Williams: Gates arrest was clash of class and egos

NORFOLK As a group that calls itself "the conscience of law enforcement" convened its annual conference here, America debated whether Henry Louis Gates Jr. was a victim of racial profiling or his own loutish behavior.

Gates, chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University, had been arrested at his Cambridge, Mass., home by police Sgt. James Crowley, who is white.

President Barack Obama accused police of acting "stupidly." Battle lines were drawn, much as they had been at Gates' Harvard Square residence.

No one could accuse the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives of closing ranks around a police officer. NOBLE President Joseph A. McMillan expressed concern about "the arrest of a man in his own home, after he had provided proper identification and proven that he was not breaking into the home, but was the home's owner."

"Incidents such as these underscore the need for continued sensitivity and training in the area of racial profiling," he said.

As the details of the case emerged, Gates' arrest looked less like racial profiling than a clash of class and egos -- the professor's and the arresting officer's.

"To me, it just indicates there's still more work to do with police and the relationship with the community," Marty Tapscott, Richmond's police chief from 1989 to 1995, said as he stood in the lobby of the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.

"I think both of them lost their cool a little bit. But I think it's up to the police, especially with their training, to be the calming factor," Tapscott said.

NOBLE's conference drew 1,200 people from as far away as London's Scotland Yard. It included a workshop on race and relationships, conducted by Joyce Shabazz and Fabienne Brooks of the National Coalition Building Institute, a nonprofit leadership-training organization.

"You've got two men who are accustomed to being respected in their roles," summed up Shabazz, who lived in Cambridge for two decades.

Still, "I would have wanted a police officer in my community to be able to reach into his backpack for his professionalism . . . to step out of the escalation," she said.

Anyone inclined to reduce this to race might note the black police officer in the Gates arrest photo. "Whenever situations like this happen anywhere in the country, they impact anyone in the uniform," said Brooks, whose career in law enforcement spanned 26 years.

The racial-profiling instructor and the scholar on race failed to see beyond the filters that can blind us in moments of stress. The rest of us aren't seeing too clearly in the aftermath.

Gates' case hardly fits the profile of racial profiling. He's pals with the president and resides in the shelter of celebrity and the Ivy League. By most accounts, he exhibited a belligerence few law-abiding black men would dare emulate during a police encounter.

Race, in this case, obscures the big picture.

The jailing of people for exercising their right of free speech is an affront to America's ideals. Gates' politicized rant, however unpleasant to Crowley's ears, is especially protected. There was no plausible justification for him to be handcuffed, arrested and taken from his home for simply speaking his mind. That abuse of police power should offend the conscience of a nation.

In America, this should not be a source of division. In that regard, we've reacted stupidly.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .