Browsing Massad Ayoob’s blog I see he posted about the arrest of the Cambridge professor that everybody was screaming racism over. I didn’t bring it up here because I couldn’t find any good information on the story and all accounts I did find certainly lead me to believe the arrest was race inspired. But there is a critical piece of information I didn’t find anywhere else.
When the police officer asked Mr. Gates for his identification he presented his Harvard professor ID. Most, if not all, college IDs lack any mention of a resident address. Being the card didn’t have Mr. Gate’s address on it there was no way for the police officer to verify that he was the owner of the household and hence arrested him.
Of course Mr. Gates screamed racist but he’s spent a good deal of his life fighting racism. As they say a foot doctor sees all problems as foot problems. Likewise Mr. Gates probably sees most issues are racism and hence never stopped to think maybe a driver’s license would have been a better ID to present to the officer than his Harvard ID. Of course the media didn’t seem to pick up on this fact hence Officer Crowley will probably be forever remembered as a racist officer.