time and time again. It had been reported so many times in so many ways, and still an intelligent man as Mr. Gates showed complete ignorance.

What this Harvard professor should have been thinking is this, they had weapons that can kill and I have none. These cops are afraid of dying on duty everyday, and that fear leads to extreme caution, presumption and assumption. Perspective is everything. Mr. Gates saw his race and his Harvard professorship and his house. What he should have really been seeing was, "I need to convince these police officers that I am not a threat to them." This middle aged, educated, black man needed to show some gravitas. Where was it?

Mr. Gates showed little fear of the officers with his tirade and that never works for anybody, and consequently only increases the officers' fear. They now want more than ever to bring the situation to an end. It is very hard to win a fight verbally or otherwise when one person has a gun, handcuffs and the law.

We have seen time and time again police action against black males who are quite innocent. By now, we black males should have a healthy fear of cops all the time, without exception, without reservation. This is survival tactic and a much necessary one. The ideas of justice, civility and right are unimportant as long reality denounces them, as they did in this case. If, and when, a black man is faced by an increasing horde of cops, he should do well to placate them for in their mind death can be close at hand, and they will try to make damn sure it is not them.

I do not want to see another brother arrested for bullshit. I want to see a brother look at a cop and say, "I don't know why you are here but I willing to answer all questions so that situation can be diffused. I do not have any weapons on me and none is in the house. I am alone. Whatever proof of identity you need I am willing to provide, and I know you have to do your duty and I respect you are the law."

Maybe then I will not have to see Mr. Gates' horrible mugshot.